New Computer

I have a c-c-confession to make. It isn't that I do cocaine, like the creepy clown in Metalocalypse. Nope, I killed my computer about a month ago. It was a super noob mistake. At first I thought it might have been porn, which almost would have been ok. I mean, everyone has bad porn experiences on the Internet, right? If that had been the cause of my technological downfall, I like to believe I would have been forgiven because:

1. I am a girl who was looking at porn.
2. Porn kills computers.

I don't get that excuse. Instead, it was Invader Zim who caused my downfall.

I love Invader Zim. It was a cartoon on Nickelodeon that was on at a time when I didn't enjoy cartoons and I was deprived of its awesomeness until a couple of years ago. We had all of the episodes on my husbands old computer, but he wants to run it on Linux and it is currently unavailable. So about a month ago I saw him watching Zim on his computer.

Me: "Sweet, where are you watching Invader Zim?"

Him: "TV Links."

A week later I was bored and I too wished to watch. But instead of calling him and asking him where, I remembered the conversation ending with "tvlinks.com." So I went to tvlinks.com, which might be the portal to techno-hell. It had Invader Zim, I clicked on it, the opening song played...and my computer freaked the fuck out. A few weeks and an EPIC battle later, worms claimed my computer and I am now at the mercy of Zack, the husband, to let me use his.

So here is the real issue: I need a computer. I am still in school and take all of my classes online. With school approaching, I can't not have my own computer. Now, I know it would be cheaper to build my own. I've been learning all about hard drives and memory and processors and what-not. I think I could build a better computer than the one I had for about $500 cheaper. As a girl on a tight budget, cheaper is clearly the better option. However, desktops are so big and bulky and, most importantly, they don't look like this:

























I'm sorry the image is large but its so pretty. I could spend the extra money to make sure my beautiful laptop of perfection was not obsolete in two years (heh, it probably will be anyway). And it would be so pretty. It would be pretty on my desk. In my bed when I want to kick back and play DemiGod. In the coffee shop where, with my hipster glasses, everyone looks at me and thinks I'm a tool...but a smart tool. With a pretty laptop. To sum up: I want I want I want.

Do I do the right thing and build my own box? I get geek street cred and it is a much better investment. It would be easier to upgrade in five years when Diablo 3 comes out. However...just look at that picture!!

How does a girl decide?