So I’ve desperately wanted an Asus for a while (because my monster Toshiba weighs as much as my car—honest), with my desire reaching a fevered pitch when Dear Author posted about Best Buy dropping its price to $280. Poor Angie, Jaci and Mandy have suffered through my trying to wrap my head around the sixteen gazillion models of it (one instance Mel should actually be glad she has to leave for her day job). My intention—not hook the Asus up to the internet, therefore having a work-dedicated, wicked uber-portable laptop.
Today I was at Staples and played around with the wee lil Acer for a while. While I don’t want the Acer, it’s about the same size, so it was nice to have some hands on. Wow, is that keyboard smaller than I thought.
Then, the convo with the husband:
Me: Wow, is that keyboard smaller than I thought.
Him: You knew it was.
Me: Well, I type on the keyboard for my Palm, but it’s not stable enough to use on my lap, so small shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Him: You never use that folding keyboard more than fifteen minutes at camp before you’ve got a notebook and a pen in your lap.
Me: Well, yeah, but…I want a wee baby laptop.
Him: And when you’ve got a bunch of handwritten pages to type in, what do you do?
Me: Bribe the kids into using my laptop so I can use the desktop.
Him: Because when you have to type a lot you don’t even like your laptop keyboard, which is full-size because I made sure before I bought it for you for Christmas. I even asked the Best Buy guy about it. You want the desktop keyboard which is full-sized and better spaced which you’ve explained to me until I want to throw myself in front of a bus because I don’t give a shit about keyboard spacing.
Me: Well, yeah, but…I want a wee baby laptop.
Him: So it can keep that Alphasmart thing company while they collect dust?
I hate when he’s right. I guess I’m going to keep plugging away on this monstrous YET DEPENDABLE SO-FAR BULLETPROOF (knock on wood) LAPTOP I LOVE until it’s time to trade it in (NOT ANYTIME SOON, RIGHT, LAPTOP I LOVE MORE THAN LIFE?) and then I’ll look at the midsize units, like the HP dv4 1120 (WHICH IS NOT ANYWHERE NEAR AS BIG AND BRAWNY AS MY AWESOME TOSHIBA WHICH I LOVE SO MUCH).
I might dust off the Alphasmart, too, since you don’t get much more rugged, portable and work-dedicated than that. I just wish the :censor: keys weren’t so stiff. Maybe if I use it, they’ll loosen up. Either that or I’ll learn to hunt and peck the keyboard as fast as I type.
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The Asus isn’t available up here yet (in stores) so I went with the Acer. I love it! So I’m curious as to why you’ve ruled the Acer out.
The typing I’ve gotten used to by partly resorting to the hunt n peck method.
On another note, I didn’t want to hook up the internet either, but there’s no disc drive on the Acer, so the only way to activate/download WORD (Acer only came with a 60 day trial) is to do it online.
That’s the only time I used the internet on the Acer, though. I’ve trained myself to pretend it’s not accessible.
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I have a lovely, mint green, ASUS eeePC and love it! But then, I don’t have to actually write stories in it
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I only know of this ASUS from reading about it on Angie’s site.
Your DH is such a man. Which is good. Seeing how he, you know, IS a man. And all. But really. He’s got man logic. Which is good. In the end. But in the beginning. Man. What an excitement killer.
My DH would have just said, ‘No’. That would have pissed me off. I’d have bought it. When I was unhappy with it, he’d explain the ‘no’. It would have made sense and I’d be pissed off all over again.
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But…but…I want a wee baby laptop!
He’s definitely a man. And it definitely pisses me off.
And I didn’t know they came in mint green.
The Asus isn’t available up here yet (in stores) so I went with the Acer. I love it! So I’m curious as to why you’ve ruled the Acer out.
I’ve been warned against it. It’s probably one of those thing like some people won’t touch a Dell, some hate Compaq, etc. Actually I haven’t heard about the wee baby version, but I’ve been warned against Acer laptops in general. Although, I think Alison uses one, too, doesn’t she? The non-wee baby version?
And, after the laptop discussion with the Staples guy (and, OMG, he was friendly AND wicked knowledgeable AND willing to help—-I thought people like that were extinct!) during which we talked about my usage, I mentioned the wee baby Acer and he said no.
Actually, it’s funny. He actually put his hand on his hip, wagged his finger and said “Oh no you don’t, honey”. (He’d been telling me about his husband and his children, so yes, he was gay. He also told me about a picture of him being flogged by a woman in a Catwoman costume, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. People just tell me shit like that all the time. The woman who works at the gas station—her husband got drunk and pissed in the litterbox a couple of weeks ago and he can’t understand why that’s different from the cats doing it. I have a funky “tell me your personal stuff” vibe in real life, I guess.)
I actually went through the trouble of filling out a customer satisfaction thingy so I could let them know he was Teh Most Wicked Awesome Staples Guy Ever.
Oh crap, my train of thought derailed…
Oh. My probably permanent lack of Asus—much to my ample aggravation, the husband is right about the fact that when there’s serious typing to be done, I don’t even like my monster laptop, but prefer the desktop keyboard instead. That being regretfully true, it’s somewhat ridiculous of me to think I could have a minikeyboard for my primary working computer.
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I loaughed so hard when I read this, because I had a similar conversation with my dh the other day (without the desktop portion). I told him I needed something I could write with while I’m on set with the kids. My laptop is 17″ and too big. He said “Why not that Alpha thing you were all excited about?”, but I mentioned that the display disappears after so many words (it’s really weird, but I got it off eBay so what are you gonna do). I also don’t really like typing on it for some reason. Then he said “What about that little palm – that’d be easy to take” – um, yeah, no because I’ve packed it up to sell it on ebay and it doesn’t inspire me (really, what does these days? :bang: )
So, I ended up hand writing, which made me think I’d written a lot, when in reality it ws not much. Must go look at the cute little Asus, now. The problem is I always see an “N” with that first “s” when I see that word! Must be a Freudian slip! LOL :eyebrow:
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You guys should take a look at this and this post over at Dear Author.
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Heck, Shan, sounds like you’d do well to get the Alphasmart Neo instead. I use it TONS more than I used the old Alphie 3000. It has a bigger screen and a really nice soft-touch keyboard. It’s a lot less than it was when I got it last year, too! Then you can sell your Alphasmart on eBay for about half the money of the new one.
It’s not a wee baby laptop, though.
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I’ve been warned against it. It’s probably one of those thing like some people won’t touch a Dell, some hate Compaq, etc.
‘K. gotcha. I had a Dell desktop and had no problem with it, And my regular lap top is an Acer, I’ve had it for 5 yrs, and haven’t had any problems with it. But I’m by no means techno savvy, so there could be a bunch of stuff lacking with the Acer that I don’t even realize.
And while we’re talking goodies, Dee was telling me about her FLY on the weekend, (it records your writing in the notebook that you upload it as typed text later. Think she said it was $70.) I’m tempted….
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I’ve seen the FLY and always wondered how it works. The further I get into a scene the worse my handwriting gets, so…I dunno.
And I’m really reluctant to try another Alphasmart product sight-unseen. The keys on mine are not just stiff, they’re ridiculously stiff—as if they didn’t even do a cursory test with somebody who can type. I might see what they’re going for on eBay, though.
And, Azteclady, that second link is the one that started this whole journey! I’m still fighting the want.