Jeremy's Blog

So, work has gotten a lot more hectic since I’ve returned from Alabama. As a result, my brain has been rather … scattered. In trying to keep up with all of my obligations at work, I’ve committed yet another disastrous mistake with regards to my financial situation.

I’ve been behind on my car payment, because of lack of cash, and I got called and practically harassed about paying what I owe. Of course, that’s nothing unusual … Everyone wants their money, after all. The mistake was in paying the entire car off completely in bulk when I went to make a payment. That was $700 … and now that the money’s gone, I really need it. Rent is going to be $938.82, this month. That’s granted we can get Shawn’s money transferred over to my account and get a money order from the bank, tomorrow. In all of our running around and my getting pulled over the other day, we didn’t get back in time to make the payment on time, so it was late. And they’ve changed their policy to where they’ll only accept money orders after the rent deadline, which really pisses me off. I could’ve written the check today and put the rest of the money in the bank tomorrow or whenever I could to keep the price of the rent from climbing even higher.

So, tomorrow I’m going to have to get out in really crappy weather conditions (it snowed again today) and drive to the bank to get money from Shawn’s account transferred over and deposit some more cash that we kept out. Also keep in mind that I still have no tags on my car, and my license hasn’t been renewed yet. So, if we get pulled over a second time, I doubt the officer in question is going to be as friendly as last time.

BUT! That money will be just enough to cover the rent. We still won’t have enough to cover the other … oh, approximately $350 worth of other bills that have to be paid this month. Shawn and I are both already broke, and it’s only the freaking 5th. We’ve still got a whole month to go through. And I didn’t spend any of my money, in Alabama, except for a little bit to eat here and there.

We’ll survive though. The important thing is that we get the rent paid so we don’t get kicked out of the apartment. The rest of the bills I can fend off until next month, when nobody is getting any of my money, except for rent, groceries, and bills. Everyone else can kiss off, because I don’t have the energy to waste on you people, any longer. Just leave me alone.

Moral of the story? Don’t succumb to pressure from people that “want their money” … I’ve got to survive too, you know. Next time something like this happens, I’m telling them to take a freaking number, because there’s plenty of other people wanting to get at my check book.

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.

On a lighter note …

I generally like to keep my workspace pretty clean. Only having open the files I absolutely need, while I’m working on something. Today’s been stressful and hectic, and my workspace shows that brilliantly, now that I think about it …

Take a look …

That’s all the files I have open in my editor, right now. Some blurred due to NDAs and stuff, and I can’t let any of my readers know what I’m working on, exactly.

Over at Completely Unique, we needed a more efficient way to track bugs and feature requests. I tried to setup a number of different free systems like Flyspray, phpBugTracker, and Mantis, and none of them fit our needs. Some of them actually sucked pretty badly. So, we purchased a copy of Arctic from Olate, Ltd. It is by far the easiest to setup, use, and maintain as far as any “issue” tracker I’ve ever used. As you can see, our Development Team has already started using it. And it’s called an “issue tracker” because it is designed to already be able to track not only bugs, but features as well. And with some slight adjustments, it could also be used to allow us to assign tasks to developers as well. Adding new projects and versions to projects are a snap. Really simple and easy to do. One of Arctic’s biggest advantages, and I have already fallen in love with this feature, is the fact that it automatically generates changelogs and roadmaps for you. So, if you use the issue tracker like it’s designed to be used, then you don’t have to spend any time building up roadmaps or changelogs. It’s all done for you. The only problem I’ve had with it so far is it’s licensing system phones home in the Admin CP’s Home, which if it can’t hit Olate for some reason, it lags the Admin page pretty badly. Overall, I’d give it a 9 out of 10. Very solid product.

I’m a programmer. I’m a geek. I don’t even like baseball. I don’t even like sports.

We were treated to a baseball game this evening for all of the hard work we’ve been doing over the time since we’ve been out here… and, I have to admit it was the best time I’ve had in a long time. We went to see the Colorado Rockies play the New York Mets (Rockies won 8 – 4, by the way). I realized even more this evening that my boss is not just my boss. In all reality, he’s my friend. Not only that, but he’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had. It’s one thing to have a good relationship with your boss or supervisor, but it’s a completely different thing for him to honestly care about you and your well-being. Sure, he gives me a hard time about the job, but it’s just because he wants me to be successful. I’m learning a lot from him, and I’m sure he’s learning from me, too.

Speaking of learning from me, he got his first taste of Blind Guardian, this evening. Not only that, but I think he liked them. Score one more for the team. It’s things like this that make working in this field worthwhile. So what if I love programming? Without the kind of boss I have, I don’t think I would be able to stand it. These situations make me look forward to work, and I think that’s how it should be. It makes the job just that much more enjoyable.

Keep coding …

I wish I could say more about what I’m working on, but it’ll be a huge improvement to the Engine and all of the Completely Unique Products, thereafter. It’ll all be explained soon enough. Just keep your eyes on CU …

*Jeremy goes back to working on the CDE spec and the Engine v1.2 spec …

For those of you who are unaware, a freak electrical storm fried my laptop not too long ago. Thankfully, it was replaced, but I lost a good bit of data, because the hard drive was just flat-out fried. Well, one of the more important documents that I lost was the functional specification for the Complete Download Experience product that I’m working on at Completely Unique. I decided that I’m going to use today to catch up on a few things CU-related, so I’ve cracked Microsoft Word and Visio open and I’m going to attempt to get some of this thing thrown back together …

Here’s to backing stuff up more often …

I’m a guy who thinks you should always be proud of your accomplishments. And I think one of the bigger steps in my career was starting to work at Completely Unique. Heck, that pretty much is my career, now. Well, when I got on-board the CU Team, I was given the opportunity to take the Zend PHP Certification Exam. I passed. As such, the ZCE Button is up at the top right corner of the blog, again.

I also intend to take the PHP 5 Certification exam they’re working on, as well. Not to mention any other certification exam I feel comfortable spending the money on. Here’s to passing the PHP 5 version.

Edit: By the way, I took the Exam back in February. So, congratulations now aren’t necessary. Also, you can now click the button up top to view my ZCE Page on Zend Technologies’ website.

So, things have been consistently busy this entire time, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to settled down for quite some time. Trying to keep up with everything and this blog too is just about impossible, but I’m still trying. Give me some time to get a little more organized about it.

Just wanted to stop in quickly and let everyone know that I’m safe and sound in Colorado, now. There’s a lot of stuff about the trip that I would put up here, if I didn’t want to tell a certain someone personally, first. I might remember to put it all up later.

Anyway, back to moving and programming stuff.