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Apologies for the blog silence. Deadlines crash around me like turkey bombs and summer socializing has absorbed my off hours.
It’s been hard to stay out of the fray, as there been so much fine bloggery from Stephen, Barbara, Alec, Jim, D’Arcy, Laura, Martin, and Gardner… just to rattle off a few posts that have provoked detailed but as yet unwritten responses from me… And there have been other posts that have truly annoyed me, and it’s required some discipline not to take a poke at them.
But for now, I’m trying to focus. It doesn’t exactly come naturally. I’ll be back when I’m back. Peace out.
This picture rules. It confirms so much for me, namely that you were a member of the US military, you had a bitchin’ wrist watch, and you are far more organized than you have let on up and until now. This image is extra special because it frames that sweet spot of adolescence between 12 and 14, a time I can’t stop blogging about because of images just like this, though mine are in my head because I was six of seven and my parents ran out of film after the fourth kid.
I think of Richard Powers’ Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance when I look at this image, I both want to dissect the philosophical idea of capturing time in a medium while at the same time creatively re-imagine the story of this tripped out kid, who I want to be hanging out with dreaming of the impossible and the inevitable. Wonderful, thanks for this. I can feel the nostalgia coming on strong 😉
OK, I have to confess, I thought this was really you, and I was wondering once I followed the link…how the hell did a Geek for God get an image of Brian in from of his Commodore Vic 20 in 1984?
Just to think I called my older sister to see if she has any images of my from the earl 80s about an hour ago. Damn I am impressionable, and a poor reader to boot.
Jim, when I was poking around Flickr CC for some kind of complementary image this one was an instant and obvious choice, for a lot of the reasons you articulate. I had a similar nostalgic reaction…
It’s weird to write this, but in a sense this could be me… Because of my Dad’s work we were early adopters of home computers. The age is almost right, and there is something of a resemblance with my 12 year old self. The clothing and accessory choices would not have been out of character. The only giveaway is that my science kit was never that well organized.
I suspect this image has a lot in common with a number of our childhoods.
Man… do you remember when we stored our data on cassette tapes?
re: “Man… do you remember when we stored our data on cassette tapes?”
I had the Coleco Adam, cassette tape drives rule! I can still smell that thing … I seriously have vivid memories of the smell of computer plastic from my childhood. My IIe, IIc, Coleco, etc. Those were the days.
All day music, my friend, “to soothe your soul.” Ever heard that song?
Enjoy the lingering sweetness of these days.
Photograph reminds me of my older brother and his early computers. For me, the first computer that I learnt to code on was a Mac128 (Mac Pascal) and, at the same time, UNIX on a behemoth at the University of Wollongong. 1984. I took some subjects out of interest when I was bored at work.
Your Twitter icon of the old 45 intrigues. What is the disc? Saw the icon in another educator’s Twitter follows list. Clicked on it, got your Twitter feed and now I have subscribed to your blog. That’s life.
Cheers, John