But who is CJ?
I am CJ.
Nice to meet you! I'm a 21-year-old burnt-out college kid from the Virginia Beach area with a considerable thirst for knowledge and an even bigger chip on my shoulder. But seriously though, I do a little bit of everything and I'm a little bit all over the place. As most of this site probably implies, I really enjoy restoring and playing with vintage electronics of all kinds. I mainly work on things like computers, television sets, radios, and vintage videotape equipment -- but ultimately, I end up dragging home and hacking on whatever I think is interesting, much to the chagrin of my parents...
Here's a photo of my workbench. It's never quite this clean, but I can at least pretend to be organized by showing it at its best:
For a very long time I just did my own thing, but I guess people think I'm skilled enough now to work on their own stuff, which is a really scary thought! But anyway, I've done (or do) restoration work for a handful of museums, such as the System Source Computer Museum near Baltimore, MD, the Vintage Computer Federation museum at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall Township, NJ, and the Large Scale Systems Museum near Pittsburgh, PA.
Although I've traditionally sucked hardcore at documenting my projects, I'm slowly getting better. I hope this site will serve as a repository for them going forward, as well as provide useful information on things I've struggled with, so hopefully the poor saps following in my footsteps don't struggle as much. My fellow insane-people-who-still-work-on-1980s-power-supplies know the struggle. Beyond this site, I am a frequent contributor to my good friend tr0n's UNIX-HATERS Wiki, which aims to be an information repository for exotic computer systems of all kinds...with a little spice and entertainment thrown in :) My "magnum opus" there is probably the hub for information on the 68k-based SiliconGraphics IRIS terminals and workstations (their first products), though I've also done lots of work on the Stardent Titan pages for that line of graphical "minisupercomputers," and hopefully, many more systems to come soon!
But enough grandstanding about how much I love playing with electronic junk. I occasionally wrench on cars - mostly my own, because my poor 2003 Honda Pilot with 210k miles is tired - but it's something I could totally see turning into another money sink...I mean, hobby. When I'm not supplanting my hobby budget with bags of pennies, of course. I'd really love an old station wagon, or one of the really gaudy, boxy 80s luxury cars that get two miles to the gallon, and are a nightmare to keep running, but drive so damn comfortably everyone forgives their shortcomings. In the meantime, my boyfriend's wonderful 1978 Toyota Corona wagon satiates the urge - seriously, look how cool this gorgeous piece of shit is:
Ryan's great. I love him so much. I hope he doesn't read this or I'll get embarrassed. He's done an absolute ton of work to that car, and I couldn't be more proud of him. He posts occasional updates on his BlueSky - if you like old rusty Japanese econoboxes, I highly suggest following him!
Outside of tinkering with things, I really enjoy photography of all kinds - mostly digital, but I suppose I'll eventually graduate to film someday. One of these days, I'll throw up a page here with some of my best work. I'm a big fan of Soundcloud zoomer rap, hyperpop, grunge/shoegaze, breakcore, ambient...honestly, there's very few genres I don't enjoy listening to at least sometimes. I'm a pretty big horror fan, and have hung around unfiction/ARG communities for a large portion of my life - since way before the "analog horror" scene, as the kids these days call it! I also drive all over the East Coast, mostly for computer-related things, but the travel itself is a lot of fun and an interest all in its own. I try to stop somewhere new each trip, and one of my favorite activities is buying new bumper stickers to decorate my car with:
As a consequence, I'm pretty recognizable, but I guess that's not a bad thing. Feel free to say hi if you spot the "shitbox of dreams" (thank Ryan for that term) :)
Thanks for reading! I hope my ramblings here and elsewhere are entertaining to read, if nothing else. If you want to contact me, the best way is probably my Discord, which is "ceejay__" minus the quotes. I do also have an e-mail I check fairly frequently: thedestructionchannel2000 (at) gmail.com. Feel free to send questions, comments, hate mail, SGI documentation, or memes...I'm not picky. As far as social medias go, I have a YouTube channel which will hopefully feature some of my restoration projects and some fun ideas in the not-so-distant future, as well as an Instagram if you're really dying to see my once-a-year selfie posts.
Take care!
