I’m getting to the age of seeing the decades I have lived through from a higher viewpoint, and i’m starting to feel the rhythm of how reality pulses between it all.  Also, I have lived the outlines of some very important growths.  

One of these are the computer revolution.  My high school years were peak time for the beginning of the personal computer, with the Apple II+.  I had messed around with a business computer a year or two earlier, but now I got to learn BASIC computer programming, and video gaming (which had started in our household with the Pong dedicated video game in the 70’s).

I went into college as a computer programming major, and worked on SIU’s computer system, and bought my own PC Clone a year into my studies, to help me learn.  I wanted to change my major to graphic design, but computer graphics was just beginning, and I didn’t get my chance for that, yet.

From the late 80’s to the 90’s I worked on my own computer learning path, with various PC’s I built on my own, and reading all I could about the new tech.  I saw the birth of the internet, and went from AOL, to the wider internet, to making my own nascent web sites, and learning what graphics and 3D design software I could find.

It is amazing how. for about the last 20 years, our internet/web world went from learning www, email, and dial up at 28.8 Kbps to mobile web, glut of messaging apps, and cable that gets around 175 Mbps (175,000 Kbps).  When google’s days began, I remember reading their page that showed the new websites that came out each day, and as of last year an average of 14,281 a day were made.  The beginning days had us trying to get noticed by any means on the internet, and now we are trying to make sure our privacy is safe from the big data firms, that sell our virtual information to advertisers and who-knows-what.

Now, as a graphic designer, I work with all the best design software, and use 3D design in projects where needed.  Also now-a-days young adults don’t have a clue of how it was without smart phones and social networks.  

I guess I am trying to say, I am feeling old. But, I will always keep my eyes open to the new tech, and I sure enjoy the growth of it all.