I like to know what people are talking about and I like new toys.
I bought a Commodore 64 in the early 80's when I lived with ET. I remember playing pong, asteroids and caterpillar.. I programmed enough basic to get the computer to say "Good Morning" (or something) when I signed on. ET played the games a lot.
Then, I was done with it.
My next computer was an Apple IIc...or an Apple IIe. I can't remember anymore for sure, but I think it was a C 'cause that stood for "compact" as I recall.
The programs I remember purchasing for that computer were a Jane Bryant money tracking system (as justification for buying the computer - ha!), Tetris and a text based mystery game.
The money program was crazy. There were about 17 floppy disks and I remember reloading the disks everytime I wanted to do something different with the program. Enter checks using Disk 4, report on checks using Disk 7. Grrr...no way to get a flow.
The program required me to enter every check I ever wrote and what I did with all my money.
It occurred to me that if I couldn't do it with a checkbook, then why would I be able to do it with a computer that took me five times as long? I've never used a money program since.
Tetris is addictive. You probably know that already, right? One day I came home from work with groceries, put them on the counter to turn on the computer, forgot to take my coat off, and I started playing Tetris. Four hours later ET came home and the groceries were still on the counter.
I wish I could remember the name of the text based game I played. I never finished it, but I liked playing it. In the story, the main character (the player) wakes up in a motel room with no memory of where they are or how they got there. The game was about trying to figure out the story.
Because it was a text based game you had to visualize everything like a book. At some point I was so confused about where I was I had to draw a map so I could actually move a block down the street instead of going back and forth around a corner...HA!
I also remember that one task I knew how to do was buy a gyro sandwich. And the only reason I know that word is pronounced jeer-oh instead of jahy-roh is because of that game. I think in the story they made fun of people who pronounced the sandwich incorrectly.
My next computer was a Gateway, I believe. That's what we had at our office by then, so that's what I liked. I had it for several years.
I think this is when I started going online. I remember I was dating GeeG at the time and I didn't feel like he was giving me enough of a debate on issues. I thought the new online services could be a way to have discussions about topics of interest. First Prodigy, then AOL, finally CompuServe. At one point I was a memeber of all of them.
On Prodigy I learned that you can have a discussion but sometimes no one cares. That was disappointing.
I also played some kind of stock market game that was fun, but stressful because I knew other people could see I didn't know what I was doing.
On AOL, I learned about chat rooms and the sleazy side of being online. The AOL chat rooms were always full and many of the member chat rooms were kind of seedy. However, there were some things I did on AOL - submitted a story that someone published on their zine, created an online group of friends that met weekly to discuss spiritual things, communicated with an author who wrote a story I really liked, and tried out the online medieval stuff chat rooms - Red Dragon Inn it was called - which I couldn't quite get the hang of. I had friendships with people and met a couple of them offline - to my regret, but that's nothing to do with being online.
I didn't use CompuServe very much. I never quite figured out how it worked. That's why AOL was the one I spent the most time on - it made the most visual sense to me.
Remember, though, the modems were very slow then. Eventually, the interest in AOL chat rooms waned, I realized I needed a more real connection with people, and checking out the World Wide Web using a 2400 speed modem wasn't really gonna work. So, I put away the online world.
My next computer was a Dell, followed by an HP (still in use). I'm writing this on an HP Laptop.
I still don't know a lot about how to make my computer do cool things - and I still buy new things just so I can see what people are talking about...I used to have a MySpace page becuase I wondered what all the fuss was about. That's gone. Now I have a FaceBook and a Twitter account. Not because I like them, but because everyone talks about them and I wondered why.
And that is....My life so far, with computers.
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