iLifestyle

As soon as I started thinking seriously about writing, I started thinking seriously about getting a mac.

A mac is not a computer, it is an accessory, like a Prada bag or a studded leather belt. It's part of a lifestyle, one that includes certain kinds of music, fashion, professions, political views, socioeconomic status, and religious beliefs.

Fed up with my Dell that couldn't manage to sleep and then wake up again without crashing, it was time for be to get a new computer. And I was drawn by the sleek youth-centric curves and styling of not just the MacBooks, but the iMacs and the iPod Videos and the iPod Nanos and the iPod Shuffles and even just the store itself. I mean, you walk into the store on Michigan avenue and you can't help but feel cool.

And that's what they've done, Apple that is. Think 3-some-odd percent market share in the PC market is a problem? Nah: it's an opportunity, they realized. It means Macs aren't the computers you used in school (though they are), they're the computers you don't use at work. They're the rebels, the anti-establishment technology. They're for people who are what used to be called "out there": artists and students and young people and hipsters.

So when I bought the black MacBook Core 2 duo, I asked the cashier, "So, does this thing come with some hipster mix cd, a pair of Chuck Taylors, and hipster jeans?"

He stepped away from the counter and looked down at his Chuck Taylors, his tight black jeans, and his Shuffle (given to all employees), which no doubt had a fair amount of Neutral Milk Hotel.