52LTD Blog

It was like any other day. I came into work. Got my coffee. Settled into my desk. But when it came time to login and begin working, something had changed. Today would be the day that I would give up my PC and join the rest of the agency in the iWorld. It was a day I had avoided for months. Today I would succumb to the power of Steve Jobs and begin using a MacBook Pro.

Growing up, my first computer experience was with a Mac. The original Apple Macintosh (circa 1984). A little rectangular tan box that allowed me to play a little game called Oregon Trail. All I can seem to remember was every time I’d be about to ford a river or escape a tribe of wild Indians, a fatal error message would appear ending my personal manifest destiny. Now two decades later, that little black bomb is still scorched into my brain.

In the marketing and advertising world in which I work now, the account people always had PC’s and the creative had Macs. It was the whole left-brained vs. right-brained thing I guess. You ascribe to your tribe. But in the last couple of years, that seems to have changed. Now most everyone in the Creative Class, even some on the client-side have migrated to Apple. It was probably the whole iPhone phenomenon that got people hooked. The digital gateway drug. iCrack that perpetuated the Apple addiction beyond just designers and illustrators.

Until now, I had been holding out. A stalwart PC’er who was scared of change. I had made through high school and college with Windows. And in my professional career I had dazzled clients with my PowerPoint and Excel skills over the years. I was afraid of having to start over with Keynote and Numbers. But to my surprise, my new Mac came pre-loaded with Microsoft Office, so it was just a matter of maneuvering tool bars and uncovering new short cuts. Once I got that down, it was like I had never left.

So, so far so good. I still get tripped up on the whole Command C versus Control C thing. But I’m digging the Dock. Not sure how I feel about dongles.

Outside of work I still live a conflicted life with a foot planted in both camps. I have an iPod and iTouch, but recently chose a Droid over an iPhone. I started downloading my music from Amazon instead of iTunes. I still prefer Chrome over Safari. And I’d rather watch John Hodgman on the Daily Show than anything with Justin Long.

Maybe it all comes down to simple geography. After all, Portland, Oregon is located between Gatesland (Redmond, Washington) and Jobsville (Cupertino, California), at the end of the Oregon Trail.