i bought this

It's a Lenovo S10 netbook, a kind of tiny, cheap computer that's probably really only half a step more sophisticated than a Blackberry. It seems to be the case that we'll have fairly reliable Internet access in Gaza (the interwebs, ironically, are one of the only things that can move freely across Gaza's borders) and I wanted to blog, but the thought of schlepping my $1,200 MacBook, which is monetarily and psychologically probably my most valuable possession, to the other side of the world was a bit terrifying.

This thing was cheap ($350 of money I don't have, but I'm trying not to think about that) and it's really tiny, but seems pretty robust. I'm writing this blog post mostly to practice typing on its tiny, tiny keyboard, which certainly looks and feels like it belongs to a $350 computer. (The tab key, in particular, is giving me problems; it's about the size of my fingernail.) And it runs Windows XP, which has made me remember how much Windows sucks. But I think it will serve its purpose. It seems to run decently fast, and the tiny keyboard, as it turns out, has not taken me that long to get used to. (I'm still working on the postage-stamp-sized touchpad. I would definitely not recommend this purchase unless you have freakishly small child-hands like me.)

It was a bit of a splurge, but it seems like a not-totally-ludicrous purchase. I can imagine it accompanying me on travels and film sets. And if I get really poor, I can always sell it for a few hundred bucks and I won't feel like I'm selling my soul.

In the mean time, I am feeling much less anxious after a great yoga class at Integral, my favoritest yoga studio of all, and I have a new toy to play with.