A whole new world

It's probably a little dramatic to say that getting a new computer has changed my life, but it's pretty close to the truth.

I don't think I'd entirely realised that not only was the old one downright annoying, having got to the point where it usually crashed every 15 minutes or so. It was actually holding me back from doing things. The real moment of realisation was a few weeks ago when I tried to do a job application, and it was a bit of a nightmare. I did most of the work on paper and updated the electronic version in little quarter-hour chunks. It was no longer a question of not being to able to surf the net for frivolous entertainment, my ability to undertake serious work was impaired.

Having said that, the new machine's usage so far has largely consisted of playing a couple of hours of continuous music at a time (anything under 79 minutes deserves a CD player) and re-entering the world of computer games. The fact that this computer can do both of those things pretty effortlessly is a source of great joy.

As far as the gaming is concerned, I've been sucked hook line and sinker back into the Myst series of games. My previous machine couldn't really cope very well with the last couple of titles, but now I'm happily working through the series finale... and, um, finding it very easy to switch over to the internet for a quick look at hints when I get too frustrated. *Embarrassed shuffle*

But even more significantly, I've been sucked into the online game that stemmed from the series. In one sense not much of a 'game' - like all the others, it involves a lot of walking around going 'ooh' and 'ah' at pretty landscapes. But it's populated by other people, who you can get to know, can go to the pub with, can invite home.

I've hardly had any encounters with online gaming before, but my goodness what a difference it makes to have a machine that's actually equipped for the job.