Convincing John

I never thought I’d ever get to this point in my life, but I am here to say it for all to see: I like Apple computers. I might even go so far to say that I like them better than PCs.

This may not seem like a big deal, but this is coming from a person who has had 2/3 of his parents working for IBM (dad & stepmom) his entire life. I’ve grown up only knowing the PC side – I could use DOS before I could make phone calls on my own.

I wouldn’t have ever gotten to this point if I hadn’t started working in tech support at SLUH. The school is about 95% Mac-based, and I accordingly was given an iBook G4 when I got hired. At first, I just sort of used it to get the support work done. The more I got used to it, though, the more I started doing more personal projects on it. And once I got a wireless router, I pretty much lost any excuse to use my personal desktop machine.

At home, I had already gotten sick enough of Windows and its stability and security issues to have switched (or at least dual-boot) to Linux. This helped cement my new-found liking of Macs… I despised the Classic OS, but OS X, with its slick interface, intuitive design, and (most importantly) Linux/BSD underpinnings, it was a logical choice to start using on a more regular basis.

Now I’m at the point where, when asked by Hannah’s uncle what he should do for a new computer, I actually recommended the iBook. I couldn’t believe my own ears… it was like the scene in A Christmas Story when Santa asks Ralphie what he wants for Christmas, and Ralphie blanks, and just says, “Football,” only to catch himself a moment later. Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but I’ve had the iBook for 3 months now, and could hardly be happier.

Hannah and I went to Target last night and cashed in a $100 gift card from last Christmas… it only took us 10 months to figure out what we wanted. Anyway, I love it… we only spent $14 of our own money, and even that was half tax and half groceries (we were out of milk and peanut butter). Awesome.

Thanks to Mark Kamil, I’ve been introduced to a new CD. The album is Me Died Blue, by Steven Delopolous. That name may or may not sound familiar… For those of you out there who are fans of the now pretty-much-defunct Burlap To Cashmere, you’ll recognize him as the rhythm guitarist/singer/songwriter.

This new album is different, in that there isn’t the same full-band sound, and with only one guitar, you don’t get the amazing counterpoint that existed between Steven and his brother, but he does maintain the Greek-influenced rhythm and modalism that Burlap captured in their first (and only) album. I’ve only listened to it full-through once-and-a-half, but have been very pleased thus far. Looking forward to hearing more, but highly recommended on what little I’ve heard.

I knew that becoming a father would change me, but I didn’t anticipate just how much of a sap I had become. I realized this as I was working recently on a DVD of video and pictures from Ian’s first 6 months (he’s four and a half months old now), and while I wasn’t getting teary-eyed, I was struck by how much of a sissy I felt like. I think women call this being “sensitive”. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

I was checking around on Apple‘s site, looking for widgets for Dashboard (a cool new feature of OS 10.4 that’s really basically a rip-off of Konfabulator), and I found one that allows me to update my journal. Pretty cool stuff. Maybe I’ll actually post stuff more often…

Probably not.