First and foremost, I've complained about the heat eminating from the bottom of old Darryl (that's what we'll call him, anyway... I hadn't named him before now, but Darryl somehow seems fitting). You don't believe me? It can't be that bad? Well, here's what Darryl (& his heat) has done to himself:
Secondly, the battery life was once really, really great. As you know, one of the beauties of using a laptop is the ability to be untethered to the network cable (with a wireless card) and the power cord (with a longer-lasting battery). Well, Darryl's battery life sure isn't what it used to be. At this moment, I actually have 85% of the battery remaining. Not bad, not bad... but that 85% translates to 40 minutes. Really? 40 minutes? That's not so good, right? Well, the worst part of it is that that's not even a very accurate estimate. I guarantee that I'll get the warning (if Darryl remembers to give me fair warning before just slitting his own throat due to lack of power) in about 10-15 minutes that battery life is critical. The one good thing I've learned to do, however, is collect power cords and place them strategically. SOME people might need to get up and walk to their "base" to plug in. Not me. Darryl has taught me. Be prepared to plug in anywhere. Therefore, I have a plug-in beside the bed, beside the desk, beside the La-Z-Boy upstairs, behind the couch upstairs, and one portable pack that sits ready to go traveling (thank goodness for the ingenuity of the Vibe's engineers who put a plug right in that little buggy), into the kitchen, or anywhere else I'll need to drag Darryl.
Darryl has also taught me the importance of just slowing down sometimes. I do get pretty wound up sometimes. And at those moments, when I have the most to do and am the most stressed out, that's when he reminds me of this most-important lesson. Think you're too sressed to wait, Heidi? Ha ha... let me show you otherwise, he tells me. He often reminds me that he's the teacher and I'm merely the student. He has all the control, fo sho.
By far, the worst thing about Darryl, however, is the power button problem. Sometimes, when Darryl decides to shut himself down (or go to stand by) to the point where you need to use the power button to bring him back to life, it simply doesn't work. Like at all. Imagine pressing the power button on something that's supposed to spring right to life when you press it... and NOTHING HAPPENING. It's infuriating. Ugh.
Let's see... what else? Well, the good things about Darryl are his ability to keep me connected to anyone anytime. I love that aspect of my job and my life. Sometimes I get kidded for being online all the time... but I enjoy it. So, thanks Darryl, for allowing me to continue to be plugged in.
And finally, the best ever thing about Darryl (and one of the scariest things if Darryl ever fell into the wrong hands!) is that he allows me to keep every little thing in his brain. A colleague can't find an e-mail he knows I sent out three years ago? Darryl can find it. Haley wonders if I have that silly pic we took at the Gretchen Wilson concert a year or two ago? Yep, Darryl does. Someone somewhere gave me a phone number to something. It may take a while, but Darryl will help me find it. Pictures, tunes, web sites, RSS feeds, web history, contacts, chat history, e-mail, a lot of everything.
As much as I hate the bad things about him, I will be sad to see Darryl go. I've loved him for a long time now. We've had a tempramental love/hate relationship. But I'll miss him, most definitely. Now... I'm off to load all the Darryl goodness onto Daisy:
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