12/13 actually... At 8 I was more concerned about Pokemon.

I wish I had done math in college. I didn't have to do it because of the direction I was heading at the time, but it's something I've always been good at. I got an A in calc and even was on a math team. I never thought years later that I would be wishing I had done more math...

Thanks for the advice! I'm super critical about my programming but everything you mentioned "arrays, lists, queues, stacks, iteration, and recursion " I feel fairly comfortable with. As for a sys admin (which to be totally honest, I think is right up my alley) do you have any specific recommendations. I feel fairly comfortable with Linux, I started with MEPIS, am writing this on a laptop with Ubuntu, and have messed around with several distros in VM (I even compiled a gentoo installation).

Exactly. They had a points system and either through extra credit (usually in the form of additional functionality in a program) or some ridiculous curve (for the non-computer students trying to get out of the math req.)

I started a new path in life, I don't feel compelled to stay anywhere.

I think that my favorite thing to do is building and fixing computers. I enjoy the software side as well, and I know that I can do it, but I also love working with my hands as well. I posted it as "IT work" because it is broad. I really love anything to do with computers, and I have for years, and I love learning as much as I can. I work incredibly well with others, but I don't see myself as going into major software development (which I am told is notorious for 60+ hour weeks).

And so the hunt begins...

I'm 22. QBasic is what I had on hand on a Windows 98 computer and no internet (I had to use the library).

I came up with the name when I was either 13 or 14. It was for a text adventure that I had written (with an ungodly amount of gotos) inspired by the Legend of the Green Dragon. I had always loved the name Matt (from Mathias, think Redwall) and wanted a cool name to go with it. I thought, "what was another cool name: Luke Skywalker." Using that format I got Steelblade. I've just continued to use it over the years.