| Barman, the Sequel |
One more installment about me before I move on.
I graduated from High School in 1975. Wasn’t I cute? Maybe yes, maybe no but I went down hill from there. I started college. I was going to be an Electrical Engineer. Part way through my first year I discovered I was going to need to take a computer class. I had always been fascinated with computers but really had not done much with them. One more or less trade school I was thinking of going to instead of college had a fascinating project they were doing. Take this huge room size computer filled with lots of tubes and convert it to this much smaller computer based on transistors and other circuits. That sounded like a dream but instead I ended up at a four year college.
The class was Fortran. I bought the book early and by the time I had the class in my second year I was about 150 pages into the book. I was so far ahead of the class it was crazy. We (there was someone else that seemed to be in the same boat in that class) must have drove the instructor crazy. On one occasion he just said “let’s walk before we run” because we had asked a question that was way beyond where we were at in the class. It was kind of tough being in the class because some of what was being taught was so wrong from what was coming. At one point the teacher had his revenge on me and my then friend. The test said to write a program to count from 1 to 10. Piece of cake and we both did it in our own way. We were marked wrong. When we approached the teacher separately he said we did not print out our results (1, 2, 3...). We both said he did not ask us to do that. It stood as being wrong. If I needed the points from that question I would have went over his head but it was not worth it and it did not make a difference. None the less, the teacher was wrong.
Well I was hooked and changed my major. I hung around the computer labs a lot and got to know the staff. Eventually that led to my first job in computers for an outside firm. Funny thing is, indirectly, that led me to meet one of my two best friends. I had already met my one best friend, L, (although I did not know it at the time) in freshman year at a different college. Two High School friends went there so I was visiting a lot. Well I got to know her real well and, luckily, developed a crush on her room mate. I say luckily only because it made things so much easier. Well I met my other best friend P, toward the end of the freshman year and mainly in the second year at various parties I went to and just hanging out. We also hung out a lot together in the computer labs on campus. It turns out P liked L and in the end we all became good friends but I did not really realize where this all was going. P and L got married in 1980 and still are doing very well 25 years and 3 kids later. It was awkward for me for a little while but it has been nice. I feel comfortable with them individually or together. I don’t see that ever changing.
Wow, I was talking about computers. Well I never did end up with a degree but I learned a lot about computers and various languages that has really helped me in my field. I am doing OK now, no complaints.
A quick note since I included the then and now pictures. I was near sighted for about as long as I could remember. I wore some really geeky glasses especially this one pair I remember from when I was 9. The ones above at least I really liked. Anyway, several years ago I has LASIK performed and now one eye sees almost 20/20 and the other is a little blurry but not to bad. I am, however, fighting wearing reading glasses but I do need them. Where was I ...
Well it was the 70s and I listened to a lot of music from that era and still do. Those were very happy times. I was not a fan of disco but I did end up dancing on a lighted dance floor. Well if you can call what I do dancing. I have always felt so awkward when I try to dance. I got to go to a few shows including Joe Jackson in a fairly small theater before he became big. I also listened to several Festival of Prayer and Hymn at EMU which between that and church I strengthened my voice. Let me apologize now should I ever be beside you and I decide to cut lose. I thought I did OK as several have said I did but my one friend who did sing for a living once told me I could not sing when we were at a karaoke. Well maybe he is more of an acquaintance. LOL
I have always been interested in science and science fiction. My poor sister had to put up with countless Star Trek TOG reruns. I have had a lot of other things that were interesting like the Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, H R Puff and Stuff, Davy and Goliath, Sherman and the Way Back Machine, The Time Tunnel, B rated sci-fi on Saturday afternoons and much more. Through it all however my love of science fiction remains very strong. And yes, if asked, I do believe in UFOs although I have not had any experiences but a friend did.
Well let me end this installment of TMI with my experience I mentioned in High School. I had a crush on someone, T. She was awesome. She was very cute, great personality, very smart, involved in a bunch of the same things I was. In short, what more could I want. Well I really did not know how to approach T. as I would get all, borrowing from Frosty the Snow Man, wishy washy inside. I finally decided what I should do is write her a letter. No groaning from the peanut gallery! I did and it was a masterpiece. Many pages hand written front and back in ink. I told her everything but somehow I just could not put the words together right. I put a stamp on it and mailed it off. Well things changed a little although I was not completely sure they had. We (along with the entire band) went to a roller skate party and I decided I was going to make my move. When they had a couples skate song I was going to ask her to skate.
