Our screened in now

Once upon a time, long long ago, I used a suitcase-sized computer with a 9” screen that could only display green. The year was 1991, and I used it to learn to code in Pascal in high school. It was my first “portable computer” after years of using pass-me-down Apple ][ series computers, and I thought it was amazing. Having portable computers changed my life, and made it possible for me to pound out class essays on a keyboard with spell check, and succeed where otherwise me and my dyslexia would have completely failed.

As much as I’m plugged in, I never envisioned that I’d go from that one tiny square of black and green to the monitor fort of my modern reality.

I live on computers. From that first massive Compaq, I’ve danced from a series of Toshibas to a delightful Sony VAIO, to a string of MacBooks that let me run my linux software in a terminal next to windows in which Adobe and MS software let me write and illustrate my work. … And when AIM came out — well, I think I have talked more over text in my adult life than I’ve talked face-to-face or on the phone. I have built a life of travel, and observing, and working remote in which I exist through my keyboard from whatever surface I can find.

Currently that surface is my knees.

I’m sitting on the floor typing while I lean against a wall amidst the chaos of a mostly packed up apartment. (I’m helping a friend move from another state to Edwardsville.)