This week's sign that the Apocalypse is upon us...

I want a Mac.

That is the very first time in my life that I've found myself lusting after one of Apple's computers. And after going so long calling them "Macin-craps" too. But, it's true: I would love to have a Mac computer.

Now, I am and always will be, I guess, a Windows user. Ever since Windows 3.1 well over ten years ago. For me, it's just plain fun to get into the guts of Windows and tinker with stuff, the way we used to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files in old-school MS-DOS. And it's just too practical for me to stick with Windows anyway. It's what I know how to use the most.

But in spite of all that, at long last... I'd love to own a Mac. Because as good as Windows is, there are some things that Mac can do just as well. And I'll now admit, maybe even better.

What finally did it for me is Garageband, a Mac program that lets even music-illiterate types like me make some pretty astounding audio tracks. We have Garageband loaded on a G5 Mac at our TV station and I'm really impressed with it. So much so that for the past few weeks I've been trying my darndest to find a Windows equivalent that does the same thing.

But alas... there isn't one.

And Macs also run Final Cut Pro, which I'm amazed at what some of the other guys at the station can do with this software package. When I was putting Forcery together I used Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 for the editing and After Effects 6.5 for all the visual effects. If I'd been working on a Mac loaded with Final Cut Pro, I could have streamlined the entire process so much more smoothly.

I'm starting to seriously consider eventually getting a Mac, because if I'm going to pursue filmmaking any more it might be well worth getting a multimedia platform as well-suited to so many production tasks as the Mac is. I can see where it would make a huge impact on my work.

If my friend Deborah ever reads this she's going to be laughing her head off, because she's long been telling me how good Macs are... and I've finally come to believe her.

So that might be something I'll be looking into getting in the not too distant future. And I'm sure it will work just fine alongside my Windows XP machines, or Vista if Microsoft ever gets that piece of bloatware off the ground. That's one thing I've always admired about Macs though: they don't have the excess baggage that every new iteration of Windows seems to bring with it. Sometimes less is more.

Okay, I've made my confession. Now it's time for me to go to work and do penance at the iMac that holds all of our station's TV commercials :-P