Requiem for a Compaq

OK, it's been a stressful week. First, the backstory: my 'new' laptop (less than 2 years old; as opposed to the 'old' laptop that I'm using now) just quit on me about 3 weeks ago. It was still under warranty (I bought the extended one), so I sent it to the company (lousy idea, where you have to mail them the dumb machine, leaving you with NOTHING) for the warranty repair. Well...last Friday I get a call saying that the warranty had been voided because they found BUGS inside the case. BUGS! That, evidently, is considered owner abuse or something. Like I can control where bugs can get into! And it's not like I left it in a 3rd world country or in the grass at the park or something; it was in my home and in my office! Anyway, the motherboard is fried, so the thing is basically a paperweight now. The one bit of good news is that my hard drive is still intact, so I can at least access the stuff on there. In the meantime, I've been trying to re-build my email list, some critical documents, and the like, while I wait for my NEW-NEW laptop (as opposed to the NEW-DEAD laptop) to arrive in the mail. I am a bit excited; I decided to go with Dell, since I've had nothing but trouble with the two Compaqs I've owned (or that have owned me...you decide), and because I've heard rave reviews about their warranty service (I bought the 4-year extended warranty on this one; if I can just keep it hermetically sealed so BUGS can't get in). In the meantime, I'm limping along with this one, slow of processor and void of memory. I did get the paperweight back in the mail yesterday; now to decide whether to rebuild it on a new motherboard (about $200 on ebay) or just cabbage it for parts (one of my more favorite endeavors). We shall see...

Sorry this isn't more 'spiritual', but I am beginning to agree with our Bishop, that these machines are instruments of the devil...

GPS

OK, I admit...I am a tech junkie wannabe. I would like to have all the techno-junk that comes out, but being frugal (or as others have called me: "cheap") I make myself delay these impulse purchases until I can rationalize it enough. So...I still play an original x-box (you know, the black one), I frankenstein together old computers to make them work, and I just do without certain things, until they prove their worth. Such as it is with the GPS. I always said "maps are good enough." "I have an excellent sense of direction already." "We don't need no stinking badges (wait, that didn't even make sense!)." And then we went to LA. David borrowed a GPS, and we had fun with it on the plane ("look, we're going 547 mph..." and it kept saying "turn right at..turn left at...make a u-turn...something about that on a plane was funny). But on the roads, it was a true life-saver, despite the fact that almost every day, as we turned out of the hotel lot, we had to make a u-turn to get going the right way. So...when we got home, I bought one (after researching them, and finding the best price, of course). And as I was traveling to Hot Springs for a preacher thing this week, and listening to another female voice telling me where to go (the voice on the GPS is female...for now) I started thinking about spiritual things (as I am want to do) and thought, "OK, now I can know where I am (within three feet) anywhere on the planet, but I can still be as lost as before; I can just fool myself into thinking I know where I am." And I also thought, "I wish there was a thing that would be a GOD-positioning system, telling me God's thoughts and will on issues (esp. considering there's an election upcoming). Anyway, I'm rambling now, proving there is no GPS to keep you on track on a blog. Still, I'm grateful...