I am a Mac, and they are PCs

There's no hiding my affinity for the MacIntosh computer. My love for the fruity gadgets started long before that "kid who used to play Warren on 'Ed'" started picking on ordinary white guys in suits on national television.

I didn't start out that way, though. Growing up I owned old-school PC game-programming books before I was in third grade. I can remember sitting in front of our Texas Instruments keyboard, blank screen staring back at me with the pulse of an impatient white cursor, as I studiously entered line after line of programming codes. The end result usually produced a stick man who did a little dance across the computer screen—about 10 seconds of "action"—before an eventual "ERROR 29" froze the fun.

From that moment until ninth grade, PCs ruled my life. I didn't so much like what they offered me for creative purposes, but I did enjoy the games my Dad brought home. There was one that featured a volcano that killed all the townspeople if you didn't rescue them in time... that was good, good stuff. I'd play that ditty for hours (and always ended up KO'ing a majority of the peeps).

But computers really started to catch my attention about ninth grade—when I was met my first Apple IIe. That greenish-hued screen with the fancy-dancy graphics won me over.

In college, things really got interesting. Otterbein had two Mac labs—one for the computer arts department and one for the newspaper kids. As a journalism major, I spent a large chunk of my time in both labs, and I never looked back at a PC...except to check my e-mail when the Mac labs were occupied.

I feel lucky at work that we are an exclusively Mac office. We've converted nearly every employee who ever came into our building as a staunch PC user to a Mac fan. No one leaves us saying, "I really hate these Apple computers." No way, Jose. Apple should write us a thank-you letter for our proselyzation efforts.

David and I are lucky enough that I get to use work machines at home (also one of the cool benefits of working from home 2 days a week). We get to reap the benefits of ultra-chic, user-friendly gadgets without having to shuck out the big bucks (the one downside to Macs, unfortunately).

So why the sudden bloglamation (sort of like "proclamation") of my deep-seeded adoration of Apples? My family gave me three reasons to give my computer brand of choice "huggies" in the last week. Case in point: my sister's machine has been down since March 1 (or earlier). After spending hours on the phone with the dude from India (with whom you're all on a first-name basis, admit it!), his "fix" was to have her reinstall her entire operation system in the hope it would get things up and running. Hmm. My parents' machine met a painful demise just days after getting wired into DSL Internet access. A virus absolutely demolished their hard drive, and they ended up having to buy an entire new machine/system/etc. (Tried to talk them into a Mac... no virus issues here!). And then my brother reported to me yesterday that his machine (also PC) is on the fritz.

To all of that I say, "BOO!" Unless you're running Lotus Notes, there's no reason to be chained to a PC.

...So maybe there's that one nagging cost factor, but my Apple is worth every penny. No viruses (okay, they're extraordinarily rare), no crashes, no "C" or "D" drives to keep straight, plus all the sort of fun we the people want in a computer (video, photo, Web cams, etc.). As Noah would say, "I LOVE it!"

And let's not forget the important factor: no down time for blogging, for Facebook, for the Internet, for e-mail. What are you people doing with all your free time?!