The song came and T. was off to the bathroom and her friends told me she did not want to skate with me. Not only that they also said T. was going with someone else. I sure wish she would have handled it differently. Needlessly to say I was crushed. But instead of getting up and shaking it off I sat and said to myself how he had everything and I had nothing. I did a superb job of beating myself up I might add. Why is it then that I found something I was good at? I have really let that affect me ever since. For the longest time I did not realize it but it is true. Again I am doing better about it but ouch. I have since been told by several people that I smother people. The last person I tried to see that certainly was true. It was a long distance relationship and it probably is for the best but she just disappeared all together after I came on strong. A while later I finally heard from her and she was married. Now she is doing well and has two kids. She is still a super person, I just wish I had handled things a little differently. Who knows where things may have went?
Enough embarasing myself. Until I blog again, Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
“There was love all around, but I never heard it singing. No I never heard it at all, Till There Was You.” -- Music Man
I graduated from High School in 1975. Wasn’t I cute? Maybe yes, maybe no but I went down hill from there. I started college. I was going to be an Electrical Engineer. Part way through my first year I discovered I was going to need to take a computer class. I had always been fascinated with computers but really had not done much with them. One more or less trade school I was thinking of going to instead of college had a fascinating project they were doing. Take this huge room size computer filled with lots of tubes and convert it to this much smaller computer based on transistors and other circuits. That sounded like a dream but instead I ended up at a four year college.The class was Fortran. I bought the book early and by the time I had the class in my second year I was about 150 pages into the book. I was so far ahead of the class it was crazy. We (there was someone else that seemed to be in the same boat in that class) must have drove the instructor crazy. On one occasion he just said “let’s walk before we run” because we had asked a question that was way beyond where we were at in the class. It was kind of tough being in the class because some of what was being taught was so wrong from what was coming. At one point the teacher had his revenge on me and my then friend. The test said to write a program to count from 1 to 10. Piece of cake and we both did it in our own way. We were marked wrong. When we approached the teacher separately he said we did not print out our results (1, 2, 3...). We both said he did not ask us to do that. It stood as being wrong. If I needed the points from that question I would have went over his head but it was not worth it and it did not make a difference. None the less, the teacher was wrong.
Well I was hooked and changed my major. I hung around the computer labs a lot and got to know the staff. Eventually that led to my first job in computers for an outside firm. Funny thing is, indirectly, that led me to meet one of my two best friends. I had already met my one best friend, L, (although I did not know it at the time) in freshman year at a different college. Two High School friends went there so I was visiting a lot. Well I got to know her real well and, luckily, developed a crush on her room mate. I say luckily only because it made things so much easier. Well I met my other best friend P, toward the end of the freshman year and mainly in the second year at various parties I went to and just hanging out. We also hung out a lot together in the computer labs on campus. It turns out P liked L and in the end we all became good friends but I did not really realize where this all was going. P and L got married in 1980 and still are doing very well 25 years and 3 kids later. It was awkward for me for a little while but it has been nice. I feel comfortable with them individually or together. I don’t see that ever changing.
Wow, I was talking about computers. Well I never did end up with a degree but I learned a lot about computers and various languages that has really helped me in my field. I am doing OK now, no complaints.
A quick note since I included the then and now pictures. I was near sighted for about as long as I could remember. I wore some really geeky glasses especially this one pair I remember from when I was 9. The ones above at least I really liked. Anyway, several years ago I has LASIK performed and now one eye sees almost 20/20 and the other is a little blurry but not to bad. I am, however, fighting wearing reading glasses but I do need them. Where was I ...
