Once in the air of a long flight, the attendant informs the passengers that the ?use of electronic devices is no longer prohibited?. To pass the time, I decide to pull out my laptop to finish off some work. Normally, I like to use flights for catching up on some sleep, but today I wasn't feeling very tired. Relying on my laptop battery, that was fully charged the night before, I proceed to catch up on some overdue business. In this midst of one of my many thoughts, something far more tragic than an oxygen mask falling down happens... or at least more tragic at that moment... my laptop battery dies.

My first reaction was to look around for the nearest outlet, only to remember that I am on an airplane and airplanes do not have outlets. I try to reboot, hoping that it was simply a glitch of some sort, but no such luck. Now what? I am left staring at a blank screen with a powerless laptop. As I browse about the cabin, I notice that there are many other businessmen continuing to work on their laptops. One man in particular is using a similar laptop -- a model close to the powerless thing sitting in front of me. Why has his battery lasted longer than mine? Surely we have the same brand of battery, and I am pretty sure that mine is practically new. I sit there for a moment looking around with a baffled and confused look on my face. Now, I am left to endure the rest of this flight thinking of how I could have prevented this.

Of course I do realize that it was not the end of the world. My battery dying did not cause any serious damage. None the less, I was reminded of an important lesson. Always be prepared! One never knows what could happen next, so it is always good to have some types of back-up plan. When it comes to batteries, not all batteries are created equal. Some batteries will simply last longer than others. I have a few friends that like to store extra batteries in their refrigerator. I personally find this a bit extreme and silly, but they will swear that their batteries last longer. I don't know if this type of storage truly aids in longer life for the batteries, but I do know this. Life is unexpected and so are electronics. Next time, whether is it having extra batteries or not, I am going to do my best to be better prepared.