Arriving Today: A New Mac Mini

I am writing this post on the same MacBook Air that I’ve used for my writing since I first got it in August 2014. It is still serviceable, and I am not one to jump to the latest and greatest, just because it is the latest and greatest. Indeed, in someways, I am technologically stubborn. If Word 5.5. for DOS was a still available in a reasonable form that I could use on the Mac (not in DOSBox) I’d still be using it.

But things break down over time. For instance, the down arrow on the laptop keyboard fell outs and I had to awkwardly superglue it back in. Also, the laptop has 4 GB of RAM and Big Sur runs notably slower on it than on my work MacBook Pro. So, in December, I ordered myself a Mac Mini and I was notified today that the Mac Mini will arrive before the day is done.

Why a Mac mini?

Well, for one thing, the price was pretty good. It is the newer Mac Mini with the M1 processor. I opted to bump up the RAM to 16 GB on it, which is why it took longer to ship and deliver. Currently, my MacBook Air doesn’t go anywhere. It serves as the home server in addition to the computer that I write on. I’ve got an external mechanical keyboard attached to it, as well as 2 external hard disks with the archive of documents, photos, etc.

I already have an external monitor, so I figured I’d get the Mac Mini with lots of RAM and let it replace my MacBook Air as the home server. That frees up the MacBook Air to be mobile for as long as it continues to function. My plan is:

• Use the Mac Mini for all of the writing I do sitting here at my desk.
• Use the MacBook Air for all of the writing I do away from my desk.

In all honesty, outside of this blog, I haven’t been doing that much writing–something I will be discussing in an upcoming post–but I am hoping to change that.

I am using this opportunity to set up a home archive that I have slowly been cobbling together. Initially, this will be an archive of all of my writing, back to the very beginning. I plan on sticking some kind of UI on it so that it is readily searchable. I considered doing this in Evernote, but it doesn’t have the look and feel that I want for this archive.

I am also using this opportunity to automate all the administrative tasks surrounding writing so that I can focus on just the writing itself. More on that in a future post, as well.

It turns out that delivery today has a silver lining: instead of refreshing the New York Times to see the most current results of the Ossoff / Perdue runoff election, I am refreshing the UPS tracking site for my new computer.

Once the system has been set up and I’ve been using it for a little while, I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with an ear worm: for some reason, I’ve been humming”Georgia On My Mind” under my breath all morning.