Geek, in most people's minds, is a bad thing. Some people, such as myself, like being
labeled as such. I am a computer geek, and I won't deny it. At one point I had five
functioning computers in my old apartment, and this was when I was living by myself after
going through my divorce. For as long as I can remember, I've loved computers, and
loved to mess with them.
My first run-in with a computer was a Commodore VIC-20. Basically, the computer looked
like a really big keyboard that connected to a TV. I also had the state-of-the-art tape
drive for storage. The computer itself started right up in BASIC, and did not have any
operating system. If you wanted to run a program, you either typed one in by hand,
loaded one from a tape, or put a cartridge into the computer. Most of the time I ended
up playing games. In school, I was exposed to the popular Apple 2 line of computers,
which is what teachers and students ended up using for things such as report writing,
grades, and of course Oregon Trail.
I progressed my computer skills through the years, doing more programming type things. In
those years, I had used a Macintosh, a Commodore 64, a Tandy 1000, and then finally an
IBM. I taught myself how to piece together a computer, and I also ended up running a
BBS for a number of years before discovering the internet. Eventually, I worked my way
to where I am today, working in a UNIX / Linux environment, coding, troubleshooting, and
installing things. At home, I still have a network, but now I have just three machines
plus my game consoles to deal with. Most people think I'm a little odd, because I work
with computers all day, then turn around and come home at night to use my own. I,
however, think this is just a symptom of my geeky nature.