My ideal laptop

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , ,
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sturdy
long battery life

operates

fast with lots of programs

large screen
loud sound
webcamI nearly

I nearly broke my charger yet again yesterday, when I tripped on the cord at a very bad angle.  It’s got me thinking that I’d really like to just get a new computer rather than consider charger #4.  However, my computer is in pretty good shape and it’s a pity to get rid of it.  At first I was looking at some of those websites that pay you for a used laptop, but then I remembered all my relatives in China who’d love to have a nice and (relatively new) computer like this one!  Sometimes I forget how lucky I am, with access to the latest electronics and the funding to afford the ones I want.  The past two or three cameras I’ve had were all taken back to China after I broke them, fixed up, and given to a relative to use.  Same thing goes for my first laptop.  Seems like I tend to replace my electronics when my clumsy hands break them.

Dell laptop

Maybe I'll go back to my roots with a Dell.

So, though I’m not yet in the market for a new laptop, I do anticipate a new in the next year.  That got me thinking about the qualities that I need in the perfect one…  It would need to be sturdy to stand up to the abuse I put it through, occasionally dropping it, usually holding it precariously, and often stretching it to its limit.  I’d need a long battery life because I tend to use it heavily and if I am ever away from an outlet, I need to still be able to survive!  I’d also want it to operate very well with multiple programs running – I tend to have 10-30 tabs open in my browser at any given point, with some flash programs going, my instant messaging platform, a picture viewer and uploader, music player, and some documents I’m working on.  It needs to multitask like I do!  It also needs to be able to store my huge collection of pictures, videos, music, and documents, as well as support my myriad of programs.

HP Pavilion laptop

Being the brand-loyal kind of person I am, I'll probably opt for another HP.

What else?  I’m a huge fan of large screens and both my laptops have had wide screens.  I need really good speakers because I’d like to be able to hear things from afar and sometimes I think I’m a little hard of hearing.  There’d also need to be a built-in webcam for those days when Panda and I are not together and I need to see him on screen to be at ease.  It should also have a keyboard that can stand up to minor spillage and crumbs so I don’t have to worry replacing that.  And I think that they all come with wi-fi standard now, so that shouldn’t be a problem (but would definitely have to be a feature).  It’s also nice to have a CD-RW and DVD-RW drive, in case I ever need it (which isn’t that often).  Finally, I must have a card-reading slot so I don’t need to worry about cables to get pictures off of my camera.

As for things I haven’t had yet, I’d like bluetooth in this next one.  Not crucial, but a fun feature to have.  I have a remote for controlling media on this one, but I hardly used it, so that’s just a perk if it’s there.  Oh, and I’d like a long battery life without the really bulky battery that sticks out.  I like the angle it puts my keyboard at, but I don’t like how it doesn’t fit well into things.  Plus it’s suuuper heavy, so a lighter computer would be nice.  And that just about sums it up!  I’m sure when I start looking at features now in laptops, I’ll find a few more things I’d like to have.

The real reason for a mailbox

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Look at all the wonderful things I’ve received in the mail!  If it weren’t for that, I’d say do away with snail mail (though getting a handwritten letter is nice, but who does that anymore?).

free mock phone sock, mobile sock

My free Mock came via AirMail! Fits my phone perfectly. 🙂

apple card

A card, all shiny and new and what can it hold?

apple itunes gift card

Why, a gift card I won worth $25!

Brand loyalty

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dog, loyaltyI am a brand loyal type of gal.  There are definitely certain brands that I prefer and remain loyal to, whether or not they are the best product/service out there.  I believe this stems from my loyal nature in general.  I’m certainly very loyal to my friends, my schools, even the places I’ve lived.  I do what I can to be on their side and defend them against differing opinions.  The same goes for products I use – it seems that part of why I learn so much about them is so I can explain them to the ignorant or the skeptics.  And when my beloved brands are in trouble, I’m fretting along with them, hoping they’ll survive and giving them as much business as I can manage (like today at the Mongolian Grill place, where I even left a tip).

I have pretty strong convictions about the Asian food I eat.  In fact,I can think of exactly what brand of soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, shrimp crackers, fish sticks, and saqima I always go for.  I’m a little less picky with my American brands (food or not) and there tend to be one or two major ones of each category that I like.  I’ve stuck to mostly one store for clothes, one bank for checking and two for savings, two brands for computers, one for shampoo, one for toothpaste… you get the idea.

cattle getting branded

Yikes, not that type of branding!

I’m fascinated by branding and what motivates me stick with the brands that I end up choosing.  Once I go for one, it’s really hard for me to switch to something else.  It’s kind of like when I go to a restaurant and choose an item on the menu, the next time I go I’m likely to order the same thing, no matter how hard I try to force myself to get a different dish.  Much of it is because I have expectations the next time I go and no other dish satisfies what I was craving quite like that original one.  And that’s exactly why I wanted to eat at that particular restaurant in the first place: because I was in the mood for that dish I had there.  So similarly I wonder if perhaps I stick with my brands because I expect something very particular from them and I know that I won’t be disappointed.  Though other brands might be better in other areas, those aren’t the areas I value as much.

