When the ad agency and I parted ways a few weeks ago, I nearly felt like Desmond jumping back to 1996. See, it was a simpler time, when computers didn’t need to be as fast and robust, and I didn’t make my living working on them … quickly and efficiently.

Well, negotiation with the agency didn’t result in me keeping my computer, so after sending it back, I was left with an old standby. This computer could get the job done for minimal usage, but I typically run Photoshop, Flash, an HTML editor, FTP client, Firefox and Zune all at the same time … this computer looked at me cross-eyed when I tried that the first time, then it took 15 seconds for my mouse to move across the screen.

Suddenly I remembered a conversation I had with Nate a few months ago. He mentioned that his family had a computer that they may be parting with, so I gave him a shout, and lo and behold it somehow got from Kansas City to my office in St. Louis in just a couple days after mentioning it.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

We first met the Holder family when we moved to Kansas City in 2003, as Jen went on staff at Nall Avenue Baptist Church. Almost instantly and since then, the Holders have been great friends, and have helped us out in numerous ways, and we couldn’t be more appreciative.

Now, this computer isn’t the end-all, be-all of computers … but, to me, this is light years above where I was just a day ago. At least the mouse moves across the screen in normal time – not whenever it feels like moving.

Mr. Holder (Andy) is the president of Semichem, Inc. — Providers of computational chemistry including the famous AMPAC8, a program providing semiemperical quantum mechanics. I know a lot of you have been in that market for a while just looking for a quality provider of semiemperical quantum mechanics, so let Semichem be your solution! 🙂

Anyway, we love the Holders. Thank you very much for your friendship and what you’ve done for us. I will put my new Dell OptiPlex GX280 w/ Two 3.40 Pentimum 4 Processors, 1 GB of Memory, 280 GB HD and Windows XP Pro to uses beyond its wildest imaginations. Thanks.