01

I am guilty and ashamed of myself, for I once envied permed mullets sported by jocks in Idaho.

02

Transylvanian heritage is most-likely the cause of my serious sensitivy to flourescent light common to corporate cubicles.

03

My first email account is still out there somewhere. After signing up, I had no idea what to do next.

04

I am no longer able to know it all. Those days are gone. Must be that I'm getting old or slow or...

05

I should be honest about playing the violin during the fourth grade.

I loved it.

06

I envy the socially inept genius. Unfortunately, I find that being socially inept doesn't help me become more genius-like.

07

I remember things simultaneously. It's like being buried by a multi-sensory avalanche. I try to dig my way out with words.

"Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks." — Matthew 7:7-8

MY SON, WHOM I REFER TO AS SIR BENJAMIN, IS MY HERO. THE MORE HE GROWS, THE MORE I WANT TO BE LIKE HIM.


MY DAD. THE MASTER ELECTRICIAN. HE LOVES SYSTEMS. THAT'S WHERE I GET IT. THE LOVE OF SYSTEMS.


1998

I discovered the magic of HTML in a manufacturing plant

I was utterly amazed at the nonsense of typing jibberrish into a text editor, saving it with a dot-html extension and watching it come to life in Internet Explorer.

I realized I had been endowed with much power, the power of basic HTML. With that power, I chose to create something awesome and inspiring. With nimble fingers I typed 'animated gif' into Altavista.com's image search and within a few broadband seconds I beheld a sea of pixelated imagery, rotating, girating, flashing and popping at my eyes. A few clicks later, I sat back in awe of the sheer magnitude of my brilliance: a single HTML page containing approximately five rotating Earth globes, spinning in unison like tiny dancers graced the prosthetic grey monitor in my cubicle.

I had become a god.

2008

I discovered the wonder of Web Standards

I spent nearly two years trying to learn what Javascript meant before I got any of it. I bought the big, fat book with all the function definitions.

I remember reading it and thinking, "Why aren't we using this on the Web?" I'm usually not the first to think of such things. The last couple years have been great, online.

Now, I sit, gawking at a glossy laptop monitor, watching elements on my pages "boing" back and forth. I whisper things like, "Mouse on...Mouse off", careful not to draw attention to my cubicle.

It's like I've been introduced to an ancient power, now made available in America for the first time. But really, it's what can happen when people agree on something.

I have become an infant all over again.