Vacation Dev Thoughts

As I've mentioned, I'm on the verge of my annual Spring Training pilgrimage, and I like to fantasize about the things that are going to happen. I'm going to fake baseball games, which I love, I'm going to enjoy fresh fish and shrimp, I'm going to get away from the daily grind (though I do love my job), I'm going to get to spend time with family, I'm going to get to hang out in Key West after Spring Training, I'm going to get some gaming time, and on and on ...

... something else I like to do when I'm on vacation is ponder my next creative project. I'm eager to write something new, and I have a pretty solid idea for my next novel. That'll probably start to happen on the plane.

Otherwise, I'm considering finally building a web application that'll let me organize online attendance to conventions, and even handle the streams for me.

I used to go to a lot of cons, but I got tired of the hassle, and really like the online coverage, anyway. I've dabbled with a few ideas over the years, but I actually have a cool idea for an application that'll let me enter some basic info about dates, times, and streams, and it'll handle the rest. This won't be something that I'll make available to the public, but it'll save me a lotta hassle, especially with E3, where there's a bunch of disparate streams.

I also wanna add a feature that lets the user add games, and have it spit out news about those games during the con.

Side note - if you're never been to E3, and love video games, go at least once.

I started sketching out some SQL tables, and have a pretty good idea of what the code should look like. Maybe I could even have it up and running before I leave, and use it for PAX East. We'll see.

I'm also going to ponder my next stream series. I'm honestly really not sure what I want to do next. I think it'll be something smaller. Maybe something that will lead up to E3, and then depending on what's announced there, I'll launch a longer series, more like the Mass Effect series I just finished.



It needs to be something about which I'm very passionate, since I'll want to research it, and present a more professional experience. I'll probably script some sequences, too. We'll see. I'm also open to suggestions.

I've also been talking about another musical project with some old collaborators, but we'll see. I think that's a ways off, if it happens at all. To get all the right people, and give the right level of commitment, we'd need a few of us to become far less busy for an extended period. Ha.

I also think I'm not going to do much more with this blog than what I'm doing now. Just kinda thinking out loud. I occasionally consider doing more with it than what I'm doing, but I've got enough on my plate. This needs to be kept light and easy.

I need to pick one or two things, and then focus on that.

The 'Virtual Con Attendance' application should be straightforward, and fun. I make even make a mobile solution for myself, as well. Like I said, I have no interest in publishing it for public consumption ... probably. So, I think that one is definitely gonna happen.

The next novel ... I have a pretty solid start to it in my head that I want to start writing on the plane. I'd like to have that done this year. A page a day should get me to a complete first draft easily before the year's over.

I think this will be another part of what happens on my vacation. The 'creation meditation,' as well as some light execution on those projects.

01) design work on the virtual con app
02) a first chapter in the new novel (I don't write using outlines)
03) thinking about my next stream series

And that's plenty.

-Blaine

The Dev Life

I'm a developer. That still feels a little weird when I say it. I wanted it for so long, and now I've had it, for two and a half years. I'm a little old for being at this stage in my development career, because I took such a circuitous route getting here, and that bothers me a bit, but I try not to let it. I have a much richer background than most developers.

The short version is that I worked a string of shit jobs, eventually working my way into shit job management, before finally going to college when I was 21.

I graduated with a BA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago, and went right back to shit job management, only now I was higher-ranking and much better paid.

After a few years of that, I took a huge pay cut, and actually did help desk for a university for a while, which was actually really, really enjoyable. If you ever get the chance to work at a university, do it. It was a really fun, magical time for me.

The money, though, is in corporate. I was eventually lured away by the siren call of corporate cash money, and worked help desk for a short time there, before eventually being promoted to a SysAdmin job.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

The reason I made the jump was because I saw it as a chance to break into development, and that opportunity was there.

Instead, I chose to demonstrate my value by jumping into the support side, because that's where the help was desperately needed, and I knew I could bring value.

