Game ON!

Great journalists aren’t born, they are molded via a long process that includes sleepless nights, odd dietary habits, a passion for writing, and the need to get to the truth as they see it. With the exception of odd dietary habits, I’m not one of those people.

I’m a writer that writes for the love of seeing what I do in print and available for the world to read. I’ll never get rich, or most likely earn a living doing what I enjoy, but I stopped caring about wealth a long time ago. I got into podcasting for the same reason. While many of you know me exclusively from my ramblings at MyMac.com and the MyMac.com podcast, I actually got my first taste of my (as my wife likes to call it) “hobby” writing for the Washington DC area’s premiere Macintosh user group, the Washington Apple Pi (or WAP).

I joined the WAP probably 7 or 8 years ago because there were things that I wanted to learn how to do that was difficult to find information for on the internet. Add in slow dial-up speeds that was the norm for the time and my frustration in seeing dead or useless links. This is what spurred me to want to find live like-minded individuals who could help. I found them and more at the WAP.

You couldn’t ask for a better group of enthusiasts who were warm, easily approachable and able to take the stupidest question (of which I had many) and turn that into a fun, informative day or evening. When those occasions arose where I had done something incredibly foolish and turned my Macintosh computer from a useful tool of productivity into a lump of non-responsive plastic and silicon, I knew where to turn.

The WAP, among its many services to its members, offers what is affectionally known as the Tuesday Night Clinic. For a small voluntary fee, their Mac Gurus will do everything within their power to return your Mac to its pristine original condition. No making appointments required, just show up and wait your turn. This isn’t a job for them as they don’t receive monetary compensation, it’s simply a labor of love.

Some of the things they used to do unfortunately had to be abandoned as the years rolled by due to either their impossibility (the New York Macworld Expo bus trips), or because it became too expensive to host (the bi-annual Garage Sales). New activities geared toward actively participating members took there places. The Special Interests Groups (or SIGs) have come and gone and on occasion been raised from the dead as a few members will gather to share their knowledge and expertise.

These are things that you won’t find at a website, a CompUSA, or an Apple Store. These are things that only a true devotee or someone with a passion for the way certain things work can give you. Considering that the cost of a yearly membership to the WAP is only about $50 for a year, the price of admission is low.

Those that are far outside the DC area that might argue that joining the WAP would do little good. But I’m willing to bet that if you look a little, you’ll find a similar group in your area. User Groups have fallen on some hard times with the advent of the internet and broad-band connection speeds. Some of the longest lasting groups have faded and disbanded. In a frequently impersonal world, that’s a shame because knowledge is meant to be shared and the best way to give or receive that knowledge is face to face.

Find a local user group and join. Share your knowledge and I bet you find that you get back so much more.

Join me and see what I mean at the Washington Apple Pi’s General meeting on Saturday, March 24th at the Luther Jackson Middle School at 3020 Gallows Road, Falls Church, Virginia between 9:30AM and 12:30PM. You may find a kindred spirit or two.