1) If you’re a gamer… buy a PC!
2) Apple insists on using their own adapters and connectors for everything. So be prepared to have cables that don’t fit.
3) Security through obscurity. Apple’s much smaller market share has protected it from the fury of the hacker community. As the market share rises, so will the number of viruses.
4) Some specialized programs are only available for Windows. Usually, you can find a Mac alternative, but sometimes the only solution is VMWare Fusion… and general slowwwwness.

As for the rest of the reasons they give… well, they’re just silly!

1) Macs can take time to learn.
Really? That’s your argument? Sure, Macs take time to learn… so does Vista! So does my new Camcorder! So did my Combi-Oven! Is that the reason we should never use newer or better technologies? Because they “can take time to learn”? And where is the evidence that learning Mac takes longer than learning Windows 7? Are they basing this on users that have never used either platform or are they assuming (and yes they are) that these users have used XP and Vista for years, so they are already used to the idea of a Start Menu… and a Blue Screen!

“Things just don’t work the same way on Macs if you’re used to a PC…” goes the argumentation. Again, really? You know, things don’t work the same way with a Microwave if you’re used to a convection oven! Ergo, don’t buy a Microwave! Things don’t work the same way on a DVD player if you’re used to VHS! So, don’t buy a DVD player either!

And another thing, the way this whole site is presented, they make the reader think that buying a PC running Windows 7 will allow them all these extra features, like DVR, Touch screens, fingerprint readers and much, much more, without specifying that this depends on the hardware… and price of the machine. An entry level PC won’t support these features, so why mention them? Maybe an advanced user knows the difference and will buy the more expensive, specialized hardware, but then this website reads as if it’s targeted at 3rd graders and grannies, so my guess is they wouldn’t know how to configure a DVR or notice the difference between a DVD or BlueRay film on their 15” display.

2) Macs don’t work as well at work or at school.
What? Is that why 70 percent of college freshmen are choosing a Mac over a PC? And my Mac is my work PC! Sharing documents? Just save your documents in the .doc format or (like I did) install MS Office for the Mac.

3) Macs don’t like to share.
What! Mac has the easiest sharing possibilities ever! Mac has a Sharing Preference Pane where you can choose to share using any of an assortment of protocols, such as FTP, SSH, SMB, AFP, BlueTooth, sharing your screen, your internet connection, etc. just with a click of a button! Does windows have remote login via SSH or an integrated FTP server… survey says NO! And I just love this. They are bragging about the fact that you have to manually turn on sharing on a Mac, but with Windows 7, it’s automatically on… Well, I would contend on Windows you have to manually disable sharing, but on a Mac it’s automatically off.

4) Macs might not like your PC stuff.
Again, Windows won’t open iWork formats. I had the idea that this had already been mentioned, but whatever. Solution: MS Office could offer compatibility (yeah right!) or Mac users can save their files in .doc format or… the best option… just install MS Office for Mac.

5) Macs don’t let you choose.
Seems like a rather harsh blanket statement… but in some regards, I completely agree. The basic Apple philosophy is “We looked at all the options and preselected the best choice for our users.” There is very limited hardware diversity and most programs offer very little customization. This is true. But the streamlined hardware and lack of legacy support allows Macs to be much faster and much, much, much more stable than their PC counterparts. Oh, and I’m not exaggerating. You know those Blue Screen of Death and Ctrl+Alt+Del jokes… yeah, with a Mac you don’t have that. None of that rebooting nonsense and none of those “my computer crashed” silliness. Apple controls the hardware and software with an iron fist. An iron fist that produces amazing results, that is! Limited choice is apparently the price we pay for having fast, stable machines.

Several times a day, I look over my shoulder for signs of velociraptors… just in case.

“Yeah, but you still need a case,” I tried to reason with the producer of the documentary. “You can’t just distribute this thing in a… cheap, pinkish… demo-looking case. It’s a professional production, or at least that’s the message we want to convey to our sponsors. Think about it, they just paid between 50 and 100 euros and then they receive this nice DVD in this shitty, afterthought of a case? That’s not right.”

“I really put a lot of thought into that case! It’s different from all the other DVD cases out there, with their photos and text. Who needs that anyway? It’s about the content, not the case!”

