my first laptop, an ibm t23 -ish machine was my dream machine. it was a gift from a lover for my europe trip. that old laptop was almost indestructible. the keyboard was held on in places with crazy glue, and the thin black plastic frame around the keyboard was broken, but it worked like a charm. together me and that laptop stole internets all over europe, we computed on sidewalks, and internetted in the parks, beaches and streetscapes of toronto.
one of the very few times i ever ventured onto #husi, it was to set up lappy's wireless while i was in edmonton. i don't mind being tethered by a cord, but i had learned to love the special feeling of sitting outside on a sunny day, doing my internetting.
606 and i nursed lappy back to health when the ram started to fail, and i learned the ritual of powering down, unplugging, taking out the battery, then shaking it over my head like an etch-a-sketch. when the battery was put back in, anything that was wrong seemed to fix itself.
later, i had to add the additional ritual of taking out the ram and blowing on the contacts like it was an old nintendo cartridge.
after the ram finally failed completely, there was a anxious re-install of xubuntu, and the installation of some fresh though aged ram. now lappy and i could stay up late and watch planet earth and u of t biology lectures. youtube worked, as long as there were no more than 3 players loading on each page. the disk drive played cds, mp3 cds and dvds. i was happy.
after moving back to toronto, lappy and i were happy together. though the number of open wireless networks seems to be very low, i could still do everything computational  that i wanted.
alas, during an unfortunate incident involving a very drunk friend, the pullout couch and a series of weird mishaps, the screen was smashed. the rest of the machine worked fine.
ni had another old thinkpad, this one a t30.
it had a bad battery, so it couldn't be unplugged for more than 15 minutes. it also had a bad hard drive, so it had been temporarily retired to the big bin of random computer parts.
luckily for me, when we opened them up the hard drives were the same. we simply switched lappy's hard drive brain into ni's computer (the inside of which smelled disconcertingly of old man) and i had my beloved internet and music machine back. this machine had a lot less ram, it took a different sort than i had in lappy, and one of the ram ports was broken.
i could still get all my internetting done, and if i was careful to close all other programs it would play a cd for me. it doesn't play internet radio, or dvds, but it kept me online.
now i fear this laptop is dying in some way. the hard drive still seems to be going strong, but i would like a bit more ram. i really miss listening to music and internetting at the same time. i'd really like to watch a movie now and then, and i wish i could listen to internet radio.
sometimes the laptop crashes, sometimes it looses my background, or the bar at the bottom with the clock and all the buttons. sometimes it starts thinking really hard, the fan kicks into high gear with the light on steady rather than blinking, when i didn't open anything, load anything or touch the keyboard.
i don't really want a brand new laptop.
what i really want is another t20 series thinkpad.
i don't like track pads.
i love the clitmouse.
i love the sturdiness of these old machines. i love the utility of their looks.
i love the little light so you can see the keyboard in the dark.

i could try to find one on ebay. i expect an old thinkpad without a hard drive would go fairly cheap.
i suspect husi might be an even better source for an old laptop.
so i ask you my dear husi:
do any of you, in your closets, bins, heaps, cupboards and tangles of computing equipment have an old thinkpad sitting around? i am particularly asking those of you in north america, for the sake of shipping cost.
i would give it a good home.
my price range is free to cheap, i'd pay for shipping and/or some money for the machine.
i think my max right now is $100, but if you couldn't part with one for less than 115$, i am willing to discuss.

or maybe you have some other kind of laptop, one that would be suitable for me. it just has to get online, play music and play a movie. i don't game or use any programs other than a word processor.
thanks everyone!