Welcome to the blog of science fiction author Eileen Rhoadarmer--where science fiction and Mommyhood collide!


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Merry Early Christmas to Me

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'd like my work to be more portable.  My laptop's battery isn't worth much--not to mention the hooks holding it on broke so it slips off easily--so it's basically a desktop computer these days.  That's fine most of the time (even though the basement is freezing,) but there are plenty of times that I wish I could bring word processors with me on the go.

Tablets are all the rage these days, but I know I'll never be a tablet person.  You can't type anywhere near fast enough on those things even if you could manage to hit the right part of the screen every time, and the keyboards you can hook into them aren't very good, in my opinion.  Yes, tablets will never be the tool of choice for writers--at least not without DRASTIC improvements to design.  That doesn't stop me from having a tablet, but only because my father has decided that they are his new hobby--he buys them broken, voids their warranties by taking them apart and moving parts from one to the next, and puts together a smaller number of working ones.  Mine is one of his refurbishments.

I've been liking the idea of netbooks, though.  I particularly like how small and light they are--perfect for taking with me while the boys go to storytime or lessons or something.  I can sit and work while they have fun, and my computer won't weigh me down at all--not at 2.7 pounds!

Hubby liked this idea too, so we've been researching them.  After we decided on ones we liked, we kept an eye out for sales.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, since I don't like crowds, lines, or shopping) the Black Friday deals were all for models that didn't perform as well as we'd like.  We did find one on sale, though, and so we decided to get them now.  Our original plan had been to ask for gift cards for Christmas so we could buy our new toys, but now we'll need that in cash, to reimburse ourselves.

We didn't wait until Christmas to open them and start playing (can you blame us?) but we did open the boxes in front of the Christmas tree!

1 comment:

Charlie N. Holmberg said...

Ha ha, nice. I've never considered having a netbook, but when I was in school they were fairly popular....