So…I suck.

In trying to stay healthy, I am trying to drink more water.

I was drinking water *near* my laptop (not “next to”). Thinking I was grabbing for a Coke Can (lack of sleep + bad memory = impending problem), I squeezed the water bottle way too hard, and created a liquid volcano on my desktop.

Splash.

After screaming, throwing inanimate objects, and drying out the laptop for a few days, I now have a horrible problem…

A close-up of the top right corner.

A close-up of the “usually empty” Mail activity window, now filled with scary video distortion.

Most of the screen.

If you are brave (18.9 meg of bravery required), you can view a scary 9 second QuickTime video of the horror, in action.

So - what is it? Dying motherboard? Dying video card? The digital ghosting crap pops on and off every few minutes. The flicker is insane. Interlaced hell! IT SUCKS!

Any ideas? Let me know!

May 8th update: Thanks to the fine folks at ifixit.com for their theory of the LCD being fried. After hooking up an external monitor, and seeing no flaws on the external monitor, while the laptop continued to produce the above results, it looks like I am out $400+. Lesson: Drink soda in cans instead of water in slippery bottles! Screw health!

May 16th update: The laptop is currently at Melrose Mac…under repair.