I got a laptop!

I've always wanted a laptop. I've been experiencing some serious dang jealousy lately while watching people at the library sit at tables and fire up their laptops and connect to the whole dang world. I am on my back porch now drinking a beer and typing on my brand new Gateway laptop. How did I get here, you may wonder.

Recently at work we were discussing putting up some kind of flat screen display. We wanted to use it to bring attention to programs and to display pictures we take during these programs. We did some research into flat screens and found that they are expensive and, since we are a library, we have a limited budget. I submitted our interest to the website Metafilter in the Ask Metafilter section. I joined Metafilter about a year ago and in the last couple of weeks I've submitted a couple of questions to the site. How it works is that other members of the site/blog answer questions if they know the answer. Metafilter has an intelligent community and the answers I have received have blown me away.

The best answer to my question concerning a digital display at the library suggested we try digital pictures frames. It made sense to me. After a couple hours of research the one I found on Newegg looked to be the best deal out there. I trust Newegg because all the super computer nerds I talk to rave about Newegg and the deals they offer. When I shop for myself I don't put too much work into finding the best deals but this time I really decided to research the purchase. Always a good idea, I guess, when you are spending your employer's money.

Once I decided on which digital picture frame to buy I did a little research on laptops. I was on the Newegg site so why not look around? Newegg has a nice help section that asked what you wanted to do with your laptop. I chose "gaming." The link I clicked on sent me to a list of refurbished Gateways that were priced around $500. I looked around, held my breath and purchased the computer I am typing on now. It was a little scary. So far, I've been thrilled with it. It seems pretty fast and this weekend I am going to install Civilization IV on it. If that game runs smoothly I will hug myself tightly. There are two other computers in our house and they can barely run the game. Melanie's laptop runs it better than Wendell's PC and, if I've done my math correctly, this baby should run it smoothly. Even if it doesn't it's been zooming around the internet just fine. I'll take that.