My New Computer

This is the maiden document of my new computer. I hadn't replaced my laptop until now for financial reasons and moral reasons. The financial reasons are obvious--I've been broke for forever. Since I only replace my computer, oh, every seven years on average, I always end up spending the maximum amount of money on all the latest bells and whistles to keep it current/relevant/working for that much longer. My last computer was the trusty Macintosh G4 Titanium. I ordered it while Steve Jobs was still demonstrating its features and benefits on the webcast. I was the first person to have this model in Hollywood. I'm also the last person to have this model in Hollywood.

My old laptop bit the dirt over a year ago, taking with it 17,000 email addresses and copious amounts of other pertinent data that makes my life run a little easier. "Oh well," you sigh, "This is why you always back up your info to an external hard drive." My external drive died the same week as my old laptop, taking with it about 10,000 songs in my itunes library and all my backed up data. I got most of my documents back. And, I can get the music back. I just won't get the three weeks that I spent importing all those albums into my itunes back. After the Great Crash of 2007 I got my old laptop running again, but without any special extras. And by special extras I mean a mouse and the ability to print documents from the computer.

It's been a trying year technologically to put it mildly.

And it doesn't help that my computer savvy stops circa 2002.

But, as I've told myself since 1992, this next year will be the year that I become computer literate.

The first big test of my new laptop and my new technorati aspirations will be to finally edit the wedding video of my friends Ted and Sue. They only got married last July, so etiquette-wise I'm only, um 3 months overdue on delivering the video (which is my wedding present to them). Oops.

DSL2 told me months ago that he'd teach me how to use iMovie to cut the wedding video, which will be a documentary cinematic feat on par with THE SORROW AND THE PITY I'm sure, and burn the hundreds of copies of the completed film for all the relatives who are anxiously awaiting photo documentation of the event. So I called him over the weekend to see if I could still take him up on the offer of a one-on-one tutorial. He is. Yay for friends keeping way overdue promises of help.

He asked me what my plans were for my old laptop. I told him that I was going to look for a charity that could part it out or use it to raise money for education. "How much do you want for it if I want to buy it?" he asked. "How about free?" I said. DSL2 is so pleased. He's a DJ and has been wary of bringing his laptop to clubs for obvious reasons. Now he'll have a free computer he can load his music onto and not have to worry about theft or spilled drinks and I can keep my old computer out of the landfill that much longer.