We interrupt this BaseCrawl for a word about Macs

By Troy Foster

If you’ve read Daren’s blog you probably already know we’ve been mired by technical difficulties since Day 1.

Personally, my biggest technical difficulty is this new, overrated computer.

Hello, I’m a Mac.

I made the transition about six weeks ago. Some people who’ve seen me on this device smile or give me the nod — you know, the kind shared by hybrid car drivers, people who fish and bandwagon Red Sox fans.

I also hear things like this:

“It’s so much better, isn’t it?”

“When did you make the switch?”

“Welcome home. We’ve been waiting for you, Troy.”

There’s definitely something creepy about the cult of Macintosh. I might have been exaggerating a little bit in that last comment, but if you want a more blunt take on what I’m talking about you can read it here. 

I “made the switch” for one reason and one reason only: I was told I needed Final Cut Pro. Turns out this simple-to-use video editing program comes with a five-volume manual.

Right now I’d like nothing more than to have Pinnacle Studio 10 and my PC back. The PC was two years old, slow as hell, tempered by spyware and it featured a broken LCD screen because I dropped it while I was drunk. I had to drag an external monitor everywhere I went just see if anyone wrote me back on MySpace.

But I think I’d take that any day over this piece of $#*&%!

To give you an example that underscores my struggles, today I decided it was time to learn how to save a photo onto my hard drive. 

I’ve been informed that my photo gallery will be deleted at the end of this month when Ringo goes offline. So I decided to pull all my pictures off it and transition to Webshots. But the geniuses who bring you the Mac still insist on only one mouse button. I’ll bet it’s easier to find the Leprechaun than to right-click.

Macs are supposed to be incredibly easy to use. So you’d think downloading a photo off a Web site would be as easy as beating the Mariners. I consulted the built-in “Help” function and entered the following phrases:

“saving photos”

“download a photo”

“how do you save a photo”

“downloading pictures”

“where’s the fricking right-click button?”

“Hello, you’re a Mac and you’re a piece of $#*&%!“

None of these questions produced a solution, and before it was over I’d wasted 30 minutes of my life attempting a routine function. I got so mad I decided to write a diatribe.

Daren also took pictures of me yesterday agonizing over similar — but unrelated — technical difficulties related to my new Macintosh. 

I’ll post those pictures as soon as I can. Maybe after I find the damn right-click button.

(There’s more on this and our other adventures at BaseCrawl.com.)