"He so immersed himself in those romances that he spent whole days and nights over his books; and thus with little sleeping and much reading his brains dried up to such a degree that he lost the use of his reason" (Don Quixote Book 1, Part 1)
For college, my generous parents forked out $2,590 for a brand new laptop. The year was 2005, and said machine is a Dell Latitude 810, a laptop that was touted to be the ‘latest, greatest technologies in a large desktop-replacement notebook’ (PCmag.com). It was bulky, heavy, and would not go down without a fight. Through 2-20 page essays, all-nighters, and even playing DJ at parties, this laptop served me well for 4 years…and then crashed epically. Luckily, a new motherboard was covered under my 4 year warranty. So with practically a brand new computer, I graduated. As a biology major, almost Spanish minor, I leapt into the real world and managed to get a job with a salary and in my field. What luck, I had money! I couldn’t really ask for anything more in ‘these economic times’, but I went out and bought myself a graduation present. The year was 2009, the machine: A sleek Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802. Ol’ Latitude was left to the wayside, perfectly capable just not as bright, light and pretty.
That’s when I found something very interesting. I stumbled upon a contraption crafted by Datamancer: a steampunk laptop. Fully functional and compellingly beautiful, I was floored. I’d heard about steampunk, mainly through belly dance (of all references), but had no real interest other than admiration. Now I was inspired, and coincidently, had a functioning and pretty much expendable laptop. What luck!
Ok, ok, that’s the flowery back-story. The real part of it is, I have a project. I have no real handy-work background to speak of and no worth-mentioning knowledge of electronics, so how the hell am I going to pull this off? That’s what this log is for, and for viewers at home to follow…follow my kooky adventure. I’ve scoured the internet for references, tutorials, parts, ideas, anything I could sit still on long enough to read before searching for more. After days of thinking about it, I’m ready to officially start. This account of foolishness will, I hope, inspire those of us who may not be the best when it comes to tools I will be keeping account of my progress through pictures, and random ramblings…plus this list at the bottom of each entry. Handy huh?
- Hours: 3 (parts planning, x more dreaming)
- Out: $0
