My Tribute to Steve Jobs is My Job

I started using Apple computers in 1984 when they were first made available to the general public.

For me computers were never used for play, but for work purposes. Even though I love the iPod, the iPad, the iPhone, Apple laptops and desktop computers - and I used them all - I didn't incorporate the use of Steve Job's genius for play.

With the Apple Macintosh I compiled articles and blogs and edited and organized photos.

I researched sermon materials and wrote hundreds of biblical messages using the current version of Apple's operating system. I wrote countless emails, listened to endless hours of music and once in a while I watched a YouTube video.

I changed and influenced lives through the messages and articles I wrote while using Apple computers.

Thanks to the expertise of Jobs,  I never had to deal with viruses and only occasionally tinkered with a crashed PC. I learned to fix at least 90% of the problems I ran into with an Apple product. Jobs made computing easy.

 When I ran out of problem solving ideas, I would break down and call AppleCare.

Apple computers have always been reliant for me and made computing fun. I read all the boring manuals and Macs For Dummies books, and soaked in everything I could using this incredible product.

To Steve Jobs I tip my hat for using his genius to not merely improve our lives, but to make it possible for a person like me - devoted to sharing the Word of God with others - to have an eternal impact.

My greatest joy was not switching from a PC to a Mac - which I never had to do. My greatest joy was switching from a Smith Corona typewriter to a Macintosh computer and never needing to switch to anything else.

As an Applephile I shall ever remain thankful to Steve Jobs. His yearly keynote speeches will be missed but knowing Steve, he used his genius once more in leaving his company in good hands.

My Tribute to Steve Jobs is My Job

Super Bowl Cheers

Does everybody know your name? Not in the sports bar I visited on Super Bowl Sunday to watch the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts battle it out for the title. The place was empty despite 30% off the food prices, free T-shirts and big screen TVs. There was no hooting and hollering in this well known BBQ joint in Thousand Oaks, CA. Where were the guys? I hope they weren't at the malls shopping with their wives or girlfriends.


My guess is that football fans in my neck of the woods were at homes watching the game on their flatscreens or plasma TVs. I'm not a television affectionado, so I am pleased with a 17 inch TV screen without any hint of High-Def. I just don't see anything on television worth spending thousands of dollars so I am able to make out the zits on an actors face in full scale detail. Now people have their own home entertainment centers with theatre style seating and a TV screens that stretch 20 feet across the wall. My response? La-de-frickin'-da!

So here's this vacant bar. I sat with my son four feet from the actual bar, since he's underage, wanting to give him a Super Bowl Sunday experience. On other days I have visited this same sports eatery and the place was packed with screaming fans. Not on this day.

I contemplated that the day may be over when the cast of the TV hit show, Cheers would feel comfortable in a sports bar. The genius of Cheers is that everybody did know one another's name (as the Cheers theme song claimed). Today we don't know the names of our neighbors. Instead, we are too distracted by telephone texting and emailing. My son's cell phone rang about 15 times while I was with him. I asked, "Why aren't your friends watching the game? Why are they calling you during the Super Bowl? What a bunch of girlie men on their cell phones during the Super Bowl?" I made him turn off his technical distraction.

Hopefully, I raise some questions about today's culture. I think they are a bored generation and a boring one as well. They've been raised on video games and iPods which forces them more and more into their own universe. They lack any concept of the neighborhood bar or just a neighborhood. Instead, they have settled for wireless friendships. Having observed my son's male friends, I can see how easily bored they are. They must be entertained at all times by someone or something . . . even destructiveness and vandalism They retreat into their private world of gaming and iPoding and cut everyone else out.

Why go to a bar and grill to watch the Super Bowl? Because it's fun to watch a sports event with a bunch of guys who may be strangers at first, but by the second quarter, you're giving one another high fives as your team scores a touchdown. No, we'd rather watch the game at home or on a cell phone device that provides a TV feed.

Who needs people when you can put on your high tech haz-mat suit, shut everyone out and enjoy your own private Super Bowl. And you don't need to know anyone's name-just a username and password.

Super Bowl Cheers