My Relationship with Technology (#89)
I wanted to start by explaining the first “in progress” goal on my list. #89: Still have the same computer at the end of 1001 days.
For my high school graduation, my aunt got me a new, HP Laptop. Now, in 2003, this computer was pretty big and clunky. It over heated. It was slow, and I don’t mean “it’s 2003″ slow. I am talking about “floppy disks are still floppy” slow. It took me through a year abroad with not much use and not too many problems. Come college, it stayed on more, I actually had classes that I had to do work for and my poor computer was feeling the burn.
When my computer was at the ripe old age of 2, I was working in a mall and entered a contest run by Verizon Fios. It was a graphic design contest to portray how Verizon brings light into the community. I just barely made the age cutoff, and it was a good thing too! I won! The prize? A new laptop. Perfect timing. my current computer was starting to qualify for the special olympics.
This new computer, was a wide screen HP laptop. At first i was thrilled. It was so big and shiny and so much faster. I soon realized that “big” is not good when you are lugging around a 10 lb laptop just to do work in the library. The longer my poor computer was alive, the sadder he became. After about a year, I had to prop up the back of it so he could breathe. Because otherwise, he would get mad and turn off.
Finally I got fed up. It was new computer time, this one had lasted less time than the first. This time i did my research and got a small, 5-lb toshiba. I really wanted a Mac but decided to go with a less expensive computer. It got good reviews, long battery life, i was happy. for a year and a half, my toshiba lead a happy life. He came with me to class, traveled to the library, wrote SO many papers (all A’s of course). The computer took a little bumping around but nothing noteworthy. Finally, it was my last semester of college. I had compiled all the information (in hard copies) for my final thesis paper and was in the middle of composing it. I closed my computer to go to dinner with a friend and brought it with me, returned to my desk and turned on my computer. It didn’t turn on. I very calmly panicked, for in my heart I knew my hard drive was ok, which it was. For the remainder of the semester, i borrowed computers from friends or went to the computer labs on campus. I graduated Cum Laude and all was well. I continued for a few months at home using my parents’ computer.
Then, i was babysitting for a techie dad and when he took a look at my computer, as if by magic, it turned on!! (He did things obviously but let’s not go into that). For a short 3 months, my computer was back to life and it was great. Then the screen went white. I connected it to my parents computer to have the monitor work but the guts of mine.
When I got my new job (with plans to move out shortly after) I decided to buy myself a new computer as a “congratulations you got a job!” present. This time, i wasn’t going to skimp. I got a new MacBook.
It is on this MacBook, a mere 8 months old, that I plan on chronicling my 1001 days.
I had 3 different computers in a 5-year period. My goal is for this computer to make it as long as all three others combined.
samanthajess
