Most of you know that I am a bit of an Apple fanboy.  Planted at an early age with John F Kennedy Elementary Schools having set the entire school up on Apple computers and being one of the first schools in the area to get their hands on a Power Macintosh 7100 when I was in the 3rd grade, Apple was the ONLY brand of computer.  The only brand that really mattered anyway.

And then, Windows 95 happened.  My family got their first computer, an HP Pavilion desktop when I was in the 6th grade.  By then, Apple had all but gone away completely, and my folk’s HP Desktop was all the rage.  I don’t even know that it had 1 GB of memory, let alone of RAM, but it worked, and though we didn’t have (dial up) internet yet, we had the Encarta Encyclopedia and Reader Rabbit CD-ROMs that kept me occupied.  Windows 95 turned to 98, which turned into 2000 (my paps had ME…yuck), which by the time I graduated High School turned into Windows XP, the last Windows OS I was ever familiar with.

Fanboyism started when I was a sophomore / junior in college when I got my first iPod Classic.  20GB of space, a nifty little “clickwheel” and a game called “snake” made popular (again) by Nokia cell phones and it SUCKED, though most people pretended to love it and played it often.  I hated college, but I would’ve hated it even more if I didn’t have my iPod Classic.  Apple was back in my life.  Thank God.

ETSU tries to teach you how to perform in the Digital Media field on Windows machines.  Not bad considering I did learn a lot and fell in love with Photoshop, but yes bad if you consider that…They’re Windows machines.  So I learned on Windows machines and the minute I got my internship I started working on a Power Mac G5.  Once I got my first post-college full time job I was given a Macbook Pro to work on, and at that moment, I permanently retired the old Dell laptop I was given as a High School graduation gift and never looked back.  Since then, I personally have an iMac at home that’s about 2 years old, running Leopard, I’ve acquired a Power Mac G4 at home, also running Leopard, and I use an iMac running Snow Leopard at work.  No complaints whatsoever…

Until today.  And I’ve spilled this entire story just to get to this insignificant portion.  Assuming you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading.  As many of you know, iMacs come standard with wireless keyboards and “magic” mice, all of which use Bluetooth technology to function and operate.  Aside from occasionally holding my mouse upside down and time when I accidentally dropped my mouse in the floor while working in Photoshop, I’ve had no trouble with these tools.  This morning at a meeting, we paired my keyboard with my colleague’s Macbook Pro as part of a Skype presentation and it got ugly.

The Macbook Pro didn’t want to see my keyboard.  It was simply too good for this tiny piece of equipment.  “Hmm, I’ve got a keyboard of my own, built right in” it said, confidently.  And then, it happened.  Maybe it was fate, maybe it was a simple misunderstanding of one’s feelings, or maybe it’s the tequila, but either way, the Macbook fell in love with the keyboard.  The rest of the meeting went as planned.

Afterwards, back in our office, we set all of our equipment back up.  Macbook Pro on its own desk, wireless keyboard back in front of the ol’ iMac.  Wonderful.  I immediately begin working again and think Apple Mail has lost its marbles as it apparently doesn’t like my keyboard shortcuts.  Come to think of it…It didn’t like any thing I was doing with my keyboard.  So I tried a few extra buttons, including Dashboard and volume.  Nothing.  Not on my computer at least.  Across the room, the Macbook is turning its volume up and down and showing me the weather off and on as I press buttons.

No big deal.  We restart the Macbook Pro, and although it suffered through the painful process of restarting one’s self, it still just couldn’t…let…go.  My keyboard was still attached to the Macbook.  I restart my own computer, and upon startup, the iMac tried to “find” my keyboard…unsuccessfully.  I began to wonder if my iMac had simply disowned its old friend since it was sleeping around with a skimpy little Macbook Pro slut?  “Oooh, you don’t like my 27 inch monitor anymore, eh?  You used to like ’em big?  So, what’s that 15 inch got that I don’t?  I’ll show you, as far as I’m concerned, you’re undiscoverable!”

And just like that, my keyboard was left out in the rain.  The lock on the door had been changed.  So we started playing with the slut’s dashboard again.  Off and on, off and on, much like a slut normally does, when, in a final moment of desperation, we decide to turn the Macbook all the way off.  Suddenly my keyboard was left alone.  No ball and chain, no mistress.  Just itself and it’s 2 AA batteries, fully charged.

Thankfully, the iMac noticed that no one could type on her like the keyboard could, rendering all word processing programs useless and the lack of keyboard shortcuts were wearing the Magic Mouse out.  In a moment of humility, the iMac took the keyboard back, and there’s peace in the office again.

We’ll finish this off by saying happy birthday to one of my wife’s dream guys, Bono Dummo.  Erin Go  Bra-less for him.

Enjoy today’s haiku:

Ordering CDs
Will be a lot of fun and
a lot cheaper now