[mar77i]

Keep your fingers busy, and life will probably sort itself out. Lather, rinse repeat.

I turned out in a pretty cool place by simply wrapping my head around things about computers all day. Having access to read and understand all levels of what the machine does is fascinating and had me hooked with free operating systems and free / open source software long ago.

IRC probably helped a lot with loneliness, both me being able to ask my own questions and responding to and researching other people's questions. I can't tell where I would be without Freenode. It's such an uplifting experience reaping and resowing one's own understanding in the various communities.