Yes, now that seems like a reasonable explanation.  But how do they get me in the first place?  I know there’s a certain aesthetic appeal, as well as practicality/functionality.  Sometimes a logo can really make or break it for me.  That first impression tells me a lot:

Is the company innovative and advancing?

Is the company fresh, hip, and cool or too stodgy?

Did they put enough effort into the logo for me to trust that they’d put enough effort into their product/service too?

Does the branding reflect what their company is about or are there mixed messages?

And so images that are too boring, not eye-catching, or memorable are often thrown out pretty quickly.  Names and color schemes have a similar effect, but don’t affect me quite as strongly.  The ones I’m drawn to are also judged based on usefulness and ease of use to determine the ultimate choice.  Oftentimes it’s quite a hard decision, especially when it comes to technology.  With all the new ones coming out, it’s hard to choose which company to go with.  At least in the other arenas, things don’t move quite at that breakneck speed and I’ve settled pretty comfortably into a brand I love.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to which ones can grab my attention, then give me a good enough experience to not want to try somewhere else.

Grazing

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Recently, in an effort to save money, I’ve been limiting myself to eating a few large meals throughout the day.  I’m the type of person who loves snacks and usually spends the day munching on smaller portions.  Apparently, experts studying eating habits call this “grazing” and find that it’s not as bad as people have been led to think.  Being a lifetime grazer, I certainly know that that is true, since I’ve always been extremely healthy, despite my so-called “bad” eating habits.  Plus, it has played a role in my relatively steady weight by keeping my metabolism up.

snacksI’ve found that I’m so used to eating small meals throughout the day that this change in eating patterns has really disrupted my body’s rhythm.  Since there is so much time between meals now, I feel ravenous much of the time and even woke up on occasion to be so nauseatingly hungry that I grabbed the nearest snack to scarf down while still lying prone in my bed.  I could barely open my eyes for how tired I was, but I could taste the bile creeping up and I knew I and to something so save my poor stomach.  It was not a pleasant experience and I certainly don’t want to have to deal with it on a weekly basis.

So, I have decided that I really should adhere to my original philosophy of eating when I want, which is nearly constantly throughout the day.  After all, I’m not at the point where I can’t afford to eat when my body says I should, so that attempt at saving money just wasn’t a good idea, considering how much my body had suffered for it.  Therefore, I’m going out to the store in the next couple of days and stocking up on snacks again.  I guess I just can’t live without my little munchies to sustain me every hour or so.  Bah to all those who think that three meals a day is the way to go.  At least for me, it’s just about the worst thing I can do for my health.

Surprising vehicle sightings

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Now what could they possibly need to stop and broadcast from there for?

Now what could they possibly need to stop and broadcast from there for?

It always fascinates me toponder why so and so got pulled over.

It always fascinates me toponder why so and so got pulled over.

Sooo I SWEAR that's a Toyota Camry.  Can someone tell me what language that is?!  o.O

Sooo I SWEAR that's a Toyota Camry. Can someone tell me what language that is?! o.O

I, too, drive a Yerevan Aresh.

Mortality

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Facing our mortality is probably the most difficult thing for people to deal with.  We all know it’s inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier.  It’s even worse when you’re dying at an unnaturally fast rate because your body isn’t functioning the way it should to maintain your health.  (I don’t believe in saying because you’re dying because, well, we all are, in a way.)  The younger you are, the further thoughts of death are from your mind, until a tragedy strikes that reminds us all that we aren’t as immune to death as feel we are in youth.  Diseases that strike in children are more horrifying because we feel they didn’t get a fair chance at life.  Then there are others that are borderline, if not outright torturous.

Imagine what it would be like to be in Charles Sabine’s shoes: you know that the most likely cause of your death will be a deadly and incurable disease, Huntington’s.  On one extreme, you could fear the oncoming suffering and death and let it take over your life.  Day to day, you wonder when it’s going to start taking over.  And when it does, you worry yourself more with how quickly it will overcome you.  On the other hand, you could take advantage of every moment and go do the things you’d always put off.  You can embrace every experience and truly start living and being, not letting it consume you.  There’s nothing quite like a brush with death or knowing you have a disease that will kill you to get people to make some drastic changes to their lives.

Last night my mom told to be careful when I’m driving and be particularly wary of big rigs.  After all, it’s pretty obvious that my little car counts for nothing against one of those.  It turns out she said this because one of our family friend’s daughters had somehow collided against one hard enough to spin her car around 180 degrees so that she was facing oncoming traffic.  Perhaps she passed out or she somehow didn’t get her foot off the gas in time – either way, she was hit by an oncoming car and did not survive the impact.  It makes me wonder how it must feel to die without ever know it was coming, or have it come so fast that you hadn’t even really registered what was going on.  Is a life suddenly taken more tragic than one slowly robbed by debilitating disease?  It’s hard to say.

