Zombie Laptop

Recently, as in yesterday, I became fed up with my lack of Open Canvas, and decided that my shiny gravity defying Mac can damn well be friends with my old PC, V.  

V stands for VAIO. In its glory days it was never really glorious; see, it was a display model before it was mine. Its touch pad was literally brown with other peoples' finger-smears, its monitor had suffered a minor burn along it's bottom edge --- it had been relatively manhandled. I did not care. My family surprised me with V for me after I thought I'd lost a long battle over whether or not I needed a personal computer for the then brave new world of apartment living in the faraway land of college. I was so thrilled. It was basically my equivalent of "surprise, here's a puppy!!," and I am happy to report that V went on to survive all of the Avalon books, a few years of school, and all of the abuse I could throw at it for several years until it got to be too ... uh... delicate for work. Yes. Delicate is the word I will use!

I got my first real workhorse about a year ago, my first Mac. It was an intoxicating experience. If V could (once) fly into orbit, this one could orbit the solar system. I love everything about my still-shiny but sadly nameless baby, except that it, being a Mac, does not run Open Canvas. I considered it an opportunity to learn new ways of arting in the realm of Photoshop. Meanwhile, V would enjoy a happy, well-earned retirement as my Touhou computer. (Touhou is another thing my Mac will not speak to.)

Many moons later, I am still learning that Photoshop is not Open Canvas. I love Photoshop, don't get me wrong. But I loooove Open Canvas. Together, they form a good team, a sound team. So, *deep breath*, I dug out V.

V whirred, gagged, and sputtered into life. Oh lord. I had forgotten how burnt the monitor had become. In its confusion at its sudden reanimation, it popped out its CD tray and tried to scan itself. Getting it to stop took about 15 minutes. After two rounds of shut downs, it sort of scurried into some assemblance of work-ready, and awaited my command. I plugged in my tablet and opened Photoshop for a start. This took roughly 8 years, so I sat back and grew a beard while I waited. I could hear my Mac laughing in the corner.

V was determined to show it still "had it", though, and it did eventually open Photoshop 7. And Open Canvas! At the same time, just like old times! And hey, after a while, it even ran them without making my tablet stutter! I thought well, this could work. The Mac can shove the mega-ton memory-eater Photoshop around, and V can do the tinkering in Open Canvas. Perhaps this was committing some kind of technological taboo, but what the hell! It could work, and it would work.

And then V started to smell. Bad.

My laptop smelled! I thought oh, it's full of dust! It did sort of smell like concentrated dust, and fire. I've dusted it, and it still smells, so I think it needs to be dusted more. However, logic has slowly dissolved in a corrosive slime of cold, hard, terrifying reality: V has become a zombie.

I shouldn't be surprised. My laptop had been called back from the grave. In fact, I don't know why I didn't recognize the signs before! Sluggish, jerky behavior; discoloration; smell; yes! It all makes sense. My computer is the undead. I am especially sensitive to zombies, but seeings how this is an Open Canvas zombie, I have decided we can be friends so long as it doesn't try to eat my Mac.

In other news, I'm thinking of picking up watercolor again.