Get off my cloud

As I glare jealously at the man opposite me on the train with his shiny glowing Macbook I take solace from the words of my journalistic hero Mr Charlie Brooker who yesterday condemned Apple products and their owners, despite his own hatred of Microsoft Windows, in his not to be missed Monday Guardian column.

And yet despite the fact that this GOD of a man to me has poked fun at Apple, ribbed owners of its products mercilessly for their unwavering support of the machines they will unanimously stand up for at any given opportunity and confessed to his own use of a Windows powered Sony Vaio laptop I cannot help but drool like a schoolboy in a biscuit factory at the Macbook that stares at me from across this cramped plastic train table. Why why why do these machines instil such ludicrous desire in me to the point that I genuinely have to think hard about whether I could conceivably kill a man for the chance to own a brand new 15” Macbook Pro?

Looking across at the git and his Macbook I try my hardest to justify my reasons for not having one (aside from the fact that I don’t have any money) and wonder about the glowing Apple logo on the back of the screen. Whilst this is aesthetically pleasing and indubitably cool it does have to be said that it is essentially unnecessary, other than to irk the likes of me who aspire to such machines. For every second it is glowing smugly in my direction I think about just how much battery it’s using up. No my dusty black Toshiba laptop has no glowing logo on the outside BUT it isn’t wasting any power in displaying one so HA take that Macbook. If portability is all about power then at what point does one sacrifice the longevity of a battery in favour of a big fat glowing “FUCK YOU MY LAPTOP IS BETTER THAN YOURS” neon giveaway?

Sadly however this small victory for my ordinary looking Windows powered machine makes not a jot of difference to my intense deep down desire to own not just a Macbook but an Apple iPhone AND a Macpro desktop to accompany my already much loved second hand iPod nano. How does Steve Jobs make his machines so unbelievably sexy? Sharing the train with Macbook owners is like going to the after party of some supermodel fashion show with your dumpy, pug faced, spotty, glasses wearing subspecies of a girlfriend in tow.

And even though I KNOW owning a Mac of some kind will put me in the company of some of the most irritatingly smug, fart-sniffing twats this planet holds I STILL can’t help myself wanting to be in among this “elite”. Even if it is a club of wankers, I want in.

Curse you Steve Jobs. Curse your aesthetically pleasing hardware. Curse your cuddly user friendly software. Curse your marketing strategy that makes me as a PC user feel entirely worthless as a human being. I don’t know how you’ve managed it but as I bitterly shake my fist in jealous rage I am at the same time entirely in awe of you and your company. This in turn makes me hate myself whereas I bet Mac users never feel self pity or shame.

How I loathe them.