I blew $584 in the past three days. It's the cascading spending that accompanies the acquisition of a new laptop.
The first $216 was spent on a USB audio/MIDI interface. The whole point of getting the laptop was to make the home studio more portable. One of things I want to do when I visit home in April is to show how all that stuff has moved to the computer, and the sound card chip on the laptop motherboard isn't sufficient for the applications I run. So I bought an M-Audio Fast Track Pro. A weird driver installation had me thinking I bought a dud, but once I got the driver installed properly, my recording applications ran as smoothly as on my desktop.
The next $238 was spent on a license for Sibelius. At first I thought I could wait because notating all the songs I've done so far is low on the list of priorities. But a new license for Sibelius costs at least $500. I could have gone for a competitive cross upgrade, but I would have to send my Finale installation discs to Sibelius as proof of ownership. As much as I despise Finale, I'm not comfortable with giving up something I own, and who knows if I'd need to fire up Finale for something or other? It's a powerful piece of software, despite the interface's best efforts to spread its hate and lies. I also don't know how much longer I'm going to be riding the academic discount gravy train … I want to take a break from continuing education for a bit. So I went to the online shop from where I bought Sony Soundforge and QuarkXpress (which I haven't even installed yet) and placed an order.
The last $130 was spent on a wireless access point and a wireless card for my desktop. My laptop came with a wireless card, and having to be tethered to a cable for Internet access seemed counterintuitive to the convenience of a laptop. That's a purchase that could have waited as well, but I'm on a spree. Also, I'm sick to death of tripping on the cable that runs from my bedroom to the dining area, where the cable modem router is located. I'm not sure how I went under the assumption I had to get a service upgrade to become wireless, but after actually, you know, doing research, I discovered going wireless meant a relatively mild investment in some hardware. Screw you, Time Warner — I'm not paying a rental fee for equipment I can get at Fry's. So I finally joined the 21st Century and became wireless.
My tax return and my company bonus is pretty much shot now. I paid the first two transactions off immediately. I think I can wait on the last till the savings account recovers some of what it's lost in the past few days.
Huh. My mind just went to a really dark place. Now that I've blown all this cash, I bet my car will need something fixed soon.