Every day is significant. Knowledge is sexy. Future, present, and past are one. The world deserves more great things. My name is Stephen Torrence. This is my home on the Internet for the foreseeable future. In this little corner of the Web I’d like to show you what I find in my exploration of life …
Author Archives: Stephen
Growing Up Geek Part 4: NCC-1701 vs. The Universe
I have several drawings in my collection which I affectionately dub the “Enterprise Blowing S#!% Up” series. Star Trek was perhaps the biggest psychological and creative influence on my early life, even more so than Star Wars. My earliest memory of deliberate mischief is of sneaking out of my room after bedtime to peer around …
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Growing Up Geek Part 3: End of an Era
The Space Shuttle was in my life from very early on, and served as an incredibly strong source of inspiration. One of my earliest computer memories comes from watching grainy, compressed video of the first 60 or so STS launches and landings off a CD-ROM. It’s a tired cliche that every kid at some point …
Growing Up Geek Part 2: Epic Confrontation
Star Wars played a huge role in my geek upbringing. I remember first encountering the iconic sci-fi saga through a couple of scenes from Episode IV’s entry in Microsoft Cinemania ‘95. Oddly enough, my parents let me play the plethora of DOS-based Star Wars games long before they allowed me to see the full movie. …
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Growing Up Geek Part 1: Introduction
A long time ago in a childhood not so far away, I was somewhat of an artist. I produced over 300 pieces of artwork over the course of my childhood. Recently I took it upon myself to scan this collection and over the next several weeks I would like to share some of my favorite creations …
So this is what the kids call “sexting?”
I just now had about the most bizarre text conversation of my life. It started with a random incoming text and went down some pretty strange roads. I played along, as you will see, and “she” seemed to as well. Kind of NSFW in some parts, but whatever. Have a read: [12:12am] Them: Hey baby girl. …
W00tstock 2.9: A Spunky Elephant’s Review
“Take a moment to look around you. This is what the Internet looks like.” As I sat there on the mezzanine level of the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin, glancing playfully from side to side and up and down the rows at smiling nerds, I felt a tremendous rush of camaraderie that would set the …
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FormSpring: Are you more of a talker or more of a listener?
Depends on my mood. I can do both with equal comfort. If you really forced me to choose, I would say I’m slightly more a talker. Be blunt, be adventurous. Ask away:
FormSpring: What was the happiest moment in your life?
This is a hard one, mainly because the word “happy” contains many facets (such as contentment, euphoria, and joy), each with their own distinct moments of greatest intensity. My most content moment was this past February, and it’s a bit too personal to describe in detail. Let’s just say that a window, a girl, and …
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FormSpring: Perfect employment / city?
I really wish we still lived in the age of patrons. If so, I would love to devote a couple of decades to designing and building real-world manifestations of maps and locations from iconic video games, starting with Myst and then continuing with Halo, SimCity, and anything else I had time for. Alternatively, I would …