The Apple in my eye


It’s here. The MacBook Pro. The latest amazing development from Apple. For those who think that Apple or Mac users are still primarily an anti-Bill Gates fan club who are blindly loyal to Macs because of their hatred of PCs, they are way behind the times. Those crazy devoted Macites are just lucky they chose Macs, even if for silly or rebellious reasons originally, they chose a winner. By the way, without going into detail, Bill Gates makes money whether you buy a PC or Mac. So if you hate Bill Gates, get a yellow memo pad and a Bic pen, but my guess he owns stock in those companies to. So get over it. Apple computers are not a fad. They are simply better, and in every possible way.

Let’s be clear. I am not a PC Man, or a Mac Man. I have gone back and forth between PC and Mac over the years – Atari 2600 (first computer!), Laser 128 (Mac), Toshiba T-1000 (PC), Apple IIc, Compaq (PC), PowerBook 180 (Mac with 16 shades of grey!), many WinBooks (PC), PowerBook G4 (Mac). (left several noname PCs out of the list) I am loyal to none of these.

I am a Ministry Man. My ‘Ministry Manifesto’ or life mission statement is to “Reach and Teach as many children as possible with the Good News of God’s Love, and in the process to Enlist, Equip and Encourage others to do the same.” That is why I exist. I work hard at this mission both as a children’s pastor at the Village Church, as well as the founder of Kidology.org I don’t have time to love or promote a computer simply for the sake of loyalty or fandom. I live to love and promote GOD. The computer? It is only a tool. So why my passion about the Mac? (Have you ever met anyone passionate about a PC? Defensive maybe, but never happily promoting and trying to encourage others to get one!)

You gotta try the 360 view here. Hit ‘play’ and then move mouse around.

I am passionate about my Mac because since I switched to Mac in February of 2004 I have had hundreds of additional hours for ministry. MY NUMBER ONE REASON IS STEWARDSHIP OF MY PAINFULLY LIMITED MINISTRY TIME. The quality of what I produce for ministry in communication tools, music, videos and the speed in which I can produce them is sometimes so amazing, I hate to give my secret away. Everything on a Mac just makes sense. Everything is integrated. Practically all the software you need is already installed and part of the operating system. Your music, pictures, video and more are all available within each program. They work together as though they are one program… since they kinda are, as part of the operating system themself.

And what about viruses? If you still think there aren’t Mac viruses because no one bothers to write them for the Mac, you are way behind and misinformed. That is a myth. There are plenty of Mac haters who would love to write one and certainly have and are trying. While technically you can’t say it is ‘impossible’ – the chances of a virus penetrating the Mac OS is so slim, ‘impossible’ is hardly a stretch of the truth. The proofs in the pudding. I’ve had two years with NO virus protection and have never had a virus or spyware or malicious anything enter my machine. Try that on a PC. I’ve experienced crippling viruses on a brand new PC within 2 minutes of getting online to attempt to install virus protection! I’ve not had ONE attack on my machine in over two years since the first time I booted up. And don’t think they haven’t tried. (Oh wait, I DO have protection, it’s called a MAC!)


Can you do on a PC what you can do on a Mac? Probably. But not as easily or quickly or effortlessly and it just might not look as sharp. And, oh yeah, there are lots of things you can’t do on a PC, not without buying software, learning it, and having lots of problems before you are done.

And here is a beautiful thing. Lots of Mac critics like to poke fun at the “Intel Inside” Macs. I admire Apple. They will always do what is best for the company and for the computer even if it means getting ridicule or admitting something someone else had was better. They aren’t about proving anything, they are about making the best machine. So the MacBook Pro is now 4 times faster. It was already 40 times better. By borrowing from one of the good things PC’s had, they took their huge lead in the quality race and just hit the nitro.

If you have never checked out a Mac, and you are in ministry, you owe it to yourself to look into it. Is the cost of a Mac higher? Yes. It is worth it? I’d pay more for the benefits in software, productivity, quality, output, dependability and impact on my ministry.

But in the end, NO, it isn’t more expensive. Not when you factor in software that is included and the most important factor – your TIME. Calculate the time you spend on computer problems and virus problems and software hassles, and rebooting and the blah results of much of what you do, limited by the software you have. (I’ve gone over a month without rebooting my Mac, and the system restores upon opening the lid in under 2 seconds!) If you are a children’s pastor, take your salary and figure out how much your church pays you to sit and work on fixing your computer (and others in the office!), and add that to the cost of your PC. Suddenly the Mac is an amazing deal.

Is it perfect? Of course not. I’m not one of those Mac addicts who claim (or pretend) it is, but before PC lovers jump up and down at my admission, it may not be perfect, but it nearly is. Problems are rare, and (blush) usually due to human error (me) or non-Apple software problems.

And another thing… their innovation is always a pleasant surprise. Have an employee who likes to trip over Mac power cords and send laptops flying nearly to their death? (me) They obviously figured that out and made an adjustment, even though it will cost them a lot of money in lost sales of replacement power supplies. (i’ve been through several!)

Whether you love your PC (never met anyone yet who did), or like your PC (met a few of those), or are content with your PC (that seems to be the bulk of them), or hate your PC (met a TON of those!), take some time to check out www.apple.com If the website shows you anything, you will see on display how sharp, innovate, creative, impressive and simply cool everything is that they do. The list of coolness never stops, and it seems every week I say outloud in my office, “WOW, it does THAT?!?!” The built in iSight camera alone is too cool. (if you ever wasted time on setting up web conferencing and found it to be a pain in the neck to set up all for really weak and lame results, you have GOT to see iChat video conferences, the quality and smoothness of the video and sound will astound you.)

OK, enough of the Mac praise, after all, I have ministry to get back to. I’ll let ya know when my MacBook Pro arrives. Expected sometime in February. Until then, I’ll have to struggle alone on my PowerBook G4 with no intel inside. Come on, go check it out!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Kidologist

Karl Bastian is the founder of Kidology.org, the creator of ToyboxTales.com, and the author of OrderoftheAncient.com. His personal website is Kidologist.com He is Big Kid with a passion for equipping and encouraging those who minister to children.

8 Comments:

  1. Larry Shallenberger

    So I read all this… and you’re a Mac Guy.

    :)

  2. Yep. Definitely a “Mac Guy.”

  3. I think this is the longest blog you’ve ever done, mac guy!
    p.s. how are the book sales coming? Did you have a table at CPC?
    Shelly Sexton

  4. “Almost thou persuadeth me to become a Mac guy”
    But only almost…old PC habits die hard.

  5. So what are you doing with your PowerBook G4 when you get the other one? I know someone in Virginia who would love it!!

  6. I’ve heard that mac thanks you for your blog post.

    Jamie “another mac kinda guy” Doyle

  7. By the way, I wanted to say sorry about having an apple stuck in your eye. That must hurt! The expression is “Apple of my eye.”

  8. It is the ‘apple IN my eye’ because it is the one I was thinking of getting…. it was in my sights…. but now is ordered. So it wasn’t a typo, but it does sound painful!

Comments are closed