Jan 23, 2005

Seven More Months?!

There is one bad thing about being accepted early to college. You go out of your mind with anticipation. And, unlike most other people, you have months and months of high school left.

I don’t really mind going to school, but I have no work ethic. Homework, studying… not so much. I don’t really care anymore. I can tell that I’m working short term. I’m just functioning on a day-to-day basis, not really learning anything. I don’t need to worry about finals, so there’s no point in taking notes or paying attention in biology if I can just read the book the night before a test and do really well. There’s no point in really learning the physics because all our tests are take-home and open book. I should do calculus homework, but he never checks it and barely mentions it in class. My grades aren’t really going down yet, though - and, let’s be honest, I would start doing more work if I dropped to a B+ in more than one or two subjects. I guess I like to pretend I’m a slacker, but I’m really not. I can get away with not studying very much and doing only required assignments, but I would never hand anything in late.

Then there’s The Laptop. I have been dying for my own laptop since I was about seven. It’s always been the understanding that my parents would buy me one for college as a high school graduation present. The day of acquisition is near. Near enough that I can start researching (and I have, more than you can imagine), but not near enough for it to be really soon. It’s far enough away that all the research is torture. I’ve decided on the Apple iBook, 14 inches, with the Combo Drive. I know the exact configuration I want, and which mouse and printer I’m going to buy. I know which iPod I’ll get if they have a $200-off-an-iPod-when-you-buy-a-PowerBook-or-iBook deal this summer like they did last summer. I’m not sure why this whole laptop thing matters to me as much as it does. I think about it as much as I think about actually going to college.

And I think about going to college a lot. Where I’m going to live, which courses I’m going to take, what my major will be, exactly what I’ll bring. I won’t bore you with the specifics, except for the fact that I’m planning to major in Neuroscience & Behavior. It’s going to drive me crazy because I have so long to wait. Can’t I just skip the next few months?

Oh, Wesleyan. You drive me crazy.

Posted at 12:32 AM in Personal, Education

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9 Comments

Jeff Hume at 12:19 AM on 1/24/05

Why would you get the 14″ iBook. The screen resolution is 1024x768 - the same as the 12″ iBook. So you get the same amount of space on your screen for stuff and you lose a lot of portability. Having a 12″ laptop is really really nice for portability.

I don’t see any use in the 14″ iBook except for people with really bad eyes.

Loden at 12:27 AM on 1/24/05

The 14 inch is faster (1.33 GHz as opposed to 1.2) and comes with double the hard drive space (60 GB instead of 30). I think that’s a pretty good reason.

All other things being equal, though, I would probably go with the 12 inch for portability reasons.

Jeff Hume at 3:09 AM on 1/24/05

You can upgrade the hard drive on the 12″ to 60 or 80gigs on the Apple online store. The difference in ghz doesn’t mean much really in real terms. Go for the 12″ with an upgraded HD. Your backpack will thank you.

Loden at 1:35 PM on 1/24/05

Hm. You might be on to something there. If I get the 12″, I can get the 80GB hard drive and 768MB of RAM for $50 less than I was going to pay for 60GB and 512MB on the 14″. The extra RAM will probably make up for the slight difference in processors speeds.

Maybe I’ll go with the 12 inch after all.

Justin LaSelva at 11:47 PM on 2/21/05

Go for the PowerBook! I am blowing my life savings on it, provided that either an overhauled G4 comes out before July, or a ::mouth waters:: new G5 is released.

site admin at 11:54 PM on 2/21/05

I thought a little about the PowerBook, but I think it’s more computer than I need. It’s signifigantly more expensive, and I’m not planning to do any heavy graphics stuff or anything else that will need that much power. If I had tons of money I’d probably get one, but my parents are paying for it as a graduation present and I figure that they’re already spending enough sending me to Wesleyan- no need to make them pay for the expensive computer, too.

Justin LaSelva at 1:50 AM on 2/25/05

As you use Notepad to code the site now, I’m assuming you’re going to be new to the Mac. What made you decide to switch (or, better yet, why didn’t you decide to switch earlier) from Windows?

My main lust for the PowerBook is for the screen and the fiber-optic keyboard. I’ve been using Macs exclusively for over ten years and this PowerBook is the object of all my (computing) desires.

And as to the lack of motivation to do things in school, do as I do: nothing. I sleep, eat, and neglect 85% of my schoolwork. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s senior year. Apathy and procrastination really are the keys to a happy life.

Loden at 2:26 AM on 2/25/05

Reasons for deciding to buy a Mac instead of a PC for college (with the assumption that, given a positive experience, Macs would be used for the foreseeable future):

1) I am less likely to get millions of viruses. I don’t want to deal with viruses.
2) No one I’ve ever talked to denies that Macs are better. They say that compatibility is an issue, and the software is expensive. I did my research and found that iBooks come with pretty much all the software I’ll need, and I saw enough Macs when I went to Wes that I don’t think compatibility will be an issue. Besides, WiFi and networks and such aren’t a problem, and for other things I can just use school computer labs if I have to.
3) I don’t like Microsoft. I want to support companies that actually give it competition.
4) I’ve used Windows all my life, and want to try something different.
5) One of my friends just got an iBook a few months ago (his first Mac) and his spontaneous outbursts of “OH MY GOD I FUCKING LOVE MY COMPUTER!” while talking about it are enough to make anyone want to try.

The reason I’ve used Windows all my life, and haven’t switched before, is that we only have one good computer in the family, and it was bought before I understood the whole Mac thing. Thus, I was not able to argue for the iMac over the Dell. My father runs most of the computer stuff in my house, and has been using Windows since forever. He’s not a big fan of the OS, he just uses it because he always has and because it’s what he knows. He likes Apple, but thinks they’ve made some unwise business decisions that have led to them being marginalized.

Just a note: I don’t actually use Notepad anymore, as it has a lot of trouble displaying PHP files. I use Metapad, which I find to be far superior.

Mmm, apathy and procrastination - sounds good to me.

Justin LaSelva at 9:44 PM on 3/2/05

I guarantee that you will not regret your Macintosh decision.