Saturday, May 28, 2005

The Apple of My i


Well fellas, it's official. I am now a Mac user!

After much crap with my old PC (roughly 50 million start up issues and crashing problems), I said to it "Git the flook outta my hizzie fo shizzie!" and dropped kicked that motha out the window.

Actually I just gave it to Mother Routes and bought myself a brand new iMac G5! This baby, which I'm using right now to type this blog, is super fast, super sleek, super clean, and super duper. It's a freakin' amazing machine that's inherently fun to use.

Quite possibly my favorite feature is Dashboard, which puts all these useful little tools (called widgets) at your fingertips with the touch of a button. Ellvin Kelvin flew back home for the weekend and we tracked his flight using a widget. There's a widget that finds the lyrics to the current song playing in iTunes. And there's one that tells me what's on TV. No more frustration using TVguide.com and its crappy layout.

Of course, I'm still getting used to the new computer. I want to master all the keyboard shortcuts and utilize this baby to its fullest potential. I still have yet to play around with iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and Garage Band (which I doubt I'd use, but if you have an instrument and would like to record a song, come on by). The Mac came with built-in Bluetooth technology and Airport Extreme, so I would really like to use those as much as I can. I'm using the Bluetooth with my wireless keyboard and mouse. I can't wait to get an Airport Express to wireless connect to the internet and an iSight so I can video conference with Ellvin Kelvin's girlfriend (she has one too).

My computer already has a name too! If you remember in Spring 2004 when I got my iPod, I spent a while finding the right name for it. I ended up naming it Pigwidgeon after Ron's little owl. Well, from Erico Suave's suggestion, my iMac's name is Errol (the Weasley family owl). My mouse's name is Scabbers. And my keyboard's name is Skeeter. I was toying around with the idea of naming it Fawkes, but that name seems more fitting for a PowerBook (hint hint wink wink).

All in all, this computer was totally worth the money ($1,700) and looks damn sharp on my computer desk. I love it and am so glad I made the switch, amidst some opposition from PC enthusiasts, and think I'll be a healthy Mac user for quite some time.



Virus and venereal disease free,

Ricky
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