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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

Why Don’t You Get a MacBook?

by Chautona Havig · 14 Comments

I’d have to say it’s the number one question people ask when they find out that I use a Toshiba laptop instead of a MacBook. If my laptop glitches at all, they say, “You need a Mac.”  If I lose some of my work, through fault of the laptop or not, I hear, “It’s probably a virus.  You should get a MacBook.”

why not a macbook?

I’ve done the math.  I really have.  Even if I didn’t have a dozen other reasons why I don’t want a MacBook or any other Apple product, for that matter, the cost alone would do it.  Oh, I know.  You get what you pay for.  I’ve heard it all my life.  I have a secret for you.  Come closer.  Listen…. I’ll whisper it so that the proverb gods don’t rain down their wrath on us (that is poetic license, not my theological position on the topic).  It’s a lie–sometimes, anyway.

What is?  That thing up there  ^.  That thing that says, “You get what you pay for” is intended to mean, “If you spend 2 dollars on widget x and Joe spends 10 dollars on his, Joe’s is a better widget and will last longer.”  Look, there is often a lot of truth in that.  I can go to the dollar store and buy a  package of batteries and go to Walmart and buy a similar package with similar specs.  So far, I’ve never had the dollar store outlast the Walmart Duracells.  To me, it’s worth the extra.

But we’re talking about laptops.

I just spent my holiday weekend (and therefore my husband’s holiday weekend) salvaging my laptop.  Remember the Coke incident?  Well, the thing finally started giving up the ghost.  So, we went to Walmart, shelled out six hundred dollars to replace my husband’s laptop, and started working on this one.  It’s all fixified, now, and hubby has a new laptop.

He needed one.  His hinges haven’t been the same since bestekids got a little too eager to watch Celtic Thunder or something on it and it crashed to the floor.  He had to use L brackets ad JB-weld to hold that sucker together.  Note: it works really well.  So, his trusty Toshiba is now relegated to running Teaching Textbooks for Lorna, and he has a shiny new laptop with more bells and whistles… hm…

STOP THE PRESSES.

Bells and whistles.  Belles and Whistles.  *eyebrows furrow as she tries to figure out what she could do with that…..*

I digress.

So all of this is just a convoluted way of saying, I have a new laptop–but it’s my old one.  With a shiny new hard drive, we’re good to go.

“But you’ve bought three laptops in the past three years!!!!”

This is true.  One simply died.  So, while it went to get repaired, I bought a little Dell 2-in-1.  LOVE that laptop. It fits in my purse!!! But, it had the hardware failure thing, and then still is only as good as my ability to remember to shut it down before closing the lid.  It’s a problem. I won’t pretend it isn’t.  I could have gone back to my old laptop!  It still works (thanks to trusty repairs and things).  But I liked the little one.  So I bought another little one (which also fits in my purse–GREAT for travel!).  We still have the Dell.  I’ve used it a couple of times lately. It’ll likely become my son’s school laptop soon.  I’m just not quite ready to give it up.  Selfish that way.

Now I have this Toshiba.  You know, the one we just replaced the hard drive in.  “SEE!  You need a MacBook!”

Um, no I don’t.  Because, you see, I paid 310 dollars for this little Toshiba darling.  The MacBook would have been at least 1200 (if somehow some place was desperate to get rid of a display model).  And you know what?  It would have had the same problem.  I’d have had to fix the same thing.  And if it had hit some sensor something or another that my husband told me about and I promptly forgot, well… guess who wouldn’t have a laptop today?  Replacing a 310 dollar laptop is a lot less of a hassle than a 1200 dollar jobbie.

It’s why I don’t have the Surface I want.  I LOVE those things, but they have a similar problem.  I’ve lost two laptops to damage not covered by warranties.  Two laptops that came out to about the cost of half a MacBook.  A Surface is about the same price as a MacBook.  I like it.  But not enough to risk it.  I’m hard on my computers.  They’re used all day every day. When I wear them out, drop them, give them baths–I want to be able to replace them without feeling wasteful.

But Macs are SO MUCH BETTER!!!

I know.  I know.  Here’s a rundown on better.

No viruses!  Yeah.  My daughter works with a Mac at work.  Guess who got a virus within months of starting to work with them? Guess who never had one on her PC?

More user-friendly!  Um, really?  My son has had his for a few weeks–has to use it for school.  He just wanted to quit his assignment on his Mac today and go back to his Lenovo.  Why?  Because he needs to be able to right click. And he couldn’t.  He’d asked his teacher, other students.  They all told him the same thing.  “You can’t on a Mac.”  Now, before I get a million comments informing me that, yes you can.  That’s what I told him.  I showed him the counter-intuitive two-fingered trick, and voila.  He praised Jesus and gazed longingly at his Lenovo.  Just sayin’.

I could go on.  But I won’t.  You see, I really don’t care if you love MacBooks and want to shout that love to the word.  I don’t!  Ultimately, it’s your preference.

PCs are mine.

