Well, not quite yet, but for those who check the COA calendar regularly (BTW, I usually don't) that day will be soon...
I grew up in a era of four-hours of Saturday morning cartoons (yay!), "dangerous" toys (with pointy edges, small parts, and/or missiles that really fired...far...), helmetless bicycles (although I now own one), and space shuttle missions. I owned original Star Wars figures (and the Falcon), and predecessors of The Transformers - Micronauts... The first anime I saw was Speed Racer, which taught me that not all cartoon characters are indestructable...
I enjoyed playing outdoors as well as video games (albeit Pong/Light gun shooting gallery/Atari 2600 for most of my childhood). My first personal computer was a Sinclair ZX-80 kit. (3.25 MHz, 1 KB memory, membrane keyboard, cassette tape storage, and hooked to a TV - on channel 3 - via switchbox. Unfortunately, we didn't get to solder it together...) I've been interested in computers ever since...
My first PC (not including the Atari 800XL, which was mostly for games) was a noname 8/12Mhz "Turbo" 286/EGA graphics card & monitor/640KB/dual 40MB HDD's, and (eventually) a Soundblaster and (eventually) 1MB of memory. I (eventually) got a PC with a CD-ROM with my second PC - it had a 486DX2/50, and I bought a Pentium Overdrive 83 for it. By my third PC, I had an upgradeable (2x) AGP slot (first with a cheap 4MB S3, then a GF4 MX400 64 MB). Around this time I built my first LAN rig - a 1200/266 AMD T-bird, an ATi chipset card (first 7000 then 9600XT) , a Santa Cruz card, a Seagate Barracuda (first 40 GB then 80 GB), 512 GB DDR2 RAM, and 400W of Antec goodness.
So, now I'm grown up (
), but not old. I'm happily married (yes it's possible), and I've made several friends along the way (hopefully some here). I've learned many skills and concepts inside and outside of the classroom, and used my knowledge to help many people. So, here's to what's next...
Update:
This year is pretty cool, with the beach/cruise vacation, getting to visit out-of-state family, my baby niece walking and talking, my other niece - her older sister - showing us what she learned in school, and my first nephew - born this summer - well, just being here. Plus, my wife, who's had trouble keeping in contact with sorority sisters from around her generation, has met and hung out with some of the "older" sisters at her alma mater's Homecoming for two years in a row. Among other cool perks, she's gotten to visit the old sorority house, that the sorority has since vacated. It still houses girls (tenants now), but they've got a "wall of fame" in the kitchen that she and the sisters got to sign. Awesome stuff...
I definitely need a car, but I've gotten a good lead on a couple cool ones... We're still caring for her brother's cat, and even though we're technically "catsitting", as far as the cat is concerned, we're best buds. I still own video games that I haven't played yet, but I've gotten to play many this year. The tomato plants in back produced plenty of "big boy" and "better boy" tomatoes, even with the blight and stink bugs ruining some of them. I don't really look or feel different, I just keep marvelling at how old I am... I guess means I'm still young...at least at heart.
