i really love computers, to put it lightly. i have multiple; a desktop, laptop, phone, some parts and bits and bobs scattered across my room, attached to my body, too. i need computers to live. but beyond that, theyre funny! they're silly little creatures. i love to peek inside and poke at them, to plug and unplug, to figure out problems and watch it work. so i'm going to ramble a bit about computers and my experiences with them :3
my first computer was a chromebook, but before that we had a family PC. i didn't do much with it, played bejeweled a lot. it was my dad's computer for work. there was another in the basement that me and my brother would take turns playing wizard101 on.
i didn't really start getting excited about computers until my late teens, spurred on by the building of my pc, big-girl. i built her in the summer because my last laptop charger had died and i was pissed. the build is from many friend's advice and the case is from a patient of my mom's who also likes computers. i've had this computer for many years and she works like a charm. this was definitely when i& started identifying with computers as well... it was nice to feel connected
i considered dual-booting linux on big-girl after my first year at college, where i experimented with linux on my t16 thinkpad, puter. puter has... many miscilaneous hardware issues. and using linux does not make that easier. but i've combed through a variety of distros to find one that works on it; i tried ubuntu, manjaro, mint, and finally settled on fedora! i also played around with window managers like i3, wrote a guide on how to play tf2 on fedora, and built the vast majority of this website & the previous neocities page on it!!! i really should get a new laptop but i just love puter so much... especially the stickers!!! i really fell in love with computers on little puter... <3
moving back to my desktop for the summer is a familiar comfort. she runs on windows, has programs i couldn't dream of running on puter. it's everything i could dream of. but that wonder from tinkering with something you built yourself... ah!!! i miss it!!!! i really get so sad when i see and hear people around me get confused by a computer, like it's an inconquerable beast. im like computers and computers are like me, we make sense! we are interesting, fun to play with. i want everyone to know how to tap into their computer, what a terminal is and how to use it. how to find websites to watch your favotite shows on for free, to pirate cracked software and textbooks, to seed torrents. i want everyone's computer to truly be their own, a digital representation of themself. in a way, they already are. but!!!!! to tap into the layers behind the UI is awesome!!!!!
even so... it's still crazy how much i don't know. i get so upset about not having a shared floor of knowledge with everyone else that i forget the bigger picture. i don't know much about coding (shocking, i know!) i know generally where to put text, how to mess with a template and make it my own, but i could never be bothered to cook something up from scratch. my website breaks on mobile, or looks funky if you're not using the exact same resolution i use. i want to learn more about cybersec and hacking but it's all so much!!! in that way it's charming, too... there's always something more to learn.
i hope this inspires some of you to take another look at the computers in your life, maybe hug or kiss them. spend some time with them and find out how they work. watch their internal processes, how they change. love your computer while you still can!!!!
in other news... i haven't been up to much. i recently got a job, so i won't have the same amount of time to play around on my various puters... which is kinda why i wanted to write a love letter to them. maybe you all can keep them entertained in my absence ^_^
happy summer!!! things are looking up!! go outside!