The monkey made me do it

Here's what I daydream about

Do Mac users eventually develop a hatred of all multicolored beach balls?

Think about it. How often do we encounter beach balls in our daily lives? Unless you live on a beach in a warm climate or frequent many large concerts, probably not all that often. Mac users, however, encounter a digital spinning beach ball every time they do something that makes their computer think really hard, or as a precursor to it freezing entirely. That's much more frequent for most people, in my estimation and sometimes unfortunate personal Mac usage.

So based on the theory that association of an unpleasant event with an object that doesn't have an intrinsic positive built-in association (at least not a strong one), we should soon be seeing legions of Mac users who will go completely postal at the sight of a beach ball. Or at least experience unpleasant thoughts. Same with an hourglass, I suppose (though it's harder to carry one of those around with you to test people with). And I wonder how people who regularly use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator feel about a flat, open hand - does it make them move around more? Are they traumatized by the "don't walk" symbol?

I'm going to do a study, someday.

When I spend days doing AutoCAD, I find that in my dreams things pause at random times, zoom in, one item will change, and then it all zooms back out and resumes the normal pace. And there are crosshairs zooming around. Seriously. Which is why I have volunteered to do things other than CAD on a more frequent basis.

And in random news: Today I am outlining a tour in which schoolchildren will be encouraged to handle dried-out poo (hey, at least I won't be dreaming about crosshairs).

posted by LadyJay @ 6:07 PM