The little Macbook that could.

I'm a big believer in sticking with what you got. And so as my laptop slowly stopped being top of the line, loosing its flashy, super fast, mega giga something another status, I made an effort to repair her every step of the way. (Yes, she's female). Technically there wasn't actually anything wrong with her that couldn't easily and effortlessly be fixed. She lasted countless university papers, jobs with three different companies, life in four different countries and two pretty bad viruses.

When she got super slow, I added in some extra ram to help her keep up with Twitter, Facebook, foursquare and other real time web apps. The ram was free from my very generous friend who has acquired a wide range of computer parts. I even installed it myself. Only this youtube tutorial and a penny were needed.

The trackpad stopped working circa 2009 but a Bluetooth mouse sorted her out just fine. ($25 - purchased in Canada, what a bargain).

After my cat chewed through my charger, I replaced it with a second hand one bought off eBay. (£20)

Even when the fan became so loud it sounded like my computer was taking flight, I always  disguised the sound through playing music. Spotify really helped with that.

Despite the battery not holding charge, I always managed to find myself in locations where I could plug her in (although constantly needing energy means not so good for the environment).

The year after I bought her, there was a recall for all macbooks due to a manufacturers fault. The indent on the top of the computer meant that part of the keyboard effectively fell off. I ignored it for a while but soon got worried that random things may fall in. So I used Sugru (5 grams of DIY genius) to patch up the holes. No big deal. And it looks pretty. Ish.

We've had a great 5 years and 7 months together. And although she still can manage surfing the net and producing word documents, she'll spend her remaining days being taken a part for parts (like the DVD drive) and then recycled. Even though some things - especially some electronics out there aren't made to last, you can quite easily prolong their life. Let my Macbook be a testament to that. And this seven and a half year-old phone.

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