It started in the 80's...

My interest in the world of Information Technology began back in the 1980's when I was a young and curious teenager.  I would take apart all of my electronic toys and try to figure out what made them do the amazing things that they would do. 

The first thing to be taken apart was my old transistor AM/FM radio.  Each time I would open the back of the radio to input new batteries, I would take notice of all of the other gizmos that sat inside of the radio.  Once I realized that I could take it apart and see each component, I was intrigued to find out more.  I had to try my best to understand how the radio waves that fly through the air can be converted to sound and bring me so much enjoyment.  Needless to say, at the age of 13, there was not much I could do at the time to learn more.

I would find myself searching around the toy stores for other things that I could take apart to see if I could learn even more.  My search was over after about a year of searching. I discovered the great electronic toy I had ever had at that time...The 150 in One Electronic Project Kit!  My eyes opened so wide at the sight of this grand toy, if my eyes fell out of my head, I would not have been surprised.  My mind immediately started to work on the possibilities of how I would be able to purchase this dream toy.  I have to earn money and do it fast!

I found myself working in everyone's yards over the next few weeks in order to come up with the money I needed to buy it.  Cutting the lawns of 15 neighbors, washing 22 cars by hand, cleaning up after people's pets (EWWW).  I didn't care, I MUST HAVE THIS DREAM TOY!  After working so hard for 3 weeks straight during the unforgiving summer heat, I finally had enough money to buy it.

I rushed home as fast as possible, running down the streets of Tulare as though a monster was chasing me home.  I burst through the front door and yelled to my aunt, "I DID IT, MA, I HAVE ENOUGH TO GET IT NOW!"  My aunt looked at me and just gave me a little smile and said, "I knew you would do it and you should be very proud of yourself for working so hard to get something on your own".  As I stood there and caught my breath, my aunt told me that I needed to calm down, jump in the shower and then go in my room to get ready to go to the store. I think my clothes must have been made out of paper because I ripped the clothes off and took a fast shower.  I think the water just had enough time to get me wet and I jumped out and towel dried as much as I could.  No time to waste drying myself and being neat, I have a destiny to achieve.

As I quickly run back to my room, my aunt is just smiling at me as I run past her to my room. To my surprise, I slam right into my closed bedroom door and hit the floor...HARD!  My aunt starts to laugh and quickly tells me to calm down. I didn't think about it at the time, but why was my door closed, I never close my door until bedtime.  As I open my door, I dart in and head to the closet and try to find something to wear.  My aunt walks up to my door and quickly says, "You know, we don't have to go to the store right now".  My heart dropped, what is she thinking...fine I will just ride my bike downtown and get it myself.  As my heart has now dropped a little bit, I decide to flop onto my bed and show my total disappointment in her decision.  As I turn to flop, I am thoroughly surprised to see a box on my bed.  I look closely at the box and start to make out the letters shown at the top of the box.  T   H   E  1  5  0  i  n  O  n e  E....OH MY GOOSH!  IT'S HERE ALREADY!  But how, when, what, who...I look at my aunt and she is just standing there with a big smile and says, "you earned this just by working so hard the last few weeks, it is yours and you keep the money that you have made".

After hugging and kissing my aunt for a good 2 minutes, I tore into the box and started to read and build everything.  I was working on all 150 items for many months.  I would read what certain configurations would create and then started to test my own methods of building circuits. I spent so much time building circuits the summer went by too quickly.

As I prepared for the end of the summer and the beginning of the school year, I had the chance to look through the optional classes that were being offered.  To my surprise, the school was offering a class in BASIC language and Machine language.  I knew at that time, I have to be in those classes, I have to learn more, I need to learn more, I won't be happy until I know more!

A GEEK IS BEING BORN...