Editor's Note: Aaron Broder, 16, a reporter for the Scholastic Kids Press Corps and a regular TechFlash contributor, sent us this guest post from his hometown of Nashville, Tenn. Follow Aaron at allgeektout.com and @allgeektout.

Courtesy Jordan Bennett

Jordan Bennett with his rare MacBook Pro, Steve Ballmer Signature Edition -- which he says he plans to keep, for now, unless someone makes the right offer.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is known to react strongly in the presence of Apple technology, and not always in a good way. Take, for example, the time when he pretended to stomp on an iPhone after a Microsoft employee tried to take his a picture with it.

Jordan Bennett, a 20-year-old sophomore at Nashville's Belmont University, had heard these stories, but when Ballmer came to town last week to speak to the Nashville Technology Council, they didn’t stop Jordan from coming up with an idea -- asking Microsoft's top executive to sign his Apple MacBook Pro.

The video of this incident has gone viral, getting more than half a million views in just over a week. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Jordan about what he called a “crazy and surreal” experience.

“It just occurred to me the day before,” Jordan explained. “I decided to ask Mr. Ballmer to sign my Mac. I thought it would be funny and ironic and I wanted to see if he would do it.”

Of course, his plan wasn't without risk, given Ballmer's history. When I asked him if he knew about the iPhone incident, he laughed and said, “Yeah, I had heard of that one. I wasn’t worried to hand over my MacBook, though. I thought it would be a lighthearted gesture.”

He must have been a little nervous, though, since he made sure to let Ballmer know that he had Windows installed on the computer. Fortunately for him, Ballmer was in the mood to play along, scribbling his name across the logo and adding the question, "Need a new one?"

Even though Jordan runs Windows on the Mac, using virtualization software, he considers himself a Mac user, having used his current one for the past three years and grown up with them in high school. Although Jordan was widely reported to be a student at Trevecca Nazarene University, where the event took place, that isn't the case. He was actually visiting as a guest, along with other students from around the region who were invited to the event.

Courtesy Jordan Bennett

Since getting the laptop signed, Jordan hasn’t been taking it to school -- which means that, ironically, he actually is in the market for a new laptop. “Mr. Ballmer will be happy to know that I’m running Windows XP at home, but I’m looking for a new [laptop],” he said.

When I asked him if he was interested in getting a new Mac, a Windows computer, or even an iPad, he wasn’t sure, but he seemed to be leaning towards a Mac. “The new iPad, I’d love to have that, or maybe a MacBook Pro. I don’t know yet, but anything to get my schoolwork done.”

Overall, he said, the experience has definitely been good. For one thing, his standing has improved amongst other techies at his school. "At school, I'm kind of 'the anointed one' now, and all my friends think it's really cool."

As for his plans for the signed laptop, he hasn't decided yet. "I'm keeping for now!" he said. "[If someone] makes the right offer, that can be arranged, but right now, I'm going to keep it."