I know, right. Mr. Not Afriad To Bash Apple For Crimes Against The World has another mac. Kind of.

After my shuttle (my old personal machine I had been using, when work made me travel) was euthanized by the Gadget Gods, work outfitted me with a proper machine for on-set (and en-route) image and video work.

On my crazy Chicago work trip, I walked into the Apple store. I had worked, and not slept, the entire night to finish a deadline. I approached the female greeter, reminding myself to be to not be too cranky with her. Not that I would really control it.

“I need to buy a macbook pro, and I have 5 minutes.”

And bless her soul, I’d be damned if she didn’t run (actually run) to the nearest mac, login on the request-a-salesperson tool they groove on, and have a fella pop down from out of nowhere (iGrapple), ready for me.

“15 inch macbook pro with a matte screen and the fast processor. Oh, and a backpack to cram it and some hard drives in, too.”

I walked out of there 5 minutes later with my new travel companion, pleasantly surprised at how they handled the red-eyed zombie that hissed at them upon entry.

In case you haven’t read entries past, I left mac in both 97 and again in 2002 (after a brief OS X affair) but lived and worked quite happily on Windows machines ever since. So why the switch back now?

First of all, work has increased the demands of the versatility I’ve needed to exercise in my projects. Having both OS X and Windows (dual-booting using Boot Camp) accessible on my work machine has proved really handy. And if I’m to continue workflow while I’m mobile… I need that same flexibility. If I had to leave Windows entirely… forget it.

So, out here in Carleton Place, before the moving truck arrives, I get to put this sucker through it’s paces.

So far, it’s holding up quite nicely. I heard these things heat up, and they’re right. I installed smcFanControl, a little app that lets you tweak the minimum fan speed, and it’s doing wonders for the temp.

And oh yeah. It plays Tabula Rasa pretty damn good at native res with the settings on high. Not a bad bonus.