Give so They Buy

7^th January 2012

Dear Cassi,

   

Do you recall the first time you used a computer? I do. It was one of those Apple IIe units with dual floppy drives and a green monochrome screen. Those units were donated to schools by the Apple corporation in a highly successful attempt to promote their product.

   

I’ve been told that this action caused the only point of domination for Apple computers in the market. Everyone new Apple, so everyone bought Apple. It worked for a spell then the spell wore off and everyone went back to PC and its Windows formatting.

   

The first time I worked on a color unit was when I went into therapy for my learning disorder. I recall the Jones Clinic rather well. They had a lab of “IBM clones” that I worked on as half of my treatment. These devices were next to useless by today’s standards but I recall them being fun.

   

After my mother died my father got me a word processor that worked better than any of those computers. That business lasted until my freshman year in high school when I got a real computer. It had a half gig hard drive and sixteen megabytes of ram. That was the going system for 1994 and I thought the world of it back then. There is no greater change in our world than the computer in the last twenty years. At least most of those are for the better.

Stay safe, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal

Computer Sickness

26^th January 2015

Dear Cassi,

I had the strangest dream today. I dreamed that a video game was taking over my computer. It caused the computer to grow into the floor and leave purple and red patches where it became one with the world.

I turned the thing off, and it laughed at me then I unplugged it and this worked for a time before people with a computer infection came after me. They were not dangerous, even when armed with shovels and picks, and only served to annoy me.

Further, I had the same infection which I could discern from the silver markings on my skin. That was the telltale of computer sickness, silver bulges coming out of your skin. I took an ax handle and struck at these silver bulges in my attackers and so cured them of the sickness before returning to my computer and waking up.

I think all this came as the result of eating pizza before sleeping. Cheese is known to make the dreams lucid and that dream was very lucid. I can’t call it a nightmare, because I wasn’t afraid and it wasn’t night when I dreamed.

Further along, I dropped Pickle off at his group then went to Costco to do my shopping, where I had the pizza, and then picked pickle back up to take him home. He had silver paint on his hands from his art group. On the way home I stopped at the water store and got fresh water as we were running low.

I think part of it was that I just had a very busy day. Well, dreams are how our brain levels itself.

Keep dreaming, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal

Turning On the Old Computer

30^th July 2014

Dear Cassi,

                     

Somewhere in the working of getting my drawing desk back I determined that I needed to setup my old desktop computer to examine research materials when drawing. Until now I’ve had a laptop on that desk but the thing takes so long to turn on and turns itself off so quickly that it just wasn’t worth the work of running the thing.

I had tried. I had turned it on and set it to a number of tasks. One of those was an online game I was using to keep the computer thinking that it was active. This idea failed and the computer shut itself off and when I turned it back on it kind of got confused.

By this I mean that after I turned it back on it was still thinking about what it was doing when it shut off more than half an hour after powering up. The internet was useless. At some point I had to force shutdown the program. I’m not sure what I’ll windup doing with the old laptop but the desktop I’ve set up cost me eight hundred and the laptop only two so getting my money out of the desk top is a bigger thing.

In any case, two years of in operation had left the computer in a sorry state and it didn’t exactly want to turn back on.  First it gave me a long beep and never connected to the screen. I had to look this up on another computer and found that it was the ram failing to connect to the motherboard.

After that the computer got its legs under it the thing sat there being old and slowly getting it mind back. Two years and the computer turned on but just looked at me so I gave it some time.

I came to find it had shut down and rebooted and so I gave it a defrag and compression. I then stuck my flash drive in and set about working on the next comic. It shut itself off, and I couldn’t get it on again.

Now I was the one confused. I couldn’t figure this out. The computer kept telling me it had no operating system. That was until I pulled out the flash drive and it started right up.

Computers are hard,

Richard Leland Neal

Letter to a Soldier Stationed in Iraq

Well, here is a nuts and bolts account of my life back in 2007. Still, it’s not a letter to Cassi, but for the majority of May I’ll be looking up old files and posting them as I find them. As is plain, I do a good amount of editing these things. I have to admit, you’d never guess that the man I wrote this to was an abusive and insensitive husband, and later, nearly as bad of a friend.

21^st of May 2007

Dear (soldier I know),

It’s been a little over a week from the last time I wrote you. There haven’t been any earth-shaking changes over here, but then are there ever? My boss told me that I couldn’t take the refrigerator from my last post to my new post so I set it up in my bedroom by the TV. Mostly I just keep the drinks I take to work in it, but it’s useful in that regard. I plugged the cable box back in and generally rearranged my entertainment center. That basically means that I can dry my boots on the cable box again, but at least I get dry boots out of the deal instead of crap gathering dust.

My computer was overheating every time I played Command & Conquer three, so I put a fan on it blowing air across the front vents. It cleared that up completely. The eventual plan is to have a three fan air system, one across the face, one behind the computer blowing air up and away from the computer, and one blowing air across the monitor’s vents. This should keep the computer room temperature.       

I’m settling into my new post nicely. It sucks and that is never going to change, but I have begun going to the gym after work. The first time I messed myself up reasonably. It felt like someone had put led in my legs for three days afterwords. Then I drank one of those (energy drinks), the orange one, and I felt better in less than an hour. I don’t know what it is they put in those things that gave me those results, but I can tell you I’ll be getting more of them. They come in three flavors and keep me going something fierce, especially on those hard days at the start of my week. We both know going to the gym will never do much for me, but at least I try.

Anyway, (Your wife) told me that you only get one day off every two weeks, and what happened to your laptop has to suck for communication. I never got the whole story on that, fool, so you better tell me about it sometime.

It came to me that if I want to communicate we should do it the old way so I’m printing you out some envelopes and such and sending some stamps. I’m going to print ten envelopes with my address on them all ready for you and send ten more with nothing on them. I’m going to include a sheet of stamps and a copy of my latest one act. Use your head: write me letters on the back of the pages. A standard stamp can accommodate two ounces. I don’t know how many sheets that is, but it’s not bad. Not to mention I’m swimming in envelopes that I bought when the bloetoezzor was still in school.

I think you should spend the majority of your internet time with your wife, she needs you more, and your family so they don’t say your wife stole you from them. I think they felt the same way about me for some time there you know.

I also figured that you would have time to write letters more often than an e-mail, and this way it won’t cost you anything. Let’s face it, old friend, if we need to keep in touch that this is the best way.

The (Family and friends) might want to hear from you so I’ll bring your letters over to them. It will give me and excuse to say hello every now and again.

If you need to show me a larger file or need to back something up I’ll send you a USB drive. I have four of them and can afford to lose one, and I think they are light enough for standard postage.  

Anyway, man, let me know if there is anything I can do for you to make life easier.

Your friend,

Richard Leland Neal