I got my first computer when I was 12 years old.  It was a Timex-Sinclair 1000 with the 16kb RAM expansion module.  Little membrane keys and blocky monochrome graphics… I loved it.

I would spend hours learning to program in it’s built-in basic.  I then progressed to a Commodore 64, a couple of Amigas (500 and 1200) and finally, a Windows PC clone.  80286.  Don’t ask me what the processor speed was.  It was slow.  And wonderful.

I was assimilated.

I played games, too.  Boy, did I play games.  Infocom, AD&D role-playing, arcade, flight sim, 1st person shooters… anything I could get my hands on.  Hell, I still miss Elite on the C-64.

Following the latest in gaming technology was a passion for me.  I was hard-core.  At least, I thought I was.  But, doesn’t every teenage boy?

Now, I have one game on my PC.  Quake 3.  I kill a friend every now and then, but mostly I just play a bot.  Gaming no longer holds its sway over me.  Sure, I check out game websites every now and then just to see what’s happening.  You know… check out a few screen shots.  And, I certainly follow the graphic card industry and try to keep my graphics humming.  For other reasons, though.  Not because I want to play the latest 1st person shooter.  (What is that now?)

You see, games are cool and all; but when you can create music or art… Or edit video and create animations.  Or create a cool website or graphic… Or all the other incredible things you can do with computers other than play games… why bother?  Ultimately, it’s just a waste of time.  A diversion.  But, still, I pine away a bit for the good old days of 12 hour gaming sessions trying to get enough experience points for the next level.  Making the kill.  Learning the next spell.

Sigh…

Mainly, I guess I grew up.

Haven’t had much time to really write anything… I’ve been working as the webmaster for a local school district.  That combined with my family and my personal projects have pretty much sucked up whatever time I have for my own web vanities into the abyss.  Last thing I did here was apply a WordPress update which, in turn, crapped-out my template.  So, until I find time to fuss with it… I’m stuck with the monotonal blue…

The new job is major cool.  Doing the whole thing in Sharepoint (MOSS 2007)… a MS content-management system.  Quite powerful… and complicated.  But, I feel like it is still quite new and will become much easier to use in future incarnations of the product.  My brain is on overdrive learning about “web parts” and how the 20-gabillion style-sheets affect the look and feel of the site.  Skinning it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be, fortunately.  But, curse all those style-sheets.

Any-who… I’ll be working on some new music… and remixing some older stuff.  Maybe even post some of that 4-track stuff I did with Moz 20 years ago.  Had lost some of it… but, recently got access to a copy I had given to friends years ago.  It was fun digitizing it and messing a bit with it in a decent mastering program.

At any rate, it’s been a pretty good few months to be Tom.

Peace and hair-grease.