My idea of sexy	April 6, 2008

During my second year of grad school, with much-appreciated assistance from my parents, I got myself a PowerBook G4 that was shiny and gorgeous and served me well for several years.

But about six months ago, its display started doing this flickering stripey thing. It was out of warranty, and getting it fixed would be too pricey to be worth it. I held out for as long as I could, and I even found an ingenious binder-clip method of stabilizing the screen. That worked for a while, but over time, it stopped making a difference. It was time for me to replace it, but I was having a hard time owning up to the fact that I’ve been out of grad school for so long that the electronics I purchased during grad school are now no longer cutting it.

But last week, I finally broke down and bought a new one. And man oh man is she beautiful. She’s a 15-inch MacBook Pro, one of the new ones that has the multi-touch trackpad and more than three times the hard drive of my old Mac. The screen is so much brighter and cleaner and there’s something about the way the mouse clicks that is far more satisfying. I love her. She completes me. I have named her Blanche II, a tribute to her predecessor.*

What’s crazy is that I’d assumed I’d just take advantage of Apple’s computer recycling program, but on a whim, I put Blanche I up on eBay. And sold her for $310! Take note for future reference: people buy broken laptops!

* In the event you don’t know this about me, I name my possessions after Golden Girls characters. My phone is Rose, my iPod is Dorothy (I’m actually currently on Dorothy V), my car is Sophia, and so on.