And Deep Breath In... And Release

Ah, there's something really special about getting a new computer. Big ticket items always make me nervous when I'm buying them but that nervousness is going away with time. I think it's just me growing up.

When I was in college I bought an iPod. It was a thrd generation iPod with touch sensitive buttons in a row above the scroll wheel (something I think standard iPods should still have in an effort to cut down on moving parts) and I went to Best Buy to buy it. I got it in my hands and was walking it to the front of the store to purchase it. I had in tow my now-wife and one of my best friends. I put the iPod on the counter, was talking to the clerk as she no doubt went on about how I could have a free subscription to Entertinment Weekly or some crap like that and that was when I noticed I was shaking. And sweating.

In my defense, this was back when iPods were really expensive and it wasn't like I was rolling in the dough. The only reason I had the money was because I made a killing selling grotesque toys that I had been smart enough to buy at Hot Topic with my employee discount (and when they were on clearance) and held onto them for about two years before putting them on eBay unopened (of course). The PLAN was to pay off my student loan but since it was pretty small my buddy and wife convinced me to get the iPod. Not that it took too much arm twisting.

So there I was, shaking, sweating, thinking this is probably a bad idea, surely this has to be a bad idea, the kind of idea that's just going to bite me in the butt later on. Something's going to break on the car and I'll need to take care of that or something ridiculous like that. That kind of stuff always happens.

Well, I'll say that to this day that's still my iPod though I'd love to upgrade. Sometimes the screen doesn't work and I just got done replacing the battery in it. It works, but it's got some quirks to it now.

Anyway, that was the last major electronics purchase save a TV I bought when I came here to Warner Robins.

So yesterday we got a new computer and really tried to get as much bang for the buck that we could. We shopped on base so there wouldn't be any sales tax, got an HP with enough quality to it that we'd be happy hopefully for a long time (Kim's laptop has lasted five years now so that has to say something about their quality even if it does make a sound loud enough to make you think the end of the world is upon us) but not something where we're paying out the nose for fancy stuff.

I'm pretty satisfied with this family computer. Kim can do her school work assured that her work won't just be lost before emailing it out and we have speed like we've never had before. It's pretty great.

And the monitor we got is also pretty cool. Pictures look MUCH better.