My New Work Laptop

I have been at my current company for 2 months now and that has given me plenty of time to run my new work-provided laptop through its paces. It is a Dell Latitude 5320 and nothing special. It has an Intel i5 processor with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB hard drive. A simple description would be that it works for my daily activities as the director of software engineering.

Earlier in my career I did a lot of software development and this machine would not be nearly powerful enough. Now I do a lot of management tasks and that doesn't require a powerful machine. Truth be told, I could probably get by with a powerful Chromebook but I do like having a full-functioning computer. I do a lot of Microsoft Teams meetings and I use the camera a lot. I also use the computer for e-mail and I like having a full Microsoft Outlook client on my machine. That gives me the option to compose responses to e-mail while I am not connected to the Internet even though I have never had the need to do so.

That last sentence is very common when we think about what we want in a computer. While we may never use a feature, we want that option. Unfortunately it leads to wanting a machine that is more expensive than what we really need. Understanding that and being able to recognize it can ultimately save some serious money.

Another shift that has happened in the last few years is the idea of creating a document and storing it on your own computer. Now I am more apt to store a document on Google Drive or Microsoft's OneDrive as it is significantly easier to share. A document can be either a spreadsheet, word processing document, or presentation file. As they are stored somewhere other than my local machine, I don't need a large hard drive. If I did, I could always add an external drive and I have several laying around my office.

Honestly I never would have thought such a low-end laptop would work for me but I have to admit that it is. Should I need something a little more powerful, I can always go to our IT department and request it. For now that isn't necessary.

An Update on my Online Investments

The past few weeks have been unkind to the stock market in general. I have slowly watched my unrealized profits shrink and shrink. A week or so ago, the number actually went negative. That means putting the money in a low-interest savings account would have made more financial sense. Fortunately I know that my investments are solid and it is just a matter of time before that number goes positive again. The trick is not needing any of that money immediately to pay bills. That is why they recommend not investing any money you will need in the next two years.

I generally check my stock balances daily and so I cannot say the drop was unexpected. I watched the numbers fall over time and the optimist in me hoped the market would recover. I still believe that and so I won't be liquidating my investments quite yet. Had I been a bit more pessimistic, I could have put in stop-loss orders and I would be way ahead of where I am now. The only trick is to knowing when the market hits complete rock bottom and when to jump back in.

It should come as no surprise that the stock market is in the toilet. We are still fighting various strains of COVID-19. There is a war between Russia and Ukraine that should never been allowed to happen. This created drastic increases in gas prices. Then the government also handed out tons of money and is now wondering what caused such drastic inflation numbers. Fortunately some of these issues will eventually be resolved and the stock market will begin a steady upward rise. It always does, even after the great depression. The trick is to not panic. Sometimes that is easier said than done.

Quarantined Again

Friday morning I got up and sat down for my usual breakfast of flavored cardboard also known as Oatmeal. I took a bite and couldn't taste anything. This concerned me and so I tried tasting a number of different foods only to have the same result. The last thing I tried was a stick of wintergreen gum. It tasted like gum that had already been chewed for several hours and had no taste whatsoever.

My new office has had a number of cases of COVID and I figured I picked it up there. So as to not spread it any further, I let people at my office know I was going to stay home instead of joining everyone for a team activity. I then proceeded to adjust my weekend plans to avoid all contact with everyone. That sort of upset me as I wanted to go rock climbing. It is not safe to rock climb alone as you need someone to belay you and so I stayed home.

Fortunately my sense of taste returned later on Friday but I still felt that I needed to follow the CDC guidelines and quarantine myself for the next 7 days. I did take a COVID test only to have it come back negative. I would rather be safe than sorry, especially since the tests are not 100% accurate.

Fortunately we have learned a lot over the past 2 years. My weekend would have been amazingly boring without the technology that allowed me to connect with my family. I spent a lot of time having video calls with my kids and their families. I also met with friends using Zoom and that took a bit of the sting out of being alone. 

I still have 5 days to go and fortunately it is raining outside so I have an excuse to exercise indoors. I also can save gas by working from home and not going to the office 18 miles away. I actually don't feel sick and so I understand why people don't feel the need to quarantine even though they should. I just wish others would have quarantined. If they had, I wouldn't have to do it now.