Jupiter Gin! Planet Poker!

I had to give in and order a new laptop. 

This is something I resisted for a long time. My old Acer has served me well. It's accompanied me on trips to California and Pennsylvania without complaint. It's survived my career change to full-time freelance and the advent of Tralfaz and Nipper (a.k.a. Thing 1 and Thing 2). I've had it since the start of Obama's second term, and unlike everything in Washington, it has never given me grief. 

But it is breaking down. Physically the case is showing signs of wear. There's a crack in a corner that threatens to tear off entirely one day. The screws keep coming loose. Both these things cause occasional connection problems between the computer and the screen. There are also problems with storage and speed, and keeping up with software upgrades. Basically, it's time. 

It's always tough, breaking in a new computer.

One summer when I was in school, I had a temp job working in an office with an actual robot. It's the only time I've ever worked with one, and it's weird in retrospect because it was a very paper-oriented work and I never used a computer. The robot was the property of the mailroom, and it made the rounds several times a day. It was a mail cart that followed a strip all over the floor, stopping for programmed times at programmed spots, to move all the paper around. It chirped as it traveled about, just to let you know it was coming. I believe it was called Orville.

So, being the college snot that I fancied myself to be, I drew a series of cartoons about Orville being reprogrammed into a mail cart killing machine. My coworkers loved them. They photocopied them and sent them around to the rest of the office... using Orville. It was a popular feature in the office, until the bosses gave us a cease-and-desist. Which I did, until my last day. Had to conclude the story.

Mail robots were a thing, I guess, but I never saw another one. Atlas Obscura tells the tale of their history, of which even the twilight has passed. Ironically, it was the digital age that did in the Mailmobile, as networks led to much less reliance on physical paper. But the computer brain lives on!

I'm not looking for a Uniblab or something pricey that can run serious games. I just need a machine to work on, to maintain Internet contact and not lose my files. I'm proud of my Acer for putting up with a lot of peril and poor digital management from me over the years. I just hope that it doesn't realize it's about to be replaced and oi8u3825r10p8yofowedJN