I'm not speaking of a new superhero here. I'm talking about a particular son of mine who has an obsessive compulsive problem. And it's called 'I Must Change Everyone's Icons At Least 10 Times A Day". This is a computer related problem, maybe even a Mac induced problem. Maybe if we dig deeper we can discover who or what is at the root of it.When Daddy got the family our very own iMac we all did a collective 'oooh and ahhh'. We were thrilled with our new toy...uh, I mean, equipment that enables us to write and interpret data and make spreadsheets. Silly us, like we thought we would use this to do anything more than look up awesome Star Wars, Legos, Superhero and Princess icons and then download them into our 1 gigabite folder titled "Cool Icons" (yes, it seems we are using all of our potential memory to house downloaded pictures of toys). At least, that's what Bennett thinks it's sole purpose entails. I of course use it for much loftier purposes such as checking my always empty email box, writing super important blogs and uploading all my photos into my photo gallery.
You would think my sweet husband works for Apple the way he evangelizes about the product to anyone who will listen. We were his first converts. Many others have followed suit. Thus, it is with him who I would like to lay the sole blame with Bennett's icon obsessiveness. He's the one who taught him that he can change that boring old photo of a folder on the desktop to a super nifty graphic of say, Darth Vader. Who knew?
Thus began Bennett's spiral into working the copy and paste button every 7 minutes throughout the day. And to make it more fun, we each have our own folder on the desktop (who even knows what's in them, but at least they look cool - that's all that counts). So, when he gets the fancy to change his icon, he MUST change all five icons. Because obviously, there are rules to 'Icon Changery'. In case you aren't familiar with them, let me be of assistance:
1. Both Mommy and Chloe cannot be Princess Leah at the same time when using Star Wars icons2. You must all be from the same episode of Star Wars at any given time.
3. You may not intermingle Bioncle and Star Wars icons. It is one or the other. All or nothing.
4. Bennett must always have the coolest icon.
5. As of today Gavin forbids Bennett from changing his icon without permission. You just gotta draw the line somewhere sometimes.
6. Chloe is smitten with Bennett's computer abilities and sits next to him as he verbally walks her through his icon changery. She giggles alot and says 'okay' in all the right places. A willing audience builds self-confidence (a very important feature in computer work).
7. You must change icons as soon as you step out of bed. There has been a whole 12 hours of no icon changing. You must get to work immediately.
These are but a few of the oh-so-fun times you can have when you teach your children simple computer skills. Way to go Bennett. You have mastered the first and most important computer skill - making your desktop look super cool. Now, let's see what else there is to do on this thing....
p.s. - I'm not taking this latest icon personally. I know this is not how he feels about me. I'm sure he chose it based on it's 'cool factor'. Really...who wouldn't want to look like they're stuck in hot tar and screaming at the top of their lungs?
