"I'm a PC."

"No wait, I'm a 3/4-time PC and 1/4 Mac."

"Cancel that, I'm exactly split between my PC side and my Mac side."

Nope, wrong again.

"I'm a Mac."

This brilliant internal dialogue voiced by moi has been taking place over the course of the past year.  I grew up in a Windows based environment (well, after an initial introduction to the computer world in a DOS environment...C: prompt anyone?).  This was followed by a brief blip in my University days, where the Faculty of Education insisted we use Macs for our main projects since "every school will have Macs by the time you are out in the real world".

Then came my 4 student-teaching practicums, followed by 5 years in my teacher career where none, I repeat, NONE of the schools that I taught in had Macs.  In my current role, I've been forced to revisit the Mac side of myself, which has been buried deep inside for many years -- mainly because there ARE school divisions that have completely changed over to Mac operating systems.

At first, it was a struggle, both externally and in my internal dialogue (see the initial commentary above). For example, I had to learn that "Finder" was the Apple equivalent of "Start", "Applications" was like "Program Files" and "System Preferences" was the translated version of "Control Panel". 

Luckily, unlike my experience learning French growing up, I haven't had to reverse the order of words in a sentence (Panel Control?)

Don't get me wrong, I still consider myself a recent Mac convert, and definitely one who still has traces of a Microsoft accent in my computer speak. But I do consider myself well on the way to recovery.

I thought perhaps there were others out there like me, who have recently been thrust into Apple's world of glitz, glamour and Garage Band (either by free will or dictatorship) who would like to learn the little tips and tricks that I have. 

But before we can get to where we're going, we have to know where we've been.  I've found the "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" commercials to pretty much sum up how I've felt this past year.  Here are a few of my favourites that document my journey thus far.

One of the First Original "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" Commercials

South Park Gets in the Mix with a Funny Spoof

Just Because I Loved the iPhone 4 vs. HTC Animation -- an I'm a Mac, I'm a PC Spoof, Cartoon Style

Exactly How I Felt When We Got Windows Vista.  Made The Transition to Mac Shortly Afterwards

Watch for Part II of this little mini-series, coming soon to my blog!

Vanessa