I was reading about Jeff Jarvis’s problems with Dell today and it reminded me of something that everyone should know:

When it comes to computers, you get what you pay for. Some brands cost more than others. There are reasons for this. And I can guarantee you, it’s not because some companies just upped and decided to charge you more money to increase their bottom line.

As the computer market has become more competitive, prices have dropped. This has come at the expense of parts. Brand names once known for their quality (Gateway) sold their brand name for a cheaper box. Others, like Dell, have become customer support nightmares.

There are good brands out there. Macintosh computers cost more, for instance, but you’re getting integrated parts that are less likely to conflict with one another or the operating system. IBM, my personal favorite, costs about 33% more on average, but you’re getting a computer that is much less likely to break down. You’ll also get great customer service with both.

But you have to pay more for it. Most people are unwilling to do that. They look at the sticker price and leave it at that. Then they complain when the tech support person is an Indian or they get no support (I’m not speaking of Jeff Jarvis here, he purchased the warranty plan and he is entitled to it. He’s been wronged).

If I were to give you one piece of advice, it’s this: Decide what you need and then get the best you can meeting that criteria. Don’t try to get as much as you can for as little as you can spend (which, I know, is the hallmark of capitalism). Sacrifice processor speed, get more RAM. Customize your own. Don’t take what they have stocked.

Why not?

Because computer companies have no financial interest in you being a satisfied customer. On the contrary. The dirty little secret of the computer industry is that most people can do what they need to do on a processor built over five years ago. But most people bought a crappy computer that didn’t have enough RAM and was loaded down with software packages they didn’t need. But those were the “deals.”

And people take for granted that you have to keep buying new computers. So in return for shortchanging you on RAM and video memory, they are rewarded with another computer being purchased sooner rather than later. They’re rewarded for cutting corners.

So before you decide to save some money, just remember that you’re not getting what you’re not paying for. If you’re not getting the warranty plan, you’re not getting customer service. If you’re not paying for a quality brand, you’re not getting a quality product.

Remember this next time you see a computer for $400 in the Sunday advertisements. Don’t buy a computer cause it’s cheap. By a computer cause you need one. Then buy the computer you need.

Note, half of this was written yesterday, half today.

Tagged by Barry.

Ten years ago: I’m not sure I existed ten years ago. The person with my name, idenfification, and fingerprints was quite different. I was in between my freshman and sophomore years in college. I was dating Julie rather intently. It was this particular summer than an old flame that dramatically hung me out to dry came back with the intent of reconciling. But at that particular point I’d played a Jedi mind-trick on myself and didn’t think I had ever loved her or could have ever loved her again. I was wrong about that and if I could “undo” a dozen or so things from my life, how I treated her would be one of them. One other big thing a few months less than ten years ago: Pregnancy. Scare.

Five years ago: After being laid off, I was desperately looking for work. I was with Evangeline for the second of three stints, though this was towards the end of it. There was a strong sense of powerlessness in my life and my problems seemed to all feed back on itself. Evangeline was mad because I was unemployed, I was turning down job offers because the scheduling wouldn’t allow for things to get better with Evangeline and was also spending too much money on her. My relationship with my mother was also deteriorating at this point because of my financial problems and my relationship with Evangeline, of which she did not approve. Parental disapproval, of course, put more pressure on my relationship with Evangeline. It was a mess.

One year ago: Unfortunately, almost exactly where I am now. Almost exactly. Ugh. I need a drink.

Yesterday: Worked till 6:30, got home at 7:30, exercised till 8:30, went out to eat and got back at 9:30, went to bed at 10. In the process, spent some time reflecting how many of my days are spent this particular way.

Today: I’m trying to set it up so that both Clancy and I can have our computers on the Internet at the same time without spending an extra $10 a month.

Tomorrow: More of the same, depending on how things go. If they go well, I’ll do some Internet surfing. Since it’s a weekend, I won’t have to go to bed quite so early.

5 snacks I enjoy: I’m trying to get away from snacks, but I’m a sucker for peanut M&Ms, string cheese, turkey-pepparoni, offbrand dry cereal of the Lucky Charms variety, and those Take-5 candy bars.

