Franken-Laptop was born on a particularly challenging day for me because I was up against a deadline. I was not only burning the midnight oil, but I was putting some major wear and tear on the machine. This is how it all happened.
I was writing and burning through the keys like I always do. Sometimes, I notice myself hitting the keys a little hard. They make a thud as I’m writing a hundred miles an hour. I can’t help it, though, because keyboard discipline is not my strong suit. I know where all the keys are, and that’s the only thing that matters to me. How I treat them is not going through my mind while I’m writing a book or an article.
I first noticed the “s” key getting difficult. It wouldn’t work sometimes. I’d have to go back and hit it again as I was typing. Then, that would go away, and I’d be thankful. But it would start again. Then, the “w” started getting difficult. The “2” followed.
But at least, they were still working. I just had to have patience and hit them a few additional times. It was when they stopped working altogether that I became frustrated. The computer was still good. It was only the keyboard. I’m not the kind of guy to throw something out or buy something new if I can still use it.
The fix was getting a wireless keyboard and mouse. That way, I didn’t have to start over with a new computer. Actually, I love doing that. But only when mine goes down and I need a new one. I didn’t need a new one. All I needed was a working keyboard with a mouse to go with it.
When I plugged them in, I brought Franken-Laptop to life. That was the beginning stages, though, because my station had grown twice its size. What I used to have was just a laptop on my lap. What I had now was a laptop so that I could see the screen, and an additional keyboard with an additional mouse, taking up twice as much space.
That’s when it dawned on me that this new technology these geniuses brought into the world will cast what’s on my laptop up onto my Roku TV screen, a 65″ by the way. I immediately got excited about the idea. I pushed Windows+K and boom, I was in business. I chose the 65″ and my whole world was up on the TV screen in front of me. I admired my work for a moment. But that was just the beginning of Franken-Laptop.
I put the laptop in the corner. The keyboard and the mouse were all I needed to get my work done. The huge screen in front of me was how I could watch it getting done. But as I worked, thoughts started spawning in my head.
What if I ripped the laptop apart and started adding body parts? I could get a new processor and increase speed. I could add a hard drive to the one I already have and seamlessly increase storage space. It would never be able to walk again. But it would be buff as hell.
One trip to Best Buy and I was like a kid in a toy store. I wanted everything, but I knew my capabilities and my limits. I wasn’t there to buy a brand-new computer. I was there to bring my old one back to life. I had to keep reminding myself of that.
The only thing that was a letdown since I set out on this journey was that I couldn’t upgrade the CPU. Mine’s soldered, and every resource online I could find about it literally screamed at me that it couldn’t be done. I couldn’t find one source on my side on that. Even when I learned about an external GPU upgrade. I don’t have a Thunderbolt USB, so no joy there either.
What I could do, though, made all the difference. I maxed out the RAM by adding a stick to the empty slot. Then, I added more storage by popping in a 2.5” SSD alongside my existing NVMe drive. The final thing I did was put some thermal paste on the CPU, which bumped up the performance and brought my temps back down.
Franken-Laptop was buzzing like new. FL reminded me that better things sometimes come out of broken ones. So if I were to add a moral to this story, which I’m not because I’m not that kind of guy, this story goes along with a shirt I made one time.
I was evacuated out of Florida a few years ago because a huge storm was coming through. They closed I-95 South to inbound traffic, allowing us to use the North and the South side of the highway to get out of the state. I was with my friends, and we pulled into the hotel in Tennessee around 3 am.
It was a tough time for me because I wasn’t financially prepared for a two-week stay out of town. But I worked while staying in the hotel and made my money as I went. I stayed afloat, and it wasn’t long before the ads for FEMA started hitting emails, Facebook feeds, and the radio while we were traveling from Tennessee to Georgia, when the storm started to make its way toward us there.
I applied one day and received the money the next. They weren’t playing around. In all of this, a thought occurred to me on a particular stop at a Big Lots while passing through a small town along the way, “Bad times are just an illusion for the good times to show their face.”
Turning my laptop into FL is a bit different than trying to survive on the road after being evacuated from your home. But the same lesson, the same message. When bad things happen, it’s not the end of the world. Keep your head on straight. Learn about all the options and think them through. Don’t make any decisions while you’re frustrated. Wait until you’ve had a chance to digest the situation. Sometimes, better things come out of broken ones.
If you thought this message was relatable or helpful in any way, you might also like In the Walk, my latest novel that talks theology without beating readers over the head with weighed-down beliefs.