And I realize Cassie would disagree with me on the wasteful thing:

Well, I’m talking money.  Next year… next year if I had to buy another one, I’d be about the same price as the MacBooks I was looking at.  I realize you can’t compare Apples to PCs.  Well, that’s because there is no such thing as a lower price-point MacBook. And that kind of makes my point for me.  People buy a 300.00 PC, use it, drop it, get talked into a MacBook, and rave about how much better it is.  Well, duh!  If you compared machines with similar specifications and price points, you might discover that they aren’t so different after all.  I’ve had Mac lovers tell me that they “tried to save a buck” and “settle” for a PC.  So they replaced their 2100 dollar MacBook Air with something equivalent to what I’m typing on today.  “It’s just junk.  I should have stuck with Apple.  At least it’s quality.”

No, you should have bought quality products if you want a quality experience.  You don’t blame the butcher because you bought cubed steak to save a buck when you wanted filet mignon.  You fork over the bucks at LEAST for a good rib eye (which is better than filet, in my opinion).

As for the superior performance of Macs? I offer you my Sunday experience.  Working with a friend to help him get his website all set up.  On his Mac.  And after a while of frustrating lags and issues, we moved to his desktop PC and finished in just minutes.  I rest my case.  Even a guy who LOVES his Mac, moved over to the PC when it wasn’t performing up to par.

There you have it.

The definitive answer on why I don’t (and likely won’t ever) have and/or use a MacBook.  To those who love them, YAY!  Glad you do!  I may change my mind someday.  It could happen.  After all, I’ve done a lot of things I never wanted to do and discovered  I was SO VERY WRONG about it.  (like having children!  So glad God showed me I was wrong there!)

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Comments

  1. Ida Tackett says

    September 8, 2016 at 10:56 pm

    I love my mini iPad, but I also have 2 in 1 . In hp that I use after my desktop died. If I had a Mac, I could communicate with my iPhone and iPad , but like you, I don’t care to spend the money for it? Since I am retired, I don’t need a computer for business . I love reading books using the kindle app, especially yours!!.

    Reply
  2. Kristen says

    September 8, 2016 at 7:33 pm

    I have a 7 year old, 19″ Macbook pro that I was given, when it was new. It has been amazing. It is far too large for packing around, though I have, but I do a lot of photoshop work and it is perfect for that. And for multitasking. (like watching netflix and doing photoshop work) I have 6 kids, so it has been beat up a lot. I have dropped it numerous times, spilled on it, but it still runs amazingly. But I do find some things frustrating. I was used to having more control over things like where all my data is and being able to clean up my hard drive. I still have no idea how to do that on my mac. And I am running out of space on it. I feel like macs are made for people who don’t really want to know about their technology, and everything is proprietary. I also greatly dislike itunes. 🙂

    Reply
    • Chautona Havig says

      September 8, 2016 at 11:32 pm

      YES! iTunes=evil for me. I can’t stand them. I tried. I really did. But I can’t stand it. And if anything will reduce my husband to colorful language, iTunes just might do it.

      I think you’ve NAILED the best use for Macs–“made for people who really don’t want to know about their technology.” That’s a perfect description! (not for everyone, but it does fit a lot of what I’ve seen IRL.

      Reply
  3. Lindsay says

    September 8, 2016 at 12:18 pm

    Belles and Whistles sounds like it should be a Carol and the Belles tie-in story. 😀

    Sent from my refurbished MacBook. 😉

    Reply
  4. Sue Shaw says

    September 8, 2016 at 9:46 am

    Truly an entertaining commentary on purchasing a computer, especially if the one you now have has failed. Your take on PC vs Mac made so much sense I will no doubt be disappointed when watching the next newscast or political address on TV.

    Newscasters seem to lack the “common sense” aspect of reporting news and end up delivering what is their opinion on a speech or news event “news,” when as a viewer I simply am looking for the facts of what happened.

    And politicians who abundantly infect our lives continuously the past year especially, still cannot effectively give us the insight and solutions you have offered here.

    Your wonderful gift of humor and insight, joined with a good dose of “common sense” are able to present the entire picture in an enjoyable way that helped me to determine what has driven me to avoid a Mac at my PC failure, even replacing the hard drive myself, with a little help from online.
    Thank you!!!

    Reply
  5. Courtney says

    September 8, 2016 at 7:51 am

    Definitely PC. I’ve used Macs but because they are designed to be super user-friendly they are harder to tweak and adjust settings (from my experience).

    Reply
  6. Andrea ( aka rokinrev) says

    September 8, 2016 at 7:41 am

    Hey Chautona! When I first started using computers exclusively, they all said…get a MAC. However, I never did. The only thing I ever used one for was making wedding certificates when I’d do weddings while not employed. They made great certificates….

