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So I guess I'm nervous about starting these classes for the advanced computer networking program at MATC. Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I'm not really good with technology or any of this kind of stuff. I just have to settle down and get used to being back in school and remember that I do actually know what I'm doing.

Here's a little background on me, I guess. My dad got his first computer when I was in 2nd grade. I remember him showing me how to get a program to run in DOS when I was just begining 2nd grade. I remember later that year my school got their first computer, one of those sweet Apple IIe's with the green screen. They weren't sure what to do with it, let alone how to hook it up. One of the teachers remembered that my dad had recently got a computer and they asked me if I was capable of hooking it up. I remember hooking it up, turning it on, and even running a program, and then showing the principle how to run a program. I set up the few other computers the school got as well.

Around 4th grade (maybe 5th), my dad was working for an insurance office helping them with some of their computer needs and selling insurance too, and the office decided they needed a network. So my dad brought me in with him and we set-up a network.  I would help him do some maintenance on it from time to time as well. I was still playing with our home computer all the time as well, learning how to do random things.

The summer before I started high school we had just gotten the internet, which really excited me. Almost nobody had it then (this was 1996). I remember trying to tell people about e-mail and stuff like that.  I had a lot of time that summer, and decided to learn how to make web pages. Without access to any HTML books, I just sort of figured it out by looking at the script to web sites and just figured out what each line of code meant. After about a week, I ended up getting an internship with New Rock 102.1 working on their web page. Basically I lightened the load to the DJ that they had doing most of it.

When I had started HS at Marshall that year, they had me help fix their older computers and stuff like that.  Junior year I transfered to Riverside HS, where they actually had programming classes. I took an AP Computer Programming class where they taught me PASCAL (totally useless now, I know. haha). Never took the test for college credit for some reason though. They also had me take their honors HTML class where I used it as a platform to show off my abilities as a web designer by hacking into other peoples computers on the network and changing all their script split seconds before they were to be shown on a large screen up front. It scared a lot of people, and also pointed out huge flaws in the schools network which they started working on fixing.

Then senior year I was an exchange student to Denmark and seemed to have lost my mind, and gave up on computers. I'm an idiot! hahahaha....

The last 2 years I've been realizing that I have missed my true calling and that I need to be working with computers in some way. I love the way everything connects to each other. I love that we are becoming so wireless and still can stay connected. I'm excited for the future of all of this right now. I have lots of ideas for things I want to do. I feel I have a good grasp of what's possible in the future, and decided that I need to start getting myself in a better position to become part of the future of the world. I guess that's why I signed up for this course.

I need something to kick my brain back into on mode. I need stuff that will challenge me. I've forgotten a lot of the stuff I did when I was younger, but I feel it's sort of like riding a bike. Once I start doing it again, it'll come back to me and I'll feel excited about it the way I used too.

So take from this what you want. I'm not claiming to be some sort of computer genius or anything. There is a lot of stuff I don't know, and there's a lot of stuff I've figured out better ways to do because "convential" knowledge hasn't gotten in my way and I can think outside of the box. I'm pretty excited to start. Excited but nervous!