Jeremy’s Blog

Okay. It’s officially cold, now.

It’s really hard to believe it’s been so long since I started doing this. I’ve been programming for almost six and a half years, now. And I still vividly remember how it all started … But, no flashbacks today. I’ve been looking over some of my old stuff, and I found some of the old VortexBB articles from back in September of last year. It’s been that long?

It was late 2004 when I started to really think architecturally about software, and not just think about “building a better mouse trap” … And thus, the GU² Engine saw its first light. And its been my baby for two years, since then. It’s gone through a lot of major revisions and has become a very solid corner-piece to a lot of my development.

To think that it was sixteen months ago that I was working out of my bedroom at my own start-up company and being mildly successful. Back then, things were very different. I was programming for the sake of programming, not necessarily for money. I got to work on what I wanted, when I wanted, and nobody could tell me otherwise. And things were great, that way. Now, things have changed. I work for someone else, doing what I love to do, but I’m making better money doing it. I don’t get to do what I want, when I want… But, I still haven’t lost the architectural fire that was ignited in me two years ago.

Since I’ve been out in Colorado, I’ve architected and developed a handful of very major breakthroughs in the way software works, and how we think about technologies as old as things like XML. I’m doing great things with great people, and I couldn’t be happier with my work. Of course, there’s still a side of me that misses the old days. But, I have to honestly admit that back then I didn’t know half of what I know, now. And it’s been less than a year since everything changed for me. I’ve been around some very influential people in various aspects of software development, and I’ve learned a lot from them all. I would’ve never acquired so much knowledge so quickly, on my own.

Great things continue to happen, day by day. I got lost in a zone yesterday that produced some of the coolest work I’ve done with combining two technologies, and I’m very pleased that it’s going into the very Engine that I architected and revised into the framework that I love.

It’s been six long years, and I’ve seen and done a lot. I’ve worked with some very great people over the years … Sean Roth, Steven Harris, Sani Sarip, Justin Shreve, Lewis Wright, Scott Saniti, DJ Tarazona … All my old colleagues, and my new ones like Shaun Shepard, the most remarkable designer I’ve ever met in my life, over at Completely Unique … Dennis Liang, our System Admin, and generally a really cool guy … John Fisher, my boss and one of the closest friends and biggest inspirations in my life … And all of the people on the project I’m still not discussing here. You know who you are.

Moving on to bigger and better things. Here’s hoping to having someone special to share it all with in the future. And now, I leave you with one of my favorite software-related essays by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.: No Silver Bullet. Enjoy, and I’m looking forward to six more years and more in this industry.

Personally, I love it when you can be listening to music and all of a sudden your favorite player, be it an internet radio station, or your own personal playlist, throws you a curve. The last five songs or so that I’ve listened to are so appropriate to my current mood / mindset that it’s almost scary. And they’ve been random, which is the part that’s made it scary.

When songs have a special impact on you, based on what’s going on in your life, no matter what the song or situation is, magic happens. I really believe that. It’s really just an amazing feeling. What was a really cruddy day was turned around by a certain sequence of events and then amplified by the fact that Winamp seems to “know” how I feel. Yeah, I know … That’s odd. But, it’s true.

Normally, I’d list the songs I’ve been listening to, but I’m going to leave a little to the imagination this time. If you know anything about me and how I’ve been lately, you can easily guess what type of songs I’m referring to.

Anyway. It’s a lot later than I intended to stay up, these songs just kind of snatched me up before I could go to bed.

Goodnight.

So, I’ve got an exciting week coming up. Monday night is the Blind Guardian concert, Thursday is Thanksgiving, Friday is the Jim Brickman concert. And besides that stuff, I’ve still got plenty of work to do. I’m excited about both concerts, but neither will compare to a certain personal concert I got, yesterday. Thank you “Z” ( ) … You’re amazing.

Today has generally been pretty decent, overall. Outside of this blaring pain in my neck, anyway. I just got up from a nap that unfortunately didn’t solve the problem at all.

Currently, working as usual. Waiting for a certain beautiful lady to come back … and allow me to briefly escape from the bitter coldness of the rest of the world.

My new laptop, a pretty cheap Compaq Presario, arrived yesterday. Comes outfitted with a AMD Turion 64-Bit processor, clocking in at 1.60 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. It’s a really slick machine, I think. Considering as soon as it come out of the box, I was in the process of installing Linux on it … It’s going to be a great machine, for my purposes, and I’m currently typing up this entry with it.

