computers

So last fall I bought a new laptop computer, because I thought I was going to be doing web work on the side and I needed something more studly than my now 7 year old Sony Vaio. Then I sold six books in December and it became extremely clear there would be no time for side work, so now I’ve got this fairly decent laptop which, at 6.8 pounds, weighs too much for me to actually carry around comfortably, and which I no longer have any justifiable use for.

Naturally, I’m looking at replacing it with something smaller, sleeker, and more better for carrying around and doing word processing.

The thing is, absolutely nothing on the market measures up to the Vaio I’ve already got. It has its flaws, sure: it kind of choked when I put the wifi card into it (and now I don’t know where the card is), it has no internal CD drive, and … those are the only two problems. And since I’m using a gmail account for official correspondence now, being able to actually check email with my laptop is less critical, since there’s usually an internet cafe of some sort around, and I never needed a CD/DVD drive anyway, especially with the memory sticks that are now available.

There’s a new Vaio that’s even smaller than Little (who weighs in, fully loaded with her heavier battery, at about 3.1 pounds), but its keyboard is too cramped for even me to use, and I don’t have that big of hands. I do have a pinched place in my right shoulder that’s aggravated by using non-split keyboards, and further by smaller-than-standard keyboards (hence Nook), so while the adorable new Vaio tempts me like a tempting thing, it would not be good for me to use. Also, it’s freaking expensive.

There’s a Toshiba “ultraportable” laptop out there, which is apparently the phrase for the kind of laptop that I want, that has excellent battery life and is essentially for word processing and email. It’s merely expensive, as opposed to freaking expensive, but I’m not sure there’s the slightest reason to actually get something like that instead of sticking with my totally workable Vaio.

I certainly need to get rid of at least one computer, though. I currently own four. That’s a little ridiculous. And, okay, I’m not going to own fewer than three, because my desktop is my internet computer, and Nook is my writing computer, and Little is for writing when I need to travel. Three is also ridiculous for one person, but there you go.

This has nothing to do with anything. It’s my way of not working on my edits, which I am going to go do now whether I like it or not. (I don’t so much mind doing edits. I mean, I don’t *like* them, but I don’t mind them. What I really hate is getting started. I feel overwhelmed by the prospect of starting. And the only way around that, irritatingly, is to start.)

Oh, God, the farmer’s market is there to torture me. Somebody was selling big thick slabs of carrot cake. And the cheese here. Oh, Lord, the cheese. These are cruel and unusual things to place before somebody who’s gotten back on the weight loss wagon. I swear to God, if I haven’t lost at least a little weight on weigh-in day, I’m going to… I don’t even know what. Eat forty pounds of good Irish cheese and roll around in carrot cake. *snivel*