Most big changes in my life I enter into on impulse. At least that's the way I remember them, record them, and then later describe them to other people. It probably gives me this happy-go-lucky quality - "you mean you ended up moving to Japan just because some guy you met online suggested you take a Japanese class with him?"

That obfuscates all the fretting and pondering I do most of the time that I'm not playing City of Heroes. Lots of wandering pondering this week. And then swift strokes of decisive action!

Well, maybe just one: visiting campus to pick up a semester parking pass for the Fall, Jen told me the USC bookstore was having a Macintosh sale. What the hell, I figured, I'll buy a new laptop. I got a 15 inch Titanium G4 Powerbook, the high end model. List price $2499 on the web; I got it for $1975. I would have lost money by not taking advantage of that deal!

That carefree increase in my credit-load hides the fact that I've been considering a new laptop for months. My primary computer, the Thinkpad X21, just passed the three year mark in April. I find most computers start to lag out after that much time. The problem is mostly in multitasking - they stop being able to check email, browse the web and keep open an essay at the same time. So that was grounds for a new machine - I work between software programs more than I work in any one of them.

I was thinking about upgrading to the X40. Whew what a beautiful looking machine. I love the IBM Thinkpads, like Gibson's Ono-sendai - elegant, excellently crafted, great keyboards, innovative hardware features. Not a lot of raw computing power, but a terrific trim road package.

But life is an experiment, I've been telling myself. I should look at my need for a new computer as a chance to learn something new; not just extend into more of what I've been doing. That and my extended family of friends seem to be having so much fun with their Macintoshes. So now I'm one of them. I told someone on chat today, I feel like I've been uncircumcised - back to some kind of playful, natural state of computing. It's been since 1998 since I've used this operating system, and while OS X adds an immense layer of exploratory and program potential, the essential design and craft remains. These are beautiful machines. With somewhat arbitrary, asstastic keyboards. I'll save all my rantings for a separate page tho. Right now I'm in the middle of a slight course correction.