“True, it’s about the content… buuuuuuut, the case makes the first impression and this gives the impression that it was made by a high-school student for an elective course. Is that how you want to represent yourself? After all, this DVD is a kind of business card for you. It’s the fruit of your labor. When people see this, they see you! Is this what you want to look like?” As the words left my mouth, I realized why his hair was never washed or combed. Perhaps he really doesn’t care what he looks like. It explains the half-shaven peach fuzz on his chin and his generally shoddy appearance.

“I have better things to do!,” he insisted. “There are limits! Do you know how much time it takes to design and print and cut and fit a case? And how much money each case costs? At least a euro a piece!”

“Oooooooh,” I sneered. “So this this actually about the money? Okay, then we’ll pay for it. We’ll buy the cases and pay for the printing… what, something like 200 euros in total? I think we’ll survive.”

“… but this is my vision!”

“Oh, so this is really important that it looks like a half-cooked production? Because that’s how it looks. All the time and energy and people involved to produce this and you can’t be bothered to spend an extra day to make a case? Your vision is ‘half-cooked production’ then?”

“There are limits!” he wails, after a short pause. “There just only so much that I can do! I’ve invested enough time as it is. I’m not going to spend even more time and more money. There are limits and I’ve reached them!”

“Can we please clarify this? Is it a question of time and money? Then, we’ll take care of it. You won’t be bothered.”

“But this is my vision! This is how it should look. There’s nothing wrong with it!”

“You’re… you’re proud of the way it looks? The cheap, demo-looking… 10 cent case with no inlay, no photos, no text… just a translucent pink case. You’re proud of this? You stand behind it?”

“Yes! There’s nothing wrong with it!”

Man, this guy is difficult. I suppose producers/directors have to be stubborn and he has been stubborn enough during the last year. During the filming, during editing, during everything. He’s very defensive and can be very nasty. But here we are, after two years, the damn thing is finally finished and all we need is a nice case, with the regular stuff: title, photo, credits, etc. But this is just too much for him and if we offer to do it for him, he insists that the current (lack of) design is crucial to the overall picture. Yeah, right. You’re lazy and you’re too stubborn to admit it. On top of that, you’re embarrassed that we would point out how childish and unprofessional the damn thing looks, so you pretend that this is your grand vision. There is no vision, you just forgot to design a case and when we offer to do it, you get defensive and throw out stupid excuses about time, costs… and then back to the “vision.”

But this cheap, crappy case doesn’t just make him look bad, it also makes us look bad. How can we, with a straight face, hand this thing to our sponsors… or to important contacts… or to possible customers? It looks like a half-cooked production and it’s such a shame because the film is really good, the recording, editing, everything is really good! Why would you come so far, just to quit? Why would you run the entire marathon, just to stop 10 feet from the finish line? Lazy? Stubborn? Embarrassed? Why?

Why would you seriously think to place your baby, your blood and tears of the past two years, why would you place this diamond, this cherry, this most precious work of art… in the cheapest, ugliest case you could find? And then why would you defend this action so vigorously?

Arrive Amsterdam, eat some nice, greasy fries, car to home, drink, eat. Don’t sleep. Just a little farther. Just a few more hours. Don’t sleep.

Finally, evening arrives. 24 hours awake. Finally, time to sleep. Morning, and the office, will come too early, but the trip is over and real life needs to start again. I’m looking forward to work, tomorrow. I’m looking forward to normalcy and focus and my colleagues and my boss. I’m looking forward to the real world. I think I’ve had a bit too much of the quirks of Asia and the excitement of rapid change.

It’s only been 26 days, but it feels like much longer. Indonesia is just a distant memory. China is just a story someone once told me. I’m happy to be home. I’m happy to eat potatoes and cheese and milk… and I’m happy to use as much toilet paper as I want. I’m happy to brush my teeth with tap water. I’m happy to sleep in a nice, soft bed. It’s good to be home.

TIP: We washed the sheets and made the bed before leaving, so we could just plop down into a nice, clean bed. This makes all the difference in the world, my friend.

