It was sometime around 1984 at the age of 14 when dad bought my first computer, an Apple II+ with 48KB RAM, two 5-1/4" floppy disk drives, and a monochrome monitor. I had taken a course in Apple BASIC programming the year before and couldn't wait to have a computer all to myself. I was hooked. Over the next few years I wrote hundreds of programs, and even audited the 6502 assembly language course at my dad's college when I was about 15 or 16. BASIC and Assembly were my real programming roots. The combination of high and low level programming allowed for a deeper understanding of how the computer worked, and opened the doors for so much more learning.

The Apple II+
12" Monochrome Display, 1MHz 6502 CPU, 48KB RAM, Dual Floppy Drives

Sometime later, around 1987 at the age of 17, I audited the C language course at the college and began working more with IBM PC systems. I spent the next few years saturated in the PC and programming, and even started my first programming job shortly after starting college.

Fast forward to yesterday, more than 25 years since I got that first Apple that sparked my interest in computers, and once again dad was there to buy a new Apple iMac for me. It's not only an incredible gift, but it also meant a lot to me.

My new iMac
21.5" LED Display, 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB RAM, 1TB Hard Drive

Clearly the specs have improved over the years, and it'll be OSX and iPhone programming instead of Apple BASIC for me today, but the enjoyment and fun exploring are still the same. I haven't departed ways with my PC, though. For now, my Windows 7 custom-built PC is still my main desktop, and there's even an Ubuntu Linux box next to it which serves as a test system, firewall, and MySQL server. But I'm happy to say I finally have a long desired missing piece with my new iMac. It's good to come back home.

Windows 7 x64 Ultimate is up and running smoothly now on my main desktop system. As an MSDN subscriber, I get early release copies of the latest operating systems and development tools from Microsoft. I usually give new operating systems a few months or more to work out any kinks, but everything I'd heard about Windows 7 made me feel more than comfortable to jump right in. Luckily it's running great and I don't have any special hardware or driver issues.

Just got back from a nice 4 day trip to Lake City, Colorado with friends for the annual Wine & Music Festival. The weather was a little mixed throughout the festival's day with everything from sunny blue skies to cold, rainy gray skies. Most everyone managed to stick it out til the end, but I had to bail for shelter for a few hours during the cold rain. The rest of the trip was filled with great scenery around Lake City, lots of good food, and a few games of Settlers of Catan and Pictionary. Special thanks to Jordan and Scott for knowing all the great spots to visit for photos. I managed to take a lot more than I had expected, so hopefully a few turn out to be good. Wish I'd had the bag space to bring along my tripod! The photo above is from the last day, but Neil and Cindy had already left before I took the group shot. That bright light at the top was an unexpected but pretty cool looking sun flare from my little point & shoot camera.

I've had a little time to relax lately since I'll be job hunting again in October - due to the recent closing of the company where I worked. The weather was great today. Temperatures were in the upper 70's with a light breeze and partly cloudy skies, so I packed up my camera gear and spent the day at the Oklahoma City Zoo taking a few pics for fun. After 4 hours of walking, my feet and legs were killing me... but it was worth it. You definitely get your money's worth for the $7 admission - not to mention a bit of exercise too. The Zoo gallery link contains some of the photos from today as well as some from past trips.