As a writer, I try to be mobile. Years ago (2009, I believe it was), I bought myself a laptop with the goal of being able to "compute anywhere." Of course, at the time I was single and wanted to replace my desktop computer, so being the master of overkill I am, I went and bought what is known as a "desktop replacement" laptop. In other words, it's a laptop that's a "laptop" only by tribute of name; keeping it in your lap for any extended period of time would result in numb feet and, potentially, second-degree burns.
The numb feet come from the fact that it was about two feet wide and weighed just short of nine pounds.
It was also known as a "gaming laptop", which is a laptop powerful enough to play modern games at high quality levels. Like I said, I was a single parent. I had a lot of free time, considering my daughter was in bed by 7:30 to 8:00 each night.
I got a great deal on it. You can expect that from me, because I'm frugal. I try to score good deals. I bought the computer just as the next model was coming out, so I got it for 33 percent off. And 33 percent of $2,400 is a lot of money.
I'm proud to say it was a great investment. The computer lasted me four years, and would have gone longer had it not been for a rogue glass of iced tea. If you spill a liquid on a desktop keyboard, you fry the keyboard. The computer is going to be fine, though. But if you spill a liquid on most laptops, the failure will likely be epic. There were no sparks or flames or anything like that, but when you are working on something and the screen decides to look like a chronological slideshow of every drawing or painting Pablo Picasso ever did, and it plays in about 2.7 seconds, it's still kind of spectacular.
Once I fried that computer -- may it rest in peace -- I decided to go back to a desktop computer. I had a few projects going at the time that needed some horsepower, and throwing another $1,500 or more at a computer wasn't in the cards. So I built a desktop for less than half of that, and I lived with it.
But writing isn't something easily done in one place. It's helpful to move around. It's nice to be able to pick up a computer, no matter where I am or what I am doing to waste time, and start pounding out a new blog post or article or a chapter of a book.
Last Christmas, we got a new laptop for Christina. It's not the sort of laptop that will blow your mind, but it does its job. It's okay for writing, but it's still just a bit too big to keep on your lap. It wants to drift from side to side if you really get into a good typing groove. It's got a touchscreen, though, which can be fairly convenient, even if the concept is still just a bit of a novelty on a Windows computer. It's getting better, though.
Anyway, I still felt like I needed to be more capable of being on the move. Christina's laptop lacked the portability I would like, and it's hers, anyway. That was the deal. Her previous one was more than six years old. In computer years, that's like the age of the Chinese culture.
After a great deal of research, I finally settled on a new laptop, and after almost two days with it, I couldn't be happier.
I got a Chromebook.
It's the Toshiba Chromebook 2, to be exact. It's small -- the screen is a diagonal 13.3 inches and it weighs less than three pounds -- and thin. It's actually not much thicker than a Macbook Air, and it cost somewhere around $600 less. It's also not nearly as powerful, but let's face it: I'm not editing videos on the thing. I'm writing blog posts, for crying out loud.
But I'm going to stop there. This is already going on long, so this will be a two-parter. If you actually care, be on the lookout for part two coming soon.
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