We're getting down to the bottom of this barrel I have unearthed, a fact I lament because it has made for very simple upkeep of this blog. I'm not sure I can go back to writing original content...

Fifth Entry Jan 30, 2000 Well VB5 is out of the question. The Damn software doesn't work. I've almost made it through Ando Prime on E1R (Episode I Racer). That's right I've been playing it. I've been listening to my CD player like crazy. We've had alot of snow lately. I made a fort for me and the other two (i.e. Jeff, Chris). We've had several fights over the last few days. The first one I annilated their for. Well gotta go. Tottles.

For the record, "tottles" was not a typo during transcribing.

Sixth Entry Feb 14, 2000 Well This is going to be a big entry. We figured out how to get Ep 1 Racer working. You have to have Sonic & Knuckles in the background. I'm going to make FF (first fantasy). It's going to be 3D. Anyways, the big news is mom's pregnant again. Tootles.

Poor Maggie (the aforementioned fetus). The announcement of her coming into being is overshadowed by the details of how we got around a particularly annoying issue in Episode I Racer. I guess by the time sibling number five rolls around, the whole idea just kind of lost its charm. That, and at the time of this writing Maggie could very well have been brother number five.

Also, why is it I abbreviated Episode I Racer that one time (and then bothered to spell it out later)? And why can I spell "tootles" correct one week, but not another? And what is Damn software?

The world may never know.

The first entry is so short that I have to wonder why I even bothered, but the second entry... yes, the second entry is something special. Something that makes me laugh a pained laugh.

Third Entry

Thursday, Jan 13, 2000

Well Jeff is finishing his Zelda books. I have new VBasic classes. As soon as I can get it working. Oh well thats all for now.

Fourth Entry

Jan 19, 2000

Hello. I heard from Leah yesterday. Boy did she get alot of stuff for Christmas. She obviously has a computer. Her letter was printed. By accident I found out mom's e-mail address. It's [redacted]@hotmail.com. Kinda neat! So I e-mailed her today and I'M ALIVE!!! I have officially finished Excel! I made a cards program. Next is VB 5 and then DIRECTX. Thats right it's a LANGUAGE. So I will climb in the world. I'll be a top programmer at 15. Anyways gotta run. Bye!

We'll gloss over my erroneous comments about DirectX being a language or the fact that knowing my mother's email address at the time would've meant certain death, and skip to the single most awesome thing I've read in all these journal entries thus far; the bold delcaration of having "officially finished Excel".

How does one "finish" Excel? Does it involve an end boss fight with pivot tables and a cell formula with many functions? Who declared this "finishing" official? It's true that my Excel VBA skills exceed that of your standard user (in large part because of my father), but this declaration just doesn't hold any kind of matter.

But, let's face it; I was also under the delusion that programming in VB and DirectX was going to make me a "top programmer", and at fifteen, no less.

Getting down to the last of these.

Well I know new stuff in math now. Dad showed me some stuff last night. Jeff is continuing to write his Zelda book. Dad is in the living room playing the game that came with the joystick: WarBirds 2.01. It looks like alot of fun. I'm gonna play it tomorrow. I fired some christmas cards off to my pen pals. Jeff is buying books in bulk. He wants 700. But I'm giving him 20. That's a buck! Some dough I can add to my hastings card. Chris wants ten also. That's another 50 cents. I made it first in the die hard 500 on my Nascar game. Coming a little further on my puzzle. The water is really hard. My VBasic Classes are getting into animation now! I spent an hour doing that today! Well that's all for now.

This reminded me of a little "business" I had called Bookings. Bookings' entire business model was centered around construction paper stapled to a few sheets of copy paper and then, apparently, sold for a nickle. Jeff was making comics at the time (something he still does), so I attempted capitalize off of it.

Also, these "VBasic Classes" of which I mention I believe were from a book on Excel VBA and the "card program" was a cataloging system for baseball cards (I had/have a fair amount of Topps 1993 series cards). Apparently, that Derek Jeter rookie card is worth something. And I've got a few of those, iirc...

We return after the downer that was the previous post with some Christmas joy! Between this entry and the previous, I began writing in a new notebook (thus resetting the entry number count). But, this is a pretty awesome entry, if only for the memories it brings back.

First Entry Tuesday, Jan 4, 2000

Well we have survived. No Y2K bug anywhere. Tonight we're going to swimming. Stevie is playing computer.

What a great Christmas I had. got alot of neat stuff. Here's a list so you don't forget.

1. Portable CD Player - Mom & Dad
2. Cards and a card game book - M & D
3. Episode I Racer - Mom & Dad
4. A Great Joystick - Mom & Dad
5. Nascar 2 Racing - Amy
6. A shirt - Jen
7. Star Wars Monopoly - Jen
8. Hastings Gift Card - Joey (Mom)
9. A Picture Mosaic Puzzle - Grandma

I'm now e-mailing Chassidy & Casey. Also Dave & Dan. Jeff hasn't gotten anything back from Anthony. I haven't gotten anything back from Leah or John. I sent Christmas cards to all of my pen-pals. Well gotta run. Bye.

I cannot disagree; that was a pretty awesome Christmas. Episode I Racer I particularly have very fond memories of. Also, that joystick was the best I've ever used (a weighted Logitech Wingman, ftr). Additionally, in the time between this and the previous post, our family procured our first (modern) computer. I can still rattle off the specs:

Dell XPS-T450 (service tag 72y1a)

• 450Mhz Pentium III
• 128MB RAM
• Voodoo 3 3000 w/ 16MB VRAM
• Turtle Beach Montego II (sound)
• 13GB HDD

I still have the original mobo/cpu in my closet. Ah, good times. Good times...

It's been a bit since I added a journal entry. There should be no reason for this, especially since the content is already written and all I have to do is transcribe them. However, these two aren't quite as happy go lucky (and the entry that occurred between them was even less than happy, but at some point was lost to the annals of time). I have no comment on these, so will just present them.

Eighth Entry September 21, 1999 Hi! It's been awhile since I last wrote. I got another letter from Leah. I sent one to John again. I'm hoping to get a letter from him this week. [two statements redacted for personal reasons] Also the Birthright garage sale is on Friday and Mom is going to get me some art pencils. Joey is scooting around now. He is really big. Grandpa is in the hospital. It doesn't look good either. Dave came up. It was nice to visit with him. DFad is going to let me send and recieve e-mails via his address. I can't get my own because I was on QB chat. Speaking of QBasic I'm making a new game. It's called Mario Mash. I'm just about finished. All I need to add is sound and music. My fish is still around. He also knows a trick. When I feed him I flip the food down off the shelf and he goes crazy. We're almost finished our first month of school. It's kinda easy except for English. I'm learning about the French-Indian War. It's really neat. Well gotta go. Bye!

Tenth Entry October 4, 1999 The day after the last entry grandpa died. The funeral has been and everyone came up. I got to meet mom's bro Mike. We got a macintosh. It's lots of fun. I'm keeping a second journal on it. I finished my Mario game. It's better then Plane Attack. Now I'm going to make Rebel Attack. I have everything figured out. I got a letter from John today. I already have a letter ready to go. Well my hand is tiered so I'll wrap it up here. I forgot a few things. I got some art pencils. [statement redacted] [Mom and Dad are] talking about getting a computer right now.

I will say that it's hard to believe that my grandpa has been dead for nearly half my life. Wish I could play one last round of checkers with him...