We’re afflicted, here in Bangkok, by an atmosphere of foreboding. The messy events of April-May might appear to be behind us. But this surface calm, in some ways, resembles a moonlit pool on a still night. You’d never suspect this pool is full of big sharks just waiting to erupt in a frenzy. All they need is for someone to toss them a nice chunk of something bloody. Yesterday’s bomb was the mere slice of a dorsal fin, a wee tear in our tranquility. A harbinger, we hope not.
It’s hard to find even glimmers of optimism, no matter who you talk to. Same thing goes for the world economic situation, we’ve got these streets full of morose bears carrying end-of-the-world placards. America’s got huge problems, Europe too, and China’s a disaster just waiting to happen, so where’s your money going to run to? You hear talk of second jobs, retirement plans back on the shelf, no Lamborghini this year, never mind the BMW’s all dusty. Nothing but hard times.
Anyway, Sara says just relax, okay? Things are what they are, and the future will bring some similar kettle of fish no matter how much I fret. So why fret? As usual, of course, she’s right. She doesn’t even charge me for all the advice. Only smiles, shakes her head, and wonders why I never take it.
The world’s going to hell in a handbasket. So I ask myself, if I switch from PC to Mac, will everything be okay nevertheless?
My friend Bill, a mathemathically adept computer whiz and digital missionary, tells me that my whole life will change as soon as I move to Mac. “Nobody who has changed from a PC to a Mac has ever gone back again.” This wisdom has already enjoyed a long life on the street , and it’s only part of his pitch.
Yeah, and not only that: he has a good friend who will sell me an iMac that’s pretty well new—still under warranty. This item is so slick that Steve Jobs reportedly wants it back, not to mention NASA agents have been sniffing around making Bill’s friend nervous, probably figuring this machine will help them put a man on Pluto. But he doesn’t care if anybody ever puts a man on Pluto or not, and he’ll let me have it instead. For about half price, he’ll do this thing.
So I’d have to be crazy not to buy it, right? Think of all the money I’ll save. What a deal, etc. Sara sees some wisdom in this, but she’s a Thai woman, and a shopper. Plus she loves to see me screw up.
A new Lamborghini can cost $450,000. If somebody sold me a nearly new Roadster for half price, I’d save $200,000. Which is quite a lot of money. On the other hand, I’d need to come up with the other half, which would mean cutting back some on my Camembert and premium sencha tea. And all I need this Lamborghini for is driving to the corner store, which some people would claim is a waste of a good Lamborghini.
So what to do, eh?
But Bill looks at me, radiating the kind of certainty only competent mathematicians ever really muster, and he says, “Trust me. It’ll change your life.”
And something tells me he’s right.
Illustrations:
Thanks to pool shooter Michael McCafferty for the moonlit pool. h
I finally did switch to MAC, about 5 years ago, and it’s true, it changed my life, in computer terms, and I never will go back to a PC. Couldn’t, wouldn’t shouldn’t, forget about it! That being said, take good care of your Mac, because fixing it will cost…. like fixing a Lamborghini compared to a Nissan. Everything is more expensive! But you’re hooked so what to do? Once you start there is no looking back, it is easier to operate, there are no viruses (Yes I heard the urban legend that they finally came up with one, but I have never seen it!) and it does really cool things! If you miss microsoft, most new Macs have Windows applications so you can still hunt and peck.
Good luck, treat it well, and it will treat you right!
Cheers Penguin
Howdy, Penguin. An agent of the devil, you be. And such seem to abound; here’s something from Facebook responses:
Nui Soonthornhut Have you got the machine yet?
Collin Piprell What makes you think I’ll succumb?
Nui Soonthornhut Because It’ll change your life 😉
Collin Piprell Can I eat it, if things get rough? (That’s the advantage of sled dogs over snowmobiles, e.g.)
Nui Soonthornhut Nobody have tried but if you might get famous to be the first. Tempting now? 😉
…
So, Penguin–when are you back to Shanghai? (Are you kitted out with a portable Mac; does the change-of-life extend to your China sojourns?)
Jesus is coming, and when he does he is going to throw all the computers and iPads and iPods and BlackBerries and mobile phones and MP Players and tweeters and twitterers into the lake of fire where they will burn forever and those of us who hated the whole business will go back to using pencils (remember them?) and will live happily ever after.
Yeah, verily, and pencil-pushing scriveners rejoice, eh? Wait a minute–didn’t Jesus chase a bunch of scribes out of a temple somewhere, for some reason? Or were those Pharisees? Maybe they were Pharisee scribes. Were they using iPads?
They called themselves scribes, but they were actually just scribblers. It was the money-changers Jesus chased out of the temple, because they wouldn’t buy iMacs and they were giving only 30 baht to the US dollar instead of the 40 baht they used to give.