Out with the old... in with...

I thought you might like to know that this blog entry is the very first thing that I've written on my new laptop.

So yes, I've decided to treat myself. Not too long ago I realized that my (now old) laptop was seven years old. Which, in laptop years, makes it a dinosaur. It long ago lost any resemblance of battery power and so it has been resigned to our counter top and essentially functions as something to check our e-mail or websites on during breakfast (and sadly it doesn't even really do that all that well). Despite that I've ordered a new battery for it so that my wife can use it around the house. The school my wife works at actually provides their staff with laptops (MacBooks to boot!) but because she's on maternity leave, she is sadly without hers. So for $50 for a new battery, I've given it a little extra life, and made my wife happy in the process.

There's something almost romantic about getting a new laptop. I mean, it's lovely getting any new computer, but a laptop is especially wonderful. It's more or less designed to be used for a specific person, to be linked to them, and so you feel more connected to it. Like it's a friend of yours. Someone you can tell your secrets to. For a writer it's an even more intimate relationship. I look forward to getting personal with this guy. I'm one of those people who name their computers. On Mac's your hard-drive comes named "Macintosh HD" so I always just rename that to whatever I want the computer to be named. So here's the chronological list of my computers and their names:

1. Rosencrantz (iMac - I believe it was a G3, it was one of the Ruby ones back when they were doing their jewel coloured iMac thing)

2. Konigsberg (Powerbook G4 - my first, aforementioned, laptop)

3. Annie (iMac - G5 - the first generation that had the iSight built in)

and now, the new MacBook Pro's name is..….. Alvy!

I'm going to get a little reflective here. Apple Computers have been a huge part of my life. As a filmmaker they've essentially made me who I am. When I was in high school I met Zach Melnick, and I can admit it, I was a PC user back then. After hanging out with Zach and starting to do video projects and see what computers were capable of, there was simple no turning back. To say that Macs have changed my life, is an understatement. They've made it possible for me to become the storyteller that I am. I write on them, I use them to plan production, I edit on them, Hell, I use them for marketing tools such as this blog. I'm not trying to suggest that all of this wouldn't be possible with a PC, however there's something about Apple that seems to fuel creativity. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth for me.

In a few weeks I'll leave the cushy life I've currently got of sleeping in, working on the film, and writing new stuff, and return to editing a series (don't get me wrong, it's a fun series and I'm looking forward to returning to it). Before I directed TUWOPS I was working full-time at a post-house but now I'm going back into the editing world as a freelancer - so I knew I'd have to get a new laptop. Especially since the post-house I'm going to be cutting the series at uses PC Avids. That's right. I have to edit on a PC. Thankfully Avid is pretty much the exact same machine whether it's on a PC or a Mac, so that's fine - but I pretty much refuse to use a PC for anything else. Especially since Carlawood is a show that I like to add little animations, etc… to, I need something to do After Effects on. That and I find that I do more and more of my writing up at the farm. So it was a necessary evil to buy this new beast. I decided to go big or go home and bought the high end 15" MacBook Pro (2.8 GHz). It might actually be more computer than I need, but in the end, it'll make itself last longer.

Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope that I can transfer over most of my software without having to re-pay for it. I've been using the same copy of Final Draft for… geez probably since I bought my old laptop - and I'm concerned that I may have to actually break down and buy the new version (which I hear is big heavy).

So we're back up at the farm. Emily's grandmother isn't doing so well and we fear that this might be the end for the old girl, so we wanted to be around since nether of us have to be in the city for any specific reason right now. I might even sneak my laptop into suburbia and register it online stealing the neighbours wifi before I get home.

So that's it for now. I'm going to play with my new toy, including iWeb, which intrigues me. Who knows, I might just have a spiffy website by the time I get back (all made using templates of course!)