A fresh techno-fantasy

I’m writing this on my new best friend: a too-wonderful-for-words emachines M6809 laptop. “Emey” (pronounced ee-mey), as he wants to be called, is going to change my life in two ways, one shallowly technological, the other deeply philosophical. At least, that’s the spin I’m putting on Emey’s purchase with my wife, Laurel, who could buy a heck of a lot of $10 fused glass earrings on Ebay for Emey’s $1,390 Best Buy cost ($1,640 – $250 in rebates).

On the technological side, I don’t think there is a better price/performance deal on any laptop, though Emey’s sibling, the M6805, is a great computer also. I headed into Best Buy focused on the M6805, but a persuasive sales guy talked me into spending an extra $140 for DVD recording capability and an 80 GB hard drive rather than a 60 GB. On both machines you get a 15.4 inch widescreen display, a mobile AMD Athlon 64 bit processor, a 6 in 1 digital media reader (which, sadly, should have been 7 in 1, as it doesn’t read the proprietary card for the Olympus camera that I use).

Plus, you get some cool-looking blue lights that illuminate the power button and various indicator icons. Plus, plus, the computer doesn’t start up with all the AOL/RealPlayer/Microsoft crap on the desktop that my Dell laptop irritated me with. When I turned on Emey for the first time I saw icons for the Recycle Bin and Adobe Reader, and that was all. Bliss. Lots of software came with the computer, but it was appropriately squirreled away.

Finally, Best Buy has a nice $25 service for we slow-dial-up challenged Internet users. I left Emey with them for an hour and they used their broadband connection to download all the post-Service Pack 1 Windows and security updates that would have taken me forever to obtain on my own. All in all, I found that purchasing a computer at Best Buy was a smooth, satisfying experience, and I’m not just saying that because the sales guy threw in the $10 “Reward Zone” card for free (a good customer relations move on a $1,400 purchase).

But it’s the philosophical life-changing benefits that Emey is going to help me gain that make me the most excited. For I’m going to make this computer a tangible reflection of the Spring Consciousness Cleaning that I am convinced is the key to making sense of this crazy cosmos that we all live in. I’ve got way too many unnecessary thoughts, emotions, memories, imaginations, and what-not stored away in my neurons. The more I simplify my cranium, the better I feel. As a favorite saying goes, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” If it can be discarded, it isn’t real, it isn’t permanent, it isn’t to be counted on for support, either in this life or in the afterlife.

My Dell Inspiron 8200 has suffered from the same disease of complexification. It has crashed/died and been reinstalled/resurrected too many times to be a reliable friend anymore. I have put so many programs, so many documents, so many downloads into Dellie. I haven’t taken hardly any out. It’s time to start fresh. Rather than trying to bring order to a messed-up hard drive, I’m going to begin with a clean Emey slate. Well, as clean as Windows XP and the software that came with the M6809 permit.

Then I’m going to bring into Emey only what I really need. What is truly important. What I can’t do without.

I think I’m going to be surprised by how spare this will be, compared to what I have in my Dell computer now. The same applies to my own internal hard drive, those 100 billion or so neurons inside my head that know way too much about what isn’t important, and know way too little about what is: the simple truth of what lies at the heart of reality, which logically must be the same for both the little bit of the cosmos that is me (and you) and the whole of which I am a part (assuming that the essence of ultimate reality is one, not many).

We’re off on an adventure, Emey and me. It feels good to be heading off with my new best (non-human) friend. I’ve got 69.1 GB free on Emey. I hope this inspires me to get my own consciousness equally clear.