It’s long been known that Windows has been the operating system of choice for businesses, and the clear winner when it came to home computers, as well. Macs have been known to be associated with niche markets such as in education and for creative fields such as graphic design. But is the sturdy foundation that Windows built more than a decade and a half ago being chipped away by Apple? All recent indications point to yes. Here’s a small snippet from an article featured on the Apple Insider website:

The media frenzy surrounding the iPhone may have helped Apple claim a record share of customers for its portable line at the expense of its rivals Dell and HP, says a new survey from ChangeWave. An early August study that canvassed 3,665 of the financial research group’s existing members’ buying habits has revealed that nearly one sixth, or 17 percent, of respondents who had bought a notebook in the past three months had chosen one of Apple’s MacBook or MacBook Pro models. The gain was an “unprecedented” jump from 12 percent in June and eclipsed the Mac maker’s previous record of 15 percent set in January.

I bought a MacBook Pro in late June for college and I absolutely love it. I’ll never go back to Windows. Everything just works on a Mac. Adobe CS3 is running like a charm, iLife ‘08, which I just upgraded to, is awesome, and Windows XP, installed via the Boot Camp Public Beta, runs faster and more smoothly than my previous eMachines (running XP with 1.5 GB RAM and an AMD Athlon 64 processor) desktop computer.

There are obvious disadvantages to running a Mac as well, such as software incompatibility (although the gap is quickly closing, especially with the move to Intel processors), peripheral incompatibility (such as camera memory cards that are factory preformatted for Windows), and a few other finicky things, but overall there are huge advantages to running Mac OS X. The software incompatability issue can be solved by installing Boot Camp as I mentioned above, which allows you to partition your hard drive and presents you with a boot screen allowing you to choose the OS you’d like to start up with.

Everything, in my opinion, runs more smoothly on a Mac simply becuase the same company that manufactures the computer also puts out the operating systems for their units. It just makes sense. I was a little concerned that I would be limited in what I was able to do with my computer if I purchased a Mac, but truth be told I’m able to do more than I ever thought possible on a PC, and in less time. The data proves this point, with Apple coming out on top when it comes to customer satisfaction:

No pun intended, but it looks like the “window” is closing on the success of the Microsoft empire. Bill Gates is set to step down from the company in the next year and a half, the company is looking into all sorts of new directions to diversify their business, and PC sales are slipping, most notably with traditional brand leaders such as HP and Dell. Here’s a comparison between Apple and Dell:

iPod and iPhone sales have generated a lot more interest in Macintosh computers, with users discovering just how user-friendly Macs really are. I’m excited to see what lies in the future for Apple, and what they will come up with next.

Leave your thoughts about your operating system of choice.

So last Friday could most likely be described as a preview day of sorts, in terms of college. I had one class. I’ve had three so far today, with one more tonight, and still without much of any real homework for at least another class period, I’m sitting here in the Cabell Library waiting for Jen to get out of class so we can go to dinner somewhere around here. I’ve had Art History 104, Focused Inquiry, and University 101 thus far today, and I have Psychology 101 at 7:00. It’s now 4:50 PM and I’ve been down here since 11:00 AM. I’ll be here until almost 10:00. Monday is going to be my heaviest day by far. I like all my classes so far, though, and I’ve met a few more people, which has been a little easier because a good 80% of my Focused Inquiry class is also in my University 101 class, so I’ve talked a little with a couple of the guys I sit with in my first class in the second one. Everyone I’ve encountered so far has been very nice, and as much as I liked high school (mainly the last two), it’s so cool to be able to get a fresh start and have a clean slate in front of me.

