Last week saw the release of Apple’s new operating system, the eighth installment in the OS X series. Following on from the previous big cat named releases of Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard, we now have OS X Lion.
After downloading the new operating system today I thought I’d mark the occasion by sharing something that only recently occurred to me. When I was studying Web Design at college some years ago I participated in a mock interview with my tutor. The interview was going smoothly when my tutor dropped in the question, “If you were an animal, what animal would you be?”
I guessed this wasn’t a general question to learn what animal I’d choose to be should I be granted three wishes, drink some magical potion or have the powers of Manimal. Instead, I believed the question was aimed at me matching my personality to that of an animal as a way of gaining an insight into how I viewed myself.
“…If you were an animal, what animal would you be?”
My answer was to choose a Lion. My reasoning was that at the time of my studies I spent a great deal of my time burning the midnight oil and working late into the night. I likened it to how Lion’s save their energy under the hot sun on the plains of Africa and carry out their hunting work in the cooler temperatures of night. There was also talk of courage, a mild reference to nobility and a cheeky use of the word pride – I have, after all, seen The Lion King on a number of occasions; so I know what lions are all about.
Joking aside, the question has stuck with me ever since and I’ve had it in the back of my mind, just in case, at every interview I’ve attended. It’s also the reason why the graphic at the top of this website is a lion – it now seems linked to me in some way. And maybe that’s the reason, on some sub-conscious level, that only became apparent to me last week, I seem to have accumulated a small collection of lion pictures from my travels. So I thought I’d share them with you as a way of marking the release of OS X Lion. Enjoy!
