I took a bunch of pictures while driving East to Wild Willie's hot springs, early Saturday morning.

I remember the smell. I don't remember where it was (though I can guess), or when (though I can guess that too), or who I was with at the time (which I could narrow down to maybe a dozen people if I'd guessed the when and the where first.) It was probably in a large, disreputable-looking coffee urn rescued from a rummage sale or a startup gone shutdown, plugged precariously into the same circuit as the sound system with a paint-spattered extension cord labeled "please return after stealing."

I've always been lucky, career-wise. No idea why.

When I was growing up, I was always good with computers -- but I never wanted to work in the computer industry. All through high school I was excited to be a TV tech. Maybe eventually I'd work my way up to directing. Man, I really miss that sometimes.

I didn't really do college. I tried for a while, but the local community college was teaching me stuff that I already knew was outdated and wouldn't help me get a better job.

By the time I was 20, I was working as the Playback Supervisor for Montgomery Community Television, which operated some local origination programming, public access, and the county government stuff on three cable channels. Basically, I was a glorified robotic tape arm, and I also supervised some other folks who did the same thing. I was earning just over $20K.

In my spare time, though, I was playing with the Internet. This was 93-94, so the 'net was still mostly non-commercial.

One day I got a call from my ISP. It seems I'd left a script running, and it got crazy and pegged the CPU. I apologized and tried to fix it. Two weeks later I got a call back saying it wasn't fixed. The next day they offered me a job.