8-Bit Nostalgia

I saw this excelent article and it reminded me of my young life as a budding computer nerd.

When I was in middle school we had a new IBM lab full of PS2's, which freed up room in our tiny old Apple // lab. My science teacher took us down to the Apple lab every Wednesday and let us spend the whole period playing text adventures for extra credit. It was so awesome. He was a really cool guy, and an odd duck as science teachers went.

He'd light the lab in colored bulbs and play tapes of Enya and Native American flute music. He was equal parts new-age hippy and rugged hunter, with a great love of wildlife conservation and environmental science. If I had to pick one of my teachers as the most inspirational it would have been him. In the years since I've tried once or twice to find him and thank him, but was never able to.