I was having a bad depression cycle yesterday. This may be helped starting this afternoon courtesy of my shrink giving me a med to supplement the Wellbutrin.

He thought the Cymbalta was being a sugar pill based on some study or other that claimed the test results were wrong. Placebo or actual, my emotions are in a merry mess.

As for my access to SL, it's still hobbled. The main DJ computer can run SL beautifully, but it is needed for other things and I hate being shut in the broadcast booth for hours.

(Said booth is a storage closet in the apartment that has moving blankets and rubber floor mats installed to deaden the acoustics. Nice bonus when we dove down here to Bako.)

HOWEVER. One of my RL friends pointed me at a cheap laptop. I thought about it. I am on a student budget and one of penury at that, but I could float it if I knew more was coming to balance the outgo.

One of my SL loves (some of you know him, it's Andros Baphomet) told me he'd chip in half. And I hear whispers of a fundraiser.

If anyone here wants to aid in the re-balancing of my budget on this, the PayPal info is bdaverin at aol dot com.

I also want to thank those of you who have been supportive through this. Truly. I'm always amazed.

Do you really need a laptop? A second-hand desktop should be enough to log onto SL (and do other tasks, too), and probably still cheaper.

Actually, the laptop's cheaper. And yes, I do need a laptop aside from this for several reasons, like school and how decrepit the Macbook I'm using right now is.

We're talking $250 (roughly) for the lappy. A desktop box plus monitor of similar power isn't going to get much cheaper unless I wait a month for the folks who plan to build me one.

I also am most comfortable doing SL from my recliner in the living room. The desktop plans will make the furniture arrangements amusing but feasible (I foresee a wireless keyboard as a future outlay).

And that last is in September, once the financial aid kicks in to a better level than bare subsistence.

This Macbook, bless its stalwart heart, was built in 2007.

I'd also been nursemaiding the old SL laptop as it stood. Fan death is the diagnosis there, and that's the second fan it's eaten in four months.

Looks like you considered all options, then! Good luck with it!

StereoNacht: Thank you!