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!

Real McCoy - Another Night

Oh jeez. I ran across this song in my playlist today. Memories of my BBS days flooded back. Not just hanging out on BBSes, but all the real-world social atmosphere that came with it.

Playing Tradewars. Going to Ren Fest or Tippins (rest in Peace) to meet with people. Late nights in 16-color text-only teleconference. Driving out to Independence to hang out with my favorite Sysop. Arguing on the forums with Frogman, who's now one of my best friends. Turning Poet's little Geo Metro sideways between Kestra's basketball goal and the front porch, stranding him. Giant Pixie Sticks. Bowling. You don't even understand. You'd would have needed to be there. This is part of my mid-teenage past that permanently changed the course of my life. It may also explain my terribly eclectic and slightly disturbing social flair.

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.

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

I forget the reason, but I had to take my dad to work at 5:00AM one morning so that I could use his Altima to get around. It was a chilly spring morning. What sticks in my mind is hearing this song on the radio as I drove towards JCCC where I was both working and taking classes, but the whole day gets brought back to my memory when I hear this song.

I was taking photography, small-engine repair, technical writing, and a few other classes. After my dad got out of the passenger seat, I reached into the back and grabbed the rugged-yet-tattered camera case, bringing it to the front seat to keep me company. The rest of the day was totally mundane. In fact, being awake at 4:00AM and using my dad's car were the only thing out of the ordinary.

Laurent Wolf - Happy TV

Coming back from a pizza delivery in my Escort, driving down 101st street out by Falcon Ridge, plotting to take over the world. This song was blasting as I did this.

I'd left Kozoru recently and had retreated back to pizza delivery a few nights per week while I was technically on a self-inflicted month-long vacation from real work while I try to figure out what I'm going to do with my life. I like driving when it's not on the highway in rush hour, and delivering pizza not only made pretty good cash for part time work, but it gave me loads of time to think. My plan to take over the world was not quite as such, but I was working on a business plan to launch my own company. I came up with a lot of good ideas while driving.

I still have a 3" ring binder full of marketing ideas, my business plan, and all that jazz. Maybe someday I'll actually go for it.

DJ Eyal - Dreamcatcher

Zipping northbound on I-35 on my way to work on some random July morning in 2000. It's about 9:30 AM, and I'm driving from one job (JCCC) to the next (FishNet Security). I'm going way, way over the speed limit. Triple digits, likely. I'm not running late, I'm just having a great time enjoying my relatively new car on a highway that's almost completely empty.