The Right Choice

What a week.  The carrot of thanksgiving is dangling on a string so close to my face that I can nearly feel the coma that will ensue after stuffing myself with turkey, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pickled eggs and beets, broccoli balls, stuffing balls, pumpkin pie, and of course watching the Lions lose to the Packers. I will never understand how a body, mind, and soul can withstand the epic intrusion of euphoria and ecstasy during  Thanksgiving Day. Fascinating.

A Bedtime Story

Once upon a time, there was a young man in college who had a seven year old computer. It had a 19″ monitor. It was not a fancy flat screen. No, No my friends, this screen was Convex. It took up the entire desk in his apartment so much that the keyboard had to be placed across his lap when being used. When boys and girls came over to party, they all pointed and laughed at the young man. However, the young man took it in stride, since he was brought up to turn the other cheek. The young man also had two older brothers who occasionally gave him a rough time growing up, so no worries, he was  able to shake off the finger pointing, name calling, and laughing with ease.

The young man and his old gigantic computer were good friends. They depended upon one another for success. Without the computer, the young man would have found it much harder to keep up with his school work and without the young man and his constant desire to maintain the old computer, it would have died in the early 2000’s.

But, all good things must eventually come to an end.

One day, the computer finally said his goodbyes and left the young man with the fatal blue screen of death. The computer gave the young man no warning that it was approaching its final days, but he had a sagacious feeling. The young man just woke up, and there it was. He lost his school work. He lost his music. He lost his photos. Simply, he lost everything, including a part of his soul. The young man and that computer had been through so much together. All of the times it crashed, who was there to pick it back up and take it to a repair shop? The young man. All of the times the screen froze, who was there to reboot and run the defrager? The young man. When Windows would bring out new operating systems, who was there to install them? The young man, of course. The young man felt an intense sense of betrayal. Would there be revenge?

Even though the young man would take his old computer to the repair shop every few months, he still felt pride in the fact that he did not succumb to the pressures of a college culture and buy an evil, elitist, high school, simpletext talking, piece of crap, Macintosh.

But, all good things must eventually come to an end.

The young man was starting to get over the devastating blow. But he needed to act quick. He could not go on in college without a trusty sidekick to ease his pain during the lonely nights of winter. He needed aol instant messenger to bring him within just fingertips of his friends. How was he supposed to check his facebook page? How was he supposed to check his homework page and his email and his sports and his news? His mind began to swirl. He became lightheaded. The photos of drinking buddies and women in swimsuits and movie posters on his wall began to spin around his room. He felt like he was going to throw up. Within an instant, everything went black.

The young man must have been dreaming. He does not remember much. However, he does remember seeing this,

After the young man woke up, he decided, “I must get a Mac.” The young man took the necessary steps to make the purchase. Within a few days a brand new Macbook was sitting in his new apartment. It looked perfect. The color, the style, the smell, and the interface all enhanced his surroundings. He thought it was going to be hard to learn how to use a Mac, since that’s what everyone had been telling him since he was 16. But within a week, he had the basics figured out. It was even easier than Windows. There were less buttons, less maintainance, and less questions to deal with. It was a match made in heaven.

A year passed by and the young man had yet to struggle with a crash or a freeze or sluggish performance, or any issue, even of the slightest thing, at all.

But all good things eventually must come to an end.

He was out of college now. He purchased the new operating system for his Mac. He installed it, with ease. After a few days he noticed that his trash can on his computer would not empty. He figured it was just a minor issue and that Mac would have it fixed within no time. However, a few more days passed and one day when the young man came home to check his email, there was a white folder with a question mark blinking on the middle of his screen. “Oh No!,” the young man shrieked. “What could this possibly mean? Is my life going to end right here right now?” The young man furiously sprinted to the telephone and contacted his AppleCare Protection Plan people. They reassured the young man that it was no big deal and that only his hard drive crashed. “My hard drive crashed? So, you’re telling me I lost everything and my computer doesn’t even work now?” the young man asked. “Well,” Mac said, “we’ll overnight you a box. You put that computer in the box. We’ll pay for you to overnight it back to us. And we’ll have you a brand new computer within 3-6 days. Does that sound okay?” Does that sound okay? That sounds great, thought the young man. But then he asked, “How much is it going to cost to get my new computer?” Mac replied, “Sir, it will cost you nothing. When you bought the computer you also bought the AppleCare Protection Plan. You’re fully covered for three years.” Holy Sh**, Thanks!” exclaimed the vociferous young man.

Without a doubt, the box arrived the next day. He packed his computer in the box and sent it away. Three days later there was a brand new, free of charge* computer sitting in his bedroom. Oh it was bliss for the young man. He never had this kind of service or this kind of satisfaction with his old hag computer. Life was good. Sure, he lost his music and his photos on his mac when it crashed, but he got his speedy reliably good looking excuberant computer, the important part, completey replaced.

But, all good things must eventually come to an end.

Another year or so passed by. The young man bought another new operating system from Mac. This time, it was flawless. There were no problems. But one day, the young man came home and all of a sudden a few of his keys didn’t work. Delete, Enter, I, Eject, (, [, and the down arrow had all stalled. He was perplexed. He called applecare again. They sent a box this past Tuesday. The young man sent the computer back out that same Tuesday. And here today, as I type this story, the FedEx man pulls in and drops off my fully repaired, and beautifully stylistically looking Macbook. It is running faster than ever. They repaired everything that even looked remotely wrong. Yes, they had to reboot my system so I lost a lot of stuff, but Ah Hah!, I backed up my system first so I have all of my important information saved on a separate flash drive. Needless to say, I’m living happily ever after. Give Mac a Chance! With Mac, there is never a need to panic. Plus, they look cool.

The End.

Have A Good Weekend!

Paul

*You must purchase applecare to get this great service.