Routine

So, now that I have my computer back, I'm getting back into my routines. Here's my basic weekend morning routine:

Sleep in

Get up, use bathroom, get dressed, wash face, brush hair and teeth, slap on some make-up if I'm going to wear it

Make coffee

Turn on computer

Drink coffee, read email, surf the internets, read blogs, note anything interesting

Write post for my own blog

For the last several weeks, I've been only able to access the internet from work, which has done a couple of things for me. I've realized just how frickin' slow my home computer is, and I've realized how much time I put into surfing and blogging from home. Take this morning for example.

I usually cruise through my iGoogle pages each day, reading the latest headlines on some of my favorite blogs and news outlets, loading and reading any posts that sound interesting. Then I cruise over to Digg and take a look at what's new there.

I do this nearly everyday. When I do this from work, it takes about 30 - 45 minutes. So far, it has taken me nearly 4 hours to do this same routine this morning (now afternoon) from home, and I haven't even hit the Digg pages yet. At this point I don't think I'm going to, either.

Most of the extra time is spent waiting for pages to load, or playing solitaire while I wait for the browser to switch from tab to tab. I'm so looking forward to getting a new machine, but I'm not looking forward to cleaning this one out. I'm thinking about getting an external hard drive so I can start moving documents and photos over now, given how pokey this machine has been, it'll probably take until August to do that anyway. If I wait until I bring my new baby home, I'll probably never do it, because I won't even want to turn this beast on when I have a shiny new toy to play with.

Actually, now that I pause to think about it, I wonder if maybe moving those files to an external drive, especially the photos, wouldn't help speed this machine up a bit by freeing up some memory. I dunno, the computer tells me that I'm using less than 50% of the memory as it is, but whenever I ask it to perform even the simplest function, it maxes out:

That graph shows me opening a browser, and selecting several links to open as new tabs. Damn thing looks like it's having a seizure or something. At some point, the computer usually screams "no more!" and I'm forced to reboot.

So anyhow, I think the external drive is a good idea, whether or not it improves the performance of this machine. Now, let's see if I can find a good one at a good price. I know, exciting stuff.