A few weeks ago I mentioned a dependence I’ve formed on technology. This week, the addiction has come to a head.

The conversation started in response to my three and a half year old laptop, falling apart in nearly every way. The 40 Gig harddrive was full enough that I was having problems with virtual memory and disorganized enough that I hadn’t a prayer of distinguishing the things I needed from the things I could throw away. More evident, the plastic casing was literally cracking and bits -the plastic side, various screws – had been falling off for ages. Matt liked that it looked a little steam-punk, but otherwise it was fairly discouraging. The laptop only cost $400 when I bought it, so I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

Matt saw it’s demise coming for a while, and knowing I need a working laptop to get anything done, got me a new one for Christmas. The new laptop has 250 Gigs, and is split between Vista (which I hate but need if I want to run any Windows games) and Ubuntu. I’ve pulled the data from both my computers onto the Ubuntu workstation and still have plenty of room to spare.

Ironically, of my not-new technology, the replaced beat up laptop is now working best.

My desktop computer, four years old, is having various elderly computer problems. It crashes or works at a snail’s pace constantly and rebooting doesn’t seem to help much anymore. It’s getting pretty frustrating to work with. Soon it may be impossible. It’s nowhere near as bad as the virus filled machine I had previously, but it’s not exactly ideal.

Then there’s my phone. My horrible LG chocolate phone, which has plagued me from the day I bought it. I’ve been planning to get an iphone since the 3g game out, but my Verizon contract wasn’t due to expire until March. I figured I’d stick it out which would provide time to both save up for the phone (which is now $200 cheaper than when I started) and to see if there were any major operating problems with the phone.

So when my chocolate died on Friday, I wasn’t exactly devastated. I’m not sure if “died” is the right word, it still turns on, it just displays a blank white screen. So as a flashlight, it’s not bad, but as a phone, it’s pretty useless.

I took it to the Verizon store but they wouldn’t even look at it, they told me I could pay to have it fixed or I could upgrade (and renew my contract). So instead I asked about terminating my contract early.

And now I have an iphone. Two months early. It’s very pretty and shiney and I already have 5 screens full of apps. I also have a new laptop. When we get home from PA, Matt’s agreed to spend some quality time with my computer and possibly we’ll end up rebuilding it. We can make it better, stronger, faster.

It’s no fun paying for new technology when the old stuff breaks out of the blue, but since this was all pretty predictable we planned ahead. Playing with the new technology, is lots of fun indeed. All in all, I guess I don’t mind this kind of meltdown, though I wish I could get my contacts back. I haven’t known anyone’s phone number since 2002.

*Original image for first image from Flickr user Izzard then altered.