[graderjs]

I think I was around 10 years old when I noticed an old x86 (not a 286 -- my god I remember the excitement when that beast first came out) was lying around.

I somehow just liked it. It had MS-DOS. So I learned that. I'm not sure if it had Basic. But it had a manual, and the manual talked about x86 assembly language, and gave examples of how to write programs using the debug command from the command line.

I was hooked. For a while. It was so interesting. I learned about interrupts and how to get the computer to do things. At that age, all I wanted to do was draw pretty colors and lines on the screen -- most of the examples (if I recall correctly) were for "business" apps, like accounting, or database entry.

So I have the hardcore story that I started with assembly at age 10! Haha. But when a 286 arrived, with QBasic on it, I got a book, "Idiots Guide To QBasic" -- that had the same color scheme aesthetic as a Yellowpages, and learned how to draw pretty colors and lines. It was pretty fun. I remember the first modems too, the sound they made, and when 56K was a big thing. I think there was a 14.4K at some point too :)

What motivated me to contine? I don't know--it was just interesting. I just found it fun. Making stuff. Come alive. On the screen. It was pretty fucking cool