Our first computer was the Apple ][+ which my dad bought in large part because the guy who started the company attended his zendo. Particular pleasures included: Beagle Bros software, Ultima ][, text adventures, Brickout, 20 GOTO 10, PR # 6, Aztec, Wizardry, Wilderness Adventure, Ctrl-G, Castle Wolfenstein. There were many more, some of which I’ve relived lately with emulation software. Our next computer was the Mac, which was upgraded to a Mac 512k and then a Mac Plus. That thing, in its travel case, survived a fire which destroyed our Volkswagen van on the shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike – just south of exit 8A if memory serves. I don’t think anything else was salvageable. I was… 11? – my most affecting loss was the Gordon Korman and Douglas Adams books. My bookbag full of schoolwork was also lost, but I don’t remember having any trouble in school about it. I wonder why. Then we got a Mac SE/30. Somewhere in there I got a TI99/4A to mess around with. Finally I got my own first computer, a Mac IIsi. My high school had an internet connection so I guess I’ve been online since 1992. The big “wow” came for me when I discovered the song lyrics FTP server. I knew in that moment that this thing was big. All I’ve got going on now is this silly weblog, but back in the day I was serving up an online version of Kyosaku from my IIsi in my dorm room. I didn’t have a domain name or a static IP but I was listed in Yahoo nonetheless, so whenever my server crashed I’d have to stay up until 2-3am watching the network to grab the dynamic IP I needed.
