PixlBit

It dawned on my the other day that my retrofest plan was based on my life, and that I should tie it in to a kind of autobiography. I have resisted this up until now because I always cringe thinking about it. I'm not particularly happy with my life as it is so far. But, it's a good writing exercise and I'm beginning to think of myself as a writer, so here goes. My autobio for these years.

In 2005 I bought a Nikon D70s digital camera. The same one I’m still using today. It’s been good, but I’ve been wanting to upgrade for years now. I just haven’t gotten to another level of income yet to justify it. I did pick up a bunch of lenses for it over the years. I have a 200-500 long lens, a 90mm macro, and a 28-200 zoom.  

I was still at Domino’s Pizza these years delivering to the people of my home town. I dreaded meeting anyone I knew, but I did sometimes, and it was very embarrassing for me.  

I was still in my band Jack Diesel. We’d get together on weekends and play out on occasion. I think these were the years when we played at a Curling club, maybe the weirdest place we’d played at. I think I got $40 or something. It was the only money I remember ever getting for playing music. I still wonder why I wasn’t more ambitious. We eventually recorded an album at a friend’s basement studio. It wasn’t any rinky dink studio though. He had some serious equipment and we recorded in a very professional manner. It was an interesting experience playing my bass lines with the rest of the band behind the mixing board. I’m still annoyed at myself for not being a better player. I was always slightly frustrated with bass. I thought it would be a stepping stone to rhythm guitar, but I didn’t work hard enough to make that happen, I guess.                     

With the appearance of iPhones, I got an iPod instead. Then I got into podcasts and transferred my music mixes to digital playlists I would upload to my iPod and play in my car while delivering pizza. A lot of what I did those days was to entertain myself while driving around. I got lots of audio books and made many music playlists. I think I stopped getting gaming magazines around this time. Podcasts took their place.  

I got into comics for the first time when the Halo Graphic Novel came out in 2006. I began getting on the list at my comic shop and picking up titles every Wednesday. I had some favorites like Atomic Robo, The Wasteland, Gotham City Sirens and Conan The Cimmerian.   

I was gaming on my days off with my friend Mark, as usual. I might have hit my peak of crazy gaming fandom in 2007 when McFarlane did custom controller designs as a promotion for Halo 3. I bought the Halo 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360 and almost went for the controllers when I realized I was getting out of control and shouldn’t spend so much money. I’ve been very careful with my gaming budget ever since.  

In a more practical moment, I picked up a tutorial for MS Office and Mavis Beacon’s Typing Tutor for my PC. I ran through the tutorial and learned how to touch type. I never did apply for an office job but the typing has been very worthwhile.