Calling all Mac Geeks

The day has come... Despite all parts of me that want to push my tax refunds towards student loans, my computing situation is in dire need. I have an aging desktop at home and a real need for a laptop. Since I am out of the house from 6 something until 9 something every night I am constantly fighting for a computer and place to work. I'm dying from the crunch of playing the office computer merry-go-round (14 people share 2 PCs) and unreliability of the school lab etc.

Soooooo. Yes clickboo the day is almost here (sorry Jimbo, I need to join chicdom now that I have an iPod). My triumphant return to MacDom... I was a Mac guy from the Mac 128k all the way through my unreliable Performa 636 in college.

So I gotta get back to my group project but Mac Geeks (term of affection) please advise me (asap - I'm dying to click purchase but seek your aid). Here is what I am thinking:



MacBook Pro (15")

• 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1440 x 900 pixels
• 1GB memory (I will double it to 2GB)
  
• 120GB hard drive¹
• 6x double-layer SuperDrive
• ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB SDRAM

I'm getting the educator's discount. I probably need to buy Office for Mac right? What else do I need? We are going to use it for making short videos, movies etc. Is FinalCut Express HD worth getting for $99? Boo uses FinalCutPro at work so it would be similar I imagine...

Any and all advice is very welcome!!! :-)