well, color me the proud owner of a new compaq presario. 300MHz 48MbDRAM 32xCD 4.0GbHD 98BGL 54JGD 4NIC8 5.3FUBAR, all for $599. but you're not gathered here to hear how great a shopper i am, so i won't bore you with too many details or specs.

i really had no choice but to buy a new computer. the old one was so old & ill you could almost hear it wheezing (it usually buzzed too loud to make out the wheeze). slowly, from day to day it began failing more & more often, until it would sometimes amaze me with its powers of shittiness. i almost expected bolts to start falling out of it, maybe as the whole thing just collapsed in one last spasm. it's very troubling to watch your computer die.

i'd known for awhile that i'd have to buy one anyway. i just hadn't realized until this past saturday that it'd be quite so soon. that night i'd bought my new one. it was quite a spontaneous unexpected errand, having to shop for (& eventually buy) a new computer, but one well warranted. you see, that day my old computer decided it couldn't play civilization II.

now any readers who are even slightly alert will know that playing civII was that computer's dominant function. it was too feeble to do much of anything else. all i really expected of it was civII, the occasional internet connection (which i don't expect to work right), & a few sound programs. refusing to play civilization was the last straw. i'd finally decided to play again after many months, & it wouldn't let me. the nerve of that clunker!

so it's on the way out once i hook it back up & move my personal files off of it. i'll be quite glad to see it go. the only downside is that at the moment i don't have internet access on it yet.

nope. as pseudo-ironic as it sounds, i'm not writing this on my new computer. right now i'm on my father's machine, at my parents' house. at my house i don't have an isp account yet (i know, no need to nag). & what's worse is that suddenly i'm without email at work, too. the one computer that had been delegated to proofreaders for reading email is now occupied by yet another new layout technician. i have nowhere to check mail, so effectively i have no mail. it's eerie, like the the hip groovy internet wire all the middle-aged business folks are talking about has been suddenly yanked out of my neck. i'm disconnected for the time being.

so anyway, if it's hard to reach me, at least you know what's going on. my communications systems are all in a mess. just keep trying & i'll get organized soon enough.