Thank you, Steve Jobs

As most of us found out yesterday, Apple co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs passed away. And I'm sure many found out the same way I did — by reading about it on a device that Mr. Jobs pioneered. In fact, I was at my son's swim lessons; I was about to take a video of his progress when I decided to check in on Twitter and saw the flood of posts about his death.

Now, I normally dislike commenting about any famous person's death. I have never met them, I am not family, so I always think that any words other than a curt, "My condolences," serve only the purpose of feeding the writer's ego. A way to force oneself into a topic, so to speak.

But Steve Jobs is different. No, I have never met him either, and even I'm shocked at my emotions. Why am I so bummed about his death? Enough that I feel compelled to write about it? Because unlike "celebrities" like Amy Winehouse or Elizabeth Taylor, Jobs wasn't just a public figure to me. He's been, in one way or another, a part of my life since the late 80s.

I mourn the loss of Steve Jobs because he helped create a company that truly introduced me into gaming when I played the heck out of Ultima IV on our Apple IIe in all of its pixelated glory. Then, in the late 90s, I celebrated his return to the company by purchasing my very first computer: a PowerBook G3. Now, as a parent, I watch with awe and pride as my young child reads an interactive book on our iPad. I easily record his life's stories by taking photos and videos on my iPhone, and then quickly share them with family and friends through social media. As I sit here typing this on my iMac, my son came up and asked if he could play with the iPad. We are, by definition, an iFamily.

In 1997 Apple revealed its Think Different ad campaign and the "Crazy Ones" commercial, narrated by actor Richard Dreyfuss. Below is the unaired version of the commercial in which Steve Jobs provides the voice-over. In reflection of his life and death, he is undoubtedly the embodiment of whom the ad speaks.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Like him or not, one cannot deny his charisma nor his role in shaping how we communicate today, or for some like me, how we run our daily lives. So thank you, Steve, because your contributions have been a big part of my life, and now in the life of my own child.