I, as many of you know, am a Mac user. I bought my first Mac this last January. I’ll have to admit that I never thought that day would come. The reason is that I used to make fun of Mac users when I was younger. Although even legacy Mac OS users have to admit that anything pre-OS X was not very good. Anyway, since buying my Mac I have recommended the Mac to everyone in my family. Most people have the misconception that Macs are A LOT more expensive than their PC counterparts. This actually isn’t true. Although some models are slightly more expensive, I can show you some cost comparisons that I created. The numbers are actually pretty close. Anyway, I have made it my personal goal to convert as many people as possible. That being said, I don’t think that Macs are for everybody. They’re for a select group of people. So, if you’re a member of my family, you’ll be using a Mac before too long.

As you may have noticed many of us, including me, have a hard time being a fan of the Harry Potter movies. I recently went and saw the latest installment of the Harry Potter movies: Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. This movie is based on the 5th book of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Being one of my least favorite books in the series, The Order of the Phoenix is not one that I have read many times. I’ve only finished the book two times and the last time I read it was over two years ago. I think this was the key element in my enjoyment of the film. It had been so long since I had read the book that I wasn’t entirely sure what they cut out of the movie. When my wife said she didn’t care much for it when it finished I had to ask why. She went on to list about 20 things that they didn’t get right. As I remembered the various plot points she talked about I realized that they did miss a lot, however it didn’t damper the fact that while I was watching the movie I didn’t remember these things and had therefore actually enjoyed the film. That being said, I don’t think that if I had not read the book at some point I would have enjoyed the movie as much. The thing I like the most about the Harry Potter series of movies is that they remind me how much I love the books. That alone is good enough for me.

Lately I’ve been telling various stories about people on my wife’s side of the family, but have been unable to determine my relationship to them. Those about which I speak are my wife’s brother-in-laws or my wife’s sister’s husbands. After much debate with others, I have come to the conclusion that I am in actuality not related to these people at all. Technically, they are not my brother-in-laws. So what are they? My wife’s brother-in-laws. This is a confusing thing to tell people when trying to talk about these individuals. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: So I was talking to my wife’s brother-in-law today…

Other Person: Wait, your brother?

Me: No, my wife’s sister’s husband.

Other Person: That’s your brother-in-law. Your brother is your wife’s brother-in-law.

Me: No, he’s not my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law would be my wife’s brother.

Other Person: Wait, so you’re talking about your brother-in-law, right? Your sister-in-law’s husband?

Me: Forget it. Okay, so I was talking to some random guy…

After watching Star Trek the Next Generation this evening, I’ve come to the realization that Apple rules the future of technology. First of all, the computer panels throughout the Enterprise use multi-touch displays. Furthermore, Captain Picard’s computer in his ready-room has a screen and one physical button. This is obviously a futuristic version of the iPhone.

Well, we have recently set up accounts for other of our siblings, so Ben and I won’t be the only ones who force our opinions onto whoever stumbles on our blog. I am interested to see what Matt, my older brother, will write about. According to him, he won’t blog about the same kinds of things that Ben and I always write about. By way of introduction, Matt is about to start law school, he has a wife and a baby girl. He is very musically inclined, and knows as much about producing commecial music as anyone I know, and far more than most. Ben and I have tried to recruit the other siblings to chip in with their own random musings, but thus far, no luck.

Today at work it was decided that everyone would bring in chips or salsa or other such snacks and we would have what we now term “Salsa Fest”. One of my coworkers provided habanero peppers to anyone brave enough to try them. Wanting to prove my manhood I decided to give them a shot. Needless to say, it was a painful experience. After watering eyes a runny nose and some intense pain, I found the following facts comforting:

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If I had any choice I would never use a Microsoft product again. Unfortunately, Microsoft has infiltrated an conquered the office in which I work. Therefore the “office” I work in is Microsoft Office (I know that isn’t funny). Lately I have been watching all the old videos where Mac makes fun of Windows, and Windows makes fun of Mac. Whether professionally produced or made by avid fans of one or the other technology, these videos are in general entertaining.

One little point that Microsoft or its fan base constantly poke fun at is the bouncing Mac application icons. Macintosh decided that to let its users know when an application was loading, they would make the icon for that application bounce. Annoying? Maybe. Useful? Yes. After years of this criticism (and I have the video to prove it), Microsoft came out with Windows Vista and Office 2007. If you are currently using a program from Office 2007 I would direct your attention to the upper left hand corner of the screen. There you will see the Windows Pearl, and what is it doing? Blinking.

In a beyond obnoxious way, Microsoft has overlooked their previous and oft repeated slight on the “Mac Bounce” which actually has some use, and put in what amounts to a blinking icon on the task bar of Windows Vista and in every Office program. You may ask yourself, “What is the function of this blinking pearl?” Possibly to annoy? Most would conclude that it has no function, but I think its Microsoft’s way of letting a user know that they are using a Microsoft product and, more importantly, it hasn’t crashed yet.

Apple did the thing that I’ve been dreading for months now: release the new 24″ iMac. Why did I dread this day? The short answer is that every time technology comes out that is better than what I have, I feel this overwhelming desire to have it. I of course won’t be getting a new 24″ iMac any time soon. The funny thing is that the new iMacs aren’t really that much better than the one I currently have. They just look a little nicer and have small speed increases in graphics and processor power. The computer I have is more than adequate for my needs. I’m just greedy, I guess. Here it is.