49 lines
6.1 KiB
PHP
49 lines
6.1 KiB
PHP
<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
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<meta charset="utf-8">
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<title>technically emma</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../style/style.css">
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</head>
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<body>
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<main>
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<?php include "../includes/nav.php" ?>
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<section>
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<h1>technically emma</h1>
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<h3>early life and the spark</h3>
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<p>
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technology, electronics in particular, was probably one of my first loves. as a child i was quite fond of taking apart anything i could, not yet knowing it would be smart to put it back together. as i entered gradeschool, a teacher would become quite important in my life. due to being legally blind, he would visit the school once per week, and make sure i was doing okay in school. he would do small assesments and we'd play games that would test common skills a child would have at that age. the thing i was obsessed with every time though, was the laptop he would bring. i would learn that it was an IBM ThinkPad T23. to say i was fascinated by this black square is an understatment. i was hooked by the idea of the computer, it was the device for someone that possesed curiousity like i did. this teacher caught on pretty quickly, and eventually would allow me some time each meeting to just look around on the computer, or make images in paint. trusting a little kid with your work pc is pretty impressive, but i think it really speaks to who this man was and what he meant to me as a whole
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</p>
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<p>
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in sixth grade i would have my own computer, though no internet yet. it had windows 98 se, a pentium II processor and 64mb of ram. it was an off brand pc called a pionex. my search for the specific model i had on ebay was always unsuccessful, and the scarcity of drivers for it turned me away from any possible nostalgia purchase if one should it pop up. still though, this was my computer! i didn't have to share it with anyone! i spent most of my time learning how to draw in paint with a mouse. sometimes i would make things for my mom and print them out. soon though, that curiosity grew in me, there was more to this thing than paint. so i would just look around on the computer. i'd browse all the folders. i found the windows directory interesting in particular, it seemed rather important, so i was careful. but i would look through it and wonder what all these oddly named files were for. sometimes i'd click on random programs that were in the windows folder, just to see if they did anything
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</p>
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<h3>the joy of computing</h3>
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<p>
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as i grew older i became aware it was possible to build your own computer, so during highschool i would learn how to do just that. it wasn't anything special, but it played the now online multiplayer FPS games i was playing far better than the old HP i had at the time. around this time i started visiting the bookstore too, always drawn to the tech section. i kept seeing books about this thing called linux. i didn't know what this was yet, but each of the books came with linux on a cd. i would learn from the books by skimming that linux was an operating system like windows. but it just came in these books! i thought this was quite interesting. after some time and having browsed enough magazines and books on linux to really fire up my curiosity. i purchased a 20GB Maxtor IDE hard drive and a copy of SuSE Linux from CompUSA. i then somehow managed to get this drive installed and set up a dual boot system. i don't recall where or how i learned to do this, but i do know i did not regret wiping my windows install that time. impressive i know ;)
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</p>
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<h3>can i do this for a living?</h3>
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<p>
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as i was nearing the end of highschool, that all important question started getting asked. what's next? what do i want to do for the rest of my life? when i graduated in 2009, it was pretty apparent the american dream was dead. i saw what happened to my mom and people she worked with during the financial recession. but when you're 18 you still have an absurd feeling of invincibility, that it might somehow be different for you. my time in the field of tech wasn't all that remarkable, and really what i learned was that i should've never did something i loved for a job. my full time career was cut short at the advice of my doctor, though i may be able to work part time in the future. there are part time tech projects that pop up from time to time in my city. usually nothing fancy. something like a company that hasn't learned how to automate windows installs and needs to panic install a bunch of new copies of windows. but i think doing that part time i could live with. i feel a lot different about myself and work than i used to. sometimes i'm just happy i made it through my full time career alive. 'cause yeah, it got that bad at points
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="../img/life/technology/powerbook.jpg" alt="an early example of an apple powerbook. the model is a 165c. it features a color screen, and had an operating system that supported color. the powerbook sits atop a desk with a floppy disk icon on the screen. a question mark appears and disappears within this floppy disk, suggesting no operating system can be found to boot from" height="300" width="300">
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<figcaption>
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a powerbook 165c that i hung onto after purchasing on a whim off of eBay. i'm not particularly interest in retro computing, but the relatively untouched nature of this laptop combined with the price made me curious enough to purchase it. it will need a copy of mac os 7.1 installed. but all components function as they should
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h3>still in love after it all</h3>
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<p>
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for the very double edged sword tech has been in my life, it is still a love of mine. i find it both a blend of art and science. circuit boards resemble well laid out cities. the beautiful websites you browse express themselves though code. there's always another question you can ask, and you can dive as deep as you want to find the answer. i think because of that, part of me will always love tech, both professionally and personally
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</p>
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</section>
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</main>
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</body>
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</html>
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