Did you miss me?

Hello, Interwebs. Did you miss me?

So... my laptop, my six year old laptop has been slowly dying for a couple of years. It's 100g harddrive was full, it's battery was dead, and when I typed something, I would have to wait thirty seconds for it to show up. Which means I spent more time trying to figure out what I had just typed than actually typing. I had a netbook. It was a great little netbook. But after two years of beating the crap out of it, it decided it didn't really want to turn on anymore. Or at least it would only turn on when it wanted to... meaning never when I needed it. I have been anticipating this big crash for some time. About a month ago I bought an external harddrive and moved everything I cared about--mainly music and pictures--off both computers. Then I reformatted my six-year old computer making it a little more usable than it had been. And that's when my netbook started to get cranky.

That's when I gave up.

I had planned on buying a new computer in the spring. I figured I could get by with what I had for the next few months. I could buy a new TV, and then after Christmas and my tax return, I could get the computer I really wanted. And this time I decided it would be a Mac.

I bought my first laptop in 2001. I was in library school and I wanted something that was portable. My desktop was in my bedroom and with school work, I spent the majority of my time staring at my bedroom wall. I knew I couldn't spend two years like that. So, I bought a laptop. I had it long after I graduated when one day it just wouldn't turn on. Since the fan had gone on it before, I figured that's what had happened. I had a laptop at work, so not having my personal computer wasn't that big of a deal. But a few months later, I bought a new Dell.

Both times I considered buying a Mac, but I didn't due to cost. In library school, I wish I'd spent the extra money just to have something lighter and sleeker. I didn't buy a Mac the second time because I needed a larger harddrive for music files. Buying a Mac with a 20g harddive just didn't make sense when I could get a 100g harddive in a Dell for the same price. So, this time around, with cloud computing and cheap external storage making harddive space pretty much irrelevant, I decided to go with a Mac Air, but after doing some comparison and asking friends with Macs and students I saw with MacBook pros, I decided on the 13" MacBook Pro. I've had it a few hours, and I am already completely and totally in love with it.

I have my issues with Apple and with Steve Jobs (may he rest in peace). The first computer I ever used was an Apple IIe. My mom bought it used in the early 80s from a computer programmer who had taken a job with Radio Shack to work on their Commodores and he decided to part with his Apple. (I bethca he's kicking himself now.) My mom bought it because she was in grad school and she wanted to try out this new thing called word processing, and my brother wanted to be an engineer, and she knew having a computer at home would help him. My brother took the Apple to college three years later, and my mom still has it. According to my brother, it still works.

I got my iPod six years ago. Actually it's my second iPod since I broke my first one in a very stupid way. I'm on my second iPhone. I love both. My iPod is also on its last legs, but as I told some students last year, you will take my iPod out of my cold, dead hands. I have a very strange sentimental attachment to it.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac really did a great thing when they made personal computer more accessible. And when Jobs was forced out Apple really did tank. This is when I was using them in publishing, and the Apple mantra was "save and save often" because they crashed, constantly. Then Jobs came back. And look at Apple now. However.... Jobs became The Man he and his devotees said they were rallying against. He had a deathgrip on damn close to everything. But, he really understood how people interacted with computers. He understood that style was important. He made running a computer easy.

I wasn't sure I was willing to give up some of the freedom I felt I had using a PC that could work with most drives, software, etc. Then I realized that I wanted to ease of use that Apple provided more than anything else. I wanted the style. I can afford it now.

Am I an Apple fangirl? No. Not really. But I do love my Apple products.

Could I become an Apple fangirl. Um... yes. As I am already thinking about buying Apple TV when I buy a new TV.