Yes, at one point, as you can probably tell, that was a goal of mine. It was smashed by the many things that have happened in my life. Thanks to Slashdot and Linux—computers where no longer about bits and bytes —but about politics—freedom to code and share.

The corprate commputer companies had a toll on my liking of computers. The only way to get good software for my computer was to pay money I didn't have, or pirate software. Ryan Meader of Slashdot suggested I take a look at the Linux operating system—with it's lots of free software, that was fast, memory factor, and droolable features.

So I got rapped up in the politics of Linux software—which spilled over to free speech—and the rights to share and use media (thanks also to Napster). I did several papers in High School on Digital Media. It was everything for me. Free Speech, somehow found it's way into that picture—the Freedom Forum also helped to wet my interest into free speech.

So suddenly computers weren't so interesting... But then a great national tragity happened—the Columbine Shootings. Instantly, the legislative gears of State and Federal government started to grind into gear—working on creating draconian laws to prevent further attacks—and strip students of their civil rights and liberties.

I could feel my self getting raped more and more by school. Rights I cherrished were rapidly disappearing. I was changing. I wanted to understand better—I decided to enroll at HVCC to take classes for transfering to SUNY Albany to study Political Science. That, and my grades weren't good enough to get into the normal CIS program in HVCC (which turns out not to be really true).

Math never was my strong area. I made it through Pre-Calculus—barely—with a 65 average. Did really good in any computer classes I took—that worked.

Computers are so boring and flat. They can't change society, their problems are so small compared to the major problems that face society.

Then there was the whole thing about registering to vote—which party to vote for. I was woo'd and decived by a party which spoke the words of freedom—the radical right libertarian party—only to find it wasn't the real thing, about a half year later. So I am a registered Democrat—the real party, that cares about our civil rights and liberties—and protecting us from the evils of big corprate business (and to a lesser extent government).

Yes, I probably gave up a hell of a lot of money by not choosing to go into a computer field. I'm already losing or have lost many of my computer skills—but I have picked up Hypercard and PHP since dumping linux and computers.

Jeramy Smith of PenguinPPC says I am totally wrong for giving up on computers—I am just wasting my time in a useless field, that will be a struggle to survive in. But maybe I'll make out better this way—it's a crap shot—I guess—far more then computer crap.

I shocked more then a few people with my choice of carrer. But that's what I did. So sue me (some day I might actually become a civil rights lawyer—like Lynne Stewart—and get charged with supporting terrorism).