For the first time in 8 years, I was upset that I owned a Mac yesterday.  After talking with Apple support on the phone, talking with the people at Wacom, chatting online with an Apple tech, I was assured my iMac G5, albeit an "OLD" mac, purchases a whopping 2 1/2 years ago, would work with the new Cintiq I was getting.  Well it DOES work, but only after I purchase a $19 MINI-VGA to VGA adapter cord to make it work.  Now, this in itself is fine I guess.  However I wanted to just plug it in and have it work yesterday, and I could have if I had owned a PC.  So not having the cord, and not having anyone TELL me I needed said adapter cord, I made a trip to the Apple store (thankfully one opened in the last year within 20 miles)  Rush hour traffic time of day mind you, 45 minutes later I walk in, and after waiting to get some help I was informed they had just sold their LAST one a half hour previous.  So yeah, I was frustrated.  Went to Best Buy, where I purchased the only thing that LOOKED like what I needed, that they didn't have at the Apple store, only to get home and learn THAT didn't work.  3 hours of my night gone, STILL no cord, I had to order what I needed online (which if someone at Apple or Wacom would have told me in the previous weeks I've spent looking into this whole situation I would have bought when I got the Cintiq so it would have been here at the same time)  I was also reminded harshly of how fast technology advances, and how something bought just over 2 years ago, is already outdated in some ways as everything has moved to digital video on newer models of the same computer in that time frame.  

The lesson I'm learning, is that I should indeed just put in the extra man hours on my part, do my OWN research, find what I need, and take care of it myself.  No phone calls to support techs at apple, no help from instore support people that have never even HEARD of something like a Wacom Cintiq, and generally just put my faith in myself, because I very rarely let myself down.  I'm sounding arrogant, but at the same time, it was ME who figured out what I ended up needing in the long, and along the way 4 other people, employed by the companies I have spent over 4 thousand dollars with, failed me.  Yesterday was frustrating.  Now I'm just waiting until Thursday when the part I ordered arrives.  Until then, it's just back to basics here, with a nice 2 thousand dollar, 20lb paper weight on my desk, staring at me all day.