Procrastinet

It Couldn't Be That Simple, Could It.

filed under: The Weekly WANT IT

Two days ago, in my last post, I said that an amazing thing had happened - I developed a compulsive WANT IT about something, and circumstances aligned almost immediately to transform that longing into actual ownership.

Then I thought about it more and messed everything up.

I have, at many points in the past, conceived lofty plans for myself and computers. "I'm going to learn graphic design," I'd tell myself. "I'm going to learn webdesign. I'm going to do video editing." This last was the impetus for our choice of our current home machine, the iMac DV Special Edition (mid-2000).

The problem is, I don't spend much time at home. My job is not my career - my career is directing, which don't pay the billz thus far - so I have a lot of 60+ hour weeks when theater work is happening. When I'm home, it's either 6pm after the dayjob when I'm eager to actually see my wife and son, or midnight after rehearsal when I'm eager to go to bed. Weekends are either spent rehearsing or are a happy wasteland of family time and projects. Seldom in the "at home" mix do I motivate to spend hours in front of a computer.

I *do* have time to spare at my dayjob (shhhh don't tell). This is why 98% of all P'net posts are during business hours EST. Which means if new computer ventures are to have a place in my life, they will most likely have a place in my life at work.

Which means I need a laptop.

I'm an Apple devotee looking to do video editing, which means I need a PowerBook. BUT.

The PowerBook line hasn't had a major update in a long time, meaning one is coming. Meaning if I buy one now, at some point in the next 2-12 months I'm going to be seized with a wicked case of buyer's remorse and kick myself until I faint.

So I cancelled the iMac order. Luckily, when they said "Sent to Manufacturing," they didn't actually mean it.

Current rumor forums are wishful-thinkingly looking toward's Steve Job's keynote address on June 6 at a developer's conference for a possible update to the Apple laptop line. I guess I'll wait and see what happens then. If a dual-core G4 carbon fiber 2.0Ghz Hi-Def 15" PowerBook doesn't drop then, I'll drop back ten and punt.

(Note to any hard core geeks googling up this entry looking for PowerBook dirt: the above is purely invented on my part based on trolling some rumor forums. I chose those specs because they sound cool. I know that carbon fiber is unlikely, Freescale is months away from a dual-core CPU etc etc etc.)

Sadly, I'm perfectly well aware that the current PowerBook would be ample for my needs. More than ample, probably. I could order it right now and have a beautiful computer that would do everything I need it to do for years to come.

I just can't stand to spend over $2k for something that I know is likely to get trumped in the "WOW HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THAT" department sooner rather than later.

Posted by rjt at May 13, 2005 12:18 PM