Yeah, OK, so… I’m being acquisitive. Yesterday, it being both Labor Day and the last month of this fiscal quarter, I decided to pretty up by laboring environment by buying a new laptop. I didn’t actually need it, but I wanted it and… well… petty as it sounds, I felt the need to keep up with the hubby on his WoW-playing ability. Yes, I’m nuts.
But maybe not so nuts: World of Warcraft is one of the few things we actually get to do together at the moment. My travel and writing schedule and his on-call schedule mean we pretty much don’t have a lot of free time together on weekends like normal people, but with an adequately fast machine, we can hang out and have adventures in virtuality, at least. My original iBook laptop was not bought with games in mind, and being the last of the PowerPC G4s it wasn’t exactly cutting edge even when I got it two and a half years ago. It was blazing fast compared to my old desktop machine, portable, and cute. And being an Apple with OS X its operating system was close enough to Mr. Kat’s Linux expertise to make him a decent emergency help desk, but not close enough to tempt him to play with it while my back was turned (as he used to do with my Linux machine, causing me frequent upset and lack of productivity.)
Switching from my old Linux box to the first Apple was not the simplest thing in the world, but it wasn’t horrible, since I didn’t have a lot of exotic Microsoft files to move or applications to port. I’d kept my files in basic formats like rtf, ods, jpg, and txt which were mostly moved gracefully. I lost some apps, but there were decent Apple things to replace them and I have been Windows Free ever since–not a slam on Windows, I just don’t seem to have the right mindset to be comfortable with the Windows environment and it annoys me when I have to use it. anyhow, the original port over took a couple of days of intermittent mucking about.
But the new one? OMG! Apple has made the migration of files, apps, and User prefs/info utterly simple and fast. Plug in a $20 Firewire cable, poke the right button combo, and the machine does the rest. Really. The system took less than two hours to transfer everything and once turned on, it acted exactly like my previous machine. But faster. And prettier. And with a much wider, higher definition display. And better speakers. And it weighs less! And this is the base model with the “slow” 2.4 GHz processor and 256 video card. Well… and 4 gigs of RAM…. All around, it’s a huge Box o’ Win!
Except that the original Power PC Calendar Widget for the Dashboard doesn’t work on the new Intel Core 2 Duo chipset and there’s nothing to replace it. 
I miss my little “desk calendar” thingy. But aside from that? The new MacBookPro is fan-fuckin-tastic!
Yeah, yeah, I really don’t need the high-end graphics and sound; I don’t need the bigger screen or the bigger hard drive and double the RAM. But I like it. A lot.
Prrrretty….
And I can run WoW with everything turned up to max and it’s still blazing fast. Hehehe….
Hey there lady- just finished Underground! Loved it! Not really fond of the snakes and creepy undergroundy things- very skeevy overall- which means it was a success! I stayed up very late night before last reading it, and finished last night- just in time for the end of the 3 day weekend. Thanks so much for all of your hard work!
Nice to see a fellow writer that plays WoW! My husband wants a laptop as well so he can follow me around the house and lounge about on the couch or in bed like I usually do. Hee!
(Incidentally, my husband and I also play together, and we were complete dorks about it recently. Both of us bought an extra copy of WoW and recruited *ourselves* so that we could take advantage of the leveling bonus!
We do have lives outside of WoW though, I swear!
)
Ah, I couldn’t live without my laptop and I would love an Apple!
Hiya Slyboots! Skeevy is what I live for, after all… hehehe.
Thank you!
Sarah: You didn’t… get a Zhevera did you…? I am so jealous. That and war bears are damned cool. And I like those freaky dragon-things from Netherwing.
Adele: I loves me my Apple. Next time I get my butt to Jolly Old I shall have to bring it along….
Congratulations on your new pretty! I love hearing happy Apple stories. I couldn’t use the Migration Assistant to move things to my new iMac because my G4 was just too old. Had to do it all manually.
As to the “normal” couples who have weekends (or more time) together, I don’t think they exist. I’ve heard a lot of stories about this phase where couples start getting involved in activities (of all kinds) and have to plan time being together. As long as you keep in touch it seems to work out.
Hiya! I too have splurged on a new pretty – not a Mac though, I’m not quite up to that standard yet. Instead it is the teeniest, tiniest thing. It is the new EEE PC 901 in pink…it is small enough to fit in my handbag! Which means – portable to the max – which means writing during commute to work on the train and from work, and during lunch at nearest available coffee shop!
But congrats on your new shiny – very pleased for you. Have yet to get stuck into Underworld, but will soon.
L x