Sunday, February 21, 2010

It's My Birthday!!!

It's blog-entry Sunday, and my birthday has magically fallen upon it. I was trying to figure out what to do for this entry, and then I figured I'd write about important things that happened in my life which led up to me creating this goofy blog.

I was a huge music junkie, even when I was five years old. I still own a cassette of "music" which I recorded on my parents' floor-model stereo system (yes, I knew how to work a tape recorder at that age). The tape was probably a K-Mart brand (green label) 90 minute low-noise compact cassette. The tape has seen many better days. It's been eaten a few times and the tape is twisted in some spots which have been permanently pressed for well over 20 years. While I was cueing up the tape to create this MP3, the tape deck decided to wound it yet again by eating it. I carefully unwound it from the capstan and performed yet another surgery on it. I won't let this tape die after having it for some 25 years! Regardless, here's a really irritating children's song (and the portion that I pulled out of my deck's throat):

Listen to a stupid animal song!

The first computer I owned was a TRS-80 Model I. I got my first taste of programming on this thing, and ironically it gave me a jumpstart into working with electronics, trying to find (and repair) a reliable shoebox tape recorder which could save and load programs reliably. This computer cost me a whole ten dollars, and a few years later I stupidly re-sold it for ten dollars. It's worth more on Ebay these days:

 

The first computer program I ever wrote was on the Commodore Vic-20. It was called "Dot Junk", a really stupid math game which didn't really make any sense. Regardless, it was my first venture into programming my own stuff. The original version I programmed needed a RAM expansion since it didn't fit into the generous 3.5K of RAM the Vic leaves for the user. About a year or two later when my programming got more efficient, I made a slimmed down version. Here's a couple of screenshots:



I can't believe it was 20 years ago that I wrote this thing!

If you have a Vic-20 emulator, you can download 'Dot Junk' and try it out!


The bulk of my teenage years in the 1990s included programming on my Vic-20 and later my Commodore 64. Also eating up my time was creating mashups and medleys (under the name Canned Peaches) on my reel 2 reel machines and whatever other analog stereo equipment I owned. Here's a picture of the setup I had in my bedroom:



Now that I have webspace, I'm planning on making all my Canned Peaches albums available for downloading in the (hopefully) near future. Here's just one of the masterpieces I created during my depressing, sheltered teenage life... and what an appropriate song it is! It's my goofy, messed up birthday medley (unfortunately, I'm not turning 16 this year):

Click Here for "Happy 16th Birthday" 


I believe it was in 1996 when my brother got me started on playing guitar. My mother bought me a really cheap acoustic guitar from Consumers Distributing. I played the shit out of that thing. Eventually, my uncle sent me an electric guitar which I still have to this day. One of the greatest feelings I've ever experienced is writing a song and hearing it come alive on stage. I'll put up some of my songs (including video footage) in the future. I just don't have the time to transfer and edit any video today.

In the year 1999, I entered into the already dying BBS scene. I loved BBSing with a passion, and decided to pay for a separate phone line and run my own BBS. I had around 50 door games (including X-rated ones), Fidonet, and a file base full of pr0n. Here's the ANSI graphic people saw when they logged in:



All this stuff (and more) has contributed to my love for music, old technology, and all things bizarre. A lot of people tell me I have no life. The thing is, this IS my life, and I find it to be a very satisfying one. Happy birthday to me, and all the oddball things in life I enjoy!

1 comment:

The Amateur Mixologist said...

I like the randomness...good stuff.

And Happy Birthday.