Sharing a computer sucks. I mean obviously this is tagged as a first-world-problem; if I could change a couple of problems in the world, it’d go like this: world hunger, all-get-along, healthcare, and then probably eradicating computer sharing. Like most couples, once the offspring go to bed, the TV turns on and both parents are on the internet for three hours, then go to sleep.
When you’re laid off, you lose the work macbook air. And the macbook pro. It’s sad, but it happens and suddenly you’re sitting at home without a computer of your own. On the 4th day home, I fought with the wife about not having my own computer and contemplated going out and buying my own. Not a great decision. Luckily, I didn’t go through with it. Because, as awful as sharing a computer is, you also need to afford COBRA, life insurance, the mortgage, and other things you took for granted.
You need a schedule to deal with it.
ProTip for dealing: Create a Schedule.
We have a rather rigid schedule for computer time, and it’s the only thing that works. In the morning, my wife has the computer from wake-up till afternoon nap at 1pm. I then get the computer from 1pm to dinner. We alternate nighttime browsing, but can be a little lenient if she has some Tipsy posts to create or if I’m working on a design.
Also: be ready to unsubscribe to plenty of feeds in google reader. I went from being able to properly digest 500 posts in a two day period to maaaaybe being able to fully read 50-100. The rest just stayed unread, which sucks. You can use twitter to find other stuff you really love.
Holiday Tip
Ask your family for Apple gift cards. And — here’s the real tip: consider buying some gift cards with your airline miles. I totally forgot about this and discovered I could buy a $300 apple gift card with 25,000 AMEX miles. I should have a macbook soon after Christmas!
Related Work
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