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[vtarasov]

Living without a laptop has been harder than the life of a starving AIDS-ridden child with leprosy and a grand total of three fingers. That means I'm going to splurge and buy a laptop when the money I spend on this luxury could easily save the lives of many children, and I'm going to feel damn guilty about it, but do nothing to help those children

Comments

I, too, have tasted the dark side

[maverickseraph]

When I was working for the DNC in Pennsylvania last semester around election day, I decided to try a social experiment. You have to understand that rural PA is the closest I had ever been to a red state, being raised in one of the more liberal counties of California and going to school, well, in the People's Republik itself. Anyway, it was a wild experience, completely detached from what I grew up with. I drove a rented SUV, one of the huge fucking gas guzzling ones, all on the Democratic Natinal Committee's bill, and for the first time in my life, I stepped inside a Wal-Mart. I hadn't ever even seen one in the past. It was - so huge, a triumph of mass consumerism and large-scale engineering. And so fucking cheap, I spent like a hundred bucks there, just because that was the economic choice that maximized my market basket, and my utility. Morality played no part

[anonymous]

Quality of life is orthogonal to wealth and possessions. Possessions don't last, wealth doesn't last, people don't last. Nothing is static. Consumerism is based on growth. Growth of wealth, growth of possessions, growth of people. You buy, consumerism grows, You die, consumerism grows. Consumerism doesn't feed you, you feed consumerism.

"... the things you used to own, now they own you." Chuck Palahniuk

You speak of abandoning self-worth to save the world, to do your part. By abandoning self-worth you will create nothing worth loving. In a world with naught but selflessness there is nothing that appreciates, and nothing that loves. You cannot transcend the world, and fix it, you must walk in the world to save it. Walk the path of the wicked, and help up those they knock down.

-C

[vtarasov]

By abandoning self-worth you will create nothing worth loving
If I take it correctly, by "self-worth" you mean that I value myself less in comparison to other people and ideals. I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. American society and evangelicals could use a lot less self-worth and instead far more consideration for the other peoples of the world. If they value themselves less and concentrate fewer resources on their own shallow purchasing and wasting endeavours, they'll help a lot of people and maybe even find deeper, higher, and cleaner pleasures. That is worth loving.

In a world with naught but selflessness there is nothing that appreciates, and nothing that loves.
True, but this is a fantasy world--don't worry that I'll ever succeed in making one. All I want is for people to realize that they don't need all that they have and want to be happy. This doesn't mean that they have to abandon self-worth, it means they have to adopt another perspective that will lead to a sustainable and environmentally friendly existence.

Walk

[iloveme32]

Buy a mac. Fuck windows.

[vtarasov]

*the windows user you are trying to reach is currently unavailable. It is time for his daily Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sanctioned flogging. He can be reached...*

I like my windows because of how rough it is--no bells and whistles, no shiny, smooth-talking gentle silvery dildo taskbars and icons. It's crude, it's messy, and that's how I likes it--with character.

I likes my operating system like I likes my coffee--brought to me by Bill Gates (Steve Jobs need not apply).

[iloveme32]

see, thats why you're going to have high blood pressure when youre 26. And an aneurysm in your brain. I <3 my mac, and we make sweet, sweet love everytime I open an application.

[iloveme32]

And cancer. Windows gives you cancer. Just like being Jewish, and Gay. Only Gay people, the Jewish and Windows users get cancer.

[iloveme32]

I just remembered this, when I was in Boston, I gave money to bums on the street. I did try to help people. And I was called naive.

[iloveme32]

In all fairness I don't believe we called you naive, I said that I'd much rather give bums small wet-bar samples of liquor to make them want more, and crush their spirits, but I never called you naive.

-C

Oh right, the computer

[anonymous]

Try these.
http://www.rjtech.com/nb15.htm
It's where I got my laptop for 30% cheaper than the next cheapest store.

-C

Re: Oh right, the computer

[vtarasov]

I just figured out that you're clayton. I am so stupid. Thanks for the tip, but honestly, I was looking for something more mainstream. I've noticed that the performance of a laptop depends largely on how the different components work together, and I'm looking for something that's been reviewed by a PC mag or online publication. It's my belief that you can usually trust them on these matters. For example, you might find a Intel Pentium M 2.0 GHz with their own integrated graphics card and say, "shit, if Intel makes a graphics card specific to their processor, it's gotta be good." On the contrary, a 1.6 GHz pentium M hooked up with a nvidia or ati graphics card will kick its ass. It's thigs like that that make a laptop a hugely integrated system where one unpredictable weak spot fucks everything over.