Return from the Dark Side.

In 1986, my parents purchased our first Macintosh computer. It was a Macintosh Plus, and their biggest decision in buying it was whether to get the one with the internal hard drive. Seven years old at the time, I played with the tutorial and learned all about the function of a mouse. It was heavenly.

Several years later, my mother bought the Macintosh LC. From there she got a Performa. Upon entering college in 1997, I got my own power Mac. Then, in 1999 I upgraded to my first laptop: the G3 PowerBook. It was $2,500 and I thought no computer could ever be better. That G3 laptop lasted more than four years with no problems. And in that time, I acquired my mother's hand-me-down G4 desktop.

And then I switched to the dark side. I was using a PC at work, and I got used to it. So I sold the perfectly-functioning G3 and G4 on eBay and got myself a Toshiba in February 2003. By January 2006, the thing had died. It was fond of overheating and turning itself off. Because I had little money at the time the damn thing dropped dead, my father kindly got me an HP; it was inexpensive and not top-of-the-line, but I only used it for Internet use and word processing.

A few months ago it started overheating and turning itself off. Watching stupid videos? No go. Automatic shutdown.

For years, I would explain to people the difference between PC and Mac users: PC folks use their computers. Mac folks love their computers. How did I ever manage to forget my roots? Was the less expensive alternative (the PC) worth my time and frustration? After some soul-searching, I came to the conclusion that the answer to that question is a resounding no.

No! No more viruses. No! No more crappy hardware. No! No more having to purchase peripheral devices.

So yesterday, while Chris lay in bed sleeping, I crept out of the house and went to the Apple Store, where I purchased myself a MacBook. It's wonderfully fabulous.

For four years I've been away in the Darkness of PC-Land. It feels good to be home.