As we drove along the coast, searching for a nice place to hang out, we spotted something out at sea. Several orange buoys bobbing about and several black shapes in between. The lady divers! We saw a documentary about these women. They dive just off the coast, catching shell fish from the bottom of nooks and crannies of the lava rock. They hold their breath for two minutes as they search and then resurface… and then dive… and resurface… and on and on. All day. All year. And it’s only aging women. No men. Just aging women, dressed in black wetsuits. These are some tough mamas. Unfortunately, the next generation isn’t up to the task, so this tradition is dying off.

We drove some more and when it looked interesting, we stopped and walked along the rocks listening to the waves crash. And in each case, five or ten minutes after finding a hidden cove or beautiful vista… a bus of Japanese or Chinese tourists showed up. Children running. Parents yelling. Spell broken. Sigh….

We had to return the rental car by 8:00pm so around 6:30pm we typed in the rental companies telephone number into our GPS and followed the arrow and the encouraging voice. We’ve been running low on local currency, but finding an ATM is a nightmare, so we thought we could make due with the credit card, if the need arose. Well, arose it did. Along the way, I remembered that we had to fill up the tank, so I pulled into a filling station and waited for the attendant to skitter over to the window.

“You take this,” I asked, holding up the Master Card. “Credit Card? Master Card? Okay?” He looked puzzled, which should have been my cue to drive on, but after a while he nodded and took my card. Then, after filling the tank, he came back with the card, waving his hand. Oh… no good, I see. Shit. And thus began the drama. Not enough cash. No credit card reader. One of the attendants took the wheel and drove us to a nearby “bank” with an ATM, but of course, the thing was only in Korean and even after trying every single button, still no dice. Double shit. No other bank. No other ATM. No other hope! And time is running out to return the car! And to make the whole thing worse, we can’t communicate with anyone! Or can we…? My lovely wife picks up the cell phone and dials our friends in Seoul, then explains the situation and asks if she can explain it to the attendant. We hand him the phone and after several minutes, we speed back to the filling station, he runs inside and after a couple more minutes runs back out with our phone. He waves us off and indicates it’s okay. He smiles once more and leaves our lives. What happened? Our angel in Seoul came to our rescue and made the problem go away. With just 15 more minutes to spare, we raced, and I mean raced, to the car rental office. We flew through red lights, tires squealing through corners, zigzagging through traffic. Finally, this was the video game you’ve always wanted to play. And we made it! All’s well that ends well.

What did we learn from this story? Always help people when you can, even if you have to go out of your way. Help people, because you never know when you’ll reaaaaaaaly need that helpful person. Oh yeah, and always have enough cash!

Jeju is a relatively small place. You could drive completely around it, following the coast, in about 5 hours, maybe less. The center of island is clearly indicated by the large volcano and the area in between is given mostly over to the farming of nectarines and… I’m gonna say… garlic. The coast is a mix of rocky, lava stone outcrops dotted with the occasional deserted white sand beach. I say deserted, like a ghost town. Creepy. Like the Chinese, the Koreans are scared of the sun. They fear the evil “tanning” effects it might have on their skin. So deep is this fear that they often cover themselves, head to toe, before going outdoors. We passed plenty of hikers wearing long pants, long sleeves, gloves, wide brim hats and… of course… umbrellas. Really. We were wearing shorts and sandals, enjoying the sweet kiss of the Sun and these people were doing everything they could to hide from it. As with China (and maybe more parts of Asia?) they find whiter skin more beautiful. Perhaps this is a hold over from the time that rich women were indoors and poor women were in the fields, leading to class differences being clearly reflected in the color of the skin. Whatever the reason, these people steer clear of the beautiful, white beaches… so more for us!

We’ve eaten a lot of new things on this trip. Dishes we’ve never heard of. Spices we’d never known existed. But today we really topped it off with several courses of raw… and even living… seafood. Lots of raw fish, sure, like sushi. What’s new? And then a platter of shell fish… things… a snail… thing… some octopus… clam-ish stuff… Okay, yummy. A bite of this, a bite of that… and then something moved… Wait a minute! … Half of the platter is moving… uh oh! How did I not notice this? Is this normal? Is it supposed to move? To be alive? I look around at other tables, they grab a squirming shell creature, pop his shell off, dunk him in hot sauce and… down the hatch (don’t forget to chew well!). Okay, here we go. Lavinia, this was your idea, so you go first. I put the first victim on her plate. A drop of sauce fell from her chopsticks on to the poor creature. He cringes as if shot. You poor thing. She pours some water from her glass to wash off the sauce.

