The new laptop in my life.

I’m honestly surprised my previous laptop lasted as long as it did.

But here’s the backstory.

In 2016, I joined several of my trivia friends to participate in the World Tavern Trivia championships in Atlantic City. We finished in third place – very respectable – and each of us pocketed a nice chunk of cash. Since I was in Atlantic City at the time, I figured I’d take some of this money and apply it to a roulette wheel.

That chunk of change grew into a BIG chunk of change (pro tip – if you accidentally leave your original wager on #27, and it hits again on that same number on the next spin, that’s a sign from God to take your winnings and leave the table with a fat smile on your face), and after factoring out travel expenses and souvenirs … I treated myself to a personal laptop.

And that laptop lasted a long, long time. I used it on trips, I’ve used it at basketball games, I’ve used it for many projects.

And it lasted for a good eight years.

A couple of months ago, however … it died. Blue Screen of Death. Thankfully, I was able to extract as much data from the laptop before it completely bricked.

All right. Time to invest in a new lapper.

And honestly, I didn’t really need to purchase a laptop right then and there when the old one died. I wasn’t in a need or a rush for a new lapper.

But after my most recent CPKC Holiday Train chase – where I pre-wrote some of my blog posts so that I would be able to travel to Canada without worrying about potentially ending a 15-year unbeaten blog-a-day streak – I weighed my options, and decided I would get a new laptop as a Black Friday present from me to me.

And sure enough … new laptop for Chuck.

Now comes all the necessary duties. I need to install my web browser of choice (Firefox), along with connections to my social media accounts (Facebook, Mastodon) and, naturally, a pathway to my blog. Malwarebytes to keep the nasty viruses away, AdBlockPlus to keep the nasty adverts away.

Some things will be difficult to install; this laptop does NOT have a CD-ROM in it (how is that even possible? 🙂 ), so I need to acquire a standalone USB-powered CD-ROM for installation of PhotoShop 6. Or I could just eschew PhotoShop on this unit and download the free open-source GIMP image software program, that’s a thought.

Oh yeah, and this unit has Windows 11. Don’t come at me for just noticing this. Remember, this is a blogger who arguably may have possessed the last active, working BlackBerry cell phone in America. Heck, at one point in time my desktop lived on Windows Vista, and I felt no need to upgrade that. That’s just me, peeps.

But one thing’s for sure. I like the idea of having some mobility in my life, especially on the technology front. I’ll definitely need a new laptop for sure, because there will be photography projects in 2025 where I can’t just run back to my home to download the images and work on them. There’s Albany Patroons games in 2025, and I’ll need this laptop for whatever duties the Patroons will have for me.

And most importantly … I never want to have a day where I have to choose between pre-writing a blog or enjoying a roadtrip.

I’d kinda like to enjoy both at the same time, if you follow my drift.