Maybe Programming Just Isn’t For Me

My first computer was a Commodore 128D, a successor to the Commodore 64. It had different modes you could boot into, but I almost exclusively used the C64 mode, so basically I had a C64 in a much less iconic form factor. The “D” stands for desktop - it was basically just one of those typical grey 80s/90s computer boxes, mostly indistinguishable from any IBM PC at the time. I spent a lot of time playing on that machine and I was also interested in doing more with it than just playing. I didn’t have the internet or any idea how anything like that would work, beyond having seen War Games. A lot. Fortunately one day an older cousin of mine gifted me a used BASIC programming book (I think he found in the trash, or something.) Now this was very exciting for pre-teen me and I soon got to work typing in the first program. Going by the description and illustration it was going to be a bouncing ball. Nothing too fancy, and, oh boy, that looks like a lot of code already, but you gotta start…