I graduated from college in the early and fun days of computers.  My first was a Heathkit H89 that my father and I built from a kit while I was still in high school.  The first computer I purchased myself was an IBM-compatible Zenith machine that  had a turbo switch on the back which could accelerate it from the standard 4.77 MHz to a snappy 8MHz.

Wow.  It’s hard to believe technology has changed so much over the years.  These days, my iPhone has more computing power than any of my first computers ever had.

After I graduated from college, I did what most graduates do.  I got a job.  Shortly after that, I did something that most didn’t.  I started a bulletin board, called The Granola Board BBS, which ran from 1990 through 1997.  It ran The Major BBS software.  At its largest, it supported 36 phone lines, a primitive Internet connection, multi-user games, chat and much more.

The Granola Board was shut down in the summer of 1997, due to rising operating costs and competition from the newly-available Internet.  While the ‘net wasn’t new to government and university users, dialup accounts were becoming increasingly popular and affordable.  It spelled death for most BBS systems which couldn’t compete against the big telephone monopolies.

I purchased the domain Granola.com back in those old days of computing.  While the board has been gone for close to two decades, I’ve hung on to the domain because I optimistically figured I might need it again someday.  For a number of years, I hoped to bring the BBS back.  Later, I figured the domain might be valuable, and I’d sell it to one of the big cereal companies.  Sometime around 2000 or 2001, a fraudster offered me a huge sum of money for the name.  Fortunately, I had the good sense to sniff out the scam before I signed over anything.

So, here it is 2015, and the domain has been mine for years.  I’ve been trying to think of other uses for it for a long time, and never could come up with anything besides the obvious — setting up an online store that sells granola.  I never quite got around to it, because I’m not a granola manufacturer, and the startup costs associated with a traditional store with inventory were simply too far out of reach.

Instead, I’ve decided to set up a blog, where I’ll talk about granola, health, and a variety of other things.  If you like my content and want to help support my writing, please shop in my Amazon-powered affiliate store.  You’ll get the same great products, customer service, and prices you’d get if you were go directly to Amazon, and I’ll get a small commission because you used my links to shop.

If you are a former Granola user, I’d love to hear from you.  Please send me an email at my old email address.  I’m sure you remember what it was.

Best,

~ Sysop