Our Favorites from the Photo Shoot

Our great friends (and cousins) at Fife Photography came to Thanksgiving and brought potatoes, pie, and a camera.

Our April Calendar Page!

The journey is complete. See if you can guess who's who (not hard) and what their power is (much harder).



(You can click it for the big version too, BTW)

My Stand

Well, the last week and more have been a very trying experience for me. As anyone that knows me knows, I have been a dedicated and enthusiastic Mac user. That changed when Apple made their announcement to donate money to the efforts to stop Proposition 8. I was interested to note that this announcement has since been utterly removed from their website.

This is what I have written and will be sending to Apple and a few others:

To My Friends at Apple, Inc.,

My name is Dave Lyon and I've been a dedicated Apple user and fan for over four years. I'm a webmaster for a software company and I love Apple products. In that period I've purchased (or had purchased for me) two iBooks, a MacBook Pro, a 17inch iMac, a Mac Mini, and numerous peripherals designed to work with Apple hardware. I pre-ordered Tiger and Leopard for all my computers, and bought new versions of iWork and iLife as soon as they were released. I have bought too many independent software titles for Mac OS X to list here. And I'm sorry to say that iTunes has made a fortune on me. I will not estimate how much has been spent there. Hundreds of shows. Several movies. I've taken my kids to the Apple store for the great classes they offer on how to use the Macs in our home.

But despite that history, Apple has permanently lost me as a fan and as a customer.

Recently, Apple announced that they were against Proposition 8 in California. Contrary to what was said in the press release, this is a political issue. Gay and lesbian couples already have full protections and rights under the law and Prop 8 will not change that. I support Proposition 8 but since I don't live in California it's not up to me. But it's not up to you either- companies should not meddle in the democratic process. That right is reserved to citizens. But I could have let your opinion on the matter go. What I cannot let go of is that Apple has in essence taken money that I have paid and used that money to oppose Proposition 8.

You need to realize that your customers are not just liberals or people that don't care how marriage is defined- I might even speculate that a large segment of your user base is fairly conservative. Regardless, up until now, Apple has enjoyed more and more success because you make beautiful computers that work beautifully. The audience for such a product is everyone that has to use a computer. I can't think of any company that does it better. It's an inclusive message that will resonate with most people. At every turn you have made efforts to expand your market with new and better products.

But in this one action you have changed who you are and placed limits on who your market consists of. You still make beautiful computers that run beautifully, but now you've qualified that with a statement about how people should think and vote. That your beautiful computers belong to people who hold a certain set of values. And that message no longer resonates with everyone that uses a computer.

I am choosing not to follow you to the new place you are taking your company. And though it's been difficult, since you made your announcement I've switched to using Ubuntu Linux and a bit of Windows Vista. Apple will not be making any more money from my family. You have made your stand and now I am making mine.

Regards,
Dave Lyon

October Pictures