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Yesterday i purchased a MacBook Pro.

After all of my training and experiences at the Madison Media Institute, Mac was definitely the way that i needed to go. Sure, it was a veritable assload of money, but hopefully, a couple good freelance jobs will pay it off. I've also invested in the Final Cut Studio and Adobe Creative Suite 5. So, if anyone needs any video or graphic design work done, let me know. Because i can do it.

I've spent pretty much the whole day sitting in front of my MacBook. I felt really terrible when i woke up, i couldn't move without my stomach lurching all over the place, so i didn't go to work. Maybe it's just me freaking out from having dropped so much money into an uncertain future.

But my conversion from the PC world over to the Mac world is not completely without precedent. I grew up in the 90s, when computers were beginning to show a prevalence over everyday life. You were starting to see them in more and more places, both public and private, and not just in rich niches. Since my main contact with these wondrous machines was, of course, school, the majority of my early learning on computers was on Macs.

In grade school i was fascinated by computers to a greater degree than most of my peers. I spent as much time as humanly possible on any computer i could get in front of, even if i had nothing to do, just to poke around with its software and see what i could get out of it. Through this constant tinkering, me and two of my friends expanded our computer skills far beyond any of our classmates. Even up through high school, we were the ones that the other kids came to when they needed help for even the most rudimentary processes.

Eventually, my dad purchased a computer for use with his home VCR repair business. It was a 386 with Windows 3.1 on it, and he paid out the butt for it, but it suited his needs. He wouldn't let me near it very often, but i did start to get a taste for the other side of this computer business. I didn't find out until later that he had a program on it for strip poker. If i'd have known that earlier, it might have had an impact on my development. Heh.

Meanwhile, my friend Matt's dad worked as a computer technician for a large company in the next city over from our small town. As a result, he was able to take home all kinds of obsolete parts that would otherwise be thrown away. For the first time, i was able to get a look at the insides of a computer and start tinkering with hardware. I started to learn a great deal about PCs, and the Mac world started slipping away from me. From there, i began to obtain my own obsolete computer parts from garage sales, Goodwill, and other such channels for little to no money.

When it finally came time that i felt i needed a computer that was up to date, in 2002, i struggled for a long time trying to decide between a Mac or a PC. In my heart, i wanted a Mac, but working things out logically, i knew that i'd be better off with a PC. I wanted something that would be compatible with more of the programs i thought i needed and the ones that i already had. I wanted something that would be compatible with the rest of my family's gear. And so, i turned to the Dark Side.

Once i owned a reliable PC, the Mac world was completely closed off to me. I had no contact with it whatsoever for the next several years. In fact, i became one of those condescending PC supremacists. Mac was the enemy, it was worthless, and it was just plain wrong.

The first time that i went to college, at MATC (Madison's Alternative To College), the entire school used PCs, but there were two Macs hidden in a poorly lit corner of the library. One day, all the computers i could find were taken, but as i ventured through the library, i came across these two unoccupied machines. I figured, what the hell, i used to be pretty darn good with a Mac, i can probably get whatever i need done on one of these. I'd heard, from my brother no less, that the then-new OSX was rather good. My brother is of course a vindictive Mac-hating PC guy. He's as deep into the Dark Side as Darth Vader. He'll never turn.

I turned out to be wrong. The Mac OS had changed completely and there was barely a glimmer of what i knew left. At least it didn't have At Ease, i guess...remember that bullshit? We had it at our high school.

But what was this row of icons at the bottom of the screen? I am referring of course to the dock. I had no concept of it at that time. What were all these strange icons? WHAT DID THEY MEAN?!?

I was completely unable to make the machine function in a way that remotely resembled satisfactory. I ended up meandering the library aimlessly for a while until somebody vacated a PC.

The New Zealand trip changed everything. Not because anything Mac-related happened there, but because it was the catalyst to my enrollment in Madison Media Institute.

MMI is dominated by Macs. The PCs have one lowly room where they rule, but the rest of the complex is entirely Snow Leopard territory. During my tenure there, i was trained in all kinds of great Mac-only software. I learned a great deal about the Mac equivalents of PC programs that i was wizardly in. It took a couple of semesters to break me down, but once i knew the power of an Apple, i knew what i was going to have to do.

Now that i've graduated, i finally went out and purchased my first brand-new Macintosh, a 15.4" MacBook pro with the Intel i7 quadcore processor. It's pretty much the top of the line right now. It only makes me sad because i know it'll be obsolete by the time i've paid for it.

But these first two days have been amazing. I'm doing things at blazing speed and with such great ease as i never thought possible. Sure, i've had iTunes on my PC for a while, because it beats the hell out of Windows Media Player, but i had no idea what was in store for me once i'd made a full conversion.

I have Final Cut Pro.

I have Adobe CS5, which, though available on the PC, just works better on a Mac.

I've been tinkering with things again, and i love a lot of the built-in programs, like Garage Band and iPhoto and Photo Booth. Don't ask me why i like Photo Booth, it's kind of a pointless program, but i had some fun with it this morning.

I had initially planned on retaining Microsoft Office, though, until i found out that Office 2003 won't run on it, only Office 2007. And if you don't know already, Office 2007 is bullshit. We recently "upgraded" at work from 2003 to 2007, and it pisses me off on such a regular basis i just can't stand it. Instead, i bought iWork, the current Macintosh equivalent of Office. I haven't used it yet. Here's hoping it's not the damper on this whole Mac orgasm i'm having.

So that's it. Today, Bill Gates controls one less Sith. As of yesterday, i am Jedi.