Sometimes I have been asked the question "Reid, what are your hobbies?" - Usually it comes from men who spend time on the golf course, shooting animals, building stuff with power tools (or buying power tools), or hooking fish by a lake. To be honest, my hobbies overlapped substantially with my work. I like reading, ideas, philosophy, theology etc. I suppose I waste some time watching football as well. But to be honest my favorite hobby-like activity is technology. My undergrad degree was in Applied Science and Physics and I got hooked in the early nineties after getting an IBM PS/1 PC. Now I only dabble with code these days (web sites, Movable Type installs, wrote a Visual Basic macro las year) but I still like gadgetry. Again, it is sort of nice that this overlaps with my work as well.

To be honest, behind the Bible, my laptop is the most important tool I own. I communicate on it, write on it, design stuff for ministry on it, study Scripture on it (Logos Libronix rocks), read on it, listen and acquire audio content with it and, of course, blog on it. My laptop, though only a tool, is a tool I constantly use. I also like the little machines too, which helps me utilize it.

So today I am going to have a couple of technology articles. The first will be a review of my new laptop I received just a couple of weeks ago. My current machine goes back to its owner (Fellowship Bible Church) here soon so I needed a new one to launch into the field with as a church planter. Second, will be a feature comparison of my new PC with the new MacBook Air - and why I am thankful I purchased the former and NOT the latter. If gadgets and techno speak put you to sleep, hit the snooze button on the POCBlog and come back tomorrow :)