5 bands that I know the lyrics of most of their songs: Eagles, Frank Black, They Might Be Giants, Son Volt, and Genesis.

5 things I would do with $100,000,000: This may be elaborate, but here we go. I’d figure out how much I needed to live on for the rest of my life. I’d double it in case of emergency and figure out how much I would need to put in the bank to live off the interest. If I have kids I would probably put aside a couple hundred thousand apiece, make sure that my parents retirement is taken care of (as well as Clancy’s, of course). There are some things I’m missing here. But once I get the money put aside for myself, my friends, and my loved ones, I would take the rest (which would almost certainly be a majority) and find some good causes for them. Charity is a funny thing because you don’t want to subsidize habits that keep the poor poor, but you do want to help them get a better life. But there are some charities that I think are undeniably worthy of funding. At the top of that list would be women’s shelters for abused women, alcohol and drug treatment programs for those that want it but cannot afford it, and college scholarship opportunities for gifted students that come from troubled homes. But for the most part, I wouldn’t want to be too wealthy and since I dispise conspicuous wealth, my outlets for it would be limited.

5 locations I’d like to runaway to: Belize, Alaska, eastern Europe, Turkey, and Britain.

5 bad habits I have: My mind gets caught in negative feedback loops, I don’t sit still, I eat all the wrong foods, I smoke, and I drink way too much caffeine.

5 things I like doing: Reading, watching television and film, having intimate discussions (privately) in public places, going to the beach after dark, and watching people.

5 things I would never wear: Sandals, bow tie, nail polish, jewelry (except my prodigal wedding ring), emo glasses, empty beltloops, and a solitary moustache. That’s seven things, but I stole the first two from Barry. Woulda come up with sandals on my own, though.

5 TV shows I like: 24, Boy Meets World, The Shield, Frasier, and Law & Order

5 movies I like: Twelve Monkeys, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Memento, Unbreakable, and Ghost World (I chose those in particular because I own them and I only own ten or so total, I’d wager)

5 famous people I’d like to meet: Comic writer Alan Moore, Ben Folds, M. Night Shyamalan, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton

5 biggest joys at the moment: Clancy, music, writing, reading, television

5 favorite toys: My computers, my exercise bike, my digital camera, my CD/MP3 player, and my wacky and thorough imagination.

5 people to tag: Until I get up a readership, I’ll avoid passing these along.

I hate getting caught off-guard.

I just got off the phone with one of my cousins in Carolina. I haven’t spoken to him in a couple of years at my brother’s wedding. Before that it was actually longer. I had to ask him to repeat his name a couple of times before I recognized who it was.

He was extremely friendly and seemed to be trying to draw me into a friendly conversation. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out what he wanted. He wanted some help with a website. No problem there, I’m going to do some looking in to hosts for him. But unfortunately I feel that I was kind of short with him.

This also happens when one of my brothers calls. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to them, it’s that I haven’t thought about what I want to say. I guess I’m sort of the kind of guy who has to prepare for daily conversation sometimes. I like to have a stock reply to such simple questions as “How have you been?”

“I don’t know, let me get back to you,” doesn’t seem appropriate over the phone. It’s one of the reasons I excel in a chatroom environment. I get a good 90 second delay. I can pretend to be multitasking.

The conversation of alcohol came up at work the other day an I commented, to the disapproval of a few, about how much I appreciate it taking the edge off when I am in a situation with the capacity to be awkward. Say, for instance, a cousin gives me a call and pretends to be really interested in how I’m doing because he wants something. That’s not to say that was the case with my cousin, but one can’t know for sure.

A while back another conversation came up about rhetorical questions. “How are you doing?” while passing in the hall is not asked to elicit an answer. You don’t want to be the one guy who traps someone just trying to be nice into a conversation. So you come up with stock replies. “Great!” when I remember, or “Pretty good” when I forget that “Great” is a better answer. But it took my young self a while to get uncomfortable with half-incomplete conversations. “How are you?” “Good, you?” “Great!” “Good.”… how mundane. But necessary in order to keep things light and upbeat.

