I am "bi"

When people ask my advice (because I know how to reboot a computer and use basic photoshop, they think I'm good with computers, which strikes my Unix/RedHad/IT professional of a brother as hilarious) on whether to get a Mac or PC, I shrug and say, "well, if you want to write stuff and use the internet, get a PC; if you want to record music, edit movies, and do a lot of photosharing, get a Mac." They expect me to, like many others, fire off an icinderary diatribe against one or the other.

I used to not like Mac's so much, and I know despite being in the desperate minority (what is it...5% of all computer users have a Mac?) they're freakin' expensive, but since OS 10 I've had a pleasurable time navigating them. Then, as I got into production and dabbled in songwriting and wanted to be able to edit and also record music, the Powerbook seemed an obvious choice. Each mac comes with Ilife, including the robust and amazingly simple Imovie (negating a Final Cut Pro purchase) and Garageband, so good at editing and recording music that some pros use it. I do love my powerbook.

But sitting in my walk-in closet, on a shelf I jerry rigged in the back, sits my 7-year-old HP desktop. The monitor is bigger than my entire upper body. My boyfriend aches to toss it for a cheap, new dell or something. It's my "backup" computer and my DSL hardware plugs into it. It works just fine!! Sure, it can't shut down anymore (thanks to the DSL) and it can't burn CDs and uh, in fact, it still uses floppy disks, but it's made the way things were supposed to be made--to never break!

So I always told people it was up to their preferences what computer they got. They prodded and pried, trying to get a biased answer. "I have both," i'd say, "a PC and a Mac, and I love 'em equally." Just like my two cats.

And now, I'm sitting at the Mac "Genius Bar," during my hiatus (my new job starts in August), thinking a Tuesday morning would be a slow time. Well, not when kids are out for summer. I have an hour long wait to find out how to clear up my "Startup disk." Mac "Help" was anything but ("delete some files on your startup disk," it says. Well, what files? the ones that contain actual programs for my Mac???).

So now I'm batting a bit more for the other team, the PCs. I still remain "Bi" but I'm definitely favoring that old steam-powered HP comfortably humming in my closet. But I'll be patient. I only half hour to go till some "genius" quickly rearranges my startup disk and I'm back in business. Hopefully.