I used to be a hardcore geek. Nowadays, not so much. Why? I’m not sure why. I think it has a lot to do with the now defunct i/o Computers.

Before we opened i/o Computers back in February of 2005, I worked on computers all the time because I enjoyed it. It was my passion in life. I would come home from work and literally spend all my free time on my computer, fixing computers, building computers, modding computers, or making them do things they weren’t originally designed to do. Either way, I was surrounded by computers. They were my life so much in fact, that I had decided to open up i/o Computers with JP, someone who also shared my passion for computers.

Things started out slow like any other new business, but after about a year, things really started picking up. They picked up so much in fact that my vacations from my full time job were almost entirely used to work for i/o Computers to clear backlogs or work on new projects for the company. We did enough business to not have any free time, but ironically, not enough to hire anyone. So, I would put in 40 hours at my regular job, and then put in another 30-40 hours a week working for i/o Computers.

It was after a good 16 months of this that I really started to get burned out. So much in fact that I took a 2 month leave back in the summer of 2007 to find some sanity from it all. When I came back from that break, my passion for computers just wasn’t there. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was now being forced, though the success of i/o Computers, to do what was a hobby, on a semi-full time basis without the rewards of a paycheck.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. We didn’t make a dime off the company. All of our profits went right back into the company to promote its growth.

It was finally in December of 2007, that we decided that neither one of us could do it anymore, and we shuttered the business. To this day, I still get calls asking me to do work. But honestly, I don’t have it in me anymore. Those days are gone. Hell, a little over a month after we shuttered i/o Computers, I was so fed up with PC and their flawed Windows operating system, I went out and bought a Macintosh for my main computer. To this day, when I hear about viruses, spyware, malware, and root kits, I get a knot in my stomach.

So for me, I now look at myself as a reformed geek. I enjoy using a computer, but it’s not my life anymore. I still get excited about tech, but I’ve also broadened my interests to now include culinary arts, working with audio, and believe it or not, having some personal down time.

Maybe one day I’ll go back to the way I was. But for now, I’m happy with my Macintosh and my tech-headache free lifestyle.