So, I’m currently in the process of (as the header advertised) doing a “thing”.
Yeah, yeah. “What the hell is this ‘thing’ you are doing?”
This one needs a little bit of backstory (as, it seems, do most of the stuff I talk about, I guess?) so settle in. I need to rewind the calendar a tiny bit … specifically, all the way back to approximately 2012 or so.
Wanting to Leave a Legacy
I am, at this point in life, a single dad. I am divorced, and have two sons. My parents were both long-enough since deceased before my sons were born. My mom and dad were single children and I’m also a single child, as well as being almost completely detached from any extended family which exists.
The end result of this was that I came to a realization (in 2010-2012 or so), that all of the “stories” which I knew from my family didn’t have anyone else to tell them (often enough) so my sons would hear them and, hopefully, remember them.
I didn’t want those stories (memories) to just fade away into non-existence.
So, I started writing stuff down – using a regular old word processor program.
But I kept hitting issues I wasn’t happy about when doing so. Formatting and other things that left me spending more time “tweaking” than actually writing, and that was seriously pissing me off. The end result was that I kept putting it aside and doing very little actual writing.
I knew somewhere there just had to be a tool that someone else had created which made this easier and made some half-hearted attempts to search for such a tool.
Enter Scrivener
After setting my mind to it a bit more seriously, I stumbled upon (no, really – I found it just by chance) Scrivener. Yeah, I know I’ve mentioned this product all over this site. I really do think it’s just THAT GOOD.
At the time, it was only available on MacOS (they hadn’t yet ported it to Windows).
Since I knew I wanted to use this, I went out and bought a 13″ MacBook Air. This, by the way, was in 2013.
Productivity Intensifies
Once I got it (and got through the initial tutorial), I loaded all of my existing text into a new Scrivener project and then did what Scrivener does best – slice and dice everything up into separate little text documents called “Scrivenings”.
With that done, I proceeded to have an absolute field day. I wrote … and wrote … and wrote. By the time I was done with what, in some ways, wound up being something of an … impromptu autobiography (at least up to an slightly earlier time in my life), I discovered I had pumped out about 100,000 words. Yeah, it had taken slightly less than “forever” to get to that point, but it existed.
Then What?
I discovered, much to my sheer and utter amazement, I actually liked writing. [My high-school Creative Writing English teacher would, I’m sure, be astonished to learn this about me – a few decades later.]
So, I hunted around for some “writing prompts” … found one and proceeded to turn the prompt on its head and wrote “Strange Vacation“. (The original prompt was, “You lose your cell phone. So you call it and a stranger answers.” My “redone” version was that you suddenly have an extra cell phone … which rings … and the person wants to talk to you.)
I let it sit for a little, then re-read it and cleaned it up (this is still my “process” even today).
Much to my continuing surprise, when I showed it to a couple of friends – they liked it.
I was hooked.
Fast Forward
It’s been, as I say, a decade since I bought that MacBook Air. It’s still running and … works? Having taken a spill or two, the left side of the screen has a noticeable black “smudge” from screen damage (completely internal). And it’s not nearly as “peppy” as it used to be, of course.
The MacBook Air wasn’t my main “workhorse” computer. In my (home) office, I have three desktop systems (with two sets of keyboard and mice). A standalone Windows box (with two screens – for gaming, y’know?), and both a Linux desktop and an old (purchased shortly after the MacBook Air) Mac Mini – these are the ones that share keyboard, video and mouse (using what’s known as a “KVM Switch”).
The Mini was purchased so I could have something besides the MacBook for writing at home (using a “real” keyboard, not just the laptop one), plus it was somewhat faster / more powerful than the MacBook. [Yeah, by modern reckoning, this is not saying a lot.]
Maybe It’s Time to Retire?
As I said, my old MacBook Air has been running slow. It still runs, of course, but I’ve been using it for a lot more than just writing (since I wind up sitting in my living room, watching anime or something on a “big” screen while doing various other stuff at the same time).
I was suddenly struck with the realization that, perhaps, it was time for an upgrade. I mean – it is literally a decade old. In computer terms, that’s several generations’ worth of exponential power increases. Plus, being honest with myself, I hadn’t exactly gotten the very top of the line MacBook at the time (which would’ve been a Pro rather than an Air).
Moving On Up
I decided to look around at some used MacBooks, and mentioned this to son #2. He turned around and suggested, that, maybe, I should consider looking at a brand new one instead? I have been keeping a very tight rein on my spending and, while I wouldn’t want to say that it’s a good thing to turn around some of the funds I was able to recoup from the 300ZX, just letting them trickle out over a long period of time isn’t necessarily the absolutely best use of it.
Then, of course, on top of that, we could claim that the purchase is being made for him, educationally, which is a guaranteed savings at the Apple store right there. [If you have a child in school, or are able to “borrow” one when you go to an Apple store, you will save approximately 10% on at least major items.]
With all that in mind, I looked at the current (and conveniently, just-recently-released) set of MacBooks – all types.
Yeah, Yeah – So What Did You Buy?
Cutting to the chase, I got a “minimally fitted-out” 2023 16″ MacBook Pro Max. From all the reviews saw, this is an absolute beast. If I were doing anything even remotely related to video production, it’s amazingly fast. Needless to say, my demands are far, far less. I figure I should be “future-proofed” for at least another generation … and I’m ok with that.