So we had three cats. My parents said they didn’t want any more because these were enough to keep up with. So much for that. I came home last night to find the newest edition to our family, a white (with some tabby markings mixed in) kitten who’s foster mom named Joey. We liked the name so we kept it. He’s four months old and has the most affectionate demeanor. He’s tiny, about five pounds, and wild and rambunctious! So far we haven’t introduced him to the other cats… we’re going to wait about a week and let them get used to his scent (they’ve been coming up to the room we have him shut in). The woman at the adoption place recommended this in order for them to all get along better. Here’s some pictures of him from last night:

I started my first class at VCU yesterday, Focused Inquiry (basically English except they don’t call it English anymore, and I think it’s a little different). The professor’s really nice, kind of funny, and he had us do a group introduction activity to break the ice. I met a few really nice people. I think I’m gonna like it down there a lot. Monday will be the real test, when I’m down there from 11:00 AM until 10:00 PM, with pretty much all of my classes.

So I’m hopefully going to be able to keep my job, which I originally had as just a summer position. I made my case by setting up a more permanent workspace than I had before. I was originally on this big red leather couch, but then it got moved and I was left with only a rolly chair. So, I scrounged around everyone’s cubicals and was able to find a desk, docking station for my laptop, new flat panel LCD monitor, and a new mouse and keyboard. Not bad! Here’s my very first real office workstation (it’s not that cool I know, but hey I feel special I actually have a real setup there now!):

So I’m currently installing Adobe CS3 on my Mac… I had a problem with Photoshop installing correctly before, but it’s working now. It’s taking about two hours altogether because there are eight DVDs it comes with. I’m excited. Can’t wait to try it out. Here’s a screenshot from the installation:

This has been an interesting week thus far. Things are kind of stabilizing. Nothing was ever that wrong, and I appreciate all the comments and Facebook messages (of both concern and praise) I got from my “vent post” this past weekend. Everyone seemed to share my sentiment about the mess up at The Dominion Club. I might have written all of that to let off some steam, but I wasn’t exaggerating how things are at the club, and I’m obviously not the only one by far who feels the way I do.

So anyway, as the post title suggests, I’m in a season of change in my life right now. One obvious change is college. I start classes Friday, and even though I’m living at home, there’s still so much change around me. A few of my really good friends have left this week for their respective colleges away from Richmond, and it’s just weird right now. It’s strange to think that they’re not coming back until Christmas. I feel a little disconnected at the moment not living on campus at VCU, especially after visiting Jen’s dorm and seeing all the bustling activity going on down there, but I know I’m going to meet a lot of cool people who I’ll end up becoming friends with, so it’s not a big deal. I’ve already met some really nice people in just the few times I’ve been on campus.

So I made another change today, hopefully for the better. I switched from Sprint to Verizon. Now I know I’m going to get a bunch of fingers pointed at me if I don’t first make this disclaimer: I know I’ve always told anyone who asked me why I didn’t have Verizon all the reason I didn’t want it (I was happy with Sprint, Verizon has (supposedly) bad customer service, and their phones are slow because of all the software they cram into them), but I don’t think I’m being completely hypocritical by switching. I have plenty of justification for my move. Just about all my friends, those I call and text both a lot and a little, have Verizon. Plus, for some reason, Sprint’s service has degraded a lot lately. I’m not really sure why. You’d think if anything it would get better as they build more towers and improve their network coverage, but who knows. I’ve had it for less than a day as I write this, but already I’ve noticed that I have a very strong signal everywhere I’ve been, including at church, which has notoriously been a really bad dead spot for my old service.

Review of the LG enV:

The service is better, sure. But what about the phone? It’s awesome. I got the new model of the enV by LG. The battery performance is far better than my old phone (often I would charge my old Samsung Blade all night and the battery would die after normal use by dinnertime), not to mention it’s just really cool. It has a dual-interface, meaning you can use almost all of its features on the front of the phone without opening it (and frankly you can’t even tell it opens up on first glance), but when you do open it you’re presented with a full “QWERTY” keyboard and crisp widescreen LCD that, believe it or not, comes close to the resolution of my MacBook Pro’s screen. The 2.0 megapixel camera has a very good white balance, and pictures actually look like they were taken on a full-featured digital camera rather than looking like the bright, washed-out pictures most phones’ cameras (including my old Blade) produce. Video quality is better than on many phones, and Verizon’s mobile internet service looks great and runs fast. Email came through almost as fast as over my Comcast broadband at home. Overall, after an afternoon of heavy use, I’d give my new phone 4 1/2 stars out of five.

