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The Monday Mashup is an experiment, designed to get my creative juices flowing. I get a random word and a random number, and I write a list based on that mashup. I’m not going to require myself to make the list perfect or expert–just requiring myself to do it consistently. At least for now.

This week’s mashup: Three Choices (that I make each day)

1. PC or Mac?

I grew up on Atari and then on PCs. We never had an Apple computer in our household, and I avoided using them in school because PCs were my comfort zone. I got to know Apple during undergrad when the folks I worked for during the summers (and after graduation) used Macs exclusively. But I still favored PCs.

But then I got a Dell Inspiron 1720 that was equal parts pink bubble gum beauty and spawn of Satan. I designed it to be my dream computer and it mocked me with its pretty exterior and clusterbumble of Vista issues inside. I spent more time fixing it than I spent using it. And around the same time, Apple came out with the “Hi, I’m a Mac” commercial series… oh, Apple. You had me at “I’m a Mac.”

I got my first iMac early this year, and it was passionate love at first type. For all of the PC folks who say, “Tell me why Macs are better than PCs, and give me a reason other than ‘It just works,’” I say, “How sad you’ve forgotten what life can be like when you have a computer that just works.” I could not run my business if I had to deal with the headaches of Windows. So I still own my beautiful pink PC… I just use it as a backup, a Hulu/Netflix display, and as an in-case machine, should I wind up with a client who needs something generated via PC. But I choose my iMac as my main machine–enthusiastically.

And I love those Mac commercials so much I want to re-convert all over again when I see them. Marketing genius.

2. Coffee or Tea?

Both! But in the morning, it’s decidedly coffee. I have only one mug of coffee each day, but I cannot start my day without it. Not because of the caffeine, but because of the ritual around it. I pour the water into the coffee pot as my dogs eat their morning meal. The aroma of dark roast coffee wafts out to greet me as it starts to brew. The pot finishes its brew cycle as I let my dogs outside after they’re done eating and just as my morning toast pops up from the toaster.

I doctor up my coffee in a particular way, too. Since I can no longer afford the (exorbitant) luxury of Starbucks fancy coffees every day, I make my own version. I use three Tablespoons of hot cocoa, one packet of Stevia powder, and two Tablespoons of Peppermint creamer in my mug of coffee, and stir it all up. It is heaven in the morning.

Throughout the rest of the day, I have a variety of teas, often using my Libre because I like to watch the tea brew and change color and swirl. But in the morning, I choose that one mug of coffee that makes the world all right.

3. Early riser or night owl?

Whether this is a choice is debatable. I think there’s a strong built-in urge to be one or the other, and I think you can tailor that urge, but you never really get rid of it. I’m a night owl. Always have been. My body does not know the rhythm of getting tired as night draws. I tend to get burst of productive energy that hits around 10pm and lasts until around 2am Eastern.

I really like the early morning hours, though. There is something magic about the hours when the earth around me is just waking from its slumber, when the birds sing to a quiet neighborhood, as if they always get the Time To Wake Up memo an hour before anyone else. But it’s nigh impossible for me to get up at that time and stay awake all day. If I sleep for 8 hours and wake around 10am, I’m golden. If I wake before 9ish, no matter how long I’ve slept, I’m exhausted within a couple of hours, and throughout the day.

So I’m a night owl. I’m experimenting with trying to be a morning person, but so far, nothing has been as effective for making my waking hours, well, actually wakeful as being a night owl.

Your turn!

Are you a PC or a Mac? Do you favor coffee or tea? Do you share my night owl tendencies or rise with the early birds? What other daily choices to you make?

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