“I think the sauce is hurting him!” she whimpers.

It’s food. Eating him is going to hurt him. But anyway, she waves the waitress over and tries to indicate this poor creature is in pain. She can’t eat it. Please cook it. “Prepare,” she says. The waitress doesn’t speak English, but somehow interprets that Lavinia needs help preparing the dish. So she enthusiastically rips the little guy from his shell and drowns him in hot sauce. Boy, he’s really squirming now. She offers it up to Lavinia with a smile. Here you go, madame. Caught between disgust and a possible insult… she grabs it with her sticks… breathes… and bites. Don’t forget to chew!

Never one to be one-upped by a woman… I grabbed the next one, shucked it, dunked it and attacked. Don’t forget to chew, indeed.

Amazingly enough, my stomach survived. After my last experience in China, I was sure I’d be praying to the porcelain thrown again, but strangely enough… I feel fine. I suppose enough hot sauce and alcohol can sterilize just about anything.

If we drove correctly for at least a kilometer, we got plus two Experience points. If we discovered an alternative route, we gained plus one Wisdom. If we took a wrong turn, minus three, and so on. I’m pretty sure we also found an enchanted sword or two and escaped the clutches of more than one goblin. This made swerving through the Korean drivers much more entertaining, as you can imagine. The sound it made when we reached the hotel was more appropriate for saving the princess, so we celebrated with a bottle of soju and planned the next day’s journey through the Tunnel of Trees to the Crater of Doom.

We had lunch with a a girl we met during our first trip. We had expected a short lunch in town, but were pleasantly surprised by a nice long lunch at her home, together with her husband and son. We dined on traditional Korean bulgogi while her son showed me all his newest Power Rangers toys. A very warm home. A pleasure to be guests and we hope to meet again.

The rest of the day is ours to enjoy. We wander through the shopping district, browsing and checking each corner for a nice place to eat. A romantic dinner and a long ride home. This will be our last day in Seoul. Tomorrow we’re off for a semi-honeymoon to the southern island of Jeju! Finally, there’s a vacation at the end of this trip!

In the evening, we met with Lavinia’s biological father. As with Seoul, this is only the second time we’ve met him. We settled in to a nice, long meal and more than a few bottles of soju rice wine. The conversation (and the alcohol) bore some new facts about Lavinia’s hidden past. Some facts were difficult to hear and, yet, others put some color into an otherwise grey sketch. At some points in the evening, I found it difficult to empathize with a man, given the choices he’s made. From how he met his first wife, to forging adoption papers, to having two more children, starting only 3 years AFTER giving away his first batch. This man, with all his difficulties, has managed to father four children and yet Lavinia and I, with our education, decent upbringing, stable income and promising futures wonder if we would make good parents and worry that we couldn’t offer a child what it truly needs. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, one thing was clear from the evening. Despite the Korean tendency to make the official story much cleaner than reality (i.e. forging documents and downright lying), underneath it all he’s an honest man, with a good heart. That’s what’s important, I suppose.

You know when you have a wonderful wife, when you’re at your lowest and can’t sit up straight and she… just… takes care… of ev… er… y… thing. She packed, carried, arranged, lifted, opened, called, paid and all the while made sure I was feeling as comfortable as possible. WIth a bottle of water and an airline sickness baggie, I made it to the airport on time.

We took the Mag-Lev train again from the city to the airport… 431kmh (268mph)!

Stepping into Korea is like stepping back into modern civilization. After a long trip through Indonesia and China with their emerging economies and conflicting identities, being in Korea is like being back in the West. Their economy has already emerged and their identity is well balanced between traditional culture and modern society. English is much more common and if someone speaks it, they speak it well, usually having studied either in the States or from an American teacher in Korea. And it’s so clean! After visiting a country with filthy hotel floors and the sound of spitting filling my dreams, we’ve entered a country where shoes are taken off before entering the home. Ahh… civilized!