Running the latest release of Ubuntu, 6.10 Edgy Eft. Took a little bit to get the wireless functioning properly, but thankfully I remember how to do a lot of stuff. Ran into a little complication part way through, but I think that’s because it’s a 64-Bit machine (my first, by the way), but that was resolved after I changed a few things up and swapped out my usual solution for an alternative. Now, wireless works great, and I’m not hogging Shawn’s ethernet cable (considering his desktop doesn’t have a wireless card :P).

Overall, I’m pleased with the purchase. It’s the reason we got under such a financial strain, but everything’s resolved now, and the laptop runs great. Back to the hunt, I say.

So, life’s been really good lately. Work’s been really busy, but that’s to be expected. We’re coming up on The Really Big Dates(tm), so I can see another crunch-time coming around the corner. Money got really tight very briefly because of a fatal mistake I made balancing things, but all’s good now. I’ve never been a religious or spiritual person, but that’s slowly changing. With the presence of such influential people who are able to really show what worshipping is supposed to be like, instead of the force-fed bullcrap I got back in Alabama, I’m starting to actually see the good side of things instead of the negative that living in Alabama and being around “The Wrong Crowd” (in some cases) showed me. It’s almost like John is my personal Guardian Angel or something … Everytime something goes wrong, somehow or another he always fixes it. Even if he doesn’t necessarily mean to or try to. We’re fighting to come up with the money to be able to go back to Alabama for Christmas, but with tonight’s “turn of events” I think everything’s going to be just fine.

For those of you who know about my car situation, yeah I probably did get ripped off for that bill, but it’s run great ever since I got it back, so I’m not complaining …

And while I was typing this, I knocked my Mountain Dew over, so I had to make a mad dash to get the paper towels and the new mouse out of the way. My mouse pad is ruined, so I’m going to have to buy a new one. That’s the last time I do something out of the ordinary (I usually put my drinks on the lower level of the desk, below the expensive equipment). Speaking of the new mouse, I bought a Logitech MX518. Awesome mouse. It’s a bit expensive, but it’s worth every penny. Especially if you’re a serious gamer or ever need on-demand precision. You can adjust the mouse sensitivity from the mouse. It’s awesome.

As noted in previous posts, I’m an Admin at RPG Palace, now. Plan to have a good few more contests like they’ve seen there, recently. Good luck to those who are participating. Also, Fragfest is there now, so you need to go register if you still want to participate. All of the information is neatly kept up in its own forums, there. Also, the infamous Dark Pulse — who a few of my readers have had the pleasure (or pain) of playing with — is helping Admin the server, so it’s kept in good shape and has some fun custom stuff on it.

In other news, and saving the best for last, I’ve fallen for another girl… Which is good, because I’ve been kind of lonely, lately. I mean, I’ve got Shawn here and he’s a great guy and all, but it’s just not the same as having that special someone … I don’t know how she feels yet, and I’m not going to push her. She just came out of relationship that’s more than obviously left a bad taste in her mouth, so I’m just being there for her, right now. I don’t know if she reads this. She probably doesn’t, but she’d know I was talking about her, if she did, I’m sure. She’s such a sweet girl, though. She’s smart, funny, amazingly talented. You could say she’s an over-achiever, because she does so much, but she’s just good at so much. And my goodness, is she beautiful … I’m talking gorgeous girl. I think she’s a little modest about her looks, though. Which is good, to a point … But, she really is beautiful. I’m unsure if she feels anything for me, and it’s way too early to consider coming out and saying something, I think. Maybe I’m wrong … We had a really late meeting tonight, and I had this overwhelming urge to just call and tell her goodnight, so I stepped out long enough to do just that. Well, that kind of gives it away to her … So, if she reads this, she’s definitely going to know I’m talking about her. Secretly, I kind of hope she does … Because, I’m honestly too skiddish to come out and say how I feel, at this point. For a lot of different reasons … Not just because of her recent break up, but because of how my last relationship went. I was too eager to take things too quickly, and it ended in disaster. So, I’m just kind of in limbo, at this point. So, if you’re reading this … This is how I really feel.

Well, that’s all for now … I’ll probably put more up as I find the time to do so. Take care, everyone.

Sorry about the horrible lack of updates. It’s generally just the same old stuff. Work is going crazy, and me in my infinite wisdom decided to cut my time even more by becoming an Administrator at RPG Palace.

Ah, well … More updates in the future …