Today I received my new AirPods in the mail. What’s funny about this is that I told myself that I would never buy myself a pair of them. It’s not that I have anything against Apple. Hell, I’m a major fanboy in that I have an iMac, an iPad, an Apple Watch, and an iPhone. Yes, major fanboy here.

The reason I never considered them is because when I see people wearing them, it makes me think of a particular scene from a film entitled, “There’s Something About Mary.” And I’m not going to tell you what that scene is — you’ll have to watch the film or do a Google search (look up the term “ear” 😊).

Moreover, I was convinced that the buds never stay put in my ears. I once had a pair of wired earbuds, and they’d fall out constantly. But I became intrigued when I read that the AirPods Pro come with several tips so that no matter the size or shape of your ear, they will supposedly fit snugly. I began to become intrigued.

But a couple of events pushed me towards getting them. One was that my current pair of over-the-ear noise-canceling headphone cans died after many years of heavy use. Given that noise-canceling is an essential feature for me (I’ll chat more about that in another post), I began researching options, and the AirPods Pro ended up at the top of my list. But what really clinched the deal was that they were on sale last weekend for $50 off. I took that as a sign from the universe (hey — we have to justify our purchases somehow).

So far, so good. I like them. I think these will work out just fine.

This weekend I upgraded my Mac to the latest operating system, Big Sur, a task that I was kind of dreading a bit. Okay, maybe more than a little bit.

In the past, I used to upgrade the moment a new operating system was released. This was because I used to create courseware manuals for MacOS, and I needed to have my guides ready to go within the first week after a release. This rarely worked out well for me, however.

Whenever I have upgraded immediately after a new OS release, my computer ran like crap afterward. The computer would be slow, grinding, and in some cases, even crash on a regular basis. The “beach ball of death” made regular appearances. Subsequent bug updates rarely fixed the issues, leaving me frustrated any time I worked on the computer.

This time, I waited several months after the initial release to upgrade and what a difference that made. The upgrade itself went super smoothly, and afterward, my computer ran much faster than before the update. Apps open instantaneously, and there are no delays at all while working. What a difference from my past experiences!

It is said that good things come to those who wait, and in the case of operating system upgrades, this appears to be true.

I’m glad I waited.