You are all gay.
To the original post if this is just for school taking notes, using word, maybe browsing the internet get a netbook. It is much smaller then a normal windows laptop and a mac. It is slower that is true but if you are just taking notes you don't need a high end computer. It also has a smaller screen 10" but it isn't that bad for schooling. Spend $300 on a decent netbook and call it a day.
You can download open office for free. It is almost the same as microsoft office expect it is freeware. It opens and reads any microsoft word document.
The battery life on my netbook is 7-9 hours on a full charge. This is using wireless all the time it is never hooked into an Ethernet port.
Edit: if you already have a monitor you can easily hook it into your netbook when at home. Same with a keyboard and mouse.
Here check this out
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=netbooks&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=4907596380888763494&ei=y88FS7HGNYfdnAftxtm5Cw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CDgQ8wIwCQ#ps-sellers