iBoughtAMac: Chapter 2

Tagged The Cronicles by Brent on March 19th, 2007

keyboard.jpg

As I was sitting here today, I stopped for a second to reflect on the last few months with my new Mac. I would have never even imagined the ride I have been on for the last several months. It has been simply amazing. It’s not that I wake up singing songs of praise to my Mac or anything, but I just have never had such a unique experience as this in my entire life. I made a commitment to myself that, when I purchased my MacBook Pro, I would follow whatever rabbit trail it led me down. Thus, by “jumping in” all the way, I can truly experience the world of Mac to it’s fullest. So here I sit, just a slice over three months after purchasing my first Mac and I am utterly amazed at the things I have been grafted into just by following the rabbit trails. In this post, I will attempt to summarize as quickly as possible the current chapter of the ever-evolving story of “My Mac and Me”

You know the story basically up to mid -December where I bought the Mac, played around with it and decided to start this website to basically journal my discoveries as I was exposed to them. What you don’t know is how many other different semi-life-altering events have taken place to get me to where I am today. Not being much of a blogger before MBD (MacBook Day), I didn’t understand the draw, the culture or the lifestyle. I delved in to discover that my perception was all wrong. A couple Google searches later and I was introduced to a whole new group of people that inspired me to dig even deeper. Some have become friends and others still have no idea who I am or that I have become more than just a fan, but am greatly inspired by their grasp of the magic that is so greatly caressed by the controlled light of their glowing screen. I am up to my eyeballs and loving the world I have dove into.

I have learned about blogging, podcasting, wiki’s, email communication, php, MySQL, Wordpress, CSS, all sorts of hardware and software as well as a slew of other amazing things. I gave away an iPod Shuffle and had a total blast doing it. I don’t know if I would call this thing I have an addiction, but I can definitely admit that it has taken over a huge portion of my life and I excited to keep digging in more and learning new things. I can’t wait to dig into the more intense applications as well as design and development for all sorts of things. I am way more of a geek today than I have ever been, and loving it!

Thanks to all who have assisted along the way and I look forward to meeting so many of you as we progress together to the future. We’ve come come so far, yet there’s so many other places to go. Join me, it’s gonna be a blast!

Okay, now for the “High School Yearbook” section of this post. Here are links to my friends, old and new and some of the things I have assimilated into my life over the last three months. I am realizing that I should have posted more frequently as I look at the growing list of links I have accumulated thus far at the bottom of this post. I know I am missing many, but promise to publish them as they return to my thoughts over the next few weeks. As for now, here’s what I have off the top of my head:

The Faithful Friends:

  • Chris, who has been trying to convince me for years to make the switch and finally won the battle. “Yes Chris, you did tell me so!”
  • Colleen, who jumped for joy the day I walked in to work with the new piece of hardware.
  • Michelle, who gave me permission and supported me through the withdrawal.
  • Paul, who still hates me for switching.
  • Candace, who wants a Mac now (I’ll take credit, but I don’t think I had much to do with it.)

The New Friends:

  • Derek, who reminds me how much of a friggin noob I am every time he posts.
  • Kenny, who always lends a helping hand every time I get lost.
  • Justine, who has to be the craziest person I know, but dang she’s loyal!
  • Keith, who “has big arms” … Whatever that means.
  • Michael, you are one talented guy, keep it up!
  • Glenn Wolsey, thanks for jumping in the way you have!
  • Jon Deal, I think I read your site as much as my own.

Those I Admire (and wish I knew):

The New Toys:

Thanks to all for the great times… I can’t wait to explore more rabbit trails!

Until next time,

Brent

What should we name our community site?

View Results



  • I wouldn't consider myself a casual computer user at all. I am on a computer almost all day. I am VERY savvy when it comes to the workings of windows (3.1 all the way up to XP Server). I have used windows in just about every capacity and decided that for my line of work and accomplishing what I want to accomplish, a Mac would be the best step to move me in the right direction. I know you're not picking on me at all, but I do want to qualify my purchase. I have always understood programming from a basic designer's point of view as I have been doing it since I was in High School, but I have learned that I prefer to steer clear from large scale coding tasks as well as delve deep into the world of development. My preference is design and production and having the Mac hasn't further enabled me to do what I love as much as it has made it easier to do and faster to get to a finished product. There are some things that are just too much work on a PC when compared to the tools on a Mac (specifically in what I do). I am not a PC basher and don't want to be considered a defector. I have 2 PC's in my house and 7 in the office, but for my purposes, the decision I made was a well thought out and calculated one.

    Now that I have switched, I have dug deeper into CSS & PHP world. I don't really know why, but it has been an interesting journey and quite fun. I hope that explains my purchase and that you understand that I believe to have a fairly good grasp on the "competition". I don't make purchases of this magnitude lightly. As "spur of the moment" as the writeup may sound, it was fairly calculated.

    I do appreciate your comment though because I agree with you on your main point. Don't make rash purchases without proper research and investigation into as many options as you have time to explore. Thank you for your comment, I hope you return to add your insight again.

    Brent
  • Kurt
    Hopefully you'll return to the world of real computers sometime soon :)

    I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm not surprised you bought it before knowing about things such as CSS, PHP, podcasting etc; since it's usually casual computer users that buy Macs.

    A bit like the iPod - people buy it not really knowing much about the competition, when the competition actually has a lot more features and doesn't cost as much.
  • I am a member of 9rules, but I haven't been accepted into "the fold" yet for some reason. If you can put in a good word, I'd appreciate it!
  • Winnopeg
    Have you considered actually trying to join 9rules? Poking around your archives, I figure you'd certainly have a good chance to get in.
  • Now I'm all verklempt.

    \Goes into the corner so no one sees him all weepy.
  • Glenn, (sorry I spelled your name wrong, fixed) - yes we should. I'll get around to figuring out skype again and we can hook up.

    Justine, always a crack up! thanks! Sorry joetv... I always forget the small stuff

    Kenny... there's a pill? that sounds a lot easier.
  • Thanks Brent,

    I'm glad you didn't take the Blue Pill.

    :-)
  • I'm definitely really emotional right now. I think the best part is joetv ()'s haha. So great. You are awesome and one of the coolest Mac users ever.
  • Hey Brent, thanks for the inclusion on the list. We should really talk sometime, it sounds like we'd get along really well.

    Keep up the great work with running iBoughtAMac, I always enjoy reading your posts.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Search with Google

Browse by Categories

Join Our Mailing List

Join the iBoughtAMac mailing list and receive updates via email. Rest assured that your email is safe with us.

More Info

Friends of iBAM

Syndicate

Sponsored Links