I've been teaching myself Access all morning, which is just about as fun as it sounds. Still, learning to make databases with the program is an extremely marketable skill, if one that doesn't transfer to my Mac. I'm sure that the few database programs for Mac that are out there and affordable can't be that different from Access, and frankly, I'm still a bit miffed that Access isn't made for Mac, because I would love to be able to fool around at home with it, to help me with it at work. Still, after a solid 45 minutes of playing, I think I created my first, basic form, and my first, ridiculously basic table. I do have it easy, considering that my predecessor created a fully functioning, all-the-bells-and-whistles database before I even knew that I wanted to work in a library, which means that I've been building off of her already existing tables and queries. Not sure how well I'd do starting from the ground up--which is part of the reason I want Access for Mac.
Anyhow, all this is just alerting me to the fact that it might be a good idea to make some plans to get either a non-Mac laptop, or an actual desktop PC. I shudder at the thought of bringing a desktop into our already cluttered apartment, but I also can't help thinking that it will serve me better in the long run, especially if I keep thinking I'm going to eventually bring web design into my pantheon of library skills. The truth is, we have a Mac tower gathering dust on the desk, and I'd love to just replace it with a PC tower, and I this was something that was doable 18 months ago, but it's been 18 months and S still hasn't disposed of the Mac. (Which we HARDLY use.) We can't fit two towers on the desk, though I suppose the Mac could go under.
Anyway, I really don't relish the idea of sitting in our disaster-area bedroom to compute, and I love the thought of having a PC laptop to play all the computer games that never come out for Mac, but that I'm salivating over. It seems like, sometime in the next few months, it might be prudent to decide: PC or laptop? Even thougth I know full well that nothing will ever replace the Mac ever again as my machine of primary use. There's just too much PC usage in the library world for me to not have one, I think. I need to speak both languages. I need to be a bi-computer person.
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