A New Laptop

Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there?

What's that? You were wondering if I was out there?

Yes, I'm here silly. Just busy, that's all. Apparently when you teach and take classes, the end of April and beginning of May are busy. Incredibly busy. Who knew?

While I try to unbury myself from an avalanche of student papers and portfolios and final exams while simultaneously unburying myself from an avalanche of papers I must write and exams I must study for, my presence here may be a bit sporadic. (Oh, and did I mention this is a terrific time of year for quarterly magazines to have writing and editing deadlines? Why of course.)

But rest assured, if you keep coming back, it will be worth the wait. I'm gearing up to try some new things. Some big things. And that's all I'm going to say.

For today, I would like to show you a little technological try I made the other day: I upgraded my laptop.

Sturdy, reliable but oh-so outdated and overwhelmed iBook G3 ...


Meet my all-new 13-inch aluminum MacBook.


Now that I have let those of you who are Mac fans ooh and aah, and those of you who are not snicker, I will address comments from the peanut gallery.

Julie, why the heck would you fork over that much money for a computer right now? Don't you know we're in the middle of the R word?

Yes, I know. But hey, why not try to singlehandedly stimulate the economy? ... In all seriousness though, when technology needs arise and you spend day and night on your computer for work and school and writing to dear blog readers, you must have a reliable computer. And as much as I love my iBook, it no longer fit the bill. Besides the fact that it's big and bulky and missing letters on some of the keys (apparently I type N a lot), it's slow and cranky and frequently overheats and sounds like it's going to implode when I try to use design applications or basically anything other than a web browser or Word. Plus it's not compatible with many Internet apps I try to run, has refused to recognize my iPod for years now, and runs an incredibly archaic operating system. But hey, it put in a solid 6 years of frequent use, so let's give it some credit.

Why would you buy a Mac rather than a PC? They're so expensive and inferior.

(Please note, the inferior part came from Conservative Boy. He's so misguided, but don't tell him I said so. I like to be the one to break it to him.) It is true that PCs are less expensive and incredibly functional machines. But, for lack of better reasoning, once you go Mac (which I have since the first clunker my parents brought home when I was in elementary school), you don't go back. They're pretty, they're functional, their graphics can't be beat. And when you work with graphic design programs (let me clarify, with the words in graphic design programs), and when the people you work with use Macs, it makes life a whole lot easier when you do too.

But enough rambling about my new laptop. (Oh how I love thee ...) I must get to work on bigger and better things. If I have at all convinced you that it's time to trade yours in, get thee to the Apple Store pronto. You can get 0% financing for 12 months—but the offer ends tomorrow.