I mean 'swept off my feet', 'cannot breath, sleep or think' in love. I know I have never so lusted for a computer as much as I have for the 24" iMac's I was test driving one last Tuesday night at the Apple store. Apple's new iMac makes my relatively new PC look like a '74 Ford Pinto of personal computers.
And the price. How many ways can one say incredible bang for your buck?
It all started because my mother decided after spending the first year of her retirement doing nothing more than changing position on the sofa while watching a succession of day time talk shows that it was long past time to find a new direction for her life. Yes, even couch potatoes get the blues.
Her lack of inherited wealth meant she could only afford to study things which she had no overwhelming desire or passion to study but the program guaranteed a certain amount of liquidity when plying the benefits of her degree in the wider world. Now that she has a relatively secure pension and the only constraints on her free time are the limits of her imagination. So she decided it was time to go back to school and study something she always wanted to study but didn't dare study back in the day.
Last spring she was accepted at a small suburban college outside of Toronto and starts her first day of school on Tuesday in a Fine Art & Design program. She needed a new computer and wanted my help in buying a new one. She claims I always have better computers than hers (guilty as charged) and she always likes mine better.
Tuesday night I suggested we check out what Apple has to offer only because I knew many of the art programs run by the colleges in the province lean heavily towards Apples. I really haven’t not paid much attention to Apples computers since my Apple lle days, but I do love my iPod.
At first, all I got was no, no, no, but persistence pays off and I wore her down (just like in the old days) and off we went to the Apple store. The iMac was the first computer which was free to play with and play I did. All I could do was ooooh and ahhhh. Then I took her for a coffee to discuss the “iMac”. I suppose, in retrospect, I got carried away with my enthusiasm and my voice got a little loud. Turns out, across the room, was one of those “Apple Geniuses” (technical experts) who just happened to be having an early dinner. He decided an intervention was needed when I took offense at Momma dissing the keyboard.
Anyway, she brought the “iMac”. Mostly because I am in serious lust and she knows it. This is her way of thinking she has finally has the upper hand. I sent Montana to set up the iMac as I couldn’t stand to do it. It took him all of 45 seconds (it would have been shorter but it got stuck getting out of the box). I thought about offering her my new pc as a trade. I figure I might have a decent shot at it as she already called me this morning to complain she couldn’t find the backspace key. On the iMac keyboard it is in exactly the same place but it reads “delete” instead of “backspace”. I'm crossing my fingers....
2 comments:
Had a similar experience, and am quivering on the brink of a heretical conversion.
My first computer was a Mac SE (remember? One drive for the operating system, and another for the application?), and I loved it and its descendants dearly, and sang the glories of Macdom in a PC world.
During my brief foray into government, I was forcibly converted to...that other universe. The only fun thing about that was trying the force the Spawn of Gates to do with artifice and cunning what my old Mac used to do effortlessly. And I must say the effort made me a better and more informed user. As the years rolled on I moved deeper and deeper into the Dark Side (as, of course, one does), although my inner Mac User never quite died.
Then last month one of our staff had a housewarming party, and I found myself sitting at his iMac in complete awe. It was pretty. It was easy. Just like the Macs of my past, it had been thought through for real people. Everything just hung together with that friendly coherence I remembered. I actually felt something akin to homesickness.
Yes, I remember those too! Let's face it - PC's are evil, really evil.
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