Bonnie Erickson meme'd me and I can never turn her down (ssshhh, don't tell her). Thankfully, this is a meme about the kinds of media that has played a part in my life...and I how I got into all this tekkie stuff- at least that is how I am chosing to interpret it. So here goes.

I had an Apple II-e.I loved that machine! It was like a Jetson's phenomenon to me. This was back in the 80s of course. I wasn't on the Internet then of course but it stayed useful until I got another version of it in the mid 90s from some friends...and then moved on to a raspberry iMAC in 1997. Yes, I was one of those loyal Apple folk (you know, the rabid kind similar to those of us who had various VW Bugs throughout our early lives). The iMAC served me very well until our MLS decided to stop supporting it! I was forced to become a Benedict Arnold and bought (two years ago) a Dell Dimension 3000 system with a flat screen yada yada and I am quite happy with it...even if I am a traitor. I loved Netscape; was PO'd that Gates was continuing to try to invade my life with IE taknig over the way VHS did. I finally had to give up and switch. I still use IE but still think if Microsoft wasn't such a monopoly, most people would be happily using Netscape or some other system (yes I know I could try Firefox) (Maybe someday).

In the mid 90s I lived in Greenbelt Maryland and one of my condo neighbors worked for the government. He had The World Wide Web at home and he showed me (once) what it was all about. I was agog. The Internet seemed like the most fascinating and top secret thing in the world.  I finally got an Internet connection when Pearl Jam did a live conference call with fans (yes I admit to this) and it motivated me to get a dial up connection. Once you get HS Internet though, it's impossible to go backwards.

1997: First email, through Yahoo! and free. I still have it. All in all, Yahoo! does a good job with spam and they have always had a decent email system. Now I have three emails with over 400 emails in each in box and some day I am going to clean them out. It's all I can do to keep the numbers under 500, really!

IMs.  I use Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. I've had a friend in Nebraska since 2000. We've been communicating through IM every day for seven years. I have another friend in Tennessee; she and I have been communicating through IM for about two years. I met both gals on line. The Internet is a fab place.

Email: The best thing since sliced bread. I do most of my client communication that way and they wouldn't have it any other way. I had two clients this year (including one referral from fellow Rainer Jeff Dowler) whom I never saw in person more than twice -- most of our communicating was carried onvia email.

What I love: Squidooand Trulia. And a local Forum on Urban Ohio that is chock full of information, opinion and dialogue on almost anything NE Ohio.

Radio:My life blood. WHFS Two which streams alternative music; ESPN radio for my at least once weekly fix of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan and whatever baseball game they are hosting; I have an off and on again XM radio subscription so that I can catch Theme Time Radio with Bob Dylan. And too much more to fit in here.

Started blogging on Realtown a year ago...came to AR last September (I think!) and now I have an outside blog as well. Who knows what is in store for the future :-)

Print Media: If I was independently wealthy I would subscribe to  The Economist, WSJ, but since I'm not, I limit myself currently to Rolling Stone. My home page is the Washington Post.

Books: way too many to name; the last one I read was A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion. Before that it was The Gentleman From New York (bio of Daniel Patrick Moynihan). I am looking forward to starting the second in a series (Pepper Martin) of mysteries written by local author Casey Daniels.

My next purchase? An all in one phone. Next to learn? The list is long; but it's a fun journey.  Peace Out - 3C

I meme Jeff Dowler, Eileen Landau and Leanne Paynter.

Eileen has her meme full of great tekkie history HERE