I’ve always had an interest in technology. I was born in the heart of Silicon Valley in the late 90s so from the get-go I was surrounded by computers, software, and the like.

Even though I only spent the first five or so years of my life there before moving to the Pacific Northwest, there are some memories and stories that I find interesting, especially now that I’m pursuing a career in tech about 20 years later.

One of the more notable memories that I have is going to a local Fry’s Electronics store in San Jose that was themed like a Mayan temple. This was my parents’ go-to for any type of electronics and of course I would always tag along when they shopped there. No matter how many times I visited, I always found walking into a building shaped like a pyramid to be a very cool experience.

What I found to be equally cool (or maybe even cooler) was the actual stuff inside the store. Seeing all the boxes for the various computer parts, the TVs, and the random gadgets never failed to fascinate me. The boxes for graphics cards in particular always caught my attention because of how over the top the artwork was. At least at the time, the boxes had images of aliens, cars, and seemingly random things on them. Nowadays, the boxes usually just show what the actual product is.

But to keep this first blog post short, I’ll leave it at that. Maybe in the future I’ll write about other related memories and stories from this time of my life. Nevertheless, I still find electronics stores fascinating. The boxes for graphics cards are still pretty cool and I never forget to check out the TV section, even if it’s only for a brief moment.

And while Fry’s has since experienced quite the downfall, I attribute my trips to that Mayan-themed electronics store as one of the driving forces when it comes to developing an interest in tech.