1997 was my first experience with the Internet and I remember taking my hour slot at the library downloading a single Mars Pathfinder image. Forget Microsoft Terraserver. It took most of an hour to paste together a mosaic for a single view, but we were amazed. We were amazed again when Microsoft killed the project, never seeing the potential, but opening up the opportunity for Google Earth, where people of vision could take the idea and run with it.
I got appendicitis that year and the doctors didn't think a 43 year old should be able to get appendicitis. I had a great case of septicemia when they finally operated on me and had all my guts laid out on the operating table for a few hours, cleaning up every possible bit of infection. They flooded my insides with antibiotics and my bowels with laxatives and put me back together. That night I found that there are some things that totally override pain--like dragging my IV stand to the bathroom what seemed to be a mile away so I didn't....... The pain didn't mean a thing right then.
I was married with two children, nine and six years old, happy to be alive after the appendicitis party. And I still am! Still married to the same wonderful woman, my daughter is married to a Navy man in Norfolk and my son works for Sam's Club in the Austin, Texas area. Now I have two projects here at Subsim, Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Edition and the Silent Hunter 4 Corruption Management System. It's been a blast and I look forward to the next 20 years at Subsim.
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