The day a big change arrived

I share all sorts of anniversaries, so why not a, what? Macaversary? Three years ago this week, my new Apple Mac Mini was delivered. You can thank Facebook for reminding me, and it’s a happy memory, so why not reflect in it?

I still love my Mac Mini, though had I known the Mac Studio was coming, I’d have waited for that. Be that as it may…

Three years ago today, when I wrote about my new Mac on Facebook, I talked about buying the Mac Mini and said I’d never ordered anything directly from Apple, and that was true, and what I was thinking about at the time, probably because the whole things was my idea and I was excited about it.

However, back in 2008, Nigel bought us both iMacs, with the biggest screens available at the time. He ordered them directly from Apple, and they arrived similarly quickly. Nigel then added more memory chips to both computers, because that was back when Apple allowed that. Modern Apple Silicon Macs (like my Mac Mini) use integrated memory that’s part of the CPU, and so, can no longer be upgraded.

Getting that iMac brought about my return to the Apple ecosystem: I’d been a Mac user from its very early days right up until around the turn of the century when Macs got even more too expensive than they already were, and Nigel built me my first-ever Windows PC. However, despite using a PC professionally for the better part of a decade, I still never understood Windows the way I understood Mac.

In my blog post on the new Mac, written on February 19, the day it actually arrived, I talked in some detail, as I do, about why I bought the machine, specifically, the issues I had with my Hackintosh. However, just shy of three weeks later, I fixed that problem, which basically meant I didn’t need the Mac Mini at that moment, though I obviously didn’t know that when I ordered the new machine. If I had known, I’d probably—possibly?—have held off longer, and may well have bought the higher-spec Mac Studio instead.

However, I certainly don’t regret buying it: It’s been a great computer for me, and it’s dramatically quieter than my Hackintosh was, which is a bonus. Even so, from time to time consumerist me thinks of upgrading, but I have no need to so, and sense triumphs over desire—for now.

After the Mac Mini arrived, I said that I felt that whatever my new life would be, it was somehow centred on my office, and my Mac in particular. I later went through a particularly dark time in which that new life seemed farther away than ever, but the feeling of possibility has since returned, which I’m happy about. I can again also see more clearly what I need to do to get to that new life I caught a glimpse of only a few short years ago.

Now, I just need to make my vision reality. “Macaversary’ or not, that’s a very worthwhile thing to focus on.