A Geek Goes Flying

Hammer’s Slammers Just thinking back to the books I used to devour, mostly from supermarket shelves during our weekly “supplies run” to Dierberg’s (we lived kinda out in the middle of nowhere, and while a groceries run is apparently “only” 15 minutes each way , I remember them being relatively infrequent). From memory, some titles: Deadman Switch , by Timothy Zahn (yes,  that  Timothy Zahn ) Lacey and his Friends , David Drake (lot of David Drake on this list) Hammer’s Slammers , David Drake (apparently several books in this series, at this point) Crisis of Empire , David Drake  Rogue Bolo , Keith Laumer The man who pulled down the sky , John Barnes And of course I had a subscription to Analog , and read my ... IDK, step-aunt? (Grandfather’s new wife’s daughter from a previous marriage.) Copies of OMNI . And of course there were the Big Names. Isaac Asimov’s “ three laws of robotics ” series, and when I’d exhausted those, the Robot City series. All the Foundati...

Back in the day ( apparently 1982, and 1984 ), I remember waiting what seemed like forever to enter the Old Glory Theater ( Old Glory Amphitheatre ?) all the way in the back of Six Flags over Mid-America (now Six Flags over St. Louis ), by the Screamin' Eagle , to see The Beach Boys . I was early in my K-12 stint for those shows, which I remember as magical, even if the wait in the hot, humid Missouri summer was interminable. Anyway. Apparently, a bunch of bands played there back in the day , including several I’d love to see today: “Johnny Cash, Olivia Newton John, Kansas, Foreigner, Blue Oyster Cult, Head East, Tears For Fears, Night Ranger, Weird Al, Willie Nelson, Chuck Berry, The Orleans, Paul Revere And The Raiders, Electric Light Orchestra, Charlie Daniels, Toto, Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon, The Commodores, Salt And Peppa, Randy Travis, Marshall Tucker Band, Garth Brooks, Reba, Oak Ridge Boys, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, The Monkees, R...

Growing up in the midwest without cable or a satellite dish ( satellite dishes of the time were huge , and if memory serves, expensive - at least, according to my parents), I was MTV deprived. I vividly remember my stepsister and I wasting chunks of a Steamboat Springs ski vacation parked in front of the hotel room TV transfixed by the just released video for Madonna’s Like a Prayer . But eventually, there was a reprieve, of sorts: The Jukebox Network. Jukebox (later “ The Box ”) broadcast nonstop music videos on, at least in the local market, UHF channel 58. Viewers could call up a (900) number, which would result in a $1.99 charge on the phone bill, and punch in a three digit code for a music video they wanted to see, which would be added to the queue. During the day, this could be a frustratingly long wait, but after about 1 a.m., it was almost guaranteed the next video to play would be the one just selected - VCRs , stand ready! This was where I first encountered Depeche Mode’s Per...

In the mid-90s, we were all about trippy computer displays, and generally playing around with our displays. I had a crappy laptop I could break out and hook up to a projector or TV (with a VGA-to-composite adapter) and loop into whatever we were using for a sound system to generate audio-responsive graphics using Cthugha : Cthugha screenshot (It was more impressive at the time.) Then there was the fire.exe demo , which was kind of mesmerizing in its own right. And of course the hypnotic Møire Screensaver on old Macs. (Is that what I’m thinking of? The one that made sort of psychedelic waves flow across the screen? I remember being mesmerized by it listening to a Frank Black CD on the Centris of my overnight host when I toured the school I picked for undergrad... Plasma? Something along those lines.) Satori screensaver (an After Dark module) on old Macs. Then there was (is?) xsnow on Linux boxes. It was sort of fun watching the snowflakes build up on your windows as you were using t...