Temptation Desert

So: walked in to the Apple store today, determined to blow a percentage of my extra cash on a laptop. Walked out ten minutes later full of confusion and doubt, as always. They have six (approximately) models that range from small and powerful to large and even more powerful. Even the lowest end MacBook has about twice the processor speed of the Femputer (our Intel MacMini from April of 2006). That's okay, because the MacMini cost about half as much, but...

Ach! Why can't I just bring myself to spend the money? A lot of it has to do with the fact that supposedly when business picks up at the agency, I'll get a laptop from the business. Which would then not even be a question: the 15" MacBook Pro. But on my own home budget, that little black 2.16Ghz Intel with the 13" screen will do quite nicely.

These are problems? Apparently, because I'm sore beset by them. Anyhow, I'm open to arguments pro and con on which computer I should get, bearing in mind that it has to be at least a Photoshop workhorse, and hopefully also be useful as a music recording/mixing thingamabob. Anybody?

So: A THREE MOVIE DAY! Saw Ratatouille at the mall (fucking brilliant, sweet and satisfying, of course, although Bird might overplay his Shyamalan hand with the critic's mea culpa/conversion at the end), followed by (sigh) Norbit and Ghost Rider at home, with pizza and beer. And my wife. Norbit was about as lame as I thought it would be, but Eddie Murphy at least put in some work on the thing.

Ghost Rider was a major step-up for Daredevil 'auteur' Mark Steven Johnson, and we both liked it a lot. It helped that Nicholas Cage struck just the right note of jackass and sad sack in his performance, but the script was better and the F/X a lot more sensible than in Daredevil. Plus, Eva Mendes has a nice body.

Still, I find I'm getting a little exhausted by these Marvel films. And with the (no doubt) huge financial bonanza of Transformers, I suspect I'm going to be just plain sick of toy-to-film properties with comics histories - get ready for the Rom:Spaceknight and Micronauts blockbusters.

And then... Hello Kitty:Goodbye Waltz

D.