"Steve"

For the last..oh I dunno... several months...I've been really wanting a Mac, but I've REALLY been starting to voice it within the last three months. Over the years, I've been a faithful PC owner in which I've ignored some of their troubling issues. Which issues, you ask? Mainly when I have to deal with daily updates / downloads..when Internet Explorer / Firefox / Chrome (as of late) like to freeze up my applications (again, daily)..it gets rather frustrating. I guess you can say the icing on the cake was when Eric helped me pick up a Toshiba laptop a few months ago (here's that post).. "hate" isn't a strong enough word to describe how I feel about that thing. Anyway, onward..

Due to the joy of living overseas, I don't want to deal with paying for an iMac via euro since it'd be PAINFULLY more expensive than if I bought it online and had to ship it here. So, I went through my regular source for shopping, which is good ole' reliable AAFES. If you know me OFF of the internet, you heard about the lovely experience I've had with them over the past two weeks...so I won't need to go into detail about the amount of frustration they caused. All I gotta say is...lots of persistence finally paid off because I now have Steve:

Ahhhhh, I'm so inlove! I was so torn between getting the 21.5 inch monitor and the 27 inch..after debating long and hard, I went with the 21.5 inch screen (and I'm SO glad I did)  because I have a pretty limited amount of space on my desk. The 21.5 inch fits on my desk PERFECTLY without having to fiddle with the height setting or possibly having to raise the top hutch to accommodate the larger screen. Whew! Plus, I got the model with the 1 TB hard drive, so I won't have to worry about storage space for all my pictures..at least for a while. Since I'm so used to moving all of my files over to a passport drive, I think I'll just keep with that routine for the sake of ..well, routine. 

When you buy the iMac directly from Apple, they give you the choice of whether you want the wireless keyboard or wired, as well as a mouse or wireless Magic Trackpad. Since I bought mine through a retailer here, I automatically got the wireless keyboard as well as a mouse. Call me a fuddy duddy, or someone who is used to working with numbers, but I opted to buy the 10-key keyboard because I CAN'T stand to use the numbers on the top of a regular keyboard. When I use the 10-key, I just fly with my numeral inputs and roll onto whatever else I'm typing out. 

I also opted to get the Magic Trackpad which replaces the standard looking "mouse" that a usual desktop has. This thing is SO cool! It responds to your finger movements and allows you to scroll like normal, flip through pages, zoom, rotate things while editing, etc. I already love that 10x better than a mouse :) 

I love love love love love my new toy! Ahhhh!! I gotta remember to take some breaks and interact with my family cause it's so cool to fiddle with all the new options this thing has. Not to mention, it's so preeettty!!! When we finished setting it up last night, Eric gave me a kiss on the head and told me, "Love you very much. I'll see ya in a few weeks", lol. Poor guy knows I'm going to be sucked into this thing like a black hole till I get the hang of it! I really can't wait to figure out how to use it's photo editor program!! EEEEEE!!!

Oh..and Piper is displeased with the amount of attention "Steve" has received since he's been here. 

Brat.

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"Damn you, Steve Jobs!" - Eric

I can honestly say that I really despise my current laptop. Really, I do. Sure, I should be happy that I even have one considering there are people out there in the world who are homeless, living in poverty, dealing with famine. Yet, here I sit..complaining about my technology. Alas, it's true.

My prior laptops (yes, that's plural) were all Toshiba's, but all worked fabulously. I think the fact that we're dealing with converting from 220v to 110v in order for them to work has been a factor in their unforeseen deaths. Not only that, but they can't seem to retain any sort of battery life...again, conversion problem. It's tragic, really. Well, a couple of months ago..my beloved Toshiba literally fried and I couldn't save anything on it. Nothing. Rather upsetting for me considering I had lots and lots of photos on it which i can no longer recover. Epic sadness and frustration. Keep in mind, I'm really not all that tech savvy when it comes to picking out the "right" computer / laptop...all I care about is:

1. It turns on.

2. It has a fabulous processor since I usually watch shows / movies on it.

3. I can work on editing my photos

4. The RAM has to be great since I usually store quite a bit of stuff on my computer (mainly videos and photos). 

Now, when we ventured out to find me a replacement laptop..I pretty much let Eric figure it out for me since he's Mr. TechoNOwiz. After looking through some of the laptops that were available (which were very..very limited), he figured which one was best for me. AND, it was shockingly much cheaper than the other options. He swore up and down it was great..blah blah blah...I believed him. Bought it and came home. Within a few days of having this thing..I hated it. I STILL hate it. 

HATE! 

Wanna know something funny? Eric's laptop broke about a day before we went to Italy, so I knew we were gonna have to replace that once we got back since his was our main source of shows and movies. SO, instead of going to the same store we got mine from..we drove two hours away where he managed to get a pretty bitchin' laptop, cost double what mine ran...and is obviously a functioning piece of technology because he was very particular about what he wanted.

I feel that my husband set me up for failure with mine. If he had the same standards when helping me find a laptop like he did with his, I honestly think I wouldn't be dealing with my current POS (Piece Of Shit for my abbreviated challenged peeps).

In the midst of him looking at the vast selection of laptops for him to choose from..I wondered off and stumbled across the stores Apple section.

:: cue heavenly music with angels singing::

I got sucked into the Mac world. I mean, bad. Honestly, I think  I had played around with the Mac and the MacBook Pro for about an hour. Eric deemed me as a lost cause since I had been playing with the photo editor program, music editor, etc etc etc...I must've looked like a kid in a candy store! He had a hard time prying me away from the damn things because I was using something that worked FANTASTIC and didn't stall out every two to three minutes! Then, he started picking my brain about which one I preferred.

After looking at all the specs and mulling it over, I figured out that I liked the Mac desktop rather than the laptop. The main reason is because of the screen size and it seems like I can get A LOT more for the money..processor size, storage..everything! Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be able to take my laptop with me to places, but I'd have major anxiety toting around something as expensive as a MacBook Pro. Plus, I like that I can have my "space" when working on editing pictures in my office or writing for my blog since I have the WORST shiny syndrome on the planet. Since I do have the luxury of using a laptop, I get VERY distracted when I'm in the living room working on stuff due to shows, video games and anything else that could possibly divert my attention.

 

 So, while I was playing with the Mac in the store, my husband realized this would probably be the most epic birthday / Christmas present in the history of our lives together. In fact, I'd consider this a wedding anniversary gift for the next five years! Whether or not I actually get it, thats to be seen..but I know if we ended up getting one, that thing would be used like none other!

Eric, if you're reading this: I LOVE YOU!

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