Alanis Morissette - Thank U

Duplex-bonded 128k ISDN.

A chintzy Compaq with an old-school Pentium OverDrive CPU -- the fastest thing my parents could afford to give me for Christmas after my laptop died. It ran RedHat Linux for a bit before one roommate hooked me on FreeBSD.

The Bachelor Pad.

EtherMonkeys adorning the place. Literally, Barrel Of Monkey pieces hanging from do-it-yourself crimped Category Five strung up and across the ceiling.

Bowls of ramen noodle soup.

The occasional Screwdriver or White Russian (even though I was only 19)

Late nights.

Early Mornings.

Really, really pampering my 1995 Ford Escort, which I'd barely had a year, if that, at this point in my life. Weekly wash and wax and detailing.

Crashing at my girlfriend (now wife)'s apartment on occasion after really, really late movies. Not that we'd do anything but talk until our mouths hung open and drooling as we succumbed to the sandman at 4 o'clock in the morning.

Gizmo, the evil death cat that would shit, piss and vomit on anything touching the floor.

Audiogalaxy Satellite, and racing MP3 downloads home from work to see which would get to my computer faster. Damn, I miss AG Satellite. What a mindfuck. Why hasn't anyone ever duplicated it on some kind of Pirate Bay level?

Hitting the data center to help -- or watch, really, as Kenny Root performs massive upgrades on "Orator of the borg"

I expect no one but myself to know what all of these are. But that's what this song brings back.

Robert Miles - Children

Ah, the days of my foolish youth, and my first speeding ticket.

It's kind of an interesting story. I had just gotten back from a visit to the optometrist for an eye check-up. As usual, my vision was better than perfect (20/13 if it's any of your business), and as one who works in the IT Field among a sea of four-eyed peers (no offense meant) I've always been proud of my eagle eyes. Interesting fact, eagles probably have something more like 20/5 or 20/2 vision, but that's neither here nor there.

For some reason or another, part of the vision testing stressed me out quite a bit (dilation and the air-burst glaucoma ordeal) and I had a grand-mal seizure right there on the spot. It took me a while to recover, and the drive home had me feeling much like a zombie.

I was cranking this song at full blast in my 1981 Honda Accord, not paying much attention to my speed. I was going 70 MPH in 55 MPH zone that was under construction but without workers present. The resulting ticket was nearly $300. Ugh.

Good Times!

Underworld - Cowgirl

This is the first track I ever listened to on my NEC Versa 4050C. It was a used laptop that was new to me. It replaced my HP 300LX as my main classroom note-taking, BBS/UNIX Dialup terminal and Internet workstation. Yes, my 300LX was my main machine for a few months. But that's not what we're talking about.

I had just picked it up from a local used computer place (Oh, Computer Garage, how I miss thee...) and was sitting in my car, waiting for my wife to come out from her office on her lunch break. Except she was my girlfriend at the time. The NEC still works well to this day, but at a mere 90 MHz, it's pretty sluggish. It has great runtime on the battery, and it often gets used for Wardriving.

Notorious B.I.G. - Mo' Money Mo' Problems

This track was a serious chart-topper back in the summer of '97. As such, it was the song that was playing when I first hopped into my 1995 Escort when I turned the stereo on during the test drive before buying it. While I'm certainly not a huge fan of Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B or urban music in general, there are a few tracks in the genre that I genuinely enjoy because they're just fun to listen to. This is one of them, and it reminds me of all the good times I had with that car. It went to a good home back in May of 2007 when I sold it to a friend of mine, about 10 years after I bought it.

Binary Finary - 1999

This was one of my favorite tracks right toward the end of the 20th century. During this time, probably my greatest hobby was that of making unsavory and rather hackish modifications to cars. Most of these were performance enhancements, like using various hoses and ducts to provide ram air intake and increased brake cooling at high speeds. Namely, this was my 1995 Escort and my friend/co-worker James' Probe and Firebird. Although, there were quite a few electronics/lighting and other aesthetic modifications done during this time period.

Some of my ideas failed miserably. Others worked out very, very well. I look back now, and ask "What was the point again?!"

Ian Van Dahl - Castles In The Sky

For some reason, I can't escape thinking about spending a few hours per Saturday for over a month straight wrenching on my old '95 Ford Escort when this song plays. I'd recently put a new engine in it, and shortly thereafter, the clutch started acting up, thanks in part to some abuse by someone I'd lent my car out to. The person who was driving it knew how to drive a 5-speed manual car. That wasn't the problem.

Anyhow, 5 weekends, gallons of sweat, quarts of transmission fluid, hundreds of dollars, and many piles of under-car grime later, my car was working fine again with a brand new clutch that I can gladly say I had replaced all by myself.

I chose to listen to this song today as I recalled this past weekend, when I found myself under that same car again, going through the same motions, and replacing that clutch that I installed myself one final time for the friend who I sold the car to.

Silver Shadow - High Society

Racing in my first autocross event in my Focus. Simple as that. I'm in the paddocks waiting to take off, wearing a stifling full-face helmet, and I have the Slinky album playing. This is one of the songs I heard while I waited. Why this doesn't conjure up some other memory, I have no clue. I've heard the track hundreds of times.

Paul van Dyk - Vega

I have several versions of this song, but I'm talking about the one found on D:Fuse's People compilation/mix album. This song was being pumped over the speakers while my friend Chris and I installed a 75-shot Nitrous Express kit on his Focus, and that's what it reminds me of. The smell of fuel, the feel of teflon tape, installing all kinds of safety sensors and switches, running braided lines and wires all over the place. Those were some good times. And boy, did his car haul ass when we were done!

Dave Matthews Band - Crash

This song reminds me about my first car in general and many of the bizarre adventures I had with it. It was a metallic red -- almost maroon -- 1981 Honda Accord. Very much like the first one on this page.

Why does this song conjure up memories of a car that's darn near as old as I am? I have no idea. Maybe it's because I both acquired it and abandoned it as the end result of a crash.

It was originally my grandmother's car, and I rode from my childhood home in Columbus, NE to Leawood, KS several times in it when my grandma would come to pick me up for a long weekend in "Kansas" which seemed like forever away. My parents acquired it on Christmas of 1990 when my Grandmother replaced this car with the 1991 Accord that she still drives to this very day.

My dad totalled it, and after having it fixed, passed it on to me when I was 16 in 1995. I kept it until 1998 when -- after being run off the highway by a semi -- I traded it in on my 1995 Escort. For those few years I had it, it was a great car.

I still miss it.