The years between 1996 and 2002 were the dream years for me. I had graduated from high school. I had no idea whatsoever as to which academic direction I ought to take to have some guarantee that I won't be a cautionary tale and bring home the proverbial phat cash. I tried to capitalize on what some people interpret as "decent english", next thing I know, my application for a law course at a public college but was rejected. It instead came up with a counteroffer: Mass communication. Unlike everyone else who are massively talented and were given a map at birth, I didn't know what to do and I wasn't receiving any offer letters. And I didn't say yes to that counteroffer either. Fast forward to a month later, I'm enrolled in a private college. A very expensive one that was about to drain huge sums of money off my elder brother. I was in a big city and life, spent as kampung boy was about to change.

It was an era where dotcoms were flourishing at the rate proportionate to the amount of sex our next door neighbors were having in the middle of their apartment at 2 am, perfectly audible but more importantly, visible to us. So in between being occupied with our generous neighbors, attending classes and buying VCDs downstairs where they were printing them, we were thinking up ways (well, that's planning for a bunch of 18 year olds like us) to become the next tech entrepreneur. The dudes in black t-shirts and khakis and sneakers/docs, flying the pirate flag high and proud; adapting a pseudo-slacker culture because we were going to be rich by being tech mongers, a collective middle finger for the establishment; a connoisseur among the digerati.

We were reading Red Herring, Time, Fortune and Wired to sate our lust for tech news and geek profiles. Mentally masturbating over the amout of cash the dotcom biggies were making at startup, reading with great interest about their stock split adjustments, Initial Public Offering & Return of Investment ratios while ignoring everything that was happening around us. A few of my friends pored over computer codes like it was porn. All that transpired between the years 1996 and 2002. Maybe someday I'll be able to dream again. Right now, I have work to do.

Post inspired by: Why Wired Isn't Cool Anymore & this.