Basmati rice with iPod
So the Drama Teen came downstairs last night in a fluster. “I’ve lost everything! My life is over!”
“What happened?”
“I dropped my iPod Touch in the bathtub and now it won’t work! I’ve lost my whole life!”
Obvious questions I had included why she thought she could bring her iPod Touch anywhere near the bathtub and why she thought that dropping it in water would do anything other than ruin the electronic device, but the look on her face suggested I not voice them.
“My music! My videos! It’s all gone! It’s the only online access I have! My life is over!”
And with that she ran back upstairs and took to her bed. It was 7 p.m.
I can understand that if you’re 15, your iPod Touch is indeed your life. I could imagine how she felt. Suggestions that both Christmas and her birthday were coming up only produced more wails of despair. Oh the cruelty of being unable to go online for an entire six weeks!!
When I was that age, it would have taken a much more dramatic event — a fire, or a theft — to eradicate my “life”: my mixed tapes, my Walkman, my radio, my journal, my sketchpads and my address book. Over the years I’ve learned that you don’t keep all your “life” in one place lest you lose it all in one fell swoop. I’m still enough of a luddite to continue using a paper calendar for just this reason.
I am continually mocked by my techie friends for this attitude. So I was a bit taken aback when I heard of the distinctly low-tech solution for an iPod killed by water — cover it with rice and let it sit for a few days.
Just like you throw a few grains of rice in with your sea salt to keep it from sticking, the idea is that the rice will suck the moisture out of the device, possibly restoring it to its former electronic glory.
So I covered the whole thing with a pound of basmati rice in a bowl. Friends on Facebook made further suggestions. Put the rice in a Ziploc bag so as to help the moisture-sucking along. Don’t try to turn it on for several days. Let the rice do it’s work.
So the Drama Teen’s iPod Touch is now buried in rice, sitting on the kitchen table in a Ziploc bag, waiting for the miracle of old-world science. I hope it works. iPod Touch’s ain’t cheap.
Stay tuned…
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Fingers crossed for the good home repair lady!
So did it work? Cuz I just ran my iPod through the washing machine, and it is, as I type this even, in a bag of rice. Is there any hope??
Well, it worked to a point. The thing turned on, but we couldn’t get it to go any further than that. So it was a total FAIL from that standpoint. Boo. Well, had to try. Good luck with yours! Let us know how you fare…