Big ticket purchase

Yes, I finally did it. My mom is going to be upset because I'm supposed to be saving money for a trip to Italy, but I just bought a laptop. My first real, big boy laptop. It had to happen. I mean, I have a hand-me down Dell, but it weighs like 15 pounds and is slow as molasses, if molasses tasted like Windows XP. Even if it runs linux, it's still slow.

So what does computer geek Anton buy for a new laptop? Well, I really wanted a used ibook or a macbook. But those are expensive - a used ibook can run over $500, and those things are like 4 years old! And a new macbook runs over a thousand...ouch. Besides, I've already got a desktop compy for heavy computing power.

The answer? The Asus eee. Yes, seriously. I've been doing research on this for several months, so I feel good about my purchase. It's tiny. It's gotten really good reviews. Best of all, it's cheap. I was initially thinking about the $299 model, but decided to spluge on the $399 model.

When you think about it, what do you use a laptop for? Email. Web surfing. Light writing. Reading. How many times do you go to the coffee shop and say, "gosh, I really need to edit some video, good thing I have a computer that's able to handle it!"

So it's 2 pounds. Comes with linux pre-installed. Battery lasts for 3.5 hours. Built in webcam (?!). Hard drive is flash, so no moving parts, making it much more durable than most laptops. The small hard drive (4GB) can be complemented by SDHC cards - an 8GB card runs $35 on amazon right now, so I might get one if it's necessary.

But the nail in the coffin behind this purchase is the HUGE community/following this product has. Very loyal userbase, which means lots of cool tips, tricks, etc.

To celebrate, I made an awesome crock-pot dish (I hope - it's got 2 hours left). Dice red potatoes and fill crockpot half-full. Melt a half stick o' butter, combine with maybe 10 garlic cloves and a bunch of fresh rosemary. Cover 1 pound of cut up chicken with this sauce. Add a few tablespoons of lemon juice, and a bit of chicken broth. Turn it up on high, and watch the Wolves play the Sonics.

More details on the laptop when I get it on Thursday.