Back to the Real World (1997-1998)
In mid 2007, a 7th Sphere user named Jonny (aka Merlolo) who was local to Buffalo invited me out to a place to play some video games - the place was called CyberJocks (aka Parkside Computing). It was in a small plaza across from the Buffalo zoo, and when I walked in I was blown away. There were about 20 people packed in there (many standing and waiting) playing Diablo and Quake. CyberJocks / Parkside Computing was one of the first LAN gaming centers in the country at that time. They also had a side business doing anything technology related that they could to generate extra money. Jonny introduced me to the owner, a guy named Scott, and told him he should hire me as an intern - I gratefully accepted.
My health slowly started to improve. I began going to Parkside Computing a couple days a week for a couple hours at a time. I was doing small web sites and was learning about hardware and networking. During this time, life was pretty good. I actually started to back away from my time on the computer, and 7th sphere began to suffer quite a bit. I really didn’t care at the time - I had a girlfriend, a very part time job, and I had made the decision that I was going to return to high school for my senior year. I had spent 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grades all in home schooling. Had it not been for the last two years being occupied by my obsession with the Internet, I probably would have went off of the deep end.
Going back to high school was very weird for the first couple of weeks. Some people were amazed that I was still alive - there had been rumors that I was dead or something. Needless to say, I was the absolute happiest I had been since before I became a teenager. I regrouped with my old friends, got my drivers license, and had a girlfriend who could appreciate my geeky side. I was enjoying my time working for Parkside Computing, and I quickly became friends with Aaron, the resident geek/genius.
I graduated with honors in June of 1998. It was shortly after that when I found a new passion - electronic music. I had been in love with electronic music since 1994, when I became a huge nine inch nails fan. Aaron was also a big electronic music head, and got me into many sounds which I had never heard before. I attended my first rave in September of 1998, an event called Lift. It was in an abandoned warehouse in North Buffalo.
It was also the same month when I started college.