You’ve got to do the same with family. Particularly since I’ve moved out here, aunts and uncles and everyone wants to know how things have been for Clancy and I. Your time is limited, so you don’t want to talk too much. God knows that I could bore someone to tears with the intricacies of my work environment or a comparative analysis of gas station prices between towns that I find utterly fascinating. No one cares! In most cases, unless something is seriously wrong, they don’t care how I’m doing. They just want me to know that they care about me. Maybe that I can call them if I need to talk or work through a problem.

And I’d do the same for them, of course. Family works that way. But the truth is that I haven’t spoken to my cousin in almost two years. I’ve seen him once in the last five years or so. I’m not going to go to him if I have a problem because I don’t really even know him. Nor him me. Our respective mothers aren’t particularly close – and neither of us particularly close to our respective mothers – so it’s unlikely we’ll ever need to know each other really well.

It’s not that family doesn’t matter to me. I enjoy time spent with my father’s side and some with my mother’s side as well (particularly since some torn relationships have mended). But when you stop seeing them on a regular basis, it turns in to something else. A few months back I spent some time with Clancy’s family at an annual Easter retreat. They have a certain cohesion that my family lacks. The Trumans meet on a few holidays a year, but other obligations make it an incomplete set. And since I have come out here there is just less opportunity.

It’s the price I guess we pay for autonomy and mobility. My mother moved from one coast to the other to get away from her family, Clancy went a distance to get away from hers. I followed Clancy because getting out was more important to her than staying was to me. But everything comes at a cost, I guess, like stilted conversations on the phone after two years of not having spoken.

Interviewed by Barry.

1) You’ve decided to throw caution to the wind, empty your bank account, and do something you and your wife have never done before. What do you do, and where?

Her answer would probably be quite different from mine. Mine would probably include staying in some interesting (but expensive) places like London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. Hers would involve something with nature, I’d wager.

2) Living around the Mormon community, do you find yourself subconsciously thinking or acting as they do?

Probably the opposite, if anything. Had I been raised here I’m sure it would have had a more benign influence by limiting the social allure of cigarettes and alcohol. But being that I already partake in both and that this puts me on the opposite side of the morality line they draw in the sand, it makes me a feel a kinship with other sinners. Including people I would probably disdain back in Colosse.

My reaction probably isn’t right or appropriate, but there ya go.

3) What is one of the most memorable things about your home town?

If we’re talking about the large city, it’s probably the skyline. Whenever I’d leave town, it was those buildings rather than any green sign to tell me that I’m home. My little suburban neck of the woods would have to be Riverside Drive. Dad and I used to have breakfast at one of the fast food joints on that road every Saturday morning.

4) What was the situation surrounding your first real kiss?

It’s actually a long story, but I’ll give a few short highlights:

• She was drunk. Very drunk.
• The girl I wanted more than anything to be with was upstairs fawning over some other guy, so I was pissed off
• She kissed me four or five times before I finally kissed her back
• She was probably more attractive than the girl upstairs
• I’d later introduce her to the guy that became the worst thing that ever happened to her.
• She never blamed me because I didn’t know. I blame me because I should have.
• It was the most depressing night of my life up to that point.
• Nine months later I would kiss her sister. That time I was drunk.
• My life is rarely as dramatic as the circumstances surrounding this particular incident.

5) Talk about what you love most about your wife…if you’re brave, tell us what you dislike most about her…

There are a tons of things to admire about Clancy. The biggest is that she is always striving and pushing herself to be a better person. I have a history of being surrounded by people who “shoot out the lights then curse the dark” whereas she is always looking at what she can do to improve a situation.

She’s very opinionated. I like that about her most of the time. However, from time to time this can be problematic because I’ve lived my life doing the things and living my life in a way that she considers harmful.

Here are the rules:
If you would like for me to ask you five questions…
1. Leave a comment saying “interview me” if you’d like to be interviewed.
2. I’ll respond by asking you 5 questions here. They’ll be different than those above.
3. Update your blog with your answers to the questions.
4. When you do so, include this same explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same manner.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you’ll ask them five new questions.

No birthday this year.

But in three short years, by my calculation I’ll be seven years old.