Zion, my main work computer is close to being decommissioned. It has served me well through a number of years and still works well enough for me to use to write this. The only problem with it is that the motherboard used a mobile chip and it is soldered down. This system drags for reasons that I cannot fathom. Every system that has been built using this motherboard has the same problem.

My replacement system is almost ready. I could actually be using it now. The chip is only a tad faster and, if I win the auction on E-bay, it will have twice the memory of this system at 1 gigabyte. That board can take up to 2 gigabytes which would cost me $140.00 that I do not have to spend on a system that is not covering its own costs. Some of the jumpers got lost and I will need to find those to use the new memory.

The old Zion system will only be retiring. I’m planning to move two Linux drives into Zion when I move my data drives out of that case. This will leave me enough parts to upgrade my father’s system to the minimum specifications for the new Microsoft Flight Simulator. Then, in the event that I can make a living in computers, I’ll upgrade Zion and bring it back into service within the next two years.

Why am I babbling about this? Because I am going to miss Zion. It leads me from 3 paragraphs of babbling into the idea of coveting the things that we already own. I remember reading that anything which you cannot give up owns you. How much of the world around us owns us these days?

It used to be that people owned only what they needed. We could live on substantially less than we have today. Indoor plumbing was a good idea and lights help out a great deal. How much of the world owns us? Can we give up the video games and late night, 200 channel, television?

Every so many years, I go on a mission trip with the church that I recently joined. On those trips I take very little. It is a good time for stand up philosophy because I am so far away from my world in the hours that I am not working. You do not think that you would be able to leave your current life behind until you look back and see that you have done exactly that.

Your mileage may vary. I make what living I do make while working online. It is good work when you can get it. Any possession that you are unable to give away owns you. How much of the world owns you?

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Mulligan Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.