After the Lengthy (and Expensive) Journey

The image above reads as: EeePC 701, EeePC 900A, MSI Wind U100, HP Mini 1001TU, and last (I certainly do hope it is the last) HP Mini 311-1002TU.

At first, it was the dream of owning a laptop that was brand new for once (no more of those refurbs). And then I grew greedier day after day; bigger screen, bigger keyboard, better aesthetics. And then, starting from the MSI Wind, it became the search for the perfect hackintosh.

I convinced myself that I was actually doing me a huge favor by not buying the real deal - as genuine as that "genuine leather" says on your wallet or wrist watch strap - Apple MacBook; that I was saving money. But in fact, when you add up the costs of acquiring the MSI Wind plus the HP Mini 1001TU and the HP Mini 311-1002TU, I could've very well bought a nice MacBook Pro to love and cherish all the days of my geeky life.

But such has not been the path that one little impulsive donkey of a noob hacker has chosen to trod on. And now that she realized that listening to Jon Ive as he pronounces "aluminium" as "alumee-nee-yuhm" (what a cute brit accent to die for!) or imagining how a glass-surfaced buttonless trackpad really works would no longer appease her senses - and now that to her eyes, the hackintoshed HP Mini 311 is auto-morphing into an 11" MacBook Air - she's finally gotta admit it: LeMaurien19 wants a Mac. A real Mac.

She's got $200 for starters, given by a most benevolent aunt (who's also getting her an iPod touch 32GB 4th gen this Christmas by the way). Now if only that dollar to peso rate would reflect on the AppleStore and stop the baseline 11" MacBook Air's price from jacking all the way up to its current Php 51,990, then maybe, just maybe, the wait can be shortened and her peso can be stretched.

In the meantime, she'll refrain from being tempted by the netbook-devil from buying yet another one and make do with her Mini MacBook Pro (hackintoshed HP Mini 311-1002TU) whose antics and reactions (oh boy, netbooks are alive!) to her toils and travails in everyday life (HP Mini 311 Darwin Project official development excluded) will be channeled here.

Oh and the MSI Wind, though aging and yellowing but quite gracefully still, plus the forthcoming iPod touch will join the band. Perhaps we could send an invite to the Nokia 5530 as well? It's also a partaker in this as it's one of those gadgets that keep LeMaurien19 company while waiting and saving for a Mac. A true-anodized-aluminum Mac.

There, I've done it again; refer to myself in the third person.