Monster Commute – a Traffic Novel

My very first computer was a Commodore 64.

I loved this machine, and spent many hours playing games, and typing in machine language programs printed in the back of Compute Magazine. I also had a Koala pad, which was a very basic tablet that you had to rub with vegetable oil to keep it fresh.

I also had my first experience with bulletin boards and Compuserve, which was little more than a glorified board. I played games there, but that’s about it.

My next computer, when I left High School, was a Commodore Amiga. I loved my Amiga as well, and I still have it here somewhere. I hand painted a cartoon mouse on the mouse, I dug it so much. I attempted to create a program to roll my Dungeon and Dragon characters, but I wasn’t ever much of a coder. It takes a special mind to code, just as it does to draw… well.

Anyway, my next computer after that wasn’t until I became a graphic designer. This was 1995 or so, and computers were really catching on in the design world. Sure, it wasn’t that long ago, but Spokane (and the t-shirt industry) were slightly behind the times. I’d learned how to cut amberlith, use the stat-camera, and how to properly create art separations just before this.

This machine was a PowerMac 7100, as I recall. I used this machine quite a bit, and was the foundation for me really learning about Photoshop and Freehand. It was a huge hunk of money, but I got a lot of use out of it and easily paid for it through occasional freelance gigs of little excitement or quality.

This also marks my move from skinny to fat. It’s not really the computer’s fault, so much as my career choice and lack of interest in exercise.

Next up, the G4 PowerMac Tower. This baby got me though the Y2k meltdown, and I worked on it for a number of years. Lots and lots of t-shirts were made on this thing, and the beginning of me doing webwork too. It’s sitting over there, on the floor. I kept using it until we moved to Arizona, where I needed a portable machine since all of our stuff (including the computer) were in storage.

G4 PowerMac 17″. Faster than our tower, this machine has been in constant use for the last 5 years or so. We’ve used it as a portable DVD player, a workstation, and even a convention display. Eventually, I needed more processor power and screen.

Then came the G5 PowerMac Dual. This beast weighs like 80 pounds, and I’ve used her as my prime machine for the last 4 years. She’s been good to me, so I’m letting Dawna move from the laptop to her. It’s quite the beast, but having moved to Adobe Illustrator (and the associated inefficiencies) I’ve found myself wasting more and more time for things to process. I probably should take the time to wipe it, just in case something else is slowing her down. I’m pretty sure it’s just how I use Illustrator that’s bogging it down.

So, I have a new machine once again (Mac Pro tower). The romance is high, the sexiness of the faster processors, ram and operating system are hot on my lips. The funny thing, is that this new one (The AUTHORITY) looks pretty much identical to my last one. The main advantage to this machine is that the ram maxes out at 32 megs. I maxed my last tower out at 4 megs 2 years ago, and wish that I could put more in there.

So, this is my 7th machine. I’ve excluded all of the family machines I’ve shared with other folks. These were all MY babies.

Even though I spend all day on the computer, I still really enjoy sitting behind my Mac, doing artwork and running the wee Steam Crow empire.

If my computers had pedals, I’d be skinny instead of fat.

- Daniel