Whenever someone asks me what one of my New Year's resolutions is going to be, I tell them (in my most nerdy voice), "1920 x 1200." I have made yet another Apple Store purchase. In so doing, I claim full responsibility for the jump in Apple's stock price we saw this week. The media told you it was Steve Jobs being cleared of any wrongdoing in the recent scandal, but it was actually a sales increase.

After realizing last Friday night that the line at the Megaplex Theater at the Gateway was just too long to be worth any movie, my wife any I decided to go shopping. We actually rarely shop at the Gateway since it tends to be too pricey, but we were just looking for some entertainment. We had discussed my desire to have a bigger monitor in previous weeks, but nothing ever came of it. I, with some trepidation, brought it up again while my wife smelled bottles of lotion at Bath & Body Works. We talked about it for a bit, and she agreed to let me proceed with the purchase (I can't confirm or deny that any of those lotions had magical powers).

Once we walked in to the Apple Store, I suddenly blacked out. I really don't know what happened. When I awoke, we were walking back to the car, and I had a 23" Cinema HD Display in my right hand. Since the police weren't chasing us, I was led to assume we paid for it.

So far, I'm very pleased. All those claims that more monitor real estate can make you more productive are true. I can officially claim that now. I can actually fit a web design tool side-by-side with a Word document so I can reference change requests and content sources without toggling. I also do much less scrolling and sidebar flipping within Flash and Fireworks because everything I need now fits on the screen. The picture quality is fabulous, and the form factor is much more elegant than the 24" Dell I considered at length.

Frankly, I expect a thank you card from Steve Jobs himself. Not only did we switch from PC to Mac in 2006, but we did so with a Macbook Pro, an iMac, and now a monitor. Obviously we're sold on the Apple thing, and the tax deductibility of a couple of these purchases has helped, too.

Happy New Year, everyone.