ramblings

I’ve had a nice little step or moment in my life. It happened yesterday and I’ve been waiting for about a week for it to happen. It’s one of those things that most people around you won’t care about but is awesome to you. For some people it’s getting that first big screen tv, or others it’s getting a refridgerator that can access the internet. For the person who just got the gadget it is so cool that you just want to tell all your friends about it and flaunt it whenever you can. 

One of these things, albeit, back in high school. Was The Letterman Jacket. When you earned it in whatever sport or club you were in, you couldn’t help but wear it whenever possible. When you were an upperclassman in high school you could always see the newbies who had just gotten their jacket. They always had the damn thing on, even if it was 70 degrees and sunny outside they had it on and were sweating for it. 

So anyway, I got my first………..wait for it…………..wait for it………………laptop. It’s awesome. It’s not that powerful or impressive to anyone else in the world, but it is to me. I’ll give a rundown of it at the end. 

I periodically get those emails from dell trying to sell me “the next best thing”, and I generally glance at it and junk the message. I’ve always wanted a laptop, it’s just that I haven’t been able to justify the cost of buying one, there’s always one other thing that I need more. The problem with me is that I’ll many times go splurge on something I don’t really need that is only a couple hundred dollars, but those add up over time and I never had enough to be able to a new computer. 

So last week I got this email with “Big Savings”, like always. I saw the ‘deal’. “Up to 34% off a new Inspiron notebook”. Now the message was starting to get my attention. Usually the deals are no more than 20% off and only on the very underpowered or very overpowered models. I just needed a middle of the road model to watch DVDs on the road and to type letters up and get on the internet when I travel. I went on Dell’s site and configured the model that I wanted to my specs. I chose the Inspiron 6000. For one, the screen is a widescreen model so I get more info on the screen. For the second, it had a Pentium M processor, I’m not going to get a Celeron processor, I don’t want any scrapped down version of a processor. And finally, and probably most importantly, it was one of the models that was 34% off. Also, the 6000 had free memory upgrade to 512 MB RAM and free 3 day shipping. Can’t beat that.

So I ordered it on Feb. 17th, which coincidentally is my dad’s birthday. Nice isn’t it? Someone elses birthday and I get a nice gift for myself . So I pick and choose all the 9 million options for buying a laptop from Dell entails. Yes, I want a wireless card, No I don’t want Microsoft Office for $360, Yes I want a DVD drive, etc, so on, and so forth. After all selecting, deciding, and choosing was done the total without tax came to $900.24. The MSRP, according to the site, is $1364.00. So I’m fairly pleased. 

So anyway, see how something that I think is the coolest thing in the world right now is completely boring and nonchalant to everybody else. If you survived through this, then you’re a sadist. 

Here’s the specs:
Inspiron 6000
P3 M 1.5 GHz
512 MB RAM
15.4″ WSXGA Screen
30 GB Hard Drive
B/G Integrated Wireless
Integrated Modem/LAN
8x DVD-ROM
Windows XP Home

Till Next Time

patrick