ChuckleBerry.Net - What?! Me, a Techie?

What?! Me, a Techie?

I never considered myself a very 'technical' type person. I still don't. My mom and dad have tried telling me different, though, and since I started getting into computers, my dad has had occation to tell me, "I told you so!". I still say I'm not all that technical though.

I remember when my mom and dad gave me my first computer. The thing sat there for almost a week before I even worked up enough courage to turn it on!

My mom got her first computer in 1990. It was a monstrous thing, with a whopping 40MB HD and a whole 2MB of RAM! It even had a color monitor, SO much more sophisticated than the green-on-green screens!

She had taken a course up at the college for accounting and was looking to start her own business. I remember her and dad were so excited, dad loves gadgets and mom, well, it was a COMPUTER for cryin-out-loud, who wouldn't be excited!? *hehe* But it was off limits to my brother and I, which suited us fine actually, we were happy enough to just be able to brag at school that we had a computer in the house.

Whenever my mom found some cool new feature she'd point it out to us and we'd be sufficiently impressed, but we never really wanted to learn how to use it, I mean ... that'd be too much like WORK!

I think the first time I really started showing any type of interest in computers was a couple of years later. My parents had been upgrading their computer and dad was able to connect to other people's computers through the telephone.

Dad showed me how he could scan a picture into the computer AND, get this, could actually change things in the pictures! Like colours, or even add or erase things in them just by drawing over them! I thought that was the coolest thing!

Dad let me have a try ... I lost interest, though, when I found out I had to actually colour every single little pixel one by one and there were thousands of the things! I think I finished off changing the eye color of one eye on a picture of a wild cat we had before I got bored with it and gave up.

Some time passed, mom and dad kept upgrading the computer, and eventually along came 'The Internet'. A whole new set of possibilities! The only problem was thier computer couldn't keep up! So in 1995 dad got mom her very own laptop computer. They thought I might like to have their old computer to muck around with, I don't know WHAT they were thinking! *lol*

As mentioned the thing sat there for a week ... looking at me ... just daring me to turn it on. I'll admit it, I was intimidated! It was one thing going over to my parents house and seeing them play around with and work on the computer ... but actually have one - of my own - in my house?!

At the time I was with someone and since I didn't seem to have any interest, at least outwardly, in learning how to use the thing, he decided he'd use it. My parents had kept it well up to date and it had a dial up modem, with Win3.1 on it, more than enough for what he wanted to use it for.

He played a thing called MUDs, a text based Role Playing Game (RPG) that didn't really need much speed or anything. Also there were some disk games he liked to play through DOS. I was fine with letting him use the computer, it meant I didn't really have to do anything with it and could just kind of watch and see.

Eventually I thought I might like to try so he showed me how to play the text based games - he was a builder on one of the MUDs, which meant he could go in and change things in the code. He gave me my own building account on it and showed me how to use the OLCS (online coding system) to make my own changes to the descriptions and what-not.

I must admit, I actually found it interesting. When I told my mom and dad about it my dad laughed and told me that what I was doing was CODING and very technical! I couldn't believe it - me? Code? Yeah, right.

So anyway ... from there things kind of grew. Mom was building her own web pages, dad was doing all sorts of stuff with bulletin boards and other 'technical' sounding things I didn't understand.

Then it came ... the thing I had dreaded all along ... the stupid thing wouldn't work! I panicked. I didn't know what was wrong - I hadn't done anything differently - so, I took it to a shop. They fixed it and I took it back home. The only problem was ... it STILL wouldn't work. This happened a few times ... it would work for a while and quit again and I'd take it in and pay to have it fixed.

Six hundred dollars later I thought I better learn something about this machine! I couldn't keep paying to have it fixed! To make a long story short, I figured how to upgrade the operating system and installed Win95 and do some other minor upgrades and basic troubleshooting to keep the thing running properly.

My mom and dad just grinned at me.

To make a long story even longer *hehe*, I started becoming more interested in what this thing could do for me. My mom showed me the web pages she was working on and I thought I'd give it a try. (I built a couple of sites for my kids that I was so proud of, but looking back on makes me cringe! *lol*

The rest, as they say, is history. From that point I started building web sites, I must admit I was more interested in the graphic design and possibilities than I was into the actual coding aspects of it - but I could do it!

I could now also keep my own machine running, for the most part, I knew how to do some trouble shooting, check for viruses, I could do my own back ups and reformatting, upgrades and minor repairs all myself.

Since then I've worked for various ISPs, Internet Service Providers, building web sites for their clients, and providing software technical support. I've done graphic design and desktop publishing for various groups and small companies - I've even had a few of my own clients here and there. I've taught basic coding and troubleshooting to individuals and small organizations ... and all this without any 'formal' computer or software education. And my parents just grin at me when I say, "I'm not a technical type person".

So now I have a modest system with WinXP, an 80Gig HD and 1Gig RAM. I have a scanner / printer / photocopier, AND I've set up my own little network at home.

I still say I'm not a technical type person ... but technology and change doesn't scare me like it used to. When something new comes up I'm willing to give it a try. After all ... what's the worst that can happen? I've already faced the "Blue Screen of Death", viruses, HD crashes, reformats, reinstalls, a smoking CPU, a fried electrical system, a fan that decided it was a maraca dancer ... and more.

In fact - I've gotten so comfortable with my computer that we're on a first name basis. *g* Yup, FRED and I have come a long way! (FRED = Flippin' Ridiculous Electronic Device).

Christina Harvie aka "ChuckleBerry"