I have a confession to make. I read comic books. It’s not like I’m confessing to dealing drugs, or looking at porn on the Internet (cough-cough) but it is something that seems to be extremely unpopular with some folks. They hear you read comics, and they think you are of lesser intellect or something. But the truth is, comics are fantastic, and offers some of the best reading materiel out there today. I am not talking about Archie comics here, either. I am talking about Bone, Astro City, Preacher, 100 Bullets, Metropolitan, and other of that sort. Great reading and I highly recommend it to anyone.
Why bring this up at a Macintosh related website? Well, besides the fact that one of my life goals for years was to become a comic book writer (and one of the reasons I started My Mac back in 1995, to hone my writing ability) I am proud to introduce a new writer to the My Mac staff. His name is Dwayne McDuffie, and besides doing some product reviews here at mymac.com, Dwayne also happens to be a comic book (and now, Animated Series) creator and writer. You can learn more about Dwayne at his web site.
The (not long) story of how and why Dwayne is writing here at My Mac is a tale for another day. But it does bring home just how much the internet and a Macintosh can change your life, make far away people seem not so distant, and bring people with vast differences together over a common interest or goal. It can, and does for many people everyday, be a tool for commerce, a portal to a love life, and anything else you want it to be.
Who would have thought, back six or seven years ago, that the writer of my then favorite comic book, Icon, would one day actually be writing for a project I created (mymac.com) and that it would actually have nothing to do with Comic books. If you had told me that, I would have laughed at you then.
But thus is the power of the Internet. (And the lure of free products for reviewers!) People can pool their collective minds, and create something they never could have before. They can form new, close personal friendships with other people, and yet never meet each other face-to-face. They can communicate in real-time via a computer, from a world away, and trade pictures and sounds back and forth, just like we first saw in 1950’s science fiction stories.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine of many years was home on leave from the U.S. Air Force. He is a career military man now, and has been for over eleven years. He is currently stationed in Korea, some 8,000 miles from my house. Talking on the telephone is VERY expensive, and while I love the guy like a brother, I just can’t afford a $400 phone bill very often. So when he was home a few weeks ago, we got together, exchanged email addresses, AIM screen names, and Napster screen names. (Did you know you could use Napster to chat? True.) So now we “talk” at least two or three times a week over the Internet. It is very much like having my friend home again, something I miss very much.
There is much more to the Internet than the latest news. Or the latest Dot-Com IPO or collapse. The Internet is now a portal to your friends and loved ones. A way to meet peers you never would have before. Or, for me lately, a way to keep in touch with close friends and meet new ones.
What are YOU doing with the Internet?
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