This Month: Mike Struggles to Find a Good Topic, and Ends Up Rambling About Football, Snow, Email, Christmas, Movies, Software Updates and English Class (And Still Never Finds a Good Topic!)
All Good Things…
If you’ve followed my biographical paragraphs at the bottom of this column for the past two or three months, you know that when I’m not in front of my computer, I’m playing football for the varsity team at my high school. The team just concluded the most successful campaign in school history, going 9-0 in the regular season and placing third in the final state-wide Associated Press poll. Unfortunately, we ran into the second-best team in the state in the quarter Final round of the state playoffs, and so it was time for me to hang up my helmet and put away my shoulder pads.
It seemed only fitting, then, that as I write this column in mid-November, I should try to find a common thread between Macs and the game of football. To somehow tie together the two things that give me the greatest pleasure. There has got to be something they have in common.
You know what? There’s not.
Oh, sure, I could mention the fact that in both cases, the stronger, more powerful, or faster you are, the better you are. But that’s hardly good enough to write a whole column on. In fact, I can’t think of any way to compare football and computers that I can adequately write a couple thousand words on. It can’t be done.
Oh, well. It was a good idea, anyway.
It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like…
A snowstorm! Well, maybe not quite, but as I write this, here in Northwest Iowa we’re having our first true night of sleet/freezing rain/maybe a little snow, too. And you know what that means… no school for us! Well, we’re hoping, anyway.
Come to think of it, a day off would be kind of nice. The weather’s too nasty to go anywhere (and, living in Northwest Iowa, there’s not many places to go anyway!), so I’d be stuck at home all day. That what give me an entire day to surf the ‘Net. (Actually, I’m sure my parents would have other plans for me, but it’d be nice.)
Which is exactly what I need — an entire day. Now that I’ve come down from my initial euphoric state in response to the wonders the Internet offers, I’ve decided that there’s not enough hours in a day to effectively take it all in. It’s impossible. It’s the biggest drawback I can find to what otherwise is a truly amazing form of communication. However, finding information on the Web takes time and some searching, you have to trudge through dozens — sometimes hundreds — of newsgroup postings to find anything of substance, it seemingly takes forever to download a file from an FTP site, and in order to take part in an IRC chat session, you have to be at your computer constantly in order to keep up with the conversation.
The saving grace in all of this? Electronic mail.
If there’s a better way of doing things, I have yet to find it. Email is wonderful. I’ve mentioned before how great I think email is, but I feel the need to say it again. You can quickly write a message to a friend, or ask a question of someone in the know, or take part in a mailing list. You can receive a file without having to search any libraries or connect to a FTP site.
The best part is, you can send your messages and leave. You can come back again when it’s convenient to retrieve your new mail. There’s no need to stay in front of your monitor any longer than you have to. I start up Eudora, hit command—M, and walk away. Come back in a little while, disconnect, and read my mail when I’ve got a spare minute. Reply to those messages at my leisure, queue them, and hit command-M again. The cycle repeats itself. Nothing is faster, nothing is cheaper.
Maybe I’m just disgruntled at the slow pace of downloading Web pages and software files because I still have a 14.4 Kbps modem. Maybe I’ve just learned to love email so much because lately it’s the only thing I ever do online. Maybe, now that football is over and Christmas vacation is coming, I’ll have time to surf the Web some more and find it to once again be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It could happen.
But, I’ll still love email.
All I Want For Christmas…
Well, no one wrote in last month telling me not to include my Christmas list, so I figured every one must want to see what I want. (Yeah, sure. Whatever.) Anyone out there who feels moved to do so, please feel free to send me any of these things as a token of your gratitude for allowing me to waste your time with this list. 🙂
1. A brand spankin’ new computer — PowerPC chip is required
2. A T1 connection to the Internet
3. A shopping spree from MacMall
4. About 40 hours in a day, so I can play with all the new stuff I’d buy
5. A lot of No-Doze, so I’d be able to stay awake for all 40 hours
Santa Claus? Are you out there?
More Movie Talk
As you read this, First Contact should be in the theaters. Be a good Trekkie and go see it. Tell ‘em the Wall sent ya. (Heh-heh. I’ve always wanted to say something like that. As if anyone would know who you were talking about anyway.)
Now, exactly how much money is Apple paying to get their PowerBooks into the hottest movies around, huh? If you would ask anyone who does nothing but watch movies to name every brand of notebook computer they know, I doubt they’d be able to name another one besides Apple.
This time I’m referring to Ron Howard’s new flick, Ransom. It’s amazing how both the hero and the villain use PowerBooks to communicate — to each other, even. This time, the ‘Books are even unmistakenly running the MacOS. There’s just something about seeing Mel Gibson and a PowerBook in the same scene…
By the way, the movie was quite good, too.
Revised and Updated
Just in time for Christmas, too. The scary thing is, I look forward to these updates. I really do.
For starters, is everyone upgraded to System 7.5.5 yet? If not, you should be. I still don’t notice much difference from System 7.5 myself, but it sounds cool. I can’t wait for System 7.6.
Now, how about that web browser? Netscape released version 3.01 of Navigator a while back. Microsoft is finally getting around to releasing a beta of Internet Explorer for Mac 3.0, too. (And guess what? MIE 4.0 for Windows 95 and NT is coming out, too!)
Even email programs are getting into it. Eudora Lite was upgraded to version 1.5.5, and word has it we’ll see Lite version 3.0 soon. I can’t wait.
My English Teacher Approves
Taking Senior Comp isn’t the most fun in the world, but it’s not that bad when you have a year’s worth of essays already pre-written. My first paper was a revised version of the “Net Censorship†article I wrote last March. It got an A! I was quite happy with that fact, especially since my English teacher is a devout PC advocate. In her own words, she is “annoyed by Macs.†It’s gonna be a long semester.
So Long!
Well, I have effectively wasted an entire column without really saying anything. Maybe next month I’ll turn over a new leaf for the new year, and actually start to point this column in one direction at a time. Probably not, though.
I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hannukah, and whatnot. I hope you all enjoy the holiday season.
See you next year!
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