MOOP!

Okay so here's the thing.

Since last _September_ I have been without a computer of my own. Mine broke, and I've just...been getting by with the work computer and my phone. This has been fine, but I'm growing increasingly tired of the limitations on work computer.

Translation: I tried to download steam so I can play some isolation video games, and was not capable of doing so because I am not admin on this machine.

SO I NEED A NEW LAPTOP COMPUTER! This is your thread to give me some advice and thoughts. Have at! If you read the notes below you will get some ideas about what I am looking for more specifically. Also there are swearwords because my boss is not on my Facebook.

Notes:

*Current machine is running Windows 10 pro. Previous machine was running Mac OS 10.9. I am confident in my ability to figure out how to use any mac or windows machine. I am not interested in learning how to linux, but I might be willing to hear your pitch, especially if it starts with "so this particular distro works a lot like the things you've used before".

*I definitely want a computer and not a tablet. I need a keyoard, but more importantly, I need to be able to download and run _programs_. Not apps. I am not an app based individual, I am Too Old for that. That being said, I'm not going to say no to a hybrid just because it's a hybrid, as long as it has a computer-like os and not an app-like os. I am not interested in a chromebook under any circumstances.

*Relatedly, I hate tap-click on trackpads and disable it ASAP every time I get access to a new computer. I use multi-finger gestures sometimes, but in general, assume I want to do just about everything via a) keyoard control and b) trackpad that I will actually click and not weird tapclick.

*Look, the most recent mac laptops come with two USB-c ports, one of which has to be used for charging and I CANNOT EMPHASIZE HOW MUCH BULLSHIT THAT IS. I would like actual ports. Please recommend me a computer that I can plug my USB shit into without a million extra hubs and adapters necessary. Yeah, this seems likely to mean next computer is "not a mac" despite having been running mac for my personal use for the twelve years before that, and I'm bummed but also apple is making shitty decisions about what I need and I don't have to put up with that.

*Relatedly, a headphone jack is non-negotiable, jebus I hope I don't have to say that.

*I _desperately_ miss the "spaces" feature of my mac laptop, which was SO GOOD for letting my ADHD ass-brain sort things out and separate them and have different spots for like work vs dance vs fun vs read later. I miss it _so much_ and you will get ten bonus points for recommending me something that lets me use Something Like That instead of cramming my taskbar with different windows that are a pain in the ass to flip through.

*I also desperately miss the versatility and reprogramability of my mac for changing keyoard shortcuts to be Whatever I Wanted. I think this is something I could do on the work computer if I had admin powers, but I'm not positive.

*Things I want to be able to do: Play video games (especially super dumb old games like a port of Gahan Wilson's Haunted House if I can find one, or Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which *might* be available on Steam), save like a hundred gigs of music, store a few hundred gigs of photos, write like a fiend. Other than the video games, mostly I am not planning to run particularly intensive stuff. I mean, also like the modern trend for zoom and stuff, but whatever. Honestly, I want a device I can store stuff on and play music from.

*The closer that I get to a computer that can survive being used as the ball in a game of calvinball, the happier I will be. Assume that I will drop it off my bed at least once a month, at minimum. (This is way more often than reality, but I'd like to cover my bases).

*I haven't gotten a new computer in about seven years. In an ideal world I would not buy another computer after this for close to seven years. My budget is, say, $1500, but I'm willing to go above that for things that are Very Good And Will Make Me Happy. It is plausible I can get a friends-and-family discount if I go apple which iirc is about 10% off. I have access to a costco membership and I know they do stuff on sale sometimes. I loathe Amaz*n and will not purchase through them until they start offering me *staggeringly* good deals. I have some degree of patience, but also, ADHD assbrain would really like to get this done since I haven't since September.

*Every new version of iTunes since 2005 has been increasingly ass, so like, I would also like a recommendation for a less sucky music storage and organization and playlists service. I am completely and utterly uninterested in cloud options, give me local storage and lots of it or give me death. Ditto for any useful way to manage thousands upon billions of photos and memes saved off the internet and shit like that.

*On a similar note, my iphone 6s is like...almost four years old and it hasn't started dying big time...yet. I should probably also get a new phone. I've only ever used iphones, but I am open to persuasion as to "what's good about smartphones these days". Pokemon go is a must.

As a last note, I hate change and I am going to be very sad in my replies to you. I promise I will do my best to keep my whining to a minimum, but this is a Big Expensive Change that is important for me to do but still ughhhhh. Please ask me questions and engage anyways, I have no idea what the current state of computer buying tech is like these days!

