Count 'Em

The solstice is approaching, so it’s time to count ‘em. Do you remember how it felt the first time you:

• implemented a for loop to find the length of a string, in assembly, and finally understood how computers actually worked?
• read Software Tools in Pascal, and discovered that there was more to programming than writing legal code?
• realized that 1+1/2+1/4+1/8… converges, but 1+1/2+1/3+1/4… doesn't?
• read Neuromancer, Wyrd Sisters, The Dark Knight, or an Elmore Leonard novel?
• saw Star Wars (back before they ruined it with Return of the Jedi), Grosse Pointe Blank, The Mummy, or Casablanca?
• listened to The Clash, Talking Heads, The The, Peter Gabriel, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Ike Quebec, Thelonius Monk, or Ali Farka Toure?
• laughed until your belly hurt because the only other thing to do was cry?
• woke up at home in a foreign country?
• had a really good idea that actually worked?
• saw someone you didn't know reading a newspaper article you had written?
• played liars' dice with friends until closing time?
• threw a frisbee right to someone fifty meters away?
• received spam?
• said exactly the right thing at exactly the right time and made a hundred people laugh?
• watched your opponent's ion frigates plow into the minefield you'd spent half an hour laying down?
• saw someone you didn't know using software you had written?
• had someone thank you for talking them out of dropping out of school?
• held your firstborn?