crusty ol laptops vs Droid

My Apple iBook G4 is dead tech. It has almost always functioned perfectly and continues to do so. However, I ask less and less of it as time goes on. It has a PowerPC processor which cuts it off from being able to play a lot of streaming media (such as Netflix) and OS X is no longer being updated for it. It's a dead platform. It's no longer being supported and its weak graphical capabilities are beginning to flag under the weight of today's graphics-rich computing experience. It's done its job admirably for around 6 years and I'm thankful for that. But there's part of me that desires to smash it to pieces on the ground. I'm done with it. I wants a sweet new computer.

Speaking of dead tech, I'm typing this on my trusty old Toshiba Satellite. This tank is even older than my iBook. It has better stickers on it, though. Plus, it's able to stream Netflix. It also has Office, which the iBook lacks. The more time I spend in my electronics classes the more I feel that I'm much better off with a Microsoft-based computer. I also took a Cisco class and its online curriculum was much better suited and tailored for Windows.

The iBook is my music center. Almost all of our music is on there and I often use it for Last.fm, MySpace music, and Pandora. The Toshiba is where I get things done.

Battling the laptops for computer time is my Droid. I use it more than I use the laptops. It does everything they do and almost always does it just as well. Sometimes the system lags a little and sometimes there's network lag but such occurrences are not often and the Droid is ridiculously convenient. It does everything I need a computer to do except that I wouldn't use it to compose anything longer than a text message or short email, but even that's changing. I recently downloaded Swype and it's been great.

To sum up: iBook is a jukebox, Toshiba is for typing and Electronics Workbench, and Droid is for everything else.

Happy New Year

Glasses of Insecurity

Sometimes I take off my glasses and I do things without them. I'm writing this right now without my glasses. Sometimes I like to see the world through my own eyes.

My glasses are a burden I choose to bear. I could switch to contacts but I have a terrible time getting them in and out and I'm not willing to put the effort into getting good at at. If I had enough money I'd look into getting laser surgery, despite the risks. I could generally get by without my glasses but it's best that I keep them on most of the time. I'd rather wear glasses and be able to see than not wear them and have great difficulty recognizing faces from a distance and reading street signs.

The burden of my glasses is more mental than physical. I wish I didn't have to wear them. I wish I had naturally excellent vision. In a deep way it bothers me that I have shitty vision. It pisses me off. My glasses bother me appearance-wise, as well. I don't dislike my appearance with my glasses, but I think I look better without them. Why would I want something altering the natural appearance of my face? Why would I want metal, plastic, and glass sitting on my face?

I know my glasses help me. I prefer seeing well over not seeing well. It's like I'm hindered by some deep ubermensch envy and my glasses are a constant reminder of my failure to attain some unfounded, unfair sense of how things ought to be.