New computer, new job make happydalek go YAY

[happydalek]

Hello from New Jersey!  I'm writing this entry on my brand new Asus Eee PC netbook!  That's right, I have been catapulted into the 21st century!  Kinda, considering its got a hard drive smaller than that of my 10-year-old, Win98-running desktop.  Point is, I have a portable machine that I can type on and connect to the internet with.  Finally!  And the best part?  I paid less than $300 for it.  Merry Christmas to me.  :-P  It isn't exactly what I wanted; I originally planned to get an Acer Aspire One netbook, but nobody had them in stock and I wanted a lil' 'puter NOW.  Probably the biggest issue I have with this thing right now is the slightly wonky keyboard.  It's a little cramped in ways my fingers don't want to adjust to (I keep overshooting and hitting the enter key when I want to type an apostrophe, for example).  And it's white, which means any scuffs and scratches will show.  Minor quibble.  Other bonus?  It's running Linux!  So I'll finally be able to toy with my OS like all the other nerds out there.  Yay open source!  And so far everything on my flash drive is compatible with it, including my Word documents, which are opening in StarOffice.  (Which I've never used before,  but it seems pretty similar to OpenOffice, which I'd put on here, except that I'm not sure I have enough hard drive space for it, and it may turn out that StarOffice works just as well, anyway.)

Other bits from RL:  So far I'm enjoying the new job.  I don't feel completely inept at it, but I certainly would like to be able to do it faster than I am now.  I worry I'm slowing everybody down, which is why the principal investigator took me along to help flag more of the survey corridor today instead of leaving me to dig and screen.  I'm probably just being neurotic, but I have a rocky past with phase I archaeological surveys.  Here's hoping this job turns things around.  Also?  It so happens that one of guys I worked with in Ohio is working with this crew, too!  So that's pretty awesome.

Okay, well, that's quite enough pointless RL rambling from me.  (One of these days I'll go back to posting fun stuff, I swear.)  

Comments

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

It's nice to hear good news from someone. Down the line I may want to pick your brain about that netbook. I don't think I can currently justify paying what it would take to buy a decent notebook, but if a netbook can do what I need for a much cheaper price it might be a reasonable alternative.

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

Lol, lj-land does seem a bit short on optimism lately, doesn't it? ;-)

Pick away! The netbook was a truly awesome discovery for me. For years I'd been saying that all I needed was something with word processing power and internet access that didn't cost and arm and leg, and finally the technological world has accommodated me!