~Sor
MOOP!

I don't seem to have ever actually written this story down before, although I tell abridged versions of it relatively often. So here, have the explanation of how I started Scottish Country Dance.

My first semester of college (fall 2007) was a pretty great time. I was making new friends, reconnecting with old ones, and spending a lot of time just wandering around and exploring the world. You don't know what freedom is until you've moved six hundred miles away from home.

One of the people I was spending a fair amount of time with was my friend MagusMarc. He and I had met about three years prior, at Origins, chatted online for a while, lost track of each other, and remet at Balticon '06. From there, we were talking regularly and became pretty good online friends. When I moved to Boston, it turned out that he lived just about a mile away from Lesley. He was my only local geeky friend, and one of my only adult friends, and in general a nice alternative for when the college kids got too immature or mainstream for me.

As it got towards Thanksgiving, my computer was starting to act up a little bit. I assumed nothing too bad was going on, and when Mr Belm picked me up (I stayed the night after Thanksgiving at his place) he offered to run some computerwizardy on Seren¹ for me. The computer proved to be more a challenge than he could endure, and so I left it with him on Sunday --he let me borrow his clamshell² so I'd have a computer for school, and agreed to take Vera off to the mac store.

On Monday, I was out and about with some college friends, when I received the phone call from Dave. Seren's hard drive had self-destructed There was no chance of getting _anything_ off it, and the drive would just have to be replaced.

I was devastated.

I had gotten the laptop at the end of August. I'd been using it exclusively for three straight months, and everything, everything, was gone. All my photos, all my bookmarks, all my college work, all my writing, and most importantly, Behind the Walls version 2.0. My diary.

Since we were in the area, I politely excused myself from Dominik and the twins. I walked to Marc's house, and knocked on the door. "Distract me?" I whimpered, recalling other times when he'd been good enough to give me comfort.

"Well, I'm going dancing soon." he replied, and that made perfect sense to me. I went along with him, to Scottish Country Dance, and had a good enough time of things (despite having the worst possible shoes). And that might have been it. Except.

On Wednesday or so, I got my computer back with a shiny new hard drive, and a surprise external drive (early Christmas gift). I named her Vera Serenfreude, based on Dan and Tho's suggestions. She is a wonderful wonderful beast, and even if she's getting old and cranky, thank god she's managed to get old.

The following weekend, I went home to Maryland. There were several goals for this visit --surprise mom, surprise Veronica, go see Rocky Horror and the LRHS play³. There was also one major thing that happened that hadn't been planned --I broke up with kSatyr, who I had been dating for about ten months at the time.

From noon Sautrday to noon Sunday I spent equal numbers of hours crying and sleeping.

I believe the actual number is something like "three"

BtW 2.1, 2December2007

So Monday I was back in town⁴. and I again show up at Marc's. I tell him what had happened, and I ask. "Distract me?"

From then, it was a tradition. I danced three weeks of December, went home on break, and came back and danced every week after. I kept dancing even after Marc stopped being able to make it, even after he moved away. I've dragged as many friends as I could (and Tricia and Jesse both _stayed_, at least for a little while!) and don't intend to stop. Due to Scottish, I've found two partners, gone to one con, and eaten slices from *way* too many cakes.

It's been four years now. It's one of the things I enjoy most in the world. And while I hate that the impetus had to be a tragedy, because those tragedies led me to dancing, they were absolutely worth it, every bit⁵.

Cheers.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: "Don't you mean Vera?" Keep reading.

2: one of these. I still want one _so bad_. Such a comfortable laptop!

3: Unfortunately the only one I made after I had graduated LRHS. I feel bad about that.

4: And my arrival back in Boston is a different strong memory --the first time my heart ever sang out that I was Home.

5: There are parts of the story that I never tell, but that you might know anyways. SCD, and everything and everyone I've gotten from it? Yeah. Yeah, they're worth that too. Every. Single. Fucking. Bit.

(Apologies to anyone who saw this twice --I had to repost due to crossposting issues)

Hokay. So, I had this research paper to write before tomorrow. This paper that has already cost me entierly too much of my money and sanity from the fact that I had to turn in my old books (and wipe out my fines) before I could check out any new books from the library. Big frigging research paper for my english class.

(which, incedentally, because AP classes rule, is the only english class I have to take for my libral-arts base. I'll have to take more if I want to be an English teacher, but that's about it.)
(Additionally, because I attacked the SAT's with awesome and destruction, I'm almost out of the only math class I have to take for my libarts base. Booyah!)

