tonyandkirsten.org

For your viewing enjoyment…

More pictures in the September Madeline album
Pictures of Madeline’s adventures at Encounter
Assorted ministry pictures from the last couple weeks

And there might just be a picture of me with carrot slices stuck to my face around there somewhere…but you’ll just have to find that for yourself.

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For those of us that grew up in the 80s playing games on Apple IIs, Commodore 64s and other such computers, this little video can bring back great memories.

I got my first computer in 1988 (fall of 6th grade) — I bought it with my own money at a garage sale for $50. Yes, I was the proud owner of a Commodore Vic-20 with a tape drive! It was outdated even then, but it was my very own computer to write and save my very own programs. It was nice to have fun programming without staying late at school or only having a rushed few minutes at the keyboard during a free time. Over the next couple years I moved on to other equally-outdated machines — an IBM PC-XT purchased at a library sale and a hand-me-down Commodore 64 from my dad. I finally got my first brand-new computer when I graduated from high school…A Pentium I that I could even use to dial up AOL!

At one point in 6th or 7th grade I told my mom I wanted to be a computer programmer when I grew up. She discouraged me, saying something like, “by the time you grow up, they probably won’t need computer programmers any more. The computer programs will probably write themselves and take care of themselves.” Or something like that. I took her advice to heart and by the end of junior high I had lost interest in writing my own programs. It’s funny to think about what would have happened if she had never said that to me. Would I have lost interest any way?

After giving up on a career in computers, my next career interest was Chemistry, which my mom also discouraged me from, saying that Chemists only make evil things like pesticides that destroy the environment. After winning a toothpick-bridge building contest in 8th grade (and being encouraged by science and math teachers to consider a career related to those disciplines) I decided I wanted to be a Civil Engineer, and this was the major I eventually declared at Iowa State.

Wow! Was I ever wrong about that! For those of you that don’t know the story, I lasted two semesters and then changed my major to English with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Professional Communication. A much better fit and a much easier time in college as well! In the end, I don’t really use it that much anyway (just for editing Daylights, which doesn’t draw all that much on what I learned in any classes, anyway). Had I known that, I could have considered even less-useful majors like history and communication studies. Oh well, I did have fun!