Home for the Holidays

I spent Christmas in Georgia this year. My parents recently moved to this upscale southern community in the hills of Canton to take care of my late Grandfather. My brother and I spent three days trying to get onto overbooked flights as pass-riders, getting bumped off the overloaded flights and shooed away by unsympathetic desk attendants. Traveling this time of the year is never fun.

When I arrived at the bustling Hartsfield airport, I quickly walked to route to the train that I had memorized over the years. At the bottom of the escalator a man sat propped against the wall, surrounded by people who appeared to be paramedics in plain clothes. His head was gashed up and he seemed disoriented. I could only posit that he tumbled down the escalator moments earlier and was just trying to get his bearings. I walked by quickly to get onto the train before the doors closed. It came to my attention that the train was entirely controlled by a computer. For a moment, I was unnerved.

The week was spent eating with the family, watching movies with my cousins, and walking my dog. I introduced “Bleach” — a new Anime series playing in Japan — to my little techno-anime obsessed cousin. I showed him some Bit Torrent sites and taught him how to download movies and change the wallpaper on his desktop. He told me that he wants to become a Computer Scientist, so he can be as good with computers as I am. I told him not to download anything while his dad was playing Counter-strike.

Of course, I helped my Uncle with a few of his computer problems as well. Removing the CoolWebSearch Trojan proved to take quite a bit of effort. After getting rid of this nasty infestation, I helped him repartition an external USB drive as well as some other random maintenance tasks.

Oh, for Christmas I got a new laptop. Originally lured by the sex appeal of the four and a half pound Sony Vaio S-260, I ended up buying the HP dv1040 instead. I haven’t decided if I made the right choice yet, but after a month or so of use I will. I’m loving the wide-aspect ratio screen and the integrated wireless features the most. The kid at Best Buy seemed to think it was a good purchase so I went with it. I tried to repress my brand snobbery, realizing that the inside of the computer was practically identical to all of the other brands.

That’s all for now, I’m having trouble thinking and writing this week. Maybe the fog will clear soon.