Well I finally have a WordPress. I used to have a Blogger. That’s that, no need to elaborate, might as well jump right into things. So last night we had a really bad storm, the third bad one in a week, and probably fifth in a month. The wind was rediculous. The trees were bent sideways and it had to be about 60-70 MPH. We had a gazebo out back by the golf course that we used for parties and get togethers. Notice the past tense “had.” It was bungee corded on all four sides to trees and was a pretty hefty steel structure with a canvas top. It even had a chandelier in the middle. It survived the past few storms, but this one did it in. Here’s a picture of the mess out back. It looks like a tornado came through at first glance.

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve updated. I’ve had a lot going on. I apologize also that this is pretty much a vent post. I’m almost always a very, very happy person and don’t have much of a problem with anything. But I guess you could say I’m in a little bit of a rough patch right now. It’s nothing in particular, just little things that have started to add up lately.

First off, Gabby, my best friend, hasn’t even talked to me lately. No contact in three weeks pretty much, besides the one time I got her on the phone and went over to her house after not talking to her for a week and a half. Something had changed. Something’s different. I saw it when I went over there. I didn’t do a thing to make her not talk to me anymore, she’s just moved on I guess. She’s the kind of person who seems like she can only have one good friend at a time, and, for some reason, she’s moved on. I mean even though it hurts a lot, it’s the downside of having a female best friend. They’re just so up and down sometimes. Over the course of my nineteen years of life I’ve had about six people I would call a best friend at different times in my life. Three have been guys. Three have been girls. Out of the three guys, two moved and one got involved with a lot of stuff I didn’t want to be involved with that ended up getting him in some pretty serious trouble. All three of those situations are understandable. But what’s interesting is the three girls have all left my life in the same way. They’ve just flat out up and left me. I honestly can’t think of any reason why it’s happened, other than the fact that they all have striking resemblances to each other personality-wise. Not everything, just certain traits. Anyway, no matter how you look at it, with Gabby gone, there’s a big hole in my life right now and it sucks. I’ve got other good friends, but without that one person who completely knows and understands me unlike anyone else, I feel really out of the loop so to speak. There’s a couple groups of friends I have, and I guess right now I just feel like I’m just not in the circle. I’m friends with them, but I’m kind of off to the side. It’s just kind of happened. It’s partially my own fault, but I don’t know.

So I had a bonfire last night as sort of an end of summer kind of thing. I don’t have a problem admitting failure, so to be quite honest the whole thing was a flop. At least the first three hours. Everyone came late, so a few people got bored and left pretty soon after they got there. Some people had already eaten, too so I had a lot more food than I needed. It didn’t help that on the Facebook event page for the bonfire, fourteen people said they were coming (Maybe ten did at most out of those confirmed) and twenty people said they “might show up” as Facebook puts it. There oughtta be an option when you create an event to take that response away so that people have to give you a yes or no answer. I ended up buying food for about fifteen people that didn’t show up. From $50 at Wal-Mart, to $15 at Costco for burgers, to $25 for firewood and s’mores ingredients, I spent a little less than $100 on food. Parties are expensive and I think people would be more serious about their RSVP if they had to pay for all the supplies themselves. Don’t say “maybe attending” if you have no intention of showing up and just want to be polite, because frankly I think that’s more rude. Just say you’re not coming. For the ones who said they were confirmed and didn’t bother coming or changing their RSVP, this applies even more. I hate to be so blunt about it, but it’s true. This wasn’t the case with most people, only some. It got really fun right after Jenn, Lizzy, and Christina left, though. Not because they left- I don’t mean it that way. It’s just because of when they happened to leave. They were all three really bored and left right as Jen and everyone came with the firewood and s’mores stuff. I wish they would have stayed because it ended up being really, really fun in the end. After everything was over, we went to Wal-Mart and got some duct tape and went duct-taping at the front of my neighborhood. I don’t feel like going into the details of what you do, but if you don’t know what it’s all about, it’s one of the few ways of having some harmless fun and getting some pretty funny reactions out of drivers without doing anything illegal or causing any damage to cars.

