College Life

At college, I discovered several things that would be my undoing. Radio, Hockey, Beer and IRC. Drinking is something most college students indulge in. I indulged a lot. I got myself under control but there was lots of beer for a while. But it was only Friday and Saturday nights so it wasn't the only thing contributing to my demise. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) kept me up until all hours of the night. Now, mind you, this was 1989-1993. The "world wide web" wasn't even around yet. E-mail was fairly well limited to colleges and government agencies (as far as I knew at the time) and VGA was pretty damned new. Modems screamed along at a whopping 9600 baud. Anyway, I skipped classes to chat with people all over the world. Rather sad and pathetic when I think about it now.

I also discovered the college hockey team. Or rather, it was shoved down my throat. Everything on that campus in the fall was about hockey. Hockey hockey hockey. So finally, I went to a game... holy crap was hockey great. I fell in love with the game immediately. I had season tickets the next two years. More on my fourth year of hockey later. I also decided I wanted to play so I learned to skate and play hockey... badly. Games were at night. One more thing to cause me to sleep through classes.

My final undoing was my involvement in the college radio station, something you can read about at length here. I quit school in 1993 to become a disc jockey. I worked at several radio stations and supplemented my income working for Sears. In 1995, I took a job in Iowa which did not work out well. Upon my return to Massachusetts in 1996, I decided to try to get back to something that involved computers and didn't involve selling them.

I also began performing in The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Warwick, RI. I did this for a while but I can't remember how long. I think it was four years.

The Ultranet Years