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The history of Inverse. Or, how I became inverted

My slow, steady life began in 1978 in the little town of Moreau, NY. The nearest city to Moreau was Glens Falls, home of paper mills, a hospital, the Back Door Cafe, and a downtown commerce district that served as a revolving door for Mom 'n' Pop craft stores and other small businesses. My parents were the average middleclass couple, my father spending the better part of my life as a self-employed chimney sweep and making decent bank, and my mom working as a lunch lady in a few schools in the district, eventually climbing the ladder and becoming the head cheese. We weren't anywhere near rich, but we lived comfortably.

So that brings me to my childhood. My folks did the best job of raising me that anyone could expect. Lots of my friends growing up came from broken homes and low-class incomes, but my folks were always very supportive and providing. I was the basic underachiever in elementary school, always just barely getting by in all subjects. My handwriting was terrible, and still is to this day. I never had many friends, due to my introverted nature. Then in fourth grade, something changed. I went from C/D to A, and things started looking up. Never really understood why or how, but I liked it. I liked understanding things, and the success boosted my ego.

I kept it up through high school, and applied to two schools for college. Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute had been my dream school since I was young and first learning about 'puters. Upon visiting the campus, I thought "Gee it's windy today," but liked the architecture and overall feel of the place. Clarkson University, on the other hand, was a cold, dull, drab environment with concrete buildings that looked like they'd have no problem surviving a nuke. And I didn't like the fact that I'd be stranded there all winter, since it was three hours away through mountain roads. So I took RPI and generally liked it.

While this was going on, I had my first girlfriend in highschool. My original sweetheart had been out of my life for a while, and in my senior year I finally broke down and started dating. What a nightmare it turned out to be. Had a few more relationships in college, and learned a lot about my likes and dislikes, and formed a general idea of what I was looking for in a lady. In my soph year I found a girl matching the description, and we dated off and on until the summer of graduation, when things finally fell apart for good. I'm not bitter, I don't feel that it was a waste of time, and we're still on good terms.

In the process of taking my degree in Computer Science, I learned how to write web pages. The only problem was that I didn't have much to say at the time. To an extent, I still don't, but I'm working on it. Studying philosophy taught me a lot about forming my own opinions and becoming less of a mindless drone. Psychology taught me to analyze other people and try to figure out where they were coming from and what they were all about. I've always been pretty good at reading people, but it gets difficult over the internet. Ah the internet, I shall have to write a rant about thee... but all in good time.

Currently I'm living in Troy, NY, the college town which contains RPI. I landed a job at a startup founded by RPI grads, so staying in Troy where the rent is low seemed like a good way to build a nest egg. Hopefully we'll be moving to Cali at some point, but for now I'm surviving. I just wish the winter wasn't so harsh, with the wind flying up the hill from the Hudson and biting at me all the time.