So today was my last day as Asia City Publishing, and you know what?  It's been a pretty good year here... it was at times a strange notion that I was working at the headquarters of HK Magazine and interacting with the writers of a publication that I'd been reading since high school.

So much has changed in one year... I've left the UK One year, and Thirteen days ago... been living on my own in a TINY 150sq ft apartment for eight months, I've loved, I've worked, I've done over 5 shows in that time...  It's been a busy busy year.

Where to next?  I'm trying to stick to the education sector... I want to go into teaching.  Preferably teaching using theatre/performance, even if it's to aid local students in their comprehension and appreciation of English as a language.

1.0 Was my life growing up in Hong Kong
2.0 was university and living in the UK
3.0 has just finished, my first ever job and living on my own after university
4.0... another iteration, another chapter... who knows where this will go?

An odd little phenomena that I've noticed lately here in Hong Kong in any location where food and beverage and wifi service coincide...

Tech showdowns.

By this I refer to the practice where people will have their laptops out, either for genuine work purposes whilst the genteely sip at their non-fat, non-dairy, sugar-free, skim chia lattés, or if they're watching the latest YouTube videos or blogging their lives away. As soon as someone else walks in, there is a not-so-subtle glance around, taking in the various brands of equipment. Once their food or caffeinated beverage has been purchased, they move to an open seat and sit down... and then make a production of taking out their own gadgets.

The MacBook Pro with the glowing Apple logo, the new Sony mobile handset, the latest Shure headphones... the HTC Touch or the newest Blackberry...

I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of the same sort of behaviour... I just don't always do it. I've taken out my crusty, old but efficient, small and light IBM Thinkpad X24 out in Starbucks' and café... sure it was 4-5 years old... but it was a small, black IBM Thinkpad. So in some ways I had gained some 'tech points'. Nowadays I can be accused of using my MacBook, my Nokia phone and my Platronics headset... but hey, I use Skype and I blog a lot now... I'm allowed... just.

Now what has brought this on? Today in this Starbucks in IFC I have noticed 8 MacBooks (regular and Pro), 1 HP with the screen laid out flat for a business presentation with a client the next table over from my own... and now? This gentleman has taken the seat on my table as it is the only one spare and as soon as he sat down, he took a look at my Macbook, and then opened his backpack, took out a cloth case that was the considerable smaller than my MacBook (roughly the size of an A5 novel) and pulled out a tiny tiny subnotebook, that appears to be a Sony VAIO variant... and then he took out his HTC smart phone and connected the two with a cable, and smiled at me.

He smiled at me.

The smug git.

Well, today I can't retaliate... as the only other equipment in my bag at the moment? My gym gear, because that's where I'm off to next... each time I'm punching that bag... well it will be the smug git's face that I'm seeing.

I've lost this round of the tech showdown... but we'll see.

I am finding myself in a slightly strange situation...

I am being very productive whilst using my MacBook.  Now before people start leaving flames and derisive comments on this post, please do let me explain why I say I am being more productive.

I am not spending as much time tweaking settings like I do on a Windows-based laptop... or trying to find out why something isn't working.  On the MacBook I look either at the system preferences control or use disk utility and a few other built-in items.

Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iDVD, etc... all have learning curves... but for standard tasks?  They're pretty intuitive.

Installing and removing applications is EASY.  If I find I don't like something... drag the app into the trash can, empty it, and it's gone.  No add/remove window, no hunting down random folders and deleting them.

It also helps that this is the fastest laptop I've used in years.  My old IBM Thinkpad X24 just wasn't hacking it anymore... and it already had been upgraded to the max memory for that design.

Now some things are easier on Windows, such as changing settings for the webcam and other little things, as these have several utilities to be downloaded for free... the iSight on the MacBook is great, but to tweak things such as white balancing and so on... I have to buy some software... NOT GOOD.

So, I'll just go back now to fooling around the internet, and seeing what else I can do with this little beauty.