Happy 51st Birthday Reuben Martinez

I promise not to miss your 51st Birthday like I did last year.

Happy Birthday Reuben Perez Martinez....

The man who has been around for my early Childhood

Like I've said before, My Dad is responsible for shaping me into the Cartoonist that I am, especially for a man born during the tail-end of the Nixon Administration.

(My mother was born around the tail-end of the Ford Administration.)

My dad recently came back around my Birthday the previous December to deliver a shelf for my mother but I totally missed the opportunity to meet him in person.....RATS!!!

Oh well, live and learn I guess.

Anyway, like I said before, My dad was always the supportive one.

He always provided for the family with his Boat Repair at the time job and we lived a good life.

He was also a good shutterbug for us in our Family.

Most of the time, he didn't appear in a lot of our photos because he was often the one using the various cameras we had access to.

Though most of our family photos were shot on good-old 35MM film,

We did use digital cameras as early as the early 2000s.

For example, he shot this photo of me when we were on BC Ferries on our way to Nanaimo, BC back in May 25 2003.

This photo was shot on a 1997 Olympus Digital Camera.

Despite the limited CCDs of the time, this Olympus made certain shots look somewhat better and on par with 35MM or 70MM film stock with the right lighting.

Also, He introduced me to computers at a very Young Age.

Normally, Parents would prefer to wait until their Children are over 4-6 years of age before letting them use the family Computer for the first time.

But I was an exception....

He let me use Computers when I was just 1 & a half starting with that Intel Celeron Compaq Presario above.

You just don't get that level of Computational freedom with today's children anymore due to iPads.

Granted, most of my uses with computers early on were mostly Edutainment titles....

But the sheer fact that my interests in Computers solidified at an early age shows that my father prepared me for what I would eventually do in my mid-20s which was building my own Computer.

This here is my Current Setup.

I don't know where I'd be without you Dad but I'm glad you were there for me in my Childhood.

I hope to do a follow up on things like the times we watched THE SIMPSONS on tv together but that'll have to wait until Father's Day 2025.

Anyway, enjoy your Birthday Papa Reuben.