Postcards From A Kid on Christmas Eve... Warning: Super Nerd Alert

So, about a month ago, hmm, actually, I'll back it up a little further...

Throughout the last year or so, I've not only been bombarded by the 'Hi I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials, but I've also been exposed to a few owners of Mac's who have nothing but great things to say about their alternatives to a PC. It ever so slightly opened my mind to the possibilities (as I've always had the notion that I would find the Mac clumsy and awkward after years of PC exposure). Somewhere along the line (as Vista was emerging on the market) my Bro-in-law Dave was on the hunt for a new computer. One of his options was a Mac. This allowed for some serious conversation regarding

AGH - doorbell...

(I was writing this to kill some time, but my 'present' just arrived. I'll have to pick this up a little later... Oh, I'm excited, in a very nerdy way).

...8 Hours Later...

Ok, so several months back, yaddi yaddi, Dave planted the seed that grew its roots in my head and would keep me thinking a Mac would be my next computer. Unfortunately (for him that is, haha), he settled for a PC laptop with Vista.

A few months went by and August rolls around. I was stumbling around the internet and happened to come across the new iMac which was introduced earlier that week. It was a chance meeting and in a moment of nerdy weakness, I fell in love. I spent several hours that night going through all the promo material for not only Macs, the iMac, but also the brand new iLife suite introduced the same day. I was sold.

I was intending to purchase it before taking off for my sales conference, however I wanted to be here when it arrived so I held off - planning to purchase it when I got back the following week.

Well, if you read my last post, it ended with an unfortunate series of events that left us saying goodbye to The Dude, and over $2000 less in our bank account... the bank account that was intending to pay for an iMac.

Unfortunate indeed.

However, as my usual luck would have it (touch wood), Karma reared it's sexy, righteous head and one of my little opportunities came around and I was back in the iMac business. (Actually, Karma be damned, I worked, and AM working my butt off for this little pay-day).

So, on Sunday Sept 2nd at 11:12 pm I placed my order. Actually, I was about to place my order when I needed to hold off so I could grab my credit card for that stooopid 3 digit security code on the back. Being the lazy s.o.b. I am, I waited and continued to surf around the Mac website. Lucky again for me, I noticed they have an 'educational' promotion. If you are in any way involved with a University you got a few hundred bucks off and a FREE iPod. (More on the iPod in a moment). So with Kim being the Lab Tech she is at UWO, we qualified. Sweet.

So, on Sunday Sept 2nd at 11:21, I officially placed my order!

Ok, so I am what marketers refer to as a 'laggard' or a 'late adopter'. How long have iPods been around? Like 26 years or something?! Anyways, for some reason I saw an iPod as not only one of the key contributors to the degradation of our society, but also, something I didn't really have any use for. But as soon as I was able to get one for free, society be damned! And I couldn't stop thinking about how many amazing uses I was going have for it.

Tangent: I've been wanting to get out running for sometime now and the iPod was the final push I needed. Solitude... sweet sweaty musical solitude...

I was watching my order very closely anxiously waiting for my products to ship. Tuesday morning, I notice my iPod has left the factory. China mind you, but still it was on it's way. Moments later when reading up on my Google News, 'Apple' jumped off the page. Cool, I thought, I am now an Apple customer... but what does it say? "Apple in an astonishing move dropped prices on bla bla iphone, bla bla, iPOD and upgraded it's models, bla bla".

Mother Fucking Shit.

I wait 28 years to get an iPod, and not even 36 hours after I place my order, my BRAND NEW iPod is now $60 cheaper and obsolete. (While technically the iPod is free, I still had to pay taxes on it). But OBSOLETE. Ugh. I, along with almost every other new Apple customer was on the phone with customer service for quite some time over the next 2 days (always on hold so I never got to speak with anyone prior to the delivery).

When it did arrived, I backhanded myself across the face for waiting this long to get one. I love it.

I did get in touch with customer service yesterday and demanded I speak with Steve Jobs personally so that something can be done about this atrocity of my iPod being out of date before I took it out of the case. He wept and begged for my forgiveness, and I let him off the hook by refunding the $60 to my credit card. (Not sure how this is going to affect the mail-in-rebate, so I may have that $60 in my pocket at the end of the day. However, Karma may come back and bite me in the ass and I may have voided my rebate eligibility.)

So, I may not have video on my iPod, or be able to scroll through album covers, but I'm happy nonetheless. It made me long for my undelivered iMac all the more.

I spent night after night this week going over Mac tutorials and reading anything I can Mac related to quench my thirst. To my chagrin however I noticed last night (way later than I ever should have), that the brand new Mac operating system, Tiger, is coming out NEXT MONTH.

Once again, fist waving in air, I cursed you new technology.

As it turns out, its only $120 bucks, so no biggy. This will give me a chance to get used to how a Mac works and it will be something new to look forward to.

So, yes, in case you couldn't tell from the opening of this postcard, today was the day I was expecting the big delivery. It is everything I cracked it up to be. I've been busy transferring music and pictures and movies over to the new unit from the work laptop. (All the while juggling my real day job and all it's glorious duties).

I took a bit of a break from it all when the boy and wife came home.

Tangent: Gord, after being sick for the last few days was much better today. He was so friggen cute tonight. Ate his dinner without a fuss, didn't whine for Hi-5 (too much) and had a lot of fun playing anything and everything.

Since it was my night to bath and bed the little bugger I figured I would give Kim a little time exploring the Mac, while I would then be forced to finish this bastard. She has been muddling her way around the Mac for the last few hours while I have been banished to my laptop... stupid PC laptop.

So, in short, get a Mac... then we can do the super cool video conferencing that comes standard on all machines.