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1 min read renewl

Spring Renewal and Revamping

There’s something quite liberating when you start from scratch instead of building upon a previous structure.

I was thinking about this when I cleaned out the design of this site and installed a new theme, removing the advertisements and most of the other nonsense. I decided to do something that I had only done before with my Windows machines of the past: wipe the drive and start over. It was the first time I had done a clean install of my Mac since I purchased it – over five years ago.1

I started the process last night, doing a Time Machine backup to an external drive, just in case, and then moving important work files to the drive separately for quick access.2 It’s incredible how easy the process is on a Mac. It’s so easy, I would almost think Apple wants you to wipe your drive on a regular basis. Compared to installing Windows, which I did over the weekend for a relative’s computer, it was quick and painless.

When it first boots into the new machine with galaxy image and the Dock down below, there’s a moment of excitement when you realize you get to start playing once again. Not using and working, but playing, tweaking, exploring options once again. I forgot what it was like to play with a computer after being stuck in certain usage patterns, certain fonts, the desktop image, and having a sense of joy come to life when you hear that “quacking” sound when hitting the Volume Up buttons.

I never have this experience when booting up a Windows machine for some reason. It’s almost always a moment of disgust, a constant reminder of how much needs to change before it’s actually useful and runs smoothly. Perhaps Windows 8 will be different, but for now, I am more than happy with my Apple experience, both with my MacBook circa 2006 and my iPad 2.

It’s almost spring officially. I’ve revamped my blog, how I write, my computer, and have started to revamp my workout regime. I wonder what I will revamp next?

  1. Incredible to think that I’ve owned it for so long when people are trading in their iPads for the new ones a year later ↩
  2. Plus photos, and my purchased music. ↩

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James McCullough

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