(Kind of a sequel to this entry …)

What is it about a sluggish economy that triggers my covetous moods? In reality, some of these items might cross over to "need" than "want". Still, it would be nice to have …

  • An upgrade of Microsoft Office 2000. It didn't seem the 2003 upgrade was all that necessary, but the complete overhaul of Office 2007 reveals a lot of clunkiness in Office 2000. What spurred this realization was the utter hell of trying to get my novel properly prepped for QuarkXpress to layout correctly. Thing is, I don't write all that much, and my heavy spreadsheet use happened before I released enigmatics. Still, the version I have is 8 years old.
  • A new laser printer. The one I have dates back to 1995 and print out 8 pages per minute. Yeah. Ancient. But shopping for printers is really, really paralyzing.
  • A camcorder. A total pie-in-the-sky desire. I've been making music videos with my point-and-shoot digital camera, and while I've managed to gloss over the cheap video quality with creative editing, I would like to try my hand at using the proper tool for the job. But really? I must prohibit myself from purchasing a camcorder till after I get a new printer.
  • A new desktop computer. I bought my current home computer in 2005. It's more than capable of supporting the digital audio software I have installed on it. Now that I'm venturing into video, a faster processor would be really nice to mitigate rendering times. But I just extended the warranty on the current computer till 2009, and maybe by then the idea of moving to Vista won't be so nightmarish.
  • A full version of Windows XP. But really, that's just a fear of Windows Vista. Is it warranted? Will it matter by 2009?
  • An upgrade of QuarkXpress. I think I'm actually more curious about an upgrade than I am desirous of it. QuarkXpress can be inscrutible at times, but I've managed to hammer out some CD covers and actual books with it. I must be doing something right.
  • An upgrade of Sony Sound Forge. I'm so tired of the lack of UTF-8 support in the IDv2 tagging. Of course, I could make life simpler and not title my songs in Japanese. Sound Forge 9 takes care of it. I have Sound Forge 8.

I'm so broke, I have no notion I'll be able to scratch off anything from this list. Except the printer. Holy hell, do I need a new printer.