In 1988, a little more than halfway through college, I was obliged to take a course called “Signals and Systems”, alias ECE 340. The ECE stands for Electrical and Computer Engineering and is pronounced “Eeseeyee”. This was an unhappy time for me. It was responsible for one of my two D grades in college and the only reason I didn’t drop it was because I couldn’t; it was a requirement. About halfway through the course something in me snapped, and I began to anonymously write and post snarky top ten lists about the class. This was before the World Wide Web, before the term “blog” was even coined, so by “posting” I mean printing the list out and physically taping it to the classroom door before everyone else arrived.

I disliked the course and its subject so much that I promised myself that no matter what direction my career took, I would avoid “signals” and especially its modern incarnation, digital signal processing. Approximately three years later, a series of sitcom-like obstacles steered me in a kind of cartoon choreography into the arms of a company that did nothing else…where I have remained for the last sixteen years. If I didn’t believe in fate before, I do now.

But back to the top ten lists. Now, and every Friday until my short archive runs empty, I present a blast from the past, twenty years ago to the month, from a time when I was stupider, more energetic, and a lot funnier.