congrats on your first spyderco
here is a link to the history of all spyderco knives:
http://www.ted.tweakdsl.nl/spyderco/history.htmlyour knife appears to be from the 1998 line.
I used to have no use for spyderco's, but now I love them, they are some of the easiest to open knives out there, they look a little weird, but who cares what they look like?