The Greatest Sacrifice

If you are a musician, you would probably kill me for doing something back in 2004. I was in dire need of cash and I was also in dire need of a portable computer. Back then, a friend sold me a good quality second hand iBook G4, an 800MHz beauty with 2 years of warranty and 640MB of RAM. Built in Bluetooth, built in WiFi, custom made from Apple.

This decision was perhaps a huge turning point in my life, albeit I had not known it to be so at that point because I was young, restless and in need of something to feed my rising geekdom.

And thus, the title of this post, because I gave up something that I should not have sold in the first place.


You see, back then, I had a Fender Stratocaster. This was no ordinary Strat. It was an anniversary reissue from way back in 1996. Gleaming sunburst body, signature Fender sound. I had originally intended buying a Fender jaguar which was more known to produce the distinct “Fender growl” reminiscent of the 60’s and 70’s tracks from the Ventures and the Shadows.

Three years have passed. I consider this trade to have been the commitment in that particular crossroads of my life. I had justified that having so many other guitars (which I eventually sold) including a Washburn “More than Words” Festival Series, a Taylor Travel Guitar and a Craftsman Classical guitar would be enough to coerce me to sell, and so I did. No regrets. Not then. I traded my first Fender for my first Mac, and some cash to pay off bills.

Who knows, if I didn’t commit to doing technology journalism at that time, maybe I might be playing in some jazz bar tonight. I’m not saying the music industry isn’t great. It’s actually as good as ever now. But it was too risky to follow catchphrases as “follow your heart” “music is my soul” or “punk not dead.” I wanted to take a more sure career path that gave me water and bread to eat every 15th and 30th.

I live by the principle that your passion will always find you. Fellow bloggers such as Markku and Lauren have expressed intentions to start a “band of bloggers.” I have four original songs in my folio and have been wanting to write six more to complete an album before I turn 30.

I’ve made a silent commitment to myself to getting that Strat back. I know whom I sold it to. I screened the guy over and over before selling it. He even told me, musician to musician – “it’s just for safekeeping. You can always have it back when you need it.”