My Big Fat Mini iLife

It's done. I've converted. I've thought about it for years, listened to my mac-friends rave about their cool computers, watched my daughter, then my son, dive into the Applepond and call to me on the shore - "Come on in! The water's fine!"

I live with Mr. Mac. Most creative people are. And when we met lo those many years ago, he was surprised I was a PC.

"I'd have guessed you were a Mac."

My very first email on my new miniMac was from him, congratulating me on now being among the cool people who can sneer at HP laptops.

I won't be doing that.

But here's the thing:

I am going to be doing a huge amount of audio editing and my aging PC rolled its eyes when I told it what was coming.

"Seriously?" it asked.

I understood. It's at least six years old and the most I've asked of it is to save my writing and avoid viruses. It's done a fine job. This would be like asking a compact car to tow a yacht.

Money is most certainly an object and that seemed to put the Mac out of my reach, until the nice guy at Sweetwater (you want audio stuff? They're for you.) suggested the mini-Mac.

"You can keep your monitor. You can keep your printer. Get yourself a nice backup harddrive and you've got more than enough oomph to do anything you want."

Done. The box arrived and my brain seized up. How do I transfer all my stuff? How do I learn this new editing program? How do I find time to do all this learning with a new job starting, too? AAAAAAAHHHH!!!

But I put my head down, started unpacking and set it up last night. I am writing this with the help of my new friend, Minny.
She's a little white box with wireless and bluetooth (can't see that I'll need them, but I'm impressed), extra memory and one bonus I did not expect.

She's quiet. Incredibly quiet. No fan noise quiet. Until I installed the external hard drive, turning on the computer was a dead quiet experience.

That's amazing for someone used to loud PC fans, a constant whir, that white noise that's just part of computers.

Minny's on the desk beside me, not on the floor collecting cat hair. She's sleek and spiffy and raring to go.

So far, she's even allowing me to use my old PC keyboard, though I know that'll change as I start needing more keyboard shortcuts. She installs hardware without a question, isn't complaining about the fact that I've already got her USB hubs at capacity. She sucks in CDs with a quiet hum and spits them out cleanly on request.

I think I love her.

How I'll feel about Logic Express9 is another question. But I have hopes. And I have the advantage of living with Mr. Wizard.