I didn't really start to grow up to be a computer-intensive geek. Left to myself, I would have happily become computer-literate, able to navigate text-based file structures and type in command-line commands with a cheat sheet, but would never have gotten into programming or anything beyond cut and paste, click and drag.

I was quickly becoming a science fiction fan, for the stories; I wasn't in tune with the fan culture (mostly because I was shy and avoided people and had never met a Real Grown-up Fan).

When I was 15, in 1995, I met pyrogenic. He was so much a computer guy that he'd even brought his laptop with him. His laptop. To academic camp.

I was enchanted. I checked out The New Hacker's Dictionary from the public library shortly after coming home from academic camp. I read through the entire thing. I realized that I liked a lot of the culture in there. I took a programming course the next school year. I came to the belated realization that hacking wasn't just a hobby and culture I'd read out of a book, but in my blood.

I grew up not obsessed with computers, though. I grew up a bookworm, a science fiction reader. I grew up to be an English teacher, not a computer geek.

It shows, often. It's odd.