Greetings/
It's been a long time. I had to figure out where this business was heading. I had lost the keel to this boat and had felt a sinking feeling. Perhaps it was the politics of the year. Perhaps it was just getting older and my Apple flag was flying tattered and hard to raise anymore. Regardless, I needed some land and a place to squish my toes on again. A lot of life happened after 2007 and the coming of the iPhone age. We were going through some rough circumstance when I shut this site off back then. Honestly, life is simply too short to toil at something you don't know or love anymore. There are far more important things to do with the abilities you are given --the point is actually to be happy when you are doing something. When you can achieve that, only then can you make others happy (which is the whole point of living).
I ask you, how can I make your Macintosh a happy computer (person) if I'm not a happy user myself? It's impossible. What is possible for an eternal optimist? Everything is. I know I couldn't hold onto the exponentially fast-paced tail of the technology field anymore. In order to help others you always had to be two steps ahead of the game at any given time. I found my genius -unlike the young ones starting to appear at the new Apple Stores- somewhere in my roots. A little introspection led me to what I like: a technical challenge and the ability to learn something while having fun doing it. I found that in the games that led me to the computers in the first place. Heck, all of us wouldn't have a computer in our hands had it not evolved for the love of game. It's a common understanding that the solid state chip was improved because people's wants demanded better graphics and programming ability. The computers evolved because the games evolved. I chose to date myself and start looking the other way, knowing my upbringing during this age of change --to stake my claim in the 1970s and the 1980s (having sweated out the 1990s). My Apple Computer was actually rooted firmly in the 1976 game, Breakout, and the times when it all began. I am definitely an 8-bit kid that's decided to give you a retrobyte of the 64-bit world we now live in. Eight times ate --eat it up indeed.
Time is what it is -always moving forward. Here and now is definitely not then and there. You have to distinguish that. The mind will always process its thoughts in a linear fashion, no matter how binary a process you make of it. We have come into an information age that glorifies the binary rapidity of thoughts. It's challenged by a mind that still has to process all of that information in a time-honored way. That's a hard prospect, and we're going to have to live with the fact that it takes our mind time to piece things together for a cogent step forward. The steps can certainly be a binary, random motion, but the actually journey --going from point A to point B-- takes time and must be sequential in its motion. Am I getting too deep? I am, but that's exactly my point: we are all very deep oceans that only skim the surface of that realm in the ripples of light that flash out on the surface. It's a very Zen thought, that the scene on the top is always changing and turbulent; the real beauty is in the peaceful calm beneath it all.
It's funny, I have denied the wonderful invention of the iPhone to this day. You would think being a true Apple evangelist I would have been one of the minions standing in line for each release. Back in 2007, I regretted losing my keyboard to qwerty thumbs. I saw the inevitable bandwidth growing to a fast-paced, hands-on crowd. I just couldn't take it. Pardon my elitist attitude, but it's kind of like the passive gamer anymore: give me more wow, less real challenge, and a reset button that completely devalues the reason for the challenge. I grew up earning my 25¢ the hard way, and I'll be damned if someone can entertain my skills attaining better scores by senseless hours on the couch. I call it laziness. I like books, libraries, and the process of figuring things out. I like to see the time involved. Like a good film steeped in dialogue, I like to think and process --enjoying the story emerging from the depths and giving worthwhile glimmers in my eye. Like a great Seurat painting, it's beautiful to behold on the surface and absolutely awe-inspiring when you see the thousands of meaningful points of paint that make the whole. By really appreciating the effort, you gain a deep respect for what it takes to actually get from point A to point B. The journey truly is the best part of the destination --it makes getting there all-the-more worth it. I may not actually own an iPhone yet, but I know what it has taken to get us to this point. The day I literally, finally decided to get one --a moment on a particularly hard day in my own life-- was the day I went to apple.com and saw the memorial picture of Steve Jobs, just hours old. I openly wept. Strange that just as I felt the compelling urge to start back and accept this new thing - my captain for all these years was gone. Time has a funny way of telling you that change is the only constant in this Universe.
So where do I go from here? Where have all my Apples and the new rejoice in my cool iPad decided to point me? Forward. There's an indelible comfort in feeling charged about staking your place in Time. It seems to me, there are too many kids now that forget how to spell with proper English in this Generation TXT. Would it be so difficult to abide by the underlined words that your spell-checker points out -perhaps correct them before you post to the world? Is it so hard to really laugh-out-loud with someone face-to-face? I'm sorry, but video chat doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. Language too is a real power -best that we use it properly and not so lightly. I'm here to make sure that you know, like that insanely great genius did so well, that I will not settle and I will remain crazy. If it takes me being a curmudgeon and staunch old man with a history lesson, then so-be-it. There are no 'do-overs' in this one life. I really am getting an iPhone soon --taking my own advice and waiting until the 5 comes out so I can seize the price drop on the 4s. I personally believe it's a play on the phrase 'for Steve'. I think I'll take the cue. What the heck, I've always talked to my Macs anyway - the only way to fix them was by soothing them. :P
What a wonderful journey this is, has been, and continues to be. Thanks for the pome bites. Thanks for your attention (span). Welcome to my recharged vintage apple website. Sincere thanks to Dreamer Studios for making the web tree show fruit again. Just like the apple trees in my backyard, the best years of fruit are when the trimming has been good. As the man said, death is often the best remedy for life. We should often remember that we are all destined for an end - in so realizing we begin living.
Hello (again).
/Steve
//The-Missing-Byte.com
//The-Quarter-Byte.com
