I’ve spent about 20 years of my life as a user of the Internet. My first network connected computer was a Tandy (yes, Radio Shack) of some make, maybe a 286 processor, which I initially used to dial in to local BBSes in my hometown. That is, until my good friend and sysadmin started using his modem that was dedicated to his popular BBS for this thing called “The Internet”. People were pissed, myself included. “What the fuck man, I can’t play my door games,” we’d proclaim. It wasn’t until a month or two later that I realized there were infinitely more “doors” on the Internet and I was really missing out.
I convinced my mother to sign us up to a local dial-up ISP. I logged obscene amounts of hours on my 28.8k, 33.6k, and later 56k, baud modems. So much so, that at one point we received a phone bill proclaiming that I’d left an open line to the ISP and was charging hundreds of dollars in “long distance”. It was bullshit, and we called them on it, because we were within the same area code. I am sure it was an attempt to eliminate the open line for whatever reason. It doesn’t matter.
Anyway, I’ll fast forward a little and focus on my introduction and immediate obsession with web programming and architecture. I was fortunate enough to have some really intelligent, like-minded, and highly technically adept friends in high school. We were punks and geeks and didn’t really care about “normal” stuff. I spent a lot of time hacking on servers and websites and designs throughout high school. So much of what I know today was self taught but guided by a few friends who also qualify equally as mentors. I’m so grateful for those friendships and for the path I’ve managed to navigate over the years. The hipster cool geek culture of today was normal life for us then; I feel like the rest of the world is catching up in a lot of ways (ironically, thanks to the Internet). I’m actually very pleased about that. Nerd love.
Over the years, I have maintained a few different static websites that mostly provided an outlet for whatever creative passion I held at that point in time. I also blogged rather obsessively for a while, too. One day I might re-publish that old stuff just for the sake of nostalgia and to remember where I’ve come from to keep me looking ahead. As to where I am going and what I am looking for and what I intend to write about here, mostly I am hoping to focus on the things I’ve already described: technology, development, design. My intention is to get back to writing and hopefully give some things back to the community that’s helped me learn so much.
So, here I am, my grand re-entrance to blogging in cyberspace. Welcome back!