From: CUTjeffrey_blakeney@yahoo.ca   
      
   I was a Canadian military brat.  In 1981 we moved back to CFB Borden,   
   Ontario and I started grade 9.  At the time, the only computer classes   
   were for grade 11 students and up.  Because I was so good at math, my   
   math teacher figured I'd do well with computers so he introduced me to   
   them.  He used to take me into the computer lab and people got used to   
   seeing me there so never questioned my presence.  I borrowed a text book   
   on Waterloo Structured BASIC from the grade 11 teacher, read it and have   
   been programming ever since.   
      
   I used Commodore PET and 8032 machines and a TRS-80 Model I.  Because my   
   older brother and I were both into computers, our parents bought a   
   TRS-80 Colour Computer.  I kept eyeing the TRS-80 Model IV as the   
   machine I wanted.  The school even started a data processing computer   
   course for grade 10 students when I started grade 10.   
      
   In 1983 my family was posted to Lahr, West Germany.  My older brother   
   was going to college so I gave him my half of the computer for his half   
   of our Dungeons and Dragons stuff.  After moving, I came extremely close   
   to getting a Commodore 64 as the Canadian Forces Exchange didn't have a   
   lot of choice.  In October they got in Apple IIe systems and I bought   
   some magazines and played with demo machine at the store.  I ended up   
   making a deal with my parents to give up my allowance and promised to   
   pay back the cost of the system and, on my older brother's birthday   
   (thankfully he was back in Canada), I brought home a 64K, unenhanced   
   Apple IIe, with Monitor II green screen and a single Disk ][ drive.   
      
   The store didn't have any software in stock yet so I ended up writing a   
   lot of my early stuff including a lo-res version of Berzerk (which was   
   unfortunately deleted by my younger brother).   
      
   My first job was a summer position helping a Canadian organization with   
   their accounts payable (typing cheques and filing paperwork) in the   
   mornings and writing a custom program for them on a TRS-80 Model II with   
   8 inch floppies in the afternoons.  I later got a part time position in   
   the computer/camera department of the store where I bought my computer.   
      
   Those were fun days.  I haven't done much programming in the past 10   
   years but I'm looking at doing more recreational programming again soon.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)