October,
2000
10/29/00
The
Halloween Edition
(This is the best I can do.
Halloween is just not one of my all-time favorite holidays. At least I'm
making the effort. That counts for something, I guess.)
In
the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd share with you this
old photo
of me -- one in which I display a childhood talent for making a...well...funny
face. Yes, Jim Carrey had nothing on me in those days -- why, I'm
sure that I could have pulled and stretched my face into Grinchlike countenance
if I cared to. (I kinda look a bit like a chimpanzee, don't I?)
I'm sitting between my two brothers, Tom and Jerry. Yes. They were named after the cartoon. I have been explaining that ever since my youngest brother, Jerry, was born. The naming was intentional. My Dad's bizarre sense of humor -- and of course, Mom acquiesced.
So, here we are, eating our mac and cheese and zucchini and Dad says, "Smile!" My brother Tom then encourages me to select from my extensive catalog of funny faces and present one particularly goofy pinched visage to the camera. Only too happy to oblige.
No,
I don't have a sister. Don't worry -- I didn't turn my brother
Tom 
into
a future transvestite. Actually, he's a happily married man (17 years
this past May) and father to my two nieces, Alesha and Kaelyn. But when
we were small, I longed for a little sister and somehow always managed
to coerce Tom (and later Jerry) into playing "dress up" in my
clothes (and sometimes Mom's clothes as well).
For years, Tom has been in denial of this particular playtime activity of lo many years past. Well, here's the picture to prove that it really happened. Heh. And there are others, too. MUHAAAHAAA!!! I just might get ambitious enough to dig them up and post them here. Hey, we were just innocent little kids playing around. Damn, Tom sure does look cute in my green dress and Mom's church hat.
I
wanted a Mac G4 before...but I really want one badly 
now.
That's not to say that I don't absolutely love and adore my Windows machine,
Mr. Wizard (sorry to disappoint the Mac Evangelists out there) -- he's
here to stay. But it sure would be neat to have a Mac -- and for
more than just troubleshooting Web pages in both OSs. One has to admit,
they are pretty nifty machines -- and, I must admit, quite stylish, too.
I like the way you can change screen resolutions on the fly (the screen
goes dark for only a few seconds before the new resolution takes effect)
-- with Windows, you have to do a complete restart.
And
the Mac OS9 interface is nice -- I'm finally getting used to the Finder
and the fact that 
the
applications' windows don't fill the screen like they do in Win95/98.
I do appreciate that the Hard Drive can display folders in List form,
duplicating the look of Windows' file managing utility, Explorer. When
I finally get my Mac (in Graphite), I plan on always being retentive when
it comes to adding file extensions (which you don't always have to do
with a Mac). This way, there'll be less confusion when I switch from the
Mac to Win98 and vice versa -- which brings me to another advantage of
having a Mac. The Mac OS can read from PC-formatted disks -- this way,
I won't be spending extra money buying separate Mac and PC formatted Zip
disks. Cool. This also means that when it's time for me to purchase 
a laptop, I'll be getting a PowerBook only. Not only will I be able to
run Win98 on it using an application like Virtual PC (albeit somewhat
slowly) -- but I will also be able to use the PC Zip disks with it. At
some point, I might want to get an actual PC laptop, too -- but if I can
only afford one laptop, it'll have to be a PowerBook.
And on a slightly trivial note, I've decided to call the G4 desktop, MacMerlin (in keeping with the "sorcerer" theme, the PC being Mr. Wizard -- I mean, let's face it, 'puters are much like conjurers and purveyors of magic). The PowerBook shall be known as Mini-Mac (an homage to Austin Powers). I know. You want to slap me. Okay, I'm a dork. And a Cross-Platform Evangelist.
This page webbed by Anne Hutchins. Yes I did it myself. Honest. Copyright
© 2000.
All rights reserved.