SO! My trusty old Lifebook T4220 has been on the fritz beyond my ability to consistently fix for a little while now. The screen will blink out randomly while drawing, it will stop taking commands from the pen until I restart SketchBook and it's just not a good long-term situation for something I use semi-regularly.

The final blow was the spare battery finally gave up and became incredibly hot and puffy - effectively a Lithium-Ion grenade - so that kinda' killed my desire to work on it for a bit. After looking into replacements, I realized it was finally old enough that getting something new/newer would be cheaper than a new main or spare battery.

I had three things I needed out of a replacement machine:

1) Similar functions (Can I draw on it?)

2) Permanent keyboard/pen storage (Can I easily cart it with me?)

3) Must be upgradeable (Can I improve it?)

Those last two pretty much killed any hope of anything super new... not that I could afford those prices but it's the thought that counts. No, my only hope was used and pre-"Everything Follows Apple" mentality. I looked around for a few months for something that'd fit and only recently found one.

For $89, I got a yet another Lifebook. This one has relatively up-to-date parts and it checks off all my boxes. It's currently rocking 8gigs of RAM, a decent 250gb SSD and a surprise spare battery that wasn't listed.

It even came with a copy of Windows 11 Pro... which I tried, instantly hated and quickly downgraded back to Win10 Pro... But Still! It actually came with both batteries and a functional hard drive! Most similar listings barely had a battery, never mind any of the hard drive stuff. Most were physically busted and missing parts. To say this was a lucky find is an understatement.

This is how I've been spending the past few nights: Mostly offline and getting my new-ish machine up and running. It's hard to write regretful things online that'd get me banned from various social media sites while trying to remember where I put most of my old art programs. = )

Now I'm off to work on the next story bit. I think I'm going to continue the whole Skip Week thing between story bits for a while longer. It let's me at least attempt to get one or two finished strips in the bag before things start up proper.

Remember: Stay Safe. Wear a Mask. Get vaccinated if you can. Get a booster if you're already good on all that.

And remember... This isn't the end. They want us mad and tired and not thinking right.

Stop.

Breathe.

It's cool to take minute from the madness. Center yourself and continue from there. Trust.