Foundation Era (1992-2000): Built my first
battlestation from Computer Show parts—two generations of Gills hunting deals every weekend when
we could sneak money under Mom's purview (Dad, me, and my brother Roth). Spent hours hacking
X-Com soldier names through hex editors (years later: discovered the click-to-edit feature).
That's the Foundation Era truth: We learned by doing everything the hard way first. Even if
'doing' meant liberating Lechmere display PCs with strategic 'del c:' commands. Every
overengineered solution taught me what actually mattered—making systems serve humans, not the
other way around.