By JULIE MILLER

Staff Writer

Tech alumnus Curt Brandao said he is no tech expert, but considers himself a "Slob expert" in the Digital Age.

Brandao writes "Digital Slob," a weekly humorous technology column in the Honolulu-Star Bulletin that has been picked up for national syndication by Universal Press Syndicate.

The 35-year-old said his love for cartoons is what began his love for journalism.

Brandao said he took a journalism class in high school to get his cartoons published in the school paper.

"At first, writing was just an afterthought, a series of hoops I had to jump through to get my funny drawings published," Brandao said. "When teachers told me I was good at writing, I was stunned. I wasn't mature enough to see that the two things, cartoons and writing, were connected."

In college, Brandao joined The Tech Talk staff and was editor during the summer of 1990. Brandao compared the staff experience to a reality television show.

"Mr. Hilburn, [the faculty adviser], gave us written critiques of our week's work, which were routinely read aloud to the whole staff. We all hung on every scribble, like we were all contestants in 'Journalism Idol,' and Mr. Hilburn was a slightly unkempt, and completely un-British Simon Cowell."

Wiley Hilburn, journalism department head and professor of journalism, said it seems like just yesterday since Brandao left.

"He made the whole campus like him," Hilburn said. "He wrote a column, [Curt's World], that became popular with not only the students but faculty as well. It was so popular that we ran it every week."

Brandao's column was humorous and accompanied by illustrations.

"Writing 'Curt's World' every week at Tech gave me gobs of confidence," Brandao said.

After graduate school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Brandao worked at various daily newspapers and ended up at the Honolulu-Star Bulletin in 1998, where he is currently a production editor and columnist.

Brandao said his weekly column is a look at all the crazy ways technology is changing society.

"In short, I think it's divvying us all up into two distinct personality types: Respectable People and Digital Slobs," Brandao said.

"Respectable People use technology to accomplish more, while Slobs use it to goof off more, Brandao said. "For example, TiVo allows Respectable People to work overtime all week without missing their one or two favorite TV shows. Slobs, on the other hand, use its commercial-skipping powers to cram 15 hours of programming into their allotted eight hours of free time they devote to TV every day."

Kevin Allen, a junior speech communications major, read "Digital Slob" and laughed out loud.

"I think he's hilarious," Allen said. "He tells it like it is and thinks how the average person thinks."

Allen said he is excited that Brandao's column is successful.

"It shows there's still hope for me -- that I might get a job in a warm place one day, too."

Brandao's columns can be read at http://www.digitalslob.com.