This is a totally different subject, but I just wanted to bring up something that’s been on my mind for quite a while. I’m up at the pool all the time in the summer and while I like the place, sometimes I can’t stand to be up there because of the people. It’s a day to day thing, but some of the people up there are so unnecessarily rude and nasty, not to mention they act like they own the place. We’re talking about The Dominion Club here by the way if I didn’t mention where I go. I’ve talked before about how some of the people at Deep Run act, but the fact of the matter is some of them don’t hold a candle to the snoody and frankly downright immature behavior their parents show. It’s no wonder they act the way they do- look who raised them! I will have lived in Wyndham for eight years as of this week, and I thought things would either get better or I’d get used to it, but neither ever happened, nor will they ever. I don’t belong in Wyndham nor do I want to. Without being too hypocritical since I’ve lived here my whole life, Short Pump is like its own microcosm, almost like it’s own social bubble, protected from the “big bad” outside world known to everyone else as normal life, just like Deep Run. I’m so happy to be going to VCU where there will actually be some diversity and people who come from different areas and backgrounds.

Speaking of which, about a month ago, I had my orientation at VCU. I had mixed feelings about it before I went down there, not knowing what to expect whatsoever. I had heard many different viewpoints about life down there, but I was very pleasantly surprised at just how nice everything is and how nice the people I met were. I’m living at home my first year and then most likely renting out an apartment in the fan or somewhere around there with friends next year. So many people I’ve talked to have mentioned that they might do the same thing, so it should work out that I can get a group together and get a place.

So Thursday, college starts and I’m pumped. It’s not like I’m going to be living down there or anything, but I’m going to be involved with a lot of different clubs, activities, and most likely a fraternity, so I’ll be plenty connected to the place and hopefully meet a lot of new people. It’s so nice to have a fresh start.

With the college countdown underway, I’ve been living up the summer. I’m hardly ever home anymore because I’m always out doing something or another. I’ll get home sometimes as late as 2:00 AM and still get up no later than 8:00. I hate sleeping in. But sometimes I go up to the pool and chill out and maybe have a mid-day siesta. But don’t get the idea that I’m not doing anything this summer. I work several full (9-5) days downtown at the Attorney General’s Office. I love my job. Getting paid to solve computer problems and do general help desk stuff is really cool.

The most awesome thing I’ve done by far in the past week or so was going to the Dave Matthews concert Wednesday night with Winston, Lizzy, and Sarah. He and his band put on an amazing show to say the very least. The one thing I was surprised of, though, was the song set. He did a lot of unknown stuff and not a whole lot of the songs you’d expect him to. It was still a great show, though. We didn’t get home until 3:00 AM, so I was dying at work the next day.

So on a final note, this past week one of our really close family friends, Dave Rossell, passed away at his home in Charlottesville from pancreatic cancer. I was at his bedside when he took his last breath. I’ve never seen anyone die before. It’s so overwhelming. So many emotions all at once. Sadness that he’s gone, but relief that he’s out of pain, sympathy for his wife, Sue, and joy that he’s moved on to his eternal life, free from the troubles of this world. He was an amazing guy and I’m honored to have known him.

Well I’ve gotten a lot off my mind now. I hope I haven’t offended anyone, but there was just stuff I needed to say. Don’t take any of it too personally. Everything’s fine, I just needed to get this stuff of my chest. I’ll update again soon.