The Worst Thing That Has Ever Happened To Me On A Computer

I was in New York, a school on upper east side, in a computer laboratory enjoying my time on a Macintosh Performa 5200.

I had floppy disks, I had everything.

I sat there really enjoying just poking around the user interface, Having come from GEOS on C64, and some old DOS, the UI was nice.

In come two teenage ladies, I was way too shy to just talk, and my english was still broken.

I enjoyed their company, especially since the sophisticated lady, was teacher her friend how to use a painting program.

They were making all kinds of lines, big shapes and little shapes, times were simpler back then.

I was still just poking around the computer, I wad a bike racing game I wasn’t fond of, I think it was called bike.

I think it had Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, but I don’t remember having much success with opening it.

Having had my fill of the user interface, I thought of the web cam on 5th Avenue.

Which when put into 2 bit dither mode, moved like crazy.

Then suddenly the screen of the ladies next to me, turned purple, which made me turn in curiosity.

Frustrated the girl doing the teaching, couldn't figure out why the bucket fill tool…

Was filling the whole screen, and not just the area she was clicking.

I squeaked with broken english, “this is open, you have to close”.

Pointing at an area of pixels, that was making the fill tool fill the whole screen.

I tried to smile, I was helping.

In response, she contorted her self towards me, slowly lifting her head, a frigidity expression.

I offended her somehow, and needed evacuation.

But she kept turning towards me, so being a proper gentleman.

I waited for her, to have her say,

The moment she stopped turning to face me, and I thought she’d say something, maybe even nice.

Her frigid expression begun changing, to a light warm smile.

Though then continued, this pretty lady an angry Maori style warrior.

And things looked like I am about to evacuate myself, on the spot.

She said I don’t need your help, in perfect english that sounded and echoed as sweet as a song.

I packed my bag, I hurried out the room.

But for 30 years now, I’ve been wondering why she was so offended.

And just this weekend, when I was working on an SVG.

It occurred to me that maybe she was used to, vector graphics.

But then I thought to myself, what if come programs like on an Amiga.

Have an antilogarithm to ignore small gaps, as not to assault the users with purple.

As happened, to the lovely lady next to me.

Pixel art has been calling to me like crazy, and I have some vague ideas for such an algorithm myself.

Afterword, on a much more serious note.

Both of those girls were super smart, I was just a reject who kept to himself.

Recovering from years of bullies, that wasn’t something any of these cats could grasp.

My soul was always very strong, and I think very kindly of this terrible young lady.

And as I meant to write this text for a couple of days now, for a second I might have recalled what she looked like 30 years ago.

We were all betrayed by education, told to learn things other than we cared about.

That’s why I was in the lab admiring the UI, why she was showing her friend how to draw on the comptuer.

What possessed these adults to think, they could shove information into our minds.

The arch above that school read knowledge is power, but they only ever cared erasing our in favor of their.

As a teenager, probably like many, I thought of myself as an old man.

I did not let the bullies make me one of them, I had wisdom from standing up to snarling beasts.

No matter how many there actually, and never knew when they would return, so to me it was always many.

Arriving in United States was a new life, with a great deal of warrior wisdom.

I was a man, asked to abandon it, and become a memorizer for good grades.

We all had unique curiosities and wisdoms, those were the paths to knowledge.

What a great betrayal, what great arrogance.

To dismiss what made us whole, to dismiss what made the integrity of our minds.

In favor of, pretending to learn.

I came here for a fair start, and I was met with a threat.

Memorize for good grades, or we will destroy your future.

I was a reject, becasuwe rejecting this, is what you do with it.

I continues studying computers, in no way that a school could ever teach.

It is an insult, to even think that.

I still study user interface, what people pass at a glance, as view as gateways into possibilites.

I never used windows Metro, but I love the idea of a self assembling tiling UI.

And working on a small visual programming language now, I feel like just as exercise, I should build a sparkling pixel art version of it.

I imagine AI image generators when told to make a pixel art GUI, would create enchanting things.