Top of my game

Of all the games or skills I've been involved in, there's one in which I've excelled at a much greater level than anyone else I've known. This of course, was my great involvement in computer hardware, gaming hardware and performance benchmarking and optimization. One of the many reasons I continue to revisit this topic in my blog is the realization that this *WAS* what defined me as a person for many years, and which ultimately led to my career in IT taking off. I can't help but look back and count the number of times I've installed Windows 98 and Windows 2000, built dozens of custom gaming rigs, and kept up-to-the-minute reads on the latest technologies and pricing.

So now I want to center on my "golden age" of my hardware obsession. It probably came somewhere around 2002 or so, but there were many other concurrent events which surrounded this era which helped define it. First was my discovery of indie rock music. While this first began in late 2001, I began attending concerts regularly at Beachland and followed CMJ, Pitchfork, and all the other sites as much as anything else. Second, I began my first full-time IT position at NASA which involved installing computers and upgrading others to Windows 2000. It was the absolute perfect match, and allowed me to earn cash to build more of my own custom machines. Third, I had growing aspirations of owning and operating my own cybercafe. I called it 'Mind Vault Games' and would save up ferociously in order to open business in mid-2005. Fourth, my fascination with Diablo II was at unparalleled proportions, and Warcraft III was right around the corner. Finally, I was large and in charge at the skating rink, which meant I was racking up tons of hours while working like a madman and thoroughly enjoying the responsibilities.

While all this was going on, I was looking to pick up as much work on the side as I could, mostly to fuel MVG. I guess you could say I was never a "hardcore" gamer myself -- I often enjoyed physical sports over cybergaming at almost any given time and place. And I guess I just never bought in 100% to the cybercafe idea. I had a ton of good ideas but never had the best feeling about it. I knew I'd have to work hard and the money probably wouldn't be as good as I had hoped. Perhaps I doubted my ability to be able to run such a venture and that I would burn out and lose interest and set myself back 10 years. I can't say for sure. I was completely on my own with nothing to fall back on, so I really had nowhere to turn if the going got tough.

I look back today and see mounds of computer hardware. Most of which was manufactured somewhere between 2002 and 2005. I really don't own any hardware (besides a few laptops) less that 5 years old. I don't necessarily feel rusty, as I know I can just pick it back up again if I really wanted to, but there's a small amount of sadness and nostalgia when I think about the old times and how I had the world by the tail in a certain way.