A Parallel Dimension in my own little universe

For the first time in my life, I own a Macintosh. Heather and I took a trip to Comp-Usa to buy a wireless notebook card for her IBM Think pad the other night and while we were there I just happened to stroll back to the corner " The Apple Store " where all the apple stuff is located. Comp-Usa is, as far as I know, the only Apple distributor around here. Anyway, I was showing Heather the Macintosh notebooks ( As well as complaining about the prices ) when the rep approached us and we started talking about the systems they had for sale. As we were talking another couple walked up that were Mac users, and next thing I knew we were deep into conversation about Mac's vs. PC's. Turns out that this couple ( Marc, and Lynette) as well as the Apple Rep ( Bobby) were part of a Mac users group here locally The Greer Mug and that they were going to be having a Users group meeting at the Greer Library on Feb 27th to which they invited us. After giving up on trying to convinve me to buy a Mac, Marc then suggested that I check around for a reseller, he said I could save a great deal on buying one used.

I took his advice and decided to check the Iwanna ( Classified Ads publication) to see if anyone here in my area was selling a used Mac. there was one listing for a Mac. It was a G3 Imac running OS 9.2, the guy was selling it for $150. I made the phone call, spoke with the seller about the system he said that he also had an Ibook but that it had Linux ( Kubuntu ) installed on it because he had no disk with a Mac OS for it. He said that too was $150. So, I asked for directions and told him I'd be there soon as I could get there. When it was all said and done I walked out of there with both systems for $250.

At this point I own a Mac Dinosaur, and a Linux notebook. I didnt want a linux notebook I wanted a Mac. So I call Bobby at Compusa, tell him my situation and ask if the 600mhz Ibook will run OS X Tiger. He said that was pretty sure it would so, Hetaher and I took off to buy a brand new copy of OS X for my new little machine. Of course I took the IBook with me to get the approval of an Apple Sales rep ( Bobby ) when I mentioned how much I paid for it he seemed surprised and said that I stole that machine, LOL. Well I purchased the Operating system and when I got home I immediately wanted to replace the Linux system. Another snag arose when I realised that the CD-ROM in the Ibook was just that a CD-Rom. The OS disk was in fact a DVD. Luckily I have an external USB DVD Writer so the problem solved. Nope not quite, I tried booting up the system while holding the " C " Key just like Bobby instructed, he said that " Hold the C key and then boot from the CD-Rom. Well i was doing this , howvere it wasn't seeing the External DVD ROM this way. After trying this 59 times and realising that it wasn't gonna just magically work the 60th time. I decided to start searching on the Internet (using my trusty old custom built 2.4ghz Win XP Sp2 machine) to see if I could find a hint on how to get this OS installed. I happened across a forum where someone was talking about doing exactly what I was attempting and they too could not boot the DVD using the " C " Key. Someone who is obviously more Mac suave than my self or the other poor soul suggested holding down the option key while booting and that this would see the external drive. Voila 2 minutes later I was installing OS X Tiger 10.43 on my new Ibook. about an hour or so later Im the proud ownber of a Macintosh Ibook no longer a Linux Notebook.

Those people that know me personally will tell you that the grass is green, the sky is blue, and that I'm going to modify any, I say again " ANY" computer that I own. The Ibook has already gooten a facelift as far as the Apple on the back of the LCD it now glows blue instead of White. I have other modifiactions in mind but so far this is it. However, give me a few days LOL.

So far, my using a Mac is like a 4 year old using a scientific calculator, but I really seem to like the feel of it. Its different from what Im used to but then again so was Linux when I first started playing around with it. I can say with confidence though that I will never completely get away from Windows or PC's. Mac's motto may be " It just works " but for those of us that know PC's really well, we too have a motto " Theres a reason Windows is still the most Popular OS"

Dont get me wrong Im looking forward to getting better with the Mac. But when I need to get the job done I have to get back in my real world and fire up my old trusty PC.

The Book Of Job Chapter 2 and a Lesson I didn't expect

Tonight in Wednesday night Bible study at church we continued going through the book of Job. Last week we had covered chapter 1 and to summarize Job had lost everything in the span of time it took 4 people to tell him about the losses back to back. This week we covered - the 2nd chapter. Pastor Madden maade some very good points throughout the lesson about accepting the things that go wrong in our lives as well as the blessings.

After the lesson, I mentioned to Heather that during the lesson I had recognized someone I had went to school with. I also mentioned how I remember treating this person as well, and Im ashamed to say It wasn't good. I remember making fun of her along with other kids. I had forgotten how mean I was at times when I was a kid, and to think about that now It makes me sad , and dissapointed in myself. I know this person probably doesn't recognize me, I hope not at least, and I dont say that for myself but I hope she doesn't because it would break my heart to hurt her again by having her remember the pain of being made fun when she was younger. Parents, and elders alike tell us while we're young to be cautious how you treat people because one day we'll wish we had treated people different. I cant explain why we never seem to listen we must learn for ourselves the hard way that what we were told then is true today. To anyone reading this, If I have wronged you in any way, please forgive me and hopefully you would understand Im not the same person now that I was then. I know that we all do things as kids that were ashamed of later but we shouldn't allow that to be an excuse. I went to church tonight expecting to hear a lesson about Job ( which I did) however, the Lord had another lesson planned for me personally by seeing Sherri I have this tremendous guilt of how I treated another human being, a sister in Christ. Even to put write about this now gives me a hollow feeling. Thank you lord, for the lesson in humility, and thank you for blinding her to recognizing me. I hope whenever our times come to pass away and be with the Lord that she'll know then that Im truly sorry for the way I treated her. For anyone that reads this, I would like to ask that you consider others feelings when interacting with them, I say this in hopes that you may never feel the way I do right now.