Well, that was definately a difficult exam…. I am not sure how I did; Some questions were not that bad, while others I simply couldn’t answer. This guy doesn’t grade on a typical scale, so I guess I will have to wait until I get the exam back to even guess what letter grade I got.

Packing, Packing, Packing
I always overpack. Tomorrow I am heading out to California, to tour the Bay Area/Silicon Valley. I will be staying with Chris while I am out there, and I will be meeting up with Scot Hacker, Dave Bort (and his place of employment, Be, Inc.), Chuck Lapp (who is working for Crystal Dynamics currently), and Pink-Haired Kate. It will be wonderful seeing Kate and Chuck, because I haven’t seen either of them in a few years. And although I have seen Bort recently, It will be good to see what he is doing over at Be (which, as you can imagine, is exciting for me… *l*)

It is always good to see old friends, and in the case of Scot, I will be meeting him in person for the first time. For those of you who may not know, Scot is the author of the BeOS Bible, MP3: The Definitive Guide, and is also one of the editors that works with me over at BeNews. I have talked with Scot in one capacity or another for many years now, but we have never met face to face…

This whole internet thing is so odd… Sometimes I don’t understand how society continues to function with it, and other times I can’t imagine life without it… Computers have always been a part of my life.. Some of my first memories are my father taking me to a junior programming class at the local high-school. I can’t remember how old I was at the time, but to give you some perspective, I was writing BASIC on a Commodore PET loading its software off a cassette drive. Sometime after that my grandparents bought me a Commodore 64, and later my father bought a modem. I would say that I wasn’t past 4th grade by the time I dialed a BBS… So e-mail, programming, all this data, is all so familiar to me. I don’t say that to show off (or compensate for a ‘lack’ of something :P), but I am just trying to create perspective.. I take it all for granted, completely, and that really frightens me at times… Sometimes I look at an iMac and see a ugly, green machine for idiots; Other times I see it for what it is: The perfect machine for beginners running an OS that, while frustrating many advanced users, is perfect for people who have never looked at a computer before.

Anyway, back to the point, I am really looking forward to seeing all these people, but I guess there is special excitement for me in meeting Scot. I guess there is something special about a face-to-face meeting, and that is something that computers will be hard-pressed to replace….. Thankfully… :)