Hello, and welcome to my personal blog. Here you’ll discover posts about my hobbies — from tinkering with vintage computers to riding bikes, along with other things I’d like to discuss.
I’m originally from Boonville, Missouri — a small town about 20 miles west of Columbia, Missouri. I’m a graduate of the University of Central Missouri, where I studied digital media production with an emphasis in digital journalism.
My Hobbies
I have a few hobbies — most of which are displayed to some degree on my personal website and this blog.
Computer and Computing History
My interest in computers can be traced all the way back to when I was an elementary school student in the middle of nowhere. I can remember playing around with Microsoft Paint in Windows 3.11 on the Gateway 2000 486 machine before I started Kindergarten, and also playing games on our Super Nintendo.
Ever since, my love for computers has only grown. In high school, my focus shifted toward learning about the history of computing — from the mainframe era of the 1950s to the personal computing boom of the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, I’ve been interested in learning about the history of Apple Computer and IBM and the roles they played in the computer industry.
In spring 2020, my dream of owning a vintage computer turned into reality after purchasing a 1991 Macintosh Classic. That machine acted as a springboard into the retro computing hobby, as afterward I would collect other vintage Macintosh computers — primarily from the 68k era. (I’d like to also collect other vintage computers — such as IBM PCs or their “clones,” and Unix workstations — but unfortunately they’re next to unobtainable in this area.)
As for my modern “daily drivers,” I am primarily a Mac user at home. My main computer is a M1 Mac mini. However, I have other Macs (such as a 13-inch 2019 MacBook Pro) and *nix machines, such as my trusty old ThinkPad W541 that runs Debian Linux after using OpenIndiana on it. I use all three major operating systems: Macs and *nix (Linux and proper Unix) at home, and Windows at work.
In addition to tinkering with computers, I’m also an avid player of Minecraft. Ever since starting in fall 2017, I’ve put countless hours into creating various worlds in Creative mode. One world I’ve been working on since December 2017 has grown exponentially in size, currently featuring over 12 built-from-scratch villages with countless buildings. Unlike other Minecraft creators, I don’t use world editing tools such as WorldEdit.
Technology History
In addition to computers, technology history of the 20th century — especially relating to telecommunications — has piqued my interest.
One of the more popular sections on this website relates to the AT&T Long Lines network — a microwave relay network used to carry long-distance telephone calls, television/radio signals, and other traffic from the 1950s through the 1990s. I’ve photographed a few AT&T Long Lines microwave relay sites in my area. I’ve also had an interest in the Bell System and telephony history.
Kewanee Boilers
One of my stranger interests lie in Kewanee Boilers. The Kewanee Boiler Corporation was a manufacturer of fire-tube boilers from 1891 to 2002. Their boilers have been found in schools, hospitals, government buildings, factories, and other buildings all over the United States and the world.
I first discovered Kewanee Boilers when doing laundry in our high school’s boiler room for the boys’ basketball team, which I managed.
I also have an interest in HVAC systems — from residential systems to boilers and chillers.
At home, I have a Chihuahua, Gidget. I “adopted” her in June 2020 as a puppy.
Rest In Peace Daisy, our beloved pug, 2007-2024.
In addition to everything mentioned above, I’m also a fan of the Kansas City Royals baseball team. At one point I had a huge collection of bobbleheads, cards and other memorabilia related to the MLB team. While I’ve cut back and toned it down, I still root for the “Boys in Blue” even if it’s rough most times.
About This Site
An older, static HTML portion of my personal website was first uploaded in July 2016. That portion of my personal website, which has largely been removed to save server space (but archived on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine!), was hand-coded using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 running on my ThinkPad T420. The original pages mainly focused on IBM’s history, as I was going through a “phase” where I was really in to IBM’s history and their early involvement in the computing market.
Shortly after, on July 13, 2016, I setup the WordPress section of my site. Originally, the WordPress section was meant to be only a blog to complement the static HTML portion of my site. However, over time, I focused on the WordPress portion and stopped updating the static HTML pages. Since, the roles have reversed — the WordPress section of my site became the main portion.
My goal for this website has been to talk about my hobbies and interests and provide occasional updates on projects and other events in my life. I’ve also had a goal to keep politics off this website — often referring to it as a politics-free zone.
My own content on this personal website is listed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The content of others’ posted here, such as submitted photos or those republished with the permission of their creators, may be exempt, however. Please contact me for verification. When sharing content, please give credit. For my own work, please credit “Garrett Fuller” preferably with a link back to this website. All CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 works must be shared alike using the same license.
2016-2025 Garrett W. Fuller
Comments
You may be wondering: how can I post comments on blog posts? Unfortunately, due to a high amount of spam comments, I had to disable comments entirely. However, I always enjoy emails from readers — whether it be praise, suggestions, constructive criticism, or anything else that’s related. The only thing I ask is for emails to be related to my hobbies and free of spam, and emails to be respectful and friendly. (After all, I’m human, too!)
Links
This page last updated: June 14, 2026.
The content for this page was originally written on the 1988 Macintosh SE using Microsoft Word 4.0. This page originally published January 1, 2018.