"What? Youre always up at 5am anyway.."

The call was from the 718 area code, and it was at 5am Pacific. I pointedly reminded him of this.

At the rate LilBro calls (never), Id forgotten I'd even given him the cell number.

He called to help him navigate the final purchase of a laptop off NY's Craiglist.

"How do I know it'll be a good laptop?"
"Just use it. Look for spots on the screen stuck on one color, less than two - youre doing good. Use the battery, if it dies after 20 minutes, the battery is bad.Listen to it, if it does anything more than hum silently or the fan sounds weird, walk away. If you dont feel good about it at ALL, walk away."

I had helped him pick a laptop from the Craiglist. He told me what he wanted, I found him a bandits deal. (PIII 750, 15-inch screen, DVD, 20 gig drive, 256 megs RAM @ > 600 bux. I watch out for my fam.)
Now he was nervous going to check out and pick up the machine..

*ring*
"What if it goes bad after I bring it home."
"Negotiate a return time. If it goes bad within a week.."

*ring*
"Should I give him a check or money order?"
"Check."


I was cooking eggs when he called after the meeting.

"Yo son, its kinda heavy. Are they all supposed to be 6 or 7 lbs?"
"That one is mostly for people needing one machine to do everything. You wanted top of the line with all the optional extras."
"Yeah.."
"And?"
"When he opened the laptop and turned it on.. I did everything except HUG the man!"
"Its nice, eh? :-)"
"GOD, it doesnt even have a SCRATCH on it! AND he gave me a sweet laptop bag and extra batteries."
"Yep, you made out like a bandit."
"Hee. Thanks big brother."
"No problem, papi."

Thats what big brothers are for.

Now if he'd call more than once a year...
----
Speaking of shopping on Craigslist.. I was laffing at two computer classifieds

#1

Old computers, monitors, subwoofer, and whatnots. - $1
- SparcStation 1&2, SparcClassic (actually, a box full of Classic and IPX parts, including a spare motherboard and several external enclosures)
- 2 14" PC VGA monitors, decent cosmetic and ok functional condition
- Mac Quadra 600 *with* Mac OS8 media.
- phat Labtec powered subwoofer and two satellite speakers, perfect for blasting mp3 from your PC.

Any of these beautiful pieces of classic beige computing is yours for a bottle of beer, or $1 if you have issues supporting my habit

And #2

BUY MY FAB LAPTOP AND I GUARANTEE YOU'LL GET LAID EVERY WEEKEND NEXT YEAR (thrice during Gay Pride week) - $1500

I bought this laptop as a gift that I unfortunately could not give! It is new in the box and has a DVD drive and CD Burner included, also.

Free Box of 156 Trojans included.

Heehee.