1. mac OS X v10.5.4 (leopard)
2. regal cinemas gift cards
3. itunes music store gift cards
4. anything off the album list
5. scrabble diamond

I HAVE LESS THAN 1 GB OF FREE SPACE ON MY HARD DRIVE.

what do i do?

ETA: it might have something to do with the fact that i have 135 GB of itunes stuff, and a 185 GB hard drive.

i like this hard drive. oh, and this one too.

i think i’m really good at daydreaming. today i spent 3+ hours on ebay and other such sites, drooling as i assembled a kick-ass list of things i would need if i was to have a comfortable computering experience here in my room (oh, did i mention i’m on spring break?!).

1. an apple cinema display. 20″ would suffice. because 13″ just don’t cut it for me, or my eyes.

2. a wireless keyboard (i already have a mouse). and no, i do not care that there is no number pad. i touch type, i have no need for a number pad.

3. some sort of macbook dock. to make things easier. (this photo is of a bookendz docking station.)

lucky me, i already have a few necessary components of this elaborate scheme: a computer (a 13″ macbook, to be precise), a wireless mighty mouse that isn’t mighty anymore, and some awesome speakers. so i’m halfway there (not).

i think when summer vacation comes i am going to invest in a laptop stand and a wireless keyboard. i am still as anti-laptop as ever, and i seriously hate how uncomfortable notebooks are. i’m doing good well this first year of college, so i think i deserve to waste my money on something i want rather than something i need.

ETA: oh my, you do not know how tempting it is to buy this item:

Refurbished Apple Cinema Display (20-inch flat panel w/ aluminum enclosure)
20-inch (viewable), 1680 x 1050 optimal resolution

Save 62% off the original price
Original price: $1,299.00
Your price: $499.00

HOLY CRAP I AM ACTUALLY CONSIDERING THIS. WHEELS ARE TURNING! MAKE THEM STOP!

ETA2: if a 24-inch imac showed up on my doorstep, that would solve all these problems (and more). so consider that.

dammit, i broke my mouse. i knew i shouldn’t have put it in the laptop bag, but i thought that would be the only place i wouldn’t forget it. well, i didn’t forget it, but i think it got crushed/squished or something, because now it makes clicking noises when i scroll or when i touch it. so when i click, it feels like i’m clicking more than once, and it’s seriously driving me insane to the point where i had to put it in my drawer and i’m using the trackpad.

since it was my fault, i’m assuming this voids any warrenty i had on it and i can’t get another one. i might order a wired one (only because it’s cheaper), or i might just ask my mom to bring me my pro-mouse off my imac. i’ve just gotten so used to that scroll wheel, when i use my pro-mouse i find myself trying to use it when it’s not there.

blah.

i have noticed something about mac users at college. most of them are new mac users, and are letting their windows habits die hard.

first, their docks fall into one of these three categories:
(1) untouched and unused. the default icons are still there, and instead of clicking on the icons, they instead have made aliases (aka “shortcuts”) to all the programs they use, and have placed them all on the left side of the screen.
(2) on the left. i think this makes it more like windows, with all the icons on the left. usually the people with the dock on the left don’t have any icons on the desktop, and if they do they are all moved over to the left like the dock is.
(3) set on show/hide. this is so they can make the windows for all their applications as large as possible. i think this is because most windows programs are like that, you have to minimize them to see other windows.

second, they overly use the tab+apple command. most mac users i know hardly use this, if at all. i think this is because mac users understand that you can simply click on the icon in the dock and the window will be brought to the front. windows users like that bar on the bottom that has all the applications on it.

third, they use safari. most of the mac users i know use firefox. i think they use safari because it comes with your mac, and they think it’s the best to use. they were probably so used to their windows internet explorer, and thought if you have a mac you have to use the internet browser made by mac.

so far, it’s pretty cool. since it’s the same version of os x that i have, it’s not really that different from my imac, it’s just harder to type on it, and the screen is considerably smaller. plus it has a 200 GB hard drive, and my imac only has 75 GB. ha ha, this is awesome. i’m currently importing my music and movies, and all my photos. so i might have to let it run by itself and set a timer for shut down, because i don’t know how late i can stay up… lol.

in other news, yesterday it took me one hour to travel 7 miles, because the 490 going downtown was really backed up. and i have almost zero experience driving during rush hour downtown. so that was fun. i learned a lot. NOT.

also, i thought i’d mention that it’s the last week of camp (although i am working another camp next week, but only for a week). it’s olympic week and it’s going really well. carly and i have a team together again, and we’re in first place—lol. we have a party on friday and then we’re done! it’s been a good summer, i’m going to miss working at camp : (

so i have finally assembled the most kickass shopping cart on apple.com. it’s complete, and it’s what i’m going to buy. i’ve carefully researched every single item. the printer and ipod nano (which i must give to my dad) are both free items because i have rebates for both of them. so knock off $300 from the total right there. my parents are requiring me to get the applecare, so my mom said she’d pay for that. the laptop case had the highest rating and the best reviews of all of the cases for macbooks, so i’m going to deal with the fact that it’s boring-looking. and the mighty mouse had semi-okay reviews, but i took the time to actually read the reviews and those who didn’t like it said it was because it didn’t feel like a “regular” mouse, aka a two-button pc mouse. i used imac mouses for 5 years and have been using a regular mac mouse for 3, so this “problem,” as they call it, isn’t a problem for me.

today my dad and i went to the apple store, to check out the macbooks. i had already compared them at orientation (apple had a booth set up with all the computers), but i wanted my dad to be there because he obvs knows more than me. the real debate for me is whether i want a macbook or a macbook pro. pros and cons for getting a macbook pro, i suppose?

pros:
- bigger screen, bigger resolution
- 4GB of memory as opposed to 2GB
- 2.2GHz processor as opposed to 2.16GHz (although i admittedly don’t know what that means)

cons:
- bigger, heavier
- shorter battery life
- ugly silver color
- same size hard drive as a cheaper macbook

i know those cons are kind of lame, but they all are completely applicable in this situation. i really don’t want a larger computer to lug around. a shorter battery life isn’t really cool when you’re in college. if i max out a regular macbook with the biggest configuations, it’ll come close to everything that a macbook pro is, for $500+ cheaper. so pretty much i’d be paying all that for the extra 2 inches of display size. personally, i don’t think that’s worth it, but my parents like freaked out when i told them that.

besides, the more i think about it, the more i realize that a smaller computer would be really handy in college.

the people at orientation said that students should start buying their new notebooks now, in order to get used to them before classes begin. so today i did a little bit of research. since i’m being forced to give up a perfectly good computer in order to buy a completely new one, i’m obvs going to have to buy a computer that is better than what i have now.

now the only question is, how do i buy it? i don’t have a credit card. i guess i’ll have to ask my parents. the only problem is, i know my mom will tell me to “wait a bit longer.” lol.