July 15, 2008

Apple-lovers know very damn well that the Mac stigma out there is that we are the kind of people who wear high-fashion square glasses (usually dark, plastic but sometimes the contrary), love artistic minimalism (a little too much) and embrace the thought of being a Mac user (Have you ever heard, “Yeah man, I just LOVE my PC” ?). The truth of the stigma is this: we’re aware that the Mac vs. PC Hate-campaign unnecessarily propelled our egos and self-image, that every major computer game works better on some OTHER computer, that sometimes we are pretentious bitches (or pretend to be), and finally, that we appreciate-a-good-design-and-everything-else-comes-second-to-that; is that SUCH a crime?!

Calm, calm, calm, Mac World.

Those haters on the other side just have pent up anger. Maybe because… Apple’s been biting the fruit of Microsoft market share? Maybe because… one million Apple 3G’s were sold in three days? Or maybe their Vista just crashed. Again. But don’t bring it up. Sore subject. So tech writers from all over are bashing Steve Jobs and his motley crue for the latest Apple releases, whining that ‘Apple is less than the meets the eye’ ‘deceiving consumers visually’ blah blah blah. But when the curtain comes down, little credibility exists in those statements. Choice of Mac or PC is mostly driven by personal preference. Macs are a very certain kind of computer with a certain kind of consumer (the consumer who makes the right choice. Haha, just kidding.). The fact that Microsoft has a 95% market share is NOT a legitimate argument because it’s no indication of the actual product quality. They just stole from Apple and got to the finish line first! Just remember that slow and steady wins the race…

On to the point of this blog… you’ve been in those conversations with the other kind. When it’s like, “Oh paste is  + V.” And they say, “What the hell is ?” And then you just roll your eyes in your mind and try to explain what the command button looks like (God forbid we don’t use the CTRL and ALT buttons). But, what exactly IS that sign? It kind of looks like an aerial of the 880 overpass off Highway 101. Back when dinosaurs and floppy disks roamed the planet, Steve Jobs thought it was company logo overkill. Susan Kare was leafing through a symbol dictionary when she came across a design that indicated a place of interest on a Swedish campground. And thus, the four-leaf mystery became the symbol.

Maybe one day they’ll get it.

Life update: I’m leaving for Davis on Wednesday to take some placement tests, attend some seminars, meet some counselors and perhaps, die of overheating. It’s supposed to cool down, but okay let’s be real. “Cool” for Davis is like.. 99 degrees. Do I seem un-enthused?? My brain is resting somewhere between my winter coats and an old collection of Amish dolls. In that state, how is it supposed to recall the conjugation of the verb croire on command?? Wish me good sense.