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Seriously, my had drive's a 6gig Packard Bell dinosaur that's almost always full, shared between three people, one of which (my aunt) thinks she's a computer specialist but really knows jack squat. The other's my younger brother who luckily isn't an ass and has the sanity not to screw with any of my stuff as long as I have the courtesy to do the same.

The monitor has some weird-ass quirk so most of the time everything's got a yellow/green tint to it due to some loose wiring inside but every once in a great while the color turns back to normal for a split second. (Usually while I'm working on the word processor so the stark white blinds me for a few minutes.) This is my second monitor too, the first crapped out on me after we moved, I think the power cord got pinched and it's turn itself on or off at inopportune times for months until I bought the current one I have from my asshole cousin who by the way thinks that entitles her the right to use it and my hard drive when she'd a complete dumbass. She opened an e-mail that had a virus on it after she had been warned about which is why her hard drive is screwed and I was able to buy the monitor off her.

If it weren’t for the zip drive I wouldn't even have the ability to run anything from how much is on the damn thing, a good 2/3 I admit is internet porn and the rest of which is half completed projects I'll probably never get around to finishing. Which reminds me I need more zip disks too...

As for my printer it's an old cannon bubble-jet that I'm lucky if I can even find the cartridges for anymore.

The first thing on my priorities list as soon as I get a job is to save up for something new, most likely a notebook of somesort... When the hell did they decide to stop calling them laptops? Apparently I missed that meeting.

I guess this is the year for all my electronics to be replaced since my PS2 crapped out on my just before New Years and my aunt recently got my brother a new Xbox since the old one only worked about half the time.

And get, this two of the TV's in our house have recessed power buttons on both the remote and the TV itself so we had to but new universal remotes just to turn the damn things on. One of them is a TV/VCR combo that loves to eat tapes so we've got a different VCR hooked up to it (and still some of the idiots I live with put tapes in the old one until I put packing tape over it so they couldn't) and the other has no AV connector ports so we have to use the old coax setup on it. Well it could be worse; they could be the really old TVs that needed screwdrivers and prongs to hook anything up.

All I can suggest is work out a way to buy new ones. Are you working at the moment?

Unfortuneately no, I've had a couple interviews but haven't got any actual offers yet.

man you just live with morons don't you huh? morons and crappy equipment

Three hyperactive dogs, two loudmouth cats, and a partridge in a pear tree. *Snicker.*

I've had to put everything on zip disks and completely reload the hard drive before because my aunt downloaed a bunch of useless programs that couldn't be uninstalled or deleted, twice.

If my brother, who's as big of a smartass as me wasn't my best friend, as sad as that may sound, I probably would have lost my mind years ago.

Get one thing straight, I don't envy your situation, wish I could help...

Well this afternoon my aunt offered to buy me a new computer.

Halt the tickertape parade that's where it all goes downhill. At the time of the offer she was pissed about being kicked off the net twice and decided we were long overdue for an upgrade to a new system. (Well duh doesn't even come close to covering this one.) The conversation that ensued went somewhat like this:

Her: …so tomorrow I’ll go down to the ‘rent to own’ place and pick up a new one.
Me: Actually I’d rather you didn’t.
Her: Why?
Me: Well we did that with this oversized paperweight (motions toward existing computer) and you were always threatening to take it back when we came up short that month for bills.
Her: I never did.
Me: Yeah but I don’t want to go though talking you out of it ever month because we can’t afford enough zip disks to put all our stuff on before wiping the hard drive and reminding you of all the money we put into it that we won’t get back.
Her: (Getting angry.) But it’s cheaper this way.
Me: No it’s not, with all the interest you’d spend on it we could have gotten two computers by the time you get it paid off… That and it’d be beyond obsolete by that time too. (We picked up our current one in 1996 and didn’t get it paid off until 2000.) I’d prefer it if we just start putting money back each payday until we can just outright buy one off the shelf…or get a Dell or something.
Her: (Now very angry.) Every time I try to do something nice for you people you throw it back in my face!!
Me: (Shocked and a little pissed too) It’s not like that, I just don’t want us to waste a lot of money on something when we could get it cheaper by buying it in one lump sum.
Her: (Livid) You’re saying I waste my money?!
Me: (Aw crap here we go…) No, I’m just saying I don’t want you to waste your money.
Her: (Still livid) I can spend my money however I see fit!
Me: (Now beyond annoyed) Look, just don’t buy anything cause you’d act like I owe you something even though you say it’s a gift and I don’t want to deal with that.
Her: Fine! Ill never buy you anything ever again!
Me: (Rolling eyes) When was the last time I even asked you for anything?
Her: …
Me: If you do get one fine, but I’m not using it, it’ll be for your personal use. I want nothing to do with another fiasco like last time.
Her: You know I don’t use the computer that often!
Me: (Going to room to cool off) Then don’t buy one.
Her: Don’t walk away from me!
Me: This isn’t worth it. Goodbye.

So obviously I’m not getting a new computer. The saddest thing is we had this same conversation last year.

What I would reccommend is to not buy any consoles anymore. Screw consoles, PC games are better. With all that money saved you can get a tip-top computer and some Doom 3 and have a very happy relationship (mainly it will be going down dark halls with nothing but a flashlight and a spoon, but meh).

That really wouldn't work for me though. There aen't really any PC games I like that would make it worth it.

Aw Christ. ^^;; You wouldn't believe how much your aunt reminds me of certain people in my family, judging at least from what you told us here, so I think I kind of know your pain. This must be terribly annoying for you.

If you get sorted out for money, you might want to think about getting a non-Microsoft Operating System, like Mac OS X or Linux. At least then your aunt won't be able to download stupid programs that'll be impossible to de-install. :P