Retrospective

Updated: 12/13/97

Today seems like a good day to look back at. The annual milestone that tells me I have survived another year, compels me to think about the past year and its accomplishments and failings. But I am going to hold that for a future post. Today, I want to dwell another milestone that has in many ways directed my life.

It was just about ten years ago that I bought my first computer. I came to the purchase very slowly. I avoided computers or anything computer related throughout high school and at UC Santa Barbara. At the time, I didn't see the need and didn't want to spend my evenings and nights writing, compiling, and running programs.

It wasn't until the fall of 1983, when I was introduced to VI that I found a use for them (my typewriter has been relegated to spot use ever since). The next big moment was when the sedimentology lab purchased a DOS clone and I was introduced to 123. Data analysis and making charts would never be the same. Finally, in the summer of 1986, I was introduced to the Macintosh. A simple drawing on MacPaint struck a chord.

Geology is a visual science. It requires understanding and visualizing spatial relationships. Presenting these relationships to others means drawing pictures. Until that point, computers had only been useful for writing and producing my reports. Graphics were still done by hand (which was a source of frustration). That changed when I saw MacPaint.

In the fall of 1986, I decided to get a computer. After going back and forth with the arguments (cost, easy of use...) I decided on and purchased a MacSE and a printer in December. I have used a computer almost daily since that time and the computer has become the focus of my work. While I am still thinking about geologic problems, more often than not I am working on for computer applications to solve them.

So here is to ten years of full-time computer use. I am also please to say that the computer that I purchased ten years ago is still plugging away (even if its hard disk is not).