    I am a PC user. You should never have to justify or apologise for your choices….as for those who drank the KoolAid:” Come over to the dark side……we have cookies”

    Reply
    • Chautona Havig says

      September 8, 2016 at 11:33 pm

      And I don’t burn my cookies! *cheers for Andrea*

      Reply
  7. Melissa Wardwell says

    September 8, 2016 at 6:07 am

    Hahahahahahahaha! I love this!
    Mac users are like a cult…jk! I have been known to be brow beat for my lack of love for Mac and like you, told that if I had a Mac I wouldn’t have the problem. What ever. I’ll keep my dell

    Reply
  8. Lucinda says

    September 8, 2016 at 5:04 am

    Even if you DO have to replace it again in a year, you still have all these working-just not for YOU- pcs. With kids and grands who happily keep them in service. I think Cassie would approve. You find what works for you and ignore the arguments. And what works now might not be your choice when you again need a new machine Now if you really want a debate, let’s talk Windows!

    Reply
  9. Tina at Mommynificent says

    September 8, 2016 at 4:23 am

    Well, I have two MacBooks and an iPhone, but I agree with you wholeheartedly. Each time I’ve needed to purchase, we’ve sat down and made a list of what I need in it and since we’ve lived overseas where decent repairs are notoriously hard to find, we knew we needed quality and a warranty that could be taken care of in-country. My husband once had to send his Dell out of country for repair and it was gone for over three months. That doesn’t work for the jobs we’ve been doing. So once we had our list this last time, we were down to a MacBook and a Asus that had the specs I needed. They were very comparably priced and the MacBook had a DVD drive while the Asus didn’t, and since I use that all the time, I went with the MacBook. I’ve been happy with it, but I understand I probably would have made a different decision in a different situation. I try to never tell people what they need to do – we all are in different situations with different needs (except for Jesus!)

    Reply
  10. Kristy Herring says

    September 8, 2016 at 4:03 am

    PCs FOREVER!!!! And Android phones. ?Thanks for another free episide.

    Reply
    • Melissa Wardwell says

      September 8, 2016 at 6:10 am

      Yea for Android! Hahaha!

      Reply
  11. Jessica says

    September 8, 2016 at 3:55 am

    I adore my MacBook….but I cannot imagine paying full price for one, lol. I spent $600 on is refurbished MacBook that came pre-installed with the programs I needed for school (Microsoft Word, etc) – and 5 years later, it still works great (with a few minor repairs/updates). It did take me a few weeks to figure it out and in that time I thought, “switching from PC to Mac was a bad idea” – after a couple weeks I was hooked. 🙂 (And, repairs included, I’ve spent less that I did the previous 5 years on 2 different PCs and am way happier with it…) So I’m definitely a Mac girl. But I say, to each her own. My mom cannot stand my MacBook – her Lenovo PC is just fine for her. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing at all. 🙂

    Reply

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The Because Fiction Podcast

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Taking the pulse of Christian fiction

Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
byChautona Havig

Nothing says fairy tale like a sweet western romance by an author like Karen Witemeyer… unless it’s a fairytale retelling set in Texas in the late 19th century, right?  Fairest of Heart takes the familiar “Snow White” and turns it on its head with retired cowboys, a self-absorbed actress, a Texas Ranger, and a sweet girl who knows the true Source of her beauty.  Listen in to see all the genius Easter eggs Witemeyer planted in this book.

Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

Sometimes All a Girl Needs Is a True Change of Heart

I fell in love with the cover of Karen Witemeyer’s Head Over Heels a few years back (only to learn it’s much older than that, even), and meant to read that book.  I didn’t.  #BecauseIdiot. Well, that’ll be rectified just as soon as I’m done listening to her first book in a trilogy of fairytale retellings. I loaded it up on my Audible app tonight and wheeeeeeee. Here I go! So much for no new books until October. HA! 

Karen talks about her heart for young women today and how they’re taught by every bit of media blasting at them that they need to use their bodies to get what they need or want when the Lord has a better plan. And I can’t guarantee it, but I strongly suspect she does it without preaching. SQUEE!

Fairest of Heart by Karen Witemeyer

Once upon a time in Texas . . .

Beauty has been nothing but a curse to Penelope Snow. When she becomes a personal maid for a famous actress whose troupe is leaving Chicago to tour the West, she hides her figure beneath shapeless dresses and keeps her head down. But she still manages to attract the wrong attention, leaving her prospects in tatters–and her jealous mistress plotting her demise.

After his brother lost his life over a woman, Texas Ranger Titus Kingsley has learned to expect the worst from women and is rarely disappointed. So when a young lady found in suspicious circumstances takes up residence with the seven old drovers living at his grandfather’s ranch, Titus is determined to keep a close eye on her.

With a promotion hanging in the balance, Titus is assigned to investigate a robbery case tied to Penelope’s acting troupe, and all evidence points to Penelope’s guilt. But Titus might just be convinced that the fairest woman of all has a heart as pure as her last name . . . if only he can prove it.

You can learn more about Karen Witemeyer and her books on her WEBSITE. Don’t forget the book is 30% off on BakerBookHouse.com.  

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Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
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September 26, 2023
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September 23, 2023
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Episode 262: Chatting about The Legacy of Longdale Manor with Carrie Turansky
September 19, 2023
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