Greenlee Gazette Goes Mac

Okay, as a Mac-O-Phobe, I have to state right out in front that I'm not officially "switching" from PC to Mac.  But I am broadening my horizons, and I am retiring my old (very, very slow Dell Celeron PC) computer to the guest room.  I got the idea one night a couple of weeks ago when the Windows 7 "whited out" repeatedly, and that--originally gorgeous, now merely annoying--blue circle would just spin for no reason.

When this happens, the computer is obviously doing something, I just have no idea what.  My first thought was to drop the computer from an extreme height, enjoy the destruction, and then buy a new Dell or HP to replace it.  Then a bell went off in my head.  Maybe I should consider a Mac.  Not because I hate Microsoft, but because I have zero experience using a Mac, and almost none using Adobe graphics products.

Now, I have no intention of quitting my job, especially in this climate. But I realized that I'm wasting away my (mandatory) Fridays off, and that I should probably find a project. What better way to exercise my brains, gain some knowledge and experience, and boost my resume than to learn how to do graphics on a Mac?  It could even help me with my current job, should we receive a file in this format.

But I didn't want to just run out and buy a new MacBook. That's an expensive experiment.  So, I put up an inquiry on Facebook, and very, very quickly got a response from my friend Tracy. She knew a guy (my new friend Ron) who had a PowerBook G4 for sale. After some back-and-forth messaging, and some advice from friends, I decided to go for it. Especially when I found out it was affordable, and included all the Adobe and Microsoft software I'd need to really complete my experiment! Woo-hoo!

Ron did a great job packaging the Mac up, and it was no problem to set up. There was a slight worry when I ran a software update, which took way longer than I thought it would.  But after that, it was easy-breezy. I'm using it now!

I know that beyond upgrading the memory, this machine is maxed out. Apple no longer updates their MacOS X for this model.  And yes, my friends Travis and Stupid Monkey Planet warned me about that. But this is just to get my feet wet, and my brain acclimated.  Once I'm fluent in MacIntoshese, maybe I'll jump in with both feet. But if anyone ever sees this blog become an affiliate of The Cult of Mac, send in the anti-cult brain-unwashers for me, okay?  I don't want to become a shill for any corporation!

I'll probably get some more RAM for it, just to max it out to its limit. And I'll have to learn (and unlearn) tricks and shortcuts (such as a keyboard shortcut for italics and bolds, etc.), and learn about the file structure and differences from Windows. But I thank Ron and Tracy for this chance to embiggen my brain!