When I was in standard four, around about 12 years old, we got our first computer. It was an Apple IIe and I still remember where it was in the office and the striped apple stickers we got that were stuck up all over our big, 110 year old farmouse. My dad bought us Apple and the Kids, a spiral book with exercises for kids to do on an Apple. Even then I loved How To ... books and I remember starting it with enthusiasm, flying through the first couple of pages and then bogging down as the exercises got more complicated. I tried the last one a few times, it never worked and I abandoned the book but my enthusiasm for Apples has never waned.
We changed computers a few years later but whenever I came across snippets in the news about Apple, I often read them and I have always liked their philosophy and how they approach things. Mabe I screen out the stuff I don't like and just retain what I do - user friendly, recycling policy, give off less something waves, that sort of stuff.
H and I got horrendous, I mean truly horrendous, service from our last computer support people and we decided to head back to my first love. It's fun, I am enjoying it. It's frustrating at times as I struggle to figure out how to do something that is second nature on other systems but I am enjoying this computer for the first time in years (my computer love went through a bad period - I was dumped by a computer geek, tried to get some vaguely computer jobs and was burned and I turned my back on computers and the latest techno find.)
Now once again I find myself turning on the computer and staring at the screen, clicking icons and reading the little help menus, watching tutorials. Yes, I am channeling my inner geek, I know, it's probably a bit sad but then again we are in 2009 and if you knew the extent of my technological skills you would be cheering on that little inner geek - she's probably only about 7 years old in experience years in any case and little kids grow out of this. She looks a bit like Harriet the Spy in my mind; dark hair in a pony tail, big glasses and a very serious expression on her little face which all the adults secretly laugh at. Of course she also carries a notebook around, in which she records The Day's Important Lessons. Did Harriet the Spy wear glasses though?
