One day, my laptop screen broke.

I immediately started trying to calmly think through my backup-machine options, but the more I thought, the more something felt off about this screen. Before I could even pinpoint exactly what, it suddenly hit me: I was dreaming, and that screen was nothing more than an abstract concept.

I rolled over and went back to sleep....

So my laptop screen had broken. The screen looked very familiar, except the shadow mask was damaged — it had even turned transparent, revealing a little chamber inside. I couldn't see any light source, but it was bright in there, kind of like... a claw machine? But most importantly, my laptop screen — how could it possibly be a CRT? Then it clicked: I'm dreaming, and the screen is a collage of old memories.

I rolled over and went back to sleep....

So my laptop screen had broken. This time it was a proper LCD panel. The main problem was a backlight malfunction, and the ribbon cable looked suspicious too. But in some areas, even though the backlight was broken, I could still see the image in sunlight, and it seemed fine... wait, hold on. Something's wrong with this LCD. Looking at the texture — why does it feel like a Game Boy from back in the day? Ah, it's a dream, and my brain mixed up LCD generations here.

I rolled over and went back to sleep....

So my laptop screen had broken. A proper LCD panel this time, mostly working fine, but part of the ribbon cable seemed faulty. Alright, time to seriously think about repairs and backup machines. But wait, let me sort this out... The LCD panel is this LCD panel, the glitch looks exactly like effects I know well, but there's still one flaw: this screen is horribly designed. There's a big black bezel on the outside, and inside that, the display area has yet another thick black border, making the screen-to-body ratio awful. This isn't my machine.

I woke up, poured myself a glass of water to calm down, and confirmed that my laptop's display was indeed not broken. Why did my brain insist that thing had died? So strange.