I taught myself things like how to build a domain, the ins and outs of Active Directory, and how servers work. Before long, as I said, I was suddenly a SysAdmin, which is somewhere between 'God' and 'rockstar.' You're always the smartest guy in any given meeting. When shit hits the fan, you're the one that steps up, and saves the day.

It's a super-cool job, and an easy way to stay employed, but it lacked the creative nuance I wanted. And the hours can, depending on how well-run your shop is, kinda suck. For me, at first, they were awful, but then, after an organizational change, they improved drastically.

Regardless, after a few years, it was time for a change.

Fall 2013, an opportunity presented itself. A buddy from the dev team here was leaving, and I quietly put in some feelers. I got paid one of the highest compliments I've ever received in that process. "We were hoping you'd still be interested."

For political reasons, they couldn't ask me if I was interested.

Anyway, after some figuring, it all worked out, and I went from being a SysAdmin to an entry-level developer.

Since then, it's been a crazy and fascinating position. As a SysAdmin, you question every step you take, everything you do, and you never, ever, move forward without some kind of escape vector or rollback plan.

Development, if your TFS is well-managed, is free of a lot of those constraints, when you're talking about actual development code.

The biggest change, though, for me, was being told I did something wrong all the time.

In the infrastructure world, I didn't hear that often. I wasn't perfect, but ... well, you don't do bi-weekly releases. In the dev world, the biggest challenge for me has been the emotional side of 'bugs.' I'm wired in such a way that every mistake I make feels devastating, and I try very hard to learn from each one, self-flagellating and burning inside. What's become apparent is that is not a helpful approach. I've had to dial it back a bit, and just kinda act like 'it is what it is, now let's fix some shit.'

Of course I still care, but I've toned down my internal reaction. I still learn from it.

What's interesting, too, is that you're not always learning from your own mistakes when fixing bugs. Sometimes, someone made a mistake YEARS ago, and your change just revealed it. That kinda shit actually happens quite often.

The biggest thing, though, and this was good advice from my boss, is really testing the hell outta your own shit before you lob it over to the QA folks. This is where I think I'm focused the most on improving.

And I tell you what, too. I've seen guys learn to staple together various frameworks and call themselves developers (I actually stole that phrasing from a fellow developer and friend), but really learning the craft takes years. I'm at about two and a half now, and I'm only recently really feeling like I can kinda handle the basics of most projects and situations.

It's a fucking great job, though. It's, for me, a perfect balance between logic and art. And my team is just awesome. I love my team, and they tolerate me.

What's amazing is visualizing the solution and then just building it out. People do this kinda shit as games, for fun, and I get PAID to do it. It's awesome.

So, yeah, it took me a while to get here, but I've got years of management and systems administration in my toolset, along with the development experience that I'm building. That'll all coalesce into some kinda super-job at some point, but for now, this gig kicks ass.

If you're even thinking of going into development, just do it. Get the free version of Visual Studio, SQL Server Express, hit up some of the training on Microsoft Virtual Academy, and learn C#. From there, move on to web development in ASP.NET, or maybe game dev, or whatever you want. If I can claw my way into this career, anyone can.

I think the basic lesson, though, is that this is also the hardest job I've had. It's not the worst hours, it's not the harshest conditions, in fact, it's great. But it's really hard. I'm not used to feeling like I'm in over my head, and I'm not used to being humbled, and this job doles that out constantly.

At the same time, it lets me be creative, and if I think I have a better way of doing something, I'm free to just go try it, which is awesome. It may even be the best part.

OK, I'm going on longer than intended. My job has been on my mind lately, and writing about things usually helps me clarify things, which it definitely did today. If you're still reading at this point, thanks for making it this far.

As a side note, I really wish my Cardinals stabilize their fucking pitching. Holy cow. In terms of offense and pitching, this is the opposite team from last season. Crazy.

OK, back to work!

-Blaine

PS - I REALLY miss smoking, but I really don't. Also, fuck bugfix week.