So the best thing that came out of the JET Returners' Conference was (sadly) that Apple offers the education discount to JETs. Hopped on over to the Shibuya Apple Store and picked up a white 2.4ghz Macbook.

Getting a 4gb iPod Nano for free too, figure I can sell it off and use the cash towards a nice monitor. The 13" screen seems surprisingly doable for now though.
Also found a PSP-2000 model hard case that's just like the old Logitech one, nice!