Dude! You Got a Piece of Junk!

I keep seeing that Dell guy's vacant stare and hearing him yell at teenagers on the television screen, "Dude! You Got a Dell!" As I was de-fragmenting my hard drive yesterday and hating life because my laptop sucks, I wondered whatever happened to the Dell dude? I have to admit I felt a bit of satisfaction when I found that he got arrested for buying pot and Dell dropped him from the campaign. (As as side note, what was Dell thinking? Buying pot only gave him street cred. I mean, they did hire a total stoner to sell laptops to prospective college students). Anyway, he's now a bartender/waiter somewhere in NY.

To get to the point, my 2-year-old Dell is a total piece of crap. The only reason that it hasn't flown out the window this week is that I'd much rather pay rent than buy a new laptop in April. So, we're stuck with each other for a little while longer. As of April 1st, it's missing three keys and the left click button is worn and not very clickable anymore. Also, it crashes whenever I try to use the control panel. I've learned to deal with Vista's setup (I can finally find things once they are buried in the "user friendly" configurations). However, I can't get over the fact that my 4 year old laptop actually performed better -- even when it was dying.

I had a good chuckle yesterday when Jesse read me an article about how the Texas State government just made a provision in one of it's laws that bans any state agency from buying Vista. It's nice that they can choose -- I was strong-armed into having it loaded with my new computer. "Vista or nothing," said the Dell customer service guy when I called to ask for XP instead. I wonder how much kickback they got from Microsoft for pushing the shitty product? Maybe I'll ask that when I write a letter this week to Steve Ballmer. I'm going to request a complimentary copy of the new operating system when it's released. Fat chance, I know, but I feel that I should ask anyway. Call it a "retention bonus," because they're about to lose a lifelong PC user. (Yes, I said it, my next laptop will likely be a Mac.) I just can't take it anymore.

To end on a more positive note, I did disable a lot of features that make the Vista system unique and the Dell and I are getting along much better today. Also, I got a our first house plant! I think this is the longest I've gone without having any flowers or foliage around. I guess I still don't feel like this is our permanent place and haven't made a huge effort to make it feel like more of a home. However, it was so gloomy the other day that I felt we needed a little sunshine. I'm thinking of planting a few herbs next -- Jesse does love a nice summer pesto.