ask, and ye shall receive

I took my laptop to the help desk last night and they confirmed my suspicion that it was irrevocably dead. I wasn't sure what to do about replacing it, other than hope my advisor would notice that it was broken and repeat his offer to buy me a new one, yet again.
The idea of asking him outright whether he would replace it seemed completely out of the question. Someone in the goals group I'm in wrote a draft email for me, but I just couldn't imagine actually sending it. I was so close to being willing to just pay for a new laptop myself and, worse, allow a friend to follow through on a threat to cut off a toe if I didn't email my advisor, because I hate asking for things that much. In the end, I felt bad about considering my irrational fear worse than the amputation of a body part (even a very small one)*, so I sent the email.
My advisor immediately said yes, because he's nice like that and I really shouldn't have been worried, so I've been looking at laptops online today. You'd think I'd learn from sending the email that even things that seem impossible aren't really that bad, but I think it will probably still take the threat of bodily harm to someone I like to get me to overcome my fear.


*Although, I might not feel sufficiently bad for just anyone, so this is a risky motivational strategy.