Transitions in Technology, Stage 1: Letting Go

Strombergast was the first computer that was "mine". I ordered him from Dell in 2004, because they can do payments and I sure as hell didn't have $1,400 on me at the time. Plus they do custom orders, and I wanted to get something beyond a standard build. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I didn't know as much about computer technology then as I do now. Because if I did, I would have known not to order from Dell. Nonetheless...

Strom was a solid workhorse of a machine. He was a tank. His case was heavy, for a mid-size tower. At this point I don't remember much of the specs. 80Gb hard drive, an ATI Radeon X300-series graphics card, a gig of RAM. Not the hottest machine by any means, but for my basic needs it worked well. Did some casual gaming, did some design, spent a lot of time blogging. Spent a lot of time naked with it, too, because that was my work back then. What am I saying? I spent a lot of time naked with it period, because I am just naked a lot.

As time passed, the wear I--and others--had put on the machine was beginning to show. I had a room mate spill some Fruit Punch soda on the keyboard, and though he tried to clean it up best he could, I still noticed the sticky liquid sloshing out. A few months later, a different roommate spilled a glass of fruit juice on the desk and, knowing I would not react well, did not tell me. But I figured it out when the keyboard and monitor were both glued to the desk by the dried sugary residue, and all the plugs were stuck in my surge protector for the same reason.

The computer moved out of the public space and into my bedroom after that, but they still used it without my permission when I was away. Who knows what icky viruses they downloaded on it. *shudder*

Then in more recent years, I moved in with Makal and he introduced me to World of Warcraft. WoW was a little laggy on it (okay, a LOT laggy, so we doubled the RAM from the original 512Mb to 1Gb) but it worked. I dealt with it. At one point I discovered that one of our cats had been spraying the back of the case... This is something I shall not describe in detail. You do not want to know the details. Suffice it to say, Strom was not having the best time.

Then the death of the monitor; after enlisting an electronics friend to help me fix it, he pointed out signs that the monitor was a refurbished model and had already been repaired for this very issue. Funny, I thought, since I had ordered a new model. I then began to wonder how many other "new" parts had Dell sold me (at full price) that were in fact refurbished. Jerks. So, unable to really do anything productive with the box, we moved it and a set of speakers into the bedroom to serve as a music station. This worked really well with the Remote app on iPhones, because then there wasn't much need for a monitor at all. A few months later the power supply blew. And I mean, wow, there was ash inside the case. Really crazy. It was, essentially, the end of Strom.

So, here we are. Strombergast has been a champ, and was my best friend through many an emotial trial. I first talked to Makal on this computer (okay, "chatted with"). I edited the first naked photos of myself to be posted on the Internet, on this computer. I learned about things like Tor and file sharing and MMORPGs. And we had a good time, Strom and I.

But now it's time to move on.

Goodbye, dear Strombergast, Ultimate Killing Machine. You were my first computer love and you shall live on in my heart (also, I'm pulling your HD and anything else useful to stick in other boxes).

And in a few days, I'll introduce you to Cecilia. Once I've built her, of course.