On one end is death by disease that you can anticipate and on the other end is death by accident that comes on suddenly.  Neither is very pleasant, but it happens all the time and it’s always a reminder of how fragile life can be.  I’d call these unnatural deaths, but technically diseases are a thing of nature, are they not?  To me, untimely deaths are ones in which you die before your parents.  There’s a saying in Chinese about how white-haired people should not ever have to bury black-haired people (aka parents shouldn’t have to live to see the day their children die).  I think that’s a pretty widely-accepted belief in cultures around the world.

Stories like those make me think about my own life and how it will end.  Of course I imagine and assume that I will reach a decently old age and have at least two generations of progeny for it really becomes more of a reality, but you never know.  I guess I don’t really think about it because it’s a scary prospect to have my life cut short so early, before I can do all the things I want to do in this world.  Besides, it’s not really something I can control, so worrying about it all the time won’t do me much good.  But I do think it’s good for us to keep in touch with our own mortalities, if it creates the motivation to do more with our lives.  And perhaps one of the best ways to respect life is to live it, truly.

I am blessed with good health and good luck, and I plan on making every bit of that work for me.  I’m going to leave an indelible mark on this world, so long as I can live out the course of a “normal” lifespan.  Even if I don’t, at least I’ll have been working towards it.

Dumpling dinner

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Each maker proudly showcasing his/her handicraft.

Each maker proudly showcasing his/her handicraft.

Oops, this one's leaking some meat!

Oops, this one's leaking some meat!

This wonton got a little scrunched.

This wonton got a little scrunched.

You can’t quite tell, but the wonton was very small and a strange sort of shape.  😛  Just as yummy though!

And to top it all off, we have cheesecake for dessert!

And to top it all off, we have cheesecake for dessert!

The entrepreneurial bug

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I’ve been speaking to a lot of entrepreneurs lately and it’s really exciting to hear all the fun, interesting, and innovative ideas they have! Most are still in early development, so I can’t share what they are, but I would like to say that there’s a certain theme running through it all – a need to make things better. Everyone’s focus is in their own area of expertise and passion, which makes for a lot of promising businesses to come! I think the great thing about startups is the drive that people have. You can’t survive without a deep level of commitment to the purpose of the company/organization, unlike in large and established corporations, where you can get away with a lack of interest in what the mission actually is.

For me, it’s motivating to see all the hard workers out there making their dreams come true.  I’ve got a lot that I’d like to make a reality within the next decade and I’m going to start on at least one of them by the time I’m 30.  That’s a promise to myself, and something to make myself accountable for.  One piece of advice I got was to set real, concrete deadlines and that’s exactly what I’m working on.  Too often I like to leave a way out by saying, “sometime around” or “in the next 5-10 years,” giving myself enough leeway to perhaps not quite make it happen.  So I’m going to change my mentality and decide that I am and I will.  No more of that I hope and I want business.  It’s going to be how I choose to make it to be.

At times I was doubtful that I had an entrepreneurial enough spirit to be an entrepreneur, but now that I see those out there, I’ve got no doubt in my mind that I have the passion, drive, creativity, and intelligence to do so.  The important thing is setting my mind to it and then going full force.  That’s not a problem for me – I decided I wanted to start my own business when I was in middle school and that desire has yet to change.  I’ve definitely gotten bitten by the entrepreneurial, if there is such a thing, and I’m excited to develop my plans over the years as I ready myself professionally and personally to handle the tasks I’ll need to for my aspirations to become real.

It’s been consuming my thoughts!

Buzzy visitor

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Why am I taking a picture?

Why am I taking a picture?

To capture this bug flying around!

To capture this bug flying around!

In case you were wondering what it looked like, here you go.

In case you were wondering what it looked like, here you go.

My first startup

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I’m working on a project now that is something I’ve thought of before, but never considered doing seriously until now.  After speaking to some tried and true entrepreneurs, the one piece of advice that stood out was: just do it.   Yup, Nike was right – you just gotta go out and get started!   So that’s exactly what I’m doing on now, first producing some content to put up on the site that I’ll be launching within the first week of January.   I spent the majority of today working on the more technical issues of getting the site up and with the help of a friend, I’ve got a decent framework to work with.   It’ll start off simple, but I do hope the content is valuable to my target audience.

I’m excited for this fun distraction that I’m going to build into a great resource and fun reference.  I don’t want to give too much away while I’m still working on it, so just keep your eyes open in the new year, especially if you’re a Bruin!  In the mean time, if you or anyone you know is willing to help with writing content, doing some graphic design, or helping with the website, please do let me know!  I’ll need all the help I can get.  This will be my first “startup” (not in the sense of a company, but in the sense that I’m the one running the show based off of one of my ideas), so I’m sure there will be a lot to learn.  I’ll try to document what I can as I grow from the experience.  🙂

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