And another thing...

Hi, I'm a PC.

My oldest brother is a Mac guy. If I told you everything I know about him, you would say 'I bet he is a Mac guy too' and you would be right. He is the Mac Guy. Not that idiot they show in the commercials, no Mac guy is really like that. Except, of course, for the superiority complex.

I often wondered what family he grew up in. He is so far removed from the rest of us it is weird. But I suppose that comes from being the oldest and from leaving home in the 70's to go to college, (he was the only one who did) thus limiting his exposure early on to the rest of us hicks.

He became a photographer, put out some pretty cool stuff (IMHO), worked on movies even in his hey-day. (I imagine he will be irritated that I summed up his career in this way)But we will never know, since he does not speak to me. Add that to the fact that he wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful of it.

He is a 'professor' now, complete with pipe and cable-knit sweaters. (definitely not the nutty kind) Living on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs with his wife, dog and 2.5 children.

While the rest of us are picking up our kids at the police station, he is sending his off to do mission work in Africa.

We get 'laid-off' he goes on 'sabbatical'.

While we are yelling in the stands as our children check the shit out of the opposing hockey team, he is attending recitals (clarinet and acoustic guitar, I believe, although I was never invited to attend).

It's Trailer Park Boys vs Leave It To Beaver. Ok, that is a bit extreme, but you get the picture.

You can cut out the nature vs nurture crap (I am pretty sure he has never even typed the word crap before)In his time-span living in-house with the rest of us our father was drunk the entire time and our mother, who is manic-depressive, was wigging out on a daily basis. It wasn't until after he left that our father got 'clean',(he didn't get sober till '78)and our mother got medicated.

Picture it, it's the 70's he is off to the city alone, I half expected he would join a commune, become a hippy. Statistics would argue that he was primed to follow our fathers example, and he may very well have done so. However, he 'appears' to have gone the complete opposite way, as far as I know. But as you can imagine, we move in different 'circles' so to speak. I am a PC he is a Mac.

Maybe that is the appeal of the Mac? His one beatnik vice. After all, Steve Jobs was a bit of a hippy wasn't he?