Happy Mac Day To Me

Question

Happy Mac Day To Me!!!
Its been 4 years since I brought home my G3 Graphite iMac. How time flys. I remember needing a computer. I had lost my job, my wife started working from home, and I was attending college part time. This meant the Gateway was now hers for the purpose of work. I was thinking about another Gateway, maybe a Dell. I also remembered that Comp USA had this neat little section for Apple. This section stood out from the rows of generic pc’s. This section was in a word cool.
It was different. From the carpeted floor, to Nanosaur on the iMacs to the aura that one would feel a sense of quality. The look and feel of these computers was well, superior. “Just looking” I would say to the helpful sales people. These machines are gorgeous, but a little tough on the budget. But I liked the seamless appearance and interface of the Mac. Even if they were an all in one. The pcs were just clones of each other, take off the manufactures label and you couldn’t tell one from the other. Pcs had no where near the software or extras like on the Macs.
Then it happened Mac World 2002. The incredible g4 iMac was released to an unsuspecting world. I pounced...on the g3. It was seriously marked down. All that power, speed and all those applications. I just couldn’t resist.
On January 12th 2002 I brought home my graphite 40 gb, 256 mb 600 mhz iMac. And immediately panicked!!! What was I thinking? I didn’t know Apple! Certainly I didn’t know this OS X stuff! No applications from Windows would work with this this THING! Right? I had seven days to see if I liked this Apple iMac, if not it goes back in the box and I get a nice safe Windows PC running 2000 or better yet XP. Day 1, 2, 3 went by. The box only feet away. Back to Apple store I thought. Back to the Apple store. I’ll just pick it up and put it in the box. Truth be told it almost happened. Divine intervention I speculate.
Some where around day four, my wife, she’s pretty smart, told me 2 magic words. Learning Curve. The box slowly got pushed aside. My iMac started to become...cool again, I didn’t know it could do that, Wow that was easy! This iTunes is awesome (V. 2), This is really cool!!! Words of praise started to come from my work area in the recently refinished basement. The box disappeared. It got donated to give an old Tangerine iMac that was loaned to me safe passage to a school in need of good working computers. Day 7 came and went. I think I was playing with iTunes, Quicken 2002, Nanosaur, and of course I was online, at the same time! My new trusty friend, my iMac was here to stay!!! The fun had just begun.
I started to learn and LOVE OS X. I switched back and forth between OS 9 and OS X. I found that I liked the stability of OS X that much more. I do like OS 9. I started to learn then love the applications. Most of my associates degree assignments were done on my iMac. Thank God for spell check!!! My job search changed from knocking on doors and reading the paper to e-mailing resumes and internet searches. Macintosh became an integral part of my life. Even Charlie, my tabby cat is learning OS X. He has the file renaming down to a science. Chelsea, the kitten loves HP printers. Cats! Must be the whole feline theme.
I look back on these past four years as a wonderful period of my life. My iMac was and is a big part of that. My Mac and my Jeep pick up with plow stand out as the two best purchases I have ever made. It snows a lot in Ma. Since I bought my iMac an iBook found a home here last Christmas. For a birthday present an iPod Photo resides here. My darling wife who after 15 plus years of crashes, viruses, as well as hang ups, and blue death screens from Windows 3.1 to 2000, switched. November 1, 2005 her Mac Mini arrived. Two days later she, (had to go to work due to job change) was saying “What took me so long, this is great” and “I love my Mac!!!” Told you she’s smart. She’s spreading the word. The Gateway has since been put out to pasture. That, by the way arrived on a Halloween. What does that tell you. Scary!
Now, just after Mac World 2006 the future looks bright. Strong leadership, bold innovation, and a sense of optimism and excitement. So if their is anyone on the fence here is a little advice from a former procrastinator. The question isn’t whether to buy a Mac or not, but which Mac to buy. Go to an Apple store,Comp USA, or other authorized reseller. Talk to them, tell them your wants and needs. No pressure, just a pleasant experience to say the least. Buy what suits YOU. You will not go wrong. You will be very, very happy that a Mac calls your place home.
I'll post this in Tiger as well.
Thank you all at Apple and the discussion boards too!
God Bless,
Lee Janerico

Answer 1

Lee
It certainly took some time, but every day's a Happy Mac Day! I started using Apple with a strange Apple2 running DOS in 1980 something.. possibly before 85, but cannot stretch the neurones that far. Bought a Mac+ (512K ram on system 5... wow) then a SE30, Centris610 then went mad on a PM8500, PM9600 and now started collecting imacs and other strange things like Newton Message Pads that nobody wants to know. OS9 is a wonderful thing, Hypercard is magic, GUI fun, and OSX is all very well, but itfor me is not as exciting as firing up my old SE from 1989-90, running up OS6 and watching things happen on a paper white screen... yes, I AM WIERDperson, but I am exstatically happy with my Macs