Refuge of a Maladjusted Moose

In a recent trip to Osaka I yet again ended up in Den Den Town (the Electronics district). We were looking for a new laptop, which pretty much meant I was left to my own devises for a couple of hours to see what I could turn up. During my wanderings though I spent allot of time again in shops focusing (often entirely) on computer parts. I think I have previously mentioned on my blog how I have found this to be enticing but I was finally able to come up with the right words for the exact feeling.

I used to be heavily into computer hardware for a time. Building my own, tweaking parts for extra power, using extravagant cooling, and buying new parts when I could afford them. More recently, however, I made a pointed decision not to do this any more. In a nutshell it was because I realised I was putting allot more effort into computer than I was getting out of it. I was left with a well spec'ed machine that I hardly ever got the chance to use as I was changing it all the time. So, I bought my first laptop and haven't looked back since. I was able to play a few games on it (HL2, Portal, and more recently World of Goo) and I grew to love how it just worked. I didn't have to worry about all its innards. It was quiet, it did what I wanted it to do, and my new laptop and me got along famously.

Flash forward again to Den Den Town and I find myself surrounded by fancy graphics cards and motherboards in abundance. The place would make building a PC easy and a joy to do (instead of the pain of having to source all the stuff online without being able to see it). It made me feel so envious, it made me feel like I wanted to do it all over again.....

......It made me feel an ex- addict. Craving something I had long since left. Sure it was good for me at the time I suppose but it turned bad. And seeing it all there before me, tempting me, made me feel really oddly dirty. Fortunately when I figured this odd feeling out it helped me work through it. Reminded me of the reasons I left PC building (mostly) behind.

So now I look forward to a new laptop (though not technically mine), a more portable affair with less graphics and more practicality. Free am I from the shackles of worrying about the right PC hardware to play Crysis or some such game. In short I feel freshly liberated, and that's a far nicer feeling than that other one I've previously mentioned.