DISTRACTIONS ASIDE!

( Apple should not equal Windows. So why is my MacBook acting like a Windowsboxen? )

Dude, computer troubles aside, I totally just got shangheid into hanging out with the people in my hall.

See, I was trying to make Seren work, figuring that if I was going to have to tearfully call someone at midnight thirty, I should do it somewhere where my roommate wasn't sleeping, and Bonnie, the truly wonderful girl next door, was all like "Hey, come sit in my room, it's warmer" in the "you cannot refuse this!" way.

So I did, and some other people showed up, and it was decided that we should go across the hall to Tess and Christina's room. We check to make sure that Tess and Nick are decent, and the five of us from Bonnies room join Tess and Nick and the seven of us hang out and chat. So that was pretty groovy.

Also, my parents are sane, and I am SO DAMN THANKFUL for that. Just...so you know mom. Thanks for not stealing a mini cat-machine and driving to the liquor store at three in the morning, or smelling random hoodies from my room to make sure that they don't belong to a boy.

Soyeah. Random people + hanging out = awesome. Also, Bonnie has the knack of being my friend straight from the beginning for no real reason, so that's pretty cool too. I need to go over to her place and play Geetar Hero with her some time.

I am sad that I missed out on watching Cars, with Beth, again though. She came over round tennish, but I only had about four pages done out of six-seven, so I was not ready to go play. Maybe tomorrow (no more scary homework!) or maybe next week. I'll get there.

Alright, brain is full up. Life has gotten back to decent, although my world is kinda profoundly "meh" right now. Has been for a while --maybe now that the show is over and I can go back to staying up too late with the twins and Dominik, it will get better.

~Sor
MOOP!

So...

The internet connection for The Empty City has died. Impressivly.

This isn't to say we don't have internet. We can still use the interwebs if need be.

We just can't load webpages. I'm guessing my average load time for the past few days has been an hourish a page.

Yeah. Baaaaaaaad.

I can however chat, but I can't say...read my COMICS! *grumbles*

...*swears creativly at the bell* Have I ever mentioned that I really loathe being part of a pavlovian expiriment?

In other news, Anne and Tho have been chatting, which amuses me.

~Sor
MOOP!

...

Don't you hate it when you accidentally close out a window where you had a half written LJ entry?

Dammit.

~Sor

The people-riffic meme!

Rules are:
First, write down the names of twenty people you know. Then read and answer the questions.

You can't look at the questions (or click on the cut) until you write down the twenty names you're going to use.

That sounds fun...and perfectly acceptable for my first post in who knows how Godly long.

I know. I admit it. I'm weak. LJ has called to me, and I must answer it. I'm back.

Right right right. On with the names!

1) artemisfowl2nd
2) muzikmaker21
3) macaroniandtuna
4) werewulf
5) quadrophenic86
6) sonsashi
7) jannyblue
8) drama_angel3189
9) kugelblitz
10) ednoria
11) heptadecagram
12) firespell89
13) haveasuperday
14) sonotsupercool
15) boredmder
16) shadowcaptain
17) sildar
18) gaeanangel
19) ayleedragon
20) astaereth

( Don't read this until you have YOUR list ready!! )

Alright, back to general life.

I've only got internet on teh weekends. But thats ok.

Still not going to touch the webcomics. Not yet. Not until I have full, legal acess to Dmitri again.

*sigh* I miss 'em.

Other stuff:

*I went garage saleing yesterday. I picked up a pair of clunky black leather boots, a translucent plastic chair (I'm going to paint it) a beanie-baby penguin (for a dollar...remember when you couldn't find beanie babys for less then 6 or 7 a pop?) which I promptly named Ms. Hecubus, a purse, and a camera bag. It ruled.

*I also went to the aquarium yesterday with Zily (Lily and Zoe), and a couple of friends of theres, David and Leah. It was very cool, especially the skates, and the fish I befriended. He was a very cool fish, all neon-striped and whatnot. We had a long conversation, turns out he's a total theatre boy, and a bit of a drama-queen. He said he was also quite gay, which made me smile.

It was Jonny!!!!! in fish form. :D

*Me and Veronica went for a walk today, with Rex. It rocked.

*Played Halo with Shan and Mike Royster and Veronica. also fun, although, like usual, I got my butt kicked.

*This morning I finally caught up and saw EpIII. I liked it, although I found Anikin INCREDIBLY whiny. CHEER UP! I don't see what all those girls see in him. :p

*I think thats all...ego-boost writing will commence shortly.

~Sorceress

MOOP!

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