I went into this last weekend fully expecting to cuddle up to Apple's newest operating system release, Mac OS X 10.2. My wife and I planned on getting massive amounts of work done for our wedding reception / website / etc, but I justified any investment in 10.2 as time well spent. So I was jazzed about the whole thing.
The problem: I never actually bought it. Let me explain.
Saturday, we're working in our office. I'm in Photoshop scanning in pictures and working on web graphics. My wife, waiting for her turn at the Mac, looks over at me and says "This would go a lot faster if I had my own machine."
You gotta be kidding me. Like I'm going to say "No, that's a bad idea." I mean, I knew that we'd get her a machine eventually but I was thinking more along the lines of "Late Fall." Ahh, screw it! Screw the planning. Screw the expense, my wife wants a Mac! Let's go for it!
So, we go to Microcenter. We look at the machines. We narrow it down to an iMac (expensive), an eMac (cheap but big like a hippo) and an iBook (which I really want, but this IS for my wife). I spot an open box return eMac. I point it out. She thinks it's a little big. Too big? After much deliberation, we end up walking out with it and a tilt/swivel stand.
That sucker is heavy. It's big - it takes up a large slice of my wife's desk. It's also a nice machine... the screen is flat, the speakers sound good, and it's not too ugly. The only problem? After using it for about 45 minutes, the screen goes wonky. Oh, so there's a reason why the last owner brought it back. I should have known...
We quit working in disgust. We're way behind now.
Sunday, we go downtown for more errands (registering for the wedding/reception, since you're wondering) and when we get back around noon we tear the eMac down, box it up, and head back to Microcenter. Did I mention that thing is heavy? It's 68 lbs.
Microcenter. We go through the motions of returning the eMac and the whole time my wife is pondering it's extreme size. It DOES take up a lot of space. The iMac would almost certainly be a lot smaller on her desk. Don't I think so?
I suppose I do. More to the point - they're all out of eMacs.
So, in a weekend I just though I would be playing with a new OS, instead we end up with a shiny new iMac G4. Expensive? Sure. Did it COME with 10.2? No. (See, I got back around to 10.2.) So now you'll have to excuse me... I have to order 10.2 (19.95, thanks to the iMac purchase) and get some ram for the iMac (Apple - shipping the machine with only 128 megs? Criminal.)
Our work this weekend? Not even close to being completed. The budget? Shot to hell. Do we care?
Nah.
