When I first created this blog back in February 2002, I was talking to myself and I knew it. But, that didn’t really matter: Since becoming newly digital in 1983, I’d already spent years plugging away at personal projects big and small, frequently abandoned, talking to myself all the time anyway.
So, blogging, I thought, would give me a real or imagined motivation to finish some projects. The difference between writing a blog and working alone in the basement, is that there’s a chance someone outside my physical neighborhood might catch a few mutterings and knock on my door to have a chat—rather than just walking a little faster and avoiding my house in the future, like the local neighbors usually do when I find myself really going off on a tear.
Thus if someone, somewhere showed interest in things I was doing and describing—then maybe I might just stick with one or two of them long enough to declare a version worthy of a freshmeat.net release. (It’s been awhile, but that used to be my gold standard for Real Software.)
However, I’ve realized that occasional visitors won’t magically help me finish software. I’ve come to accept that I’m far too much a serial enthusiast to release much at v1.0 without a paycheck or some other substantial incentive. But that’s okay, because tinkering with unfinished software still seems to attract occasional visitors. And, where there are visitors, there are contacts and conversations. And, where there are contacts and conversations, there’s learning and fulfillment—two of my favorite things.
Apropos of conversations, though, I’ve gone habitually quiet in the past few years. I’ve gone from claiming that hacking is my World of Warcraft to just getting sucked into WoW proper. It’s gotten to the point that I’ve wondered what I ever talked about here. Yeah, I’ve written this kind of entry many times before—but I don’t feel it’s gotten better.
I’m really out