I wake up and grab my phone. In Beijing, it is said that checking weixin before sleep and after wake has replaced "good night" and "good morning" as well as a few other human interactions. In this case, however, I have no messages on my phone. In fact my phone is at the factory install screen and google is asking me if I want an account or already have one. Yes, this means I am screwed. Well, not too bad, since everything I care about, mostly photos and notes, are backed to the google cloud where only I and the US government have access to them. I re-set up my phone a little bit by little bit. It is a waste of time for it was meant to die.

I have this non original theory that I don't actually believe in but I find interesting especially after things die. The theory goes like this – something is supposed to die be it a person, a job, love, or a phone and it just doesn't know it yet. It doesn't know it yet so fate needs to keeping trying to kill it until it is good and dead. I was first turned onto this theory by how the TV series Lost killed off the character Charlie. I have been thinking a lot about this theory over the past few years and how it applies to situations not related to mobile phones.

In the absence of faith there is fate.

And fate will always win.

And fate will take its toll.

And fate is heartless.

The heart lives in faith.

After spending a couple of days spending a minute here and there getting my phone back to its original state fate decided to take another run at it. I was waiting with the kids for their driver to pick them up and take them to school. The driver was late and I was getting anxious because I needed to get to work for a meeting. In anticipation of the driver coming I had already started to listen to podcasts through my Bluetooth headphones when I decided to dig around for the drivers phone number on my phone, for whatever good that would do. I dropped my phone onto the sidewalk and the glass cracked like a skinny old man's face. The podcasts were still playing so I thought it was still a workable phone until I tried to unlock the screen. No luck.

The next morning my alarm went off at 5:30am as it does every work day. My alarm is on my phone. The one with the broken glass. So, yes, I could not turn the alarm off. It rang and rang like a relationship that needed it end. I wrapped the phone in a towel and shoved it into the back of the closet. It would take two more mornings before the battery completely drained and the phone was officially dead.

By that time I had a new phone.