General

Despite living only three hours away, I haven’t been on a proper trip to Lake Tahoe in around twenty years. I took care of that this past weekend, spending three days up at the lake on this year’s summer vacation.   Below are my favorite photos from the trip, which I took using the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100.

It was just like old times earlier today, when my friend Ashley and I went to Magic Mountain, just like we used to do several years ago. We rode some new rides as well as some old favorites. The sleeper hit was probably Apocalypse (formerly Terminator: Salvation), and Tatsu and X2 were newer rides that we enjoyed, as well.  Below are some photos from the trip!

Steve Jobs was responsible for much more than just the various Apple gadgets I’ve had in my life.  My dad bought a Mac 512ke (pictured above) in 1986, for an outrageous amount of money. That really sparked my interest in computers, and got me into running a BBS and eventually several websites. Two of my websites took different paths. PowerWatch, dedicated to Power Computing’s “Mac clones”, would not have been possible if the Mac did not exist.  That said, it was essentially put out of business by Mr. Jobs himself, when he ended licensing of the Mac OS. I remember writing him a letter asking him to reconsider, since he was putting me out of business. Not surprisingly, I did not get a response.

During the time I was running PowerWatch, I started playing around with a new gadget known as a digital camera. Specifically, an Apple QuickTake. The QuickTake showed me how digital cameras was going to change photography forever, and in 1997, I started a little website called the Digital Camera Resource Page.   While Apple’s digital camera adventure did not last long, my website is still alive and kicking.  I may not take photos on an Apple camera anymore, but I edit them in Aperture on a Mac Pro,  view my photos and movies downstairs on my Apple TV, and take my pictures wherever I go with my iPad.

I’ve lusted after new Apple products my whole life. Early in my teenage years, I wrote a letter to my parents, telling them that a new Mac LC would bring a smile to the face of a shy child. It worked, and we got our first color Mac (with a 12″ RGB display, no less). I remember going to ComputerWare in Palo Alto, drooling over the Mac IIci and especially the IIfx, which cost thousands and thousands of dollars at the time.  Over the years that followed, I owned PowerMacs, PowerBooks, iMacs, Macbook Pros, and Mac Pros. I’m pretty sure that I converted at least a few people over to the Mac side during that time, as well.

So thank you Steve, for giving me the inspiration for two of my jobs (even if you took one of them away later),  for bringing a smile to a child’s face, and for designing the tools with which I can share my memories.  It’s a shame that the most revolutionary people in the world seem to live such short lives.  RIP.