5 Year Buddy

My first laptop (not including the hand-me-down Compaq laptop I used until high school) was a 14 inch HP dv2000 laptop. It was my chosen graduation gift from high school in the whole threshold to college, and with a course like Computer Science, it sort of demanded me to have a laptop of my own with better capabilities. At the time, it seemed to have been a decent choice, but it quickly became a let-down, what with its default OS to be Windows Vista, and had I known that it would end up causing me problems down the line, I would have chosen a different brand or model altogether. But, needless to say, it served it purpose well.

Of course, you'd imagine why I'd be writing up an entry like this. Well, the answer to that is simple: I've laid it to rest due to its inability to boot up after 5 years of servitude and neglect. I guess part of the reason why it died on me was the fact that it got demoted to being a mere desktop laptop that stayed home, was constantly plugged and hardly ever rested (yeah probably my fault) ever since I got my little Acer Aspire One netbook for more convenient portability in my final year of college. AND considering I've gone through three batteries for said HP laptop, I wouldn't be surprised it failed me over time.

But to commemorate how it still means something to me, I wanted to give you a little glimpse of the good and bad times I had with my 5-year-old HP that I originally named Roy, but just recently named Tony. Because it's Tony (yes, named after Tony Stark), I can be a sadistic little ass and point out that his Arc Reactor gave out and couldn't revive him or that he didn't have a Jarvis to do any repairs. Phrasing things like that puts me more at ease about the loss, at the very least.

Tony has been my reliable buddy throughout my first three years of college, when coding assignments were rampant. He helped me out of a dozen pickles, but that came with the consequence of lugging him to school, and he wasn't exactly the lightest laptop around. It was for that purpose that my mom bought a special backpack for me (with its separate laptop compartment) to transport my laptop to and from school as I frequented commuting rather than driving (since I wouldn't be driving until second year). Yeah it put pressure on my body for the extra weight, but well worth it considering my need for it half the time.

I suited Tony up with a few other armaments, including several OS upgrades to Windows 7 and Ubuntu to help me out whenever and wherever necessary. Because he had an optical drive, I managed to burn DVDs as necessary, and even play some PC games for a time with him. He definitely gave me the best and easiest time with things, until I up and decided that I needed less weight to carry. Yeah he ended up staying home after that, but that didn't mean I discarded him completely. He still had much more to offer me and I'm just glad that he was able to provide for me the needed help whenever he could. I'm happy to have had Tony to support me, but now I'm ready to say goodbye (which I already have) and move on with my netbook Bruce (yes, after Bruce Banner. Ain't I creative?) until I can save up for a more powerful unit. Until then, pocket netbooks FTW!