So I finally approached my dad today about buying my new laptop. I was hoping I would have enough money to just buy it, but a few minor traffic tickets will quickly drain your account :P Can I help it if I drive really really fast? Ah well. Anyways my original intent in asking my dad was so that I could use his credit card to finance my purchase. I was planning on paying half up front to save myself from having to pay too much interest, and then paying my parents monthly the remainder of the cost. I have no credit (I just use a debit card) so that's why I had to ask my parents. Turns out tho that my parents are actually owed credit from their credit card company, so they could buy the laptop without having to pay interest, so it would be like I was just borrowing money from them and paying them back. Cool! So they've agreed to help me out, mainly cause I never borrow money from them, this is pretty much the first time in my life.

I'm going to wait until the first week or so of Jan to purchase it, since I'm still spending money on personal xmas gifts thanks to tons of gift cards I got this holiday. I need to let my finances balance back out before I decide how to go about this so that I still have enough money left over for any emergencies (traffic tickets? *cough*)

I'm buying a Sony VAIO S series laptop. The first laptop I ever bought was a VAIO as well, and I haven't had a single issue with it whatsoever. Plus I just like the way they look. Here are my main specs:

LCD Display:
13.3" WXGA TFT with XBRITE LCD Technology and ATI Mobility RADEON 9700 Graphic Chipset
Processor:
Intel Pentium M Processor 735 (Processor speed 1.70A GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 400 MHz FSB)
Memory:
512 MB DDR-SDRAM (DDR333, 256 MBx2)
Hard Drive:
40 GB Hard Disk Drive
Wireless Lan:
Wireless LAN
Optical Drive:
CD-RW_DVD drive
Operating System:
Microsoft Windows XP Pro Edition SP2
Battery:
Lithium-ion Double Capacity Battery (BPL2)

That all comes to just under $2k.

I was originally planning on building a desktop and then getting another laptop in the spring, but that idea fell through when I realized I couldn't take my current laptop to GDC with its cracked screen. So I've swapped my plans.

Anyways I'm psyched - can't wait for next month, which luckily isn't too far away now [smile]

Oh yea, didn't go skiing today - tried waking up early to go but it wasn't happening. Ah well. Still got lift tickets to burn so I'll make it out sometime.