sophistry | (no subject)

Life.

Okay. So my laptop, just having cruised past its third birthday, is starting to slow down. Constant freezing, crashing, you know the drill. In addition, it is, well, a freaking behemoth. Every time I have to lug it into uni, I am left staring enviously at the people toting around their blow-away-in-a-strong-breeze Vaios and MacBooks. I am considering, come either my birthday (September) or Christmas (the laptop's fourth birthday), or for both, asking the parents to go halves with me on a new one - possibly also making the switch to a Mac, but that is a question for later.

ON THE OTHER HAND. Monetary contributions are nice. They enable things like Dragon*Con, and/or other visits.

This would work out super-awesome if I happen to get the heritage job I've applied for, for the summer, since my spendthrifty self already has money saved, so altogether I could pay for both Trip(s) and Half A Laptop.

HOWEVER, there is a third most-desired item entering into this equation which is mucking things up. I've never owned a walkman, I've never owned a discman, and I have never for-real owned an mp3 player - bar a 250mb one my Dad got as a freebie from someone, and even then, I barely used it. The reason for this is: my hearing-aids. They make my life so very much easier, but are BTEs - behind-the-ear models. Not exactly headphone-friendly. And, in addition, have neither built-in FM capabilities, or a direct-input jack - nor are they a model that accepts a direct-input shoe.

They will, however, take a certain FM receiver attachment. Which, you know. You can't move without tripping over FM transmitter accessories for mp3 players. And dude. Oh, dude. That would be so awesome that I can only flail to express how awesome it would be. Listening to music in a place that is not in front of my laptop. THE STUFF OF DREAMS. And I mean, sparkly music has the ability to boost my mood like nothing else, to boost my mood astronomically. Needless to say, nowadays, that also would be awesome.

But that certain FM receiver attachment? Comes in at a nice £350 a pair - which is just under $700, for those following along in the US, and just over €500 for my fellow Europeans. And bear in mind I don't even have an mp3 player or necessary accessories, yet.

That?

That is not so awesome.

*broods pensively*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

One thing to consider in your quest for a laptop is that as a student, you should qualify for any number of education discounts. At least, I know that's the case over here stateside, and I would be VERY surprised were it not the same for you.

Said discounts do not require lots of paperwork, either. Usually a verification of enrollment, I think -- which in some cases can be a photocopy of a valid student ID.

For a Mac, under the local store's agreement, it knocks $200 US right off the top of a laptop cost. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Yeah, Trinity have a special student deal with both Apple and Dell - or, if I went the other route, my Dad could get a company discount on a Dell laptop as well. I mean, I haven't totted up all the numbers yet, but... yes. It's there on the table, as it were.

Man, I dunno. That's a hard one. On the one hand, a laptop would be really more useful. And the music stuff might come out as, all together, more expensive than a computer. But to have what you've never had must be so tempting.

Dare I ask how often you clear the cache and defrag your laptop ...? And checking it for adware? That drek can really slow the beastie down ...

Hearing aids, eh? The things you just don't know about a person online! Thank heavens we live in times when you're not reduced to using a hearing trumpet.

Often enough - once every six weeks or so. I actually went through the whole spring-cleaning rigmarole this weekend, after getting an external hard drive and shifting 30GB of files over. It's the fact that I didn't notice a hugely appreciable difference afterwards that has in part turned my thoughts towards the coming September/December.

And yes, hearing aids. XD I'm not deaf as a gourd or anything, but I have nerve damage from being born, awesomely enough, with the umbilical cord around my neck. Oxygen deprivation ftw. It just means I have trouble with higher frequencies - I never hear mobiles ringing, I can't hear fire/smoke alarms (*facepalm*), unless I can see the person's mouth, I have trouble distinguishing between, say, 'b' and 'd', 'm' and 'n', 'p' and 't', etc.

And, you know, I'm also 100% tone deaf.

Sounds like you've done what you can, and it's just becoming old and decrepit, all right. Bummer.

Wow! That's amazing -- and scary in retrospect. Glad you're only slightly deaf out of the deal ...

Ahaha.

Yes.

There was a big scare that I might have been brain-damaged, but as we can all clearly see, there is nothing wrong with my cognitive functions, ability to concentrate, or general sanity. At all.

<_<

>_>

::looks serious::

Yes, indeed. Writing fanfic and channelling demons aside, of course.

::does not snicker, nope::

(Also, I seriously cannot understand song lyrics, and probably at least once, your flist will end up the victim of a capslocked rant on mumbling actors, and/or directors who like to film actors talking facing away from the camera.)

Oddly enough, I test out as having phenomenally good hearing, yet have all those same problems. Plus filtered voices, argh. (I'll guess you have that one, too ...?) "Phenomenal hearing", yet lipreading in conversation. Srsly.

PoT Update: Episode 22.