Isobella Jade's Thinking Lounge: Rest in Peace Steve Jobs

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs

Photo credit: Vera Melo

WTF: Only 56 Steve Jobs dies. Apple I love you. I read about it here tonight: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple-says-company-cofounder-apf-2413458028.html?x=0

If you know me and my story, you'll know that the Apple store and Mac computers have been a part of my own journey and life. Do you remember when you first touched a keyboard or a computer?

I do.

I may be known as Apple's biggest little freeloader, but Apple and I have had a relationship for some time.

When I was a kid (Kindergarden-ish) my mother, a teacher, would bring home a computer during the summers-it was an Apple II. I remember the floppy disks and playing Stickybear all summer long, it was the first piece of luxury I ever touched, it was what super rich kids probably played with and schools had rules about how to touch it and what to do with it, and it was sitting on my dining room table! We didn't have much money for extra's, and the summers with the Apple computer have not been forgotten.

I went to college with an Apple iMac G3/350, it was heavy, expensive, but so cool. I was studying advertising and Apple was known as the computer to use if you were creative, or thought you were.

When I was struggling to live on my dream and pay rent and the electric bill, I used the Apple store as an office for months and months, and it became a homage, a safe and dry place, a fast moving place where the energy around me and the shiny new computers inspired me and things happened there--like I'd write the manuscript of my first book, my modeling memoir Almost 5'4" on a 17" iMac at the Prince Street store in SoHo. And the Apple store, and writing my book there during a turbulent time during my modeling pursuits, really propelled me to new dreams, new goals and is the foundation of my publishing life.

Photo credit: Vera Melo

These days I love showing off my books on the iPhone. Here's one:

I've always thought being on an Mac is totally different than working on a PC, a Mac is having a lobster for dinner, the other type is like just having just a side of green beans, you can survive on it, but it's not the same satisfaction. And the Apple stores are genius, a destination to play and discover, ding, ding, with a genius bar- totally a winner and I am addicted to my iPhone, and love Apple culture, but Steve Jobs was more than a man with a vision for great computers and technologies for the music and cell phone world and connecting people and bringing creativity together, he believed in himself and possibility and the products, he faced many of his own challenges along the way, and had pit falls, but also had a true great love for his work, and great energy and perseverance and... illness, not everything was all rosy, his journey wasn't always a smooth one, but he didn't lose his belief in finding a way and making it happen and I like how he was always thinking about the future...and that the dots will connect.

This is a great speech, the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005. READ IT!
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

OR WATCH IT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

You can read more about Steve Job's life, the highs and lows and success of his journey and legacy here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576410753210811910.html?ru=yahoo&mod=yahoo_hs

Books on Steve Job's life and the influence he's made:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/steve-jobs-walter-isaacson/1104099551

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs, and thank you for all you've created and the energy you've put into these wondrous creations that have also allowed and inspired the underdogs and dreamers to strive.

I'll have to say another prayer when I stop by the Apple store next time.

~Isobella

P.s: If you get a chance to watch The Pixar Story, I saw it on CNBC and it's really interesting.