Yes, I have been in similar situations, but I did have access to some Myspace hacker forums, and some gaming friends that were into this stuff to help guide me

Yes, I have been in similar situations, but I did have access to some Myspace hacker forums, and some gaming friends that were into this stuff to help guide me when I got stuck. At least later on. I also got a few books at around 13... but your experience enumerating everything without a guide entirely, for so long, is quite something.