expiration date 

i’ve been thinking of buying a new computer. my current laptop is about 3.5 years old. the CD writer does not work anymore and it can only open 2-3 applications at once. i don’t have much space left to install any new softwares and it starts to make weird sounds. from my experience and seeing other people’s laptops, many of them die around that age. i don’t want mine to die on me and take away years and years of data. so, it’s time to let it rest and have a new computer to take over its main job.

i have decided to buy a desktop. my last desktop was replaced by this laptop back in 2000. but since i no longer live as a nomad, i don’t need a portable computer to do all my work anymore. i can settle with a good solid desktop.

so, last Sunday, i asked Oscar — ari’s cousin who also our photographer of our Singapore wedding — to help us with our computer shopping. we went to Sim Lim and Oscar ended up doing all the work. all i had to do was to choose a computer casing and a monitor that i like. he took care the rest (not that i can help anyway… i’m very clueless about those things inside the computer).

since we planned to have Oscar to build the computer, we had to shop for all of the components first. even though Oscar did all the thinking, the shopping still took a toll on my back. even though supposedly Sim Lim is not as crowded as it usually is, all that walking and squeezing among people is not my type of shopping… well, i’m not a shopping-person to begin with. and i think, being the only person with pregnant belly there doesn’t help either.

koda is inspecting oscar’s work… sorta.

but all that shopping paid off. based on our budget, Oscar managed to save us nearly a thousand dollars!! so now, i have a new desktop computer, a 19” flat screen monitor and a keyboard (which we almost forgot to buy…) to go with my other monitor and Wacom tablet. all we have to do is assemble the desktop together so it would work.

the computer casing with partly hooked power supply



my new — and quite colorful — motherboard

by the time Oscar finished putting the computer together, i realized that i can’t find my Windows XP CD that came with my laptop. ari and i browsed through the house for an hour or so, but came up empty…

so, i lost my XP! and it means that not only do i have to buy a new one, we also can’t finish the installation until, at least, tomorrow. that’s no good, because tomorrow is Monday, which means i have to start working and Oscar will not be available to do the rest of the installation.

i was not happy, especially with myself for losing a CD. i still can’t believe i lost it… i’m usually very organized for those kind of things. ari, however, thinks that it’s not as bad as i think… he said, if everything was installed today, i would’ve spent the rest of the night sitting in front of the new computer, installing softwares and moving all the data until late, if not morning. considering how exhausted i was during the day due to the shopping, ari said that it’s quite a blessing-in-disguise that i can totally rest tonight.

i guess he’s right. i should just go to sleep and wake up early to buy the new XP CD.