Ah, Technology

I don't know where I'm going with this, so bear with me here:

I got my new computer Tuesday and played with it for a few minutes at my parents' house - just the very basics of setting it up - then I set it to defrag while I slept and brought it home the next day. That's when the real fun began:

I started by loading the software I use most, keeping my fingers crossed that it would be compatible, and checked for updates and patches and so forth. Then I dragged out the dozens of CDs from over the years - most of which had programs I no longer need or are specific to an earlier, or different, OS - but there were several accessories and programs that are both compatible and useful. Then it was on to fonts and icons - I have, literally, thousands of fonts and icons, both purchased and downloaded from sites throughout the years - and I am still going through those, as I have been for the past 3 days. Then came the music: first the MP3s and Windows media files, then the audio CDs. I still have dozens more to go when it comes to that, as well...

It is simply... I cannot begin to describe the feeling of having a hard drive large enough to hold literally everything I have without worrying about running out of space or affecting performance; I really can't think of a word or phrase to impart my overwhelming joy. Thousands of fonts and icons, hundreds of songs and pictures - I even loaded The Sims and played it for a few hours the other night and I haven't played it in nearly 5 years, not to mention I have several of the expansions!

I am just so excited to be able to have everything on this one computer. No more searching through CDs for this particular file, picture, song, or font; no more getting bored and wishing I could just load The Sims and play around for an hour or two (but not doing it because I know I'll just have to turn around and take it off because it's so massive that I can't leave it on there, and that's just going to bloat the registry, so what's the point in fooling with it at all?); no more spending entire afternoons pruning the Music folder and ripping new songs just to change the playlist. But all this convenience comes with its own caveat:

Don't put all your eggs in one basket!

Maybe all these conservative computing tactics have just become ingrained over the years, but I'm a little nervous about the whole thing - it's like I won't allow myself to relax and enjoy the marvels of a brand new computer and so much empty HD space. I want to set up everything: MS Works, my Calendar, fill my Address Book, make playlists for every occasion, configure my everything... but I can't help waiting for the other shoe to drop. Everytime I insert a 10-year old CD that's scratched all to Hell and back and the system hangs, I actually get excited!: "Ha! Finally, I crashed it - now I can use the recovery disc and bitch and moan about it and get on with my life!" It's crazy.

But it's a good crazy - a great crazy, actually! - it sure as hell beats feeling this way over a decade-old box that's already crashed a few times. Still, it's a nervous angst that I've yet to shake; I feel like a virgin on her wedding night... not that I - I wouldn't know what that... you get my point.

So I got a few things out of the way today and I'm sure you noticed that some of them were pretty dated by now, but going through all the bookmarks was one of the projects I have been putting-off for far too long and I finally had a real reason to do it, so I got a lot more to get to you even if it is old stuff by now. And you will start seeing a lot more action, along the lines of the old days actually; once I get to the point that I'm not constantly having to spend a whole day fixing a hardware issue or restart an entire project from scratch because the files I was working on are on another hard drive I can't get to, etc., etc., I will obviously be far more productive. Not to mention that I'm no longer having to wait for 5 minutes for every damn page I surf to to load!

Though I am still having to wait 5 minutes for Blogger to publish through FTP...