Normally, my parents buy me good gifts for Christmas or my birthday.  Most of the time, they’ll buy me a computer or printer and that’s how I upgrade.  One year, I even got a gaming computer from them.  I don’t think that I’ve ever bought a computer by myself in my life.  Which is why it became a shock when they both retired and flat-out said they can’t spend that kind of money on me anymore.  My birthday’s in a few months and I’ve really been looking forward to getting a new laptop with faster processing speed.  I don’t necessarily need to upgrade.  I’ve had this current computer for around 3 years now and it’s still working fine.  I’ve never had any problems with it.  It’s just that I’ve seen the new models and it’s always good to be at the cutting edge of technology.  I wish I had the money to go and buy my own new laptop, but I also need to pay rent, buy groceries, pay for power and gas, and other nice things like that.  After all, there’s little point in having any computers if you don’t have electrical power to use them with.  And, no, batteries won’t be enough.