I’m a lifelong techie. I wrote my first program on punch cards. I owned one of the first IBM PCs and wrote a text editor for it in assembler. My first job after college was programming HP micro- and mini-computers to model a TV component.

Then the law bug bit me and I became a lawyer. Computers remained a hobby, but programming fell to the wayside as work and family took precedence. Nevertheless, my tech background served me well in law. Not only could I speak the language of my tech clients, but there are more similarities between programming and drafting contracts than you might imagine.

The end of my law career is in sight. In thinking about what’s next, I decided a return to my roots—in some form—is in order. So I’m teaching myself HTML and CSS, becoming reacquainted with the command line, and generally having a blast getting my hands dirty with all kinds of new tools.