Well it was the 70s and I listened to a lot of music from that era and still do. Those were very happy times. I was not a fan of disco but I did end up dancing on a lighted dance floor. Well if you can call what I do dancing. I have always felt so awkward when I try to dance. I got to go to a few shows including Joe Jackson in a fairly small theater before he became big. I also listened to several Festival of Prayer and Hymn at EMU which between that and church I strengthened my voice. Let me apologize now should I ever be beside you and I decide to cut lose. I thought I did OK as several have said I did but my one friend who did sing for a living once told me I could not sing when we were at a karaoke. Well maybe he is more of an acquaintance. LOL
I have always been interested in science and science fiction. My poor sister had to put up with countless Star Trek TOG reruns. I have had a lot of other things that were interesting like the Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, H R Puff and Stuff, Davy and Goliath, Sherman and the Way Back Machine, The Time Tunnel, B rated sci-fi on Saturday afternoons and much more. Through it all however my love of science fiction remains very strong. And yes, if asked, I do believe in UFOs although I have not had any experiences but a friend did.
Well let me end this installment of TMI with my experience I mentioned in High School. I had a crush on someone, T. She was awesome. She was very cute, great personality, very smart, involved in a bunch of the same things I was. In short, what more could I want. Well I really did not know how to approach T. as I would get all, borrowing from Frosty the Snow Man, wishy washy inside. I finally decided what I should do is write her a letter. No groaning from the peanut gallery! I did and it was a masterpiece. Many pages hand written front and back in ink. I told her everything but somehow I just could not put the words together right. I put a stamp on it and mailed it off. Well things changed a little although I was not completely sure they had. We (along with the entire band) went to a roller skate party and I decided I was going to make my move. When they had a couples skate song I was going to ask her to skate.
The song came and T. was off to the bathroom and her friends told me she did not want to skate with me. Not only that they also said T. was going with someone else. I sure wish she would have handled it differently. Needlessly to say I was crushed. But instead of getting up and shaking it off I sat and said to myself how he had everything and I had nothing. I did a superb job of beating myself up I might add. Why is it then that I found something I was good at? I have really let that affect me ever since. For the longest time I did not realize it but it is true. Again I am doing better about it but ouch. I have since been told by several people that I smother people. The last person I tried to see that certainly was true. It was a long distance relationship and it probably is for the best but she just disappeared all together after I came on strong. A while later I finally heard from her and she was married. Now she is doing well and has two kids. She is still a super person, I just wish I had handled things a little differently. Who knows where things may have went?
Enough embarasing myself. Until I blog again, Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
“There was love all around, but I never heard it singing. No I never heard it at all, Till There Was You.” -- Music Man
Posted by barman at 3:03 AM::
Bryan, I wish I had something witty to say. It sounds like you have your head in the right place.
It always seems that when you least expect it, someone comes along. I know this will be true for you. You seem like a loving and caring person. I might also add honest here.
Keep up the good work with the blog. It's fun getting to know someone who is geographically so close. :)
Thank you. You know, if I put half the effort I do into making friends online into trying to find someone I got to believe I will be alright. I am the one that sunk myself over the last ten years. Anyway thanks again for the kind words, it's nice to hear from time to time even if I have a hard time excepting it.
Anyway on to much more interesting topics ... I am sure the holidays will inspire me.
Hey, side note. I tried to get someone to send some good weather back our way. That was before I realized they were trapped in this darn snow belt also. Oh well, I tried. Monday back to the 50s for one day.
Smother people? You know what...if that's the worst someone can say about you, you're ahead of the game. As for beating yourself up, we're all guilty of that at some point in our lives. The only words of wisdom I can pass on are ones I chose to take from a dear friends years and years ago:
You have to be happy being alone...not being lonely, just being alone, before can truly be with someone.
I took her words to heart and got to know myself before deciding to share myself with someone...and it worked pretty damn well.
Now I'll tell you what I tell my students when they beat themselves up: There are too many people in this world who will relish making you feel badly about yourself. Don't do it to yourself!
I like ya! Someone's going to stumble across your path when you're least-expecting it.
Them's mighty powerful words Buddha Girl. Tonight, at an after party after my High Reunion, I had a pretty lady stumble across my path as predicted. Of course she was about a waisted as I have seen anyone and, there was this think about her being married and her husband was within 10 feet ... so while you were correct, I think that was not what you had in mind ... hopefully.
OOOOOhhhh I know how old you are! By the time you graduated I was married and had my first child. I should have waited for the child part but hey we all make mistakes right?
That is awesome to see the before and now. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I also want to thank you for the so very kind words that you left for me at my place.
I hope you will stop by more often.
Lee Ann
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