Odd things which make me happy.

I got a new printer this past week (came yesterday actually). This makes me incredibly happy, how very strange.

When I first starting using a computer (many, many years ago), I had this zeal for the thing. I had to know all the little bells and whistles, all the little ins and outs of the computer and the operating system. The passion was very helpful in advancing my career without question but, like all great passions in life it burned hot for awhile but, couldn’t maintain the bright blaze I felt at its origins.

Now the computer sits on my desk, a squat gobbler of time and while I still enjoy being on the computer, I have come to approach it with a certain amount of trepidation as it has proven at times to be the same kind of idle distraction television can be. When I am writing or working out projects, it’s great to have a tool like the computer there but, if I am using it to avoid getting the things I need to get done to move forward in life, it becomes an enemy.

So, this week I got a new printer and am very happy for it.

It is the first time I have purchased a black and white printer since I got my old Apple Laserwriter IIf. I milk hardware, I use it as long as I possibly can in an effort to try and wring every last bit of usefulness out of it. Long ago, I stopped being seduced by the lure of the latest and the greatest and I managed to keep the Laserwriter going for a long, long time. I got a new board at one point on eBay for a song (so the thing became a IIg), I went out and got additional memory for the thing and installed it myself, I even had an external hard drive attached to the thing for awhile. Somewhere along the line though, the fuser went and even though I managed to pick up another one on eBay, even though I started the job of installing it, I never did finish it and the printer has sat around for quite a bit of time in pieces (the computer equivalent of a car up on blocks in front of a person’s house).

I’ve had other printers. Old equipment clients no longer had a use for, taken home and cannibalized. One huge monster of a printer just sat around for the longest time before it fell and broke. I never hooked the thing up and it just seemed to be too much to get the it fixed (although I did explore the option), another I used happily for awhile before selling it to a client who lacked an 11 X 17 printer.

There are a couple of inkjets around here as well but, I don’t really like inkjets all that much. They’re great for the occasional color piece you have to print and the color is wonderful but, if you’re printing anything long you can grow a beard waiting for the whole thing to print. So, I needed a new laser printer and had been putting off investing in one for three years at least.

Last week I took the plunge and Saturday the thing came and in a hour I had it hooked up, on the network and running. I am soooo happy! Really! I can run envelopes through the thing, and it prints large and I splurged and got the one with a few paper trays so I don’t even have to be involved removing paper. After everything is said and done too the oddest thing about the whole experience is the new printer, a printer that prints 11 x 17, letter and a whole bunch of other sizes - a printer with a good deal of memory (although I am already thinking of getting a couple of more chips and putting them in with a hard drive too) - a real workhorse of an animal turns out to have cost me about $300 less than what I paid for my old Laserwriter which I picked up over a decade ago. Even though it was a much beloved piece of equipment, it had a tenth of the memory, a serial connection and the largest size it could print was legal (8.5 x 14). $300 less, imagine that!

If only they applied the same kind of price logic to the other things in life, I’d be living it up right now! Then again, you’ve got to take these things as they come so, I’ll just go off and enjoy my printer now thank you and count my blessings.