Penalt's Reading Corner - April 24 and a Help request · 7:13pm Apr 24th, 2022
One of the things that got most of us into MLP was the lighthearted spirit of adventure that permeates the series. Yes, there is drama, and fear and even hard lessons, but there is also music, jokes and straight up fun. Combined they make the series neither too heavy dramatically nor too fluffy with no drama at all. One story that follows this rule is Farmer Bruenor Has Some Ponies by Georg.
The setting is an ordinary day, on an ordinary farm in Kansas, which is subjected to a most unordinary deluge of ponies as Twilight Sparkle slightly misses the destination for a mass evacuation portal, and in doing so drops the the population of Ponyville all over the titular farmer and his field.
I'm re-reading the story currently and I'd forgotten how fun of a read the story is, even if it is still incomplete. True, the story has its flaws and not all of it will be to the liking of all readers, but no one can deny that the story is just straight up an enjoyable read. Be it reading the joys of Cadet Goose Down overcoming her phobias and finally making friends, or of how the various branches of the US military meet and deal with Royal Guards who have taken the events of the Canterlot Wedding and the Battle with Tirek to heart.
Spoiler: Paintball is fun!
The story is thoroughly enjoyable and hold a well deserved spot on my Best of Fimfiction bookshelf. Read Farmer Bruenor Has Some Ponies by Georg. It's well worth it.
And now for something else.
As many of you know my writing is not a solo work. I have a long suffering editor who goes over every word and syllable I crank out in a desperate attempt to keep my words understandable. Seriously, you should see some of my stuff before they get ahold of it. The other day, Coyotethetrickster's laptop upchucked and died. Their laptop is their lifeline to the world from which they edit my stories, do online DJ work, handle digital photography as well as other tasks as well such as some fun gaming.
Sadly, they are also an individual of limited physical ability and even less financial means with no ability to replace the failed machine, and to that end I'm trying to get them a new, or at least new to them, laptop that is capable of doing the things they need.
Now, I'm not asking for money. Thought, to be honest, that wouldn't hurt. What I am asking for is help finding a good deal on a laptop in the continental US, which is where my editor lives. Being Canadian, I have no idea what companies have good deals, which sell overpriced crap, and which ones to avoid utterly. I'd like to keep the budget under 250USD for something with at least 1TB of storage that can handle a decent graphics load. We aren't going for supercomputers here. Any help/suggestions/links to deals will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
I'm not good at shopping laptops, but it would be good to know the full specifications of what he had. Do you know the model number? We should make sure it's not a downgrade in any way.
5653198
Agreed. It was an HP Notebook 15
https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c05629255
5653211
This is on sale. Can probably upgrade drive space cheaply, especially if the drive from the old one can be put in it. Nothing $250 is going to quite match, this is under $500 though.
https://www.newegg.com/blue-hp-15-mainstream/p/1TS-000D-0SE14
You'd have to be extremely lucky to find an equivalent to the old one under $300, looks like. Not without sacrificing something on the specs.
Newegg is a good place to get an idea of the US market, because they've always let you filter by spec better than most places. They sometimes have the best deals in the US too (over a decade ago they were the cheapest always). Here's the search with filters I used (play with the filters more if you want, but this should be a good start):
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?storeName=Laptops-Notebooks&pageTitle=Laptops+%2F+Notebooks&N=100006740+601307583+601346405+601343206+601303722+601283907+600004344+600004345+600004346+600004347+600004925+600004926&Submit=ENE&SortType=2
5653219
I'll check those links. Thanks!