Monday December 6, 2004

Item shipped. Item shipped!!! Lappy 486 come to me!

My mom and little brother (and many others) will roll their eyes as they read this post. I’ve spent many geeky hours rambling on and on about the disadvantages of laptop versus desktop computers. I talked Jordan out of a new laptop, which was probably the right decision, because he still has his old one that he can network with his kickin’ new desktop. Mom hates the wires in her corner, and I have waxed geek about the disadvantages of a notebook computer. Higher price, lack of modularity, difficulty to upgrade, awful screen refresh rates, and ridiculously inefficient graphics processors were all points against laptops, and to some extent still are. I still stand by some of that. I still think that laptops are less powerful and more expensive, but the margins have narrowed; prices have come down and performance has increased, especially with regards to their screens and graphics cards. Jordan, I think you made the right choice. Mom, it’s ok with me now if you get a laptop. Did I mention that I am getting a new computer?!? Did I mention that it's a laptop?

I have a newly mobile screaming roommate who needs constant supervision and attention. She doesn’t like me hanging out in my corner looking at the computer. She needs me to be sitting on the couch or on the chair in the center of the living room, so that at any given moment, she can look up from the power cord she’s pulling on or the drywall she’s eating (stories for another post) and receive eye contact. I also am beginning to realize that when I am going to school full time next semester, I will probably want to do my paper writing in locations other than this nursery/scream-chamber that I happily call home. Ruby likes to help at the computer. She helps so much that Ani took an old keyboard from work and transformed it into “Ruby’s Keyboard”. It sits right underneath the regular keyboard, and she pounds on it while I reach around her little body to use the other one.

She sees that I am not interested in “Ruby’s Keyboard”, and throws it on the floor with one hand, and hits the ctrl or delete key on my keyboard with her other hand. This leads to words like “a;lkejfdl;a” and “d;lejkejfiefoa.” The ability to work on papers in the park before work or at the coffee shop near Ruby’s daycare will be invaluable.

Also, let’s not forget. I’m a geek. (I’m sure none of you forgot that.) I love gadgets. I have been praying to be jacked into the Metaverse ever since I read Nueromancer and Snow Crash. This will just bring me one step closer.

I ordered the best configuration I could afford a week ago, and I haven’t been able to think about anything else since. I walk around the house looking at Ani and then at Ruby, all the while muttering to myself, “laptop, laptop, laptop, laptop, laptop.” I had it custom built to my specs, so it wasn’t supposed to ship until the 9th of December. Of course, I checked the tracking number every half an hour anyway, just in case it was built early, and then… there it was… on the screen… FIVE DAYS EARLY: “Item Shipped!” I’ve been following its progress on the Fed Ex website, and while it is cool to be able to see what time it left Shanghai for the Philippines, I really think that there should be a map of the world with a flashing red light to indicate the progress of my laptop. Or maybe they could use those arrows like in the Indiana Jones movies. In case you were curious, it just left Anchorage.

I’m kinda bummed because no one around me is as excited as I am. When I worked at Café Soleil, I could turn to Jim Bennett and tell him that I was getting a new computer, and he would have gotten an excited look in his eyes and ask me “How fast is the graphics chip? Will it run Starcraft? Are you gonna set it up with Director or Flash?” If Kyle were around, we’d be talking about the level of antialiasing I’ll be able to set Half Life 2’s game settings at. At my job now, everyone said something like, “a new laptop huh… great. How’s Ruby?” If I attempt to divert the conversation back to the new laptop, their eye’s glaze over and they turn and walk away.

As a matter of a fact, I think that I can sense some other eyes blinking with boredom… I apologize to all readers of Ruby Dawn, I’m just so excited! As a gesture of goodwill, here is a picture of a cute baby:

Rather than bore you any more, I’ll just wander around the house…”laptop laptop laptop laptop laptop laptop…” I’ll let you know when it hits the central Memphis distribution center.