Not Mac Same at all

We have a new guy in the house. Nooo, it's not another cat, it's a new iMac! My PowerBook G4 that's going on 6 years old is still working, except that the USB port I use for the mouse has been dying, and I am very mouse-centric. Yes, it does make me sad to pass this machine along to MrB, whose iMac is nearly 9 years old. Dubya's stimulus check should be on the way soon, and I truly hope it gets here before the credit card bill does! No new CDs for me this month, somethin's gotta give.

Now, I am not an early adopter, and although I loooove my Macs, back when I first got the PB it took me quite a while to get used to OSX. It was radically different from the previous OS, and it left no doubt that my days as a Mac whiz (I was a Mac network manager back in ancient days) were O-V-E-R. So I've gotten really used to Panther, let Tiger go right past (based on the advice of Happy Mac*), here I am with Leopard (so I guess this really IS another cat).

After the hectic ordeal of getting it home yesterday (long story) I finally got it out of the box today. First impression... it smells good... aaaaah... brand new. Second impression, it's gorgeous. Third, I am again completely overwhelmed with technology stuff I am not familiar with. It is comical. I am in full "hillbilly gol-dang, looka here whut this dang thing just did" mode.

When I was setting it up, it took my picture! I'm not used to having a camera pointed at me, and then there are just so many widgets and gadgets, some new and some just options I didn't have before. I am techno-stressed. I really like to have minimum gadgets, and only very useful ones, so when it asks me if I want to set up such and such, I am looking for the "I don't know, I have to do some more reading, where's the manual?" button.

To make my techno-shame even worse, the new guy came with a free iPod and a printer! Now, I am going to make a very surprising secret confession, but I've never had an iPod. Yes, that's right, the music nut had no iPod. I am just an old fuddy-duddy CD lover who downloads almost nothing and I hardly ever do headphones. I either need to hear what's around me, or I need to be asleep (preferably with ear plugs). Plus it's kinda hard to get someone to autograph your download -- I like to buy from the artist and get them to sign it. Old fashioned. And I am writing this on the old machine. It's now the comfy old chair with the stuffing coming out, but the new guy is waiting for some attention. Macs have always been kind of personal, there's a relationship there, nearly like it's a person. Now, someone tell me why my computers are all males? Even though this is decidedly showing his feminine side with that big X.


*they had nothing against Tiger, just didn't see any real good reason to upgrade our particular machines.