About three years ago on 26 July 2005 we had terrible floods in Mumbai, India, we experienced massive rainfall for an entire day which amounted to almost 1000mm. Almost the entire city was flooded, and life as we know it came to a screeching halt.

I decided to make my way home from college that fateful day as it was pouring a bit too much for my liking and I stayed pretty far off. Little did I know at that point that the entire city was flooded (something that had never happened before. It was shocking to see that there were thousands of people on the streets, trying to make their way back home, and I had to walk about 25kms in waist deep waters (it took me well over 8 hours) to get to a relative’s place as it was impossible for me to get home (the place where i lived had about 7m deep water).

I had a hard time contacting my family to inform them about my whereabouts as the entire communications networks were jammed, and there was no electricity, let alone a working plug point anywhere. My cellphone luckily was able to receive one call after nearly 6 hours, and I was able to pass on the message to my family that I was safe. I was left stranded for the whole of next two days as I was not carrying a charger, and there was no possible way for me to inform my friends that I was all right.

That was the most horrifying experience for me, as I experienced crisis first hand (no electricity, loss of communication, loss of property and life), and I realized how crippled our lives had become without technology.

My relatives pull out an old Kodak Browny, shout “smile” and snap it.

Hi-tech requires hi-brains…I was the dummy. The relatives who don’t even have TV, or electricity had photographic capability.

A charger there and then was worth a million!

Well I resign myself to the fact that no one will believe me when it does a quick u-turn and lands nearby. The most beautiful woman in the universe steps out and begins, I can only assume, asking me directions. So I whip out the universal translator and find it’s dead as well…I shrug my shoulders and she leaves.

Later I find out what she said was “I want to take you to my planet so you can repopulate it as all our men are dead and all the women look like me…”

Yeah, I think that was the worst time, ever.

The computer itself wont even boot by this time, and, it should be mentioned, the PDA I use to keep myself on time and moving in the right direction is charged from the USB port on, yep, the dead laptop. And its battery is getting low.

Outside, the sun is setting and the lights in Times Square are just starting to come on. I look out the window to the street, panic-stricken, realizing that I don’t have any hope of getting the presentations anywhere else and a customer waiting for me at 8:30 in the morning. But there are electronics stores down there, with video cameras, PDAs, and, yes, even laptops in stock. Power supplies for a Sony (random bunch of letters and numbers)? Who knows, but, perhaps…

An hour later, and $350 poorer (really! Hey, what would you pay on a Sunday evening if you absolutely had to have it?) I had a Targus “Universal” charger with the appropriate power tip. The trip was saved, but it sure was a costly mistake.

Last weekend (Saturday to be exact) I was at my girlfriend’s sister’s house in San Jose, Ca, when I was helping my girl move her stuff from her dorm to the house for the summer. I had left my phone chargers in her dorm because we were in a rush when my cousin picked us up (I don’t live in the area, so I don’t have a car right now). The sister was SUPPOSED to be in Las Vegas. My girlfriends phone was in HER room, but I had my N95 with me (with one bar left of battery) in her sister’s room. Well, her sister tried calling my girl a few times but she never heard the phone.. she also tried calling MY phone, but it had died during our “session.”

So we hear the door alarm go “DING DING” and we run BUTT NAKED out of the master bedroom, up another small set of stairs (where I almost trip on her 80 pound labrador), and into my girl’s room. I only had time to throw on my boxers and played it off that “my shirt is off because I’m sunburned.” My girlfriend still had her bathing suit on..

So moral of the story is, if you’re going to do the nasty in someone else’s house.. well, don’t. Or keep your phone charged.

1) That snarkly AI computer on our spaceship locked me out and my life support was running out.
2) I was captured by a super villain and try as I might, there wasn’t enough juice in my laser wristwatch to cut my bonds.
3) My camera phone cut out just minutes before I encountered Big Foot (Mall of Georgia, 2003, near the Soft Pretzel vendor).
4) My pocket voice recorder sputtered to a powerless halt after I’d gotten just enough drinks into Vice President Cheney to get him to spill the beans.
5) Finally pegged down the location of the island from lost but, darnit it, my GPS was sucking battery dregs by that point.

Man, I could have used the GearJuice. I swear all the events above are completely true and not exaggerated or fabricated in the least. I can has gear lootz plz?

Jon
http://dreamclue.com …get the message!

A couple years ago I went to Bonnaroo and the only ‘gadget’ I had at the time was my phone, a Razr… I didn’t drive, and we lived in tents for the weekend. Now if anyone knows anything about Razrs, you know that you don’t even have to use it at all, and it’ll be drained by the end of the day. I was able to communicate and keep it alive from Thursday morning, all the way to Sunday night. Basically I would just turn it off when I didn’t need it. It’d ‘recharge’ itself, or at least not waste battery when not in use. This was great for quick pictures of bands, or a text message here or there.

Now, if I had the IOGear GearJuice Mobile Portable Battery Power…Pocket…Device…Package, I could have rocked out and saved more of my great experience with bad quality Razr videos, sound clips, and images. Calling up my entire phonebook with drunk calls at 3am in someone else’s camp singing along with hippies stoned out on headies, shrooms, and/or acid.

But no, I had a choice to be stranded with a days use of phone, or conserve it’s power and use it responsibly…I chose the least fun way…learn from my mistake.

My first car used to like to play tricks on me. I would drive around doing what ever it is that kids do. and every now and then then engine just wouldn’t turn over. 3 of the 5 times it happened a friend was with me. We decided to pass time by hitting a tennis ball in the parking lot. After 10 minutes of playing I went back and tried the car, it started right up.

A while later it did it again, we played “tennis”, and the car started.

The 3rd time we hit the ball once, went back and the car started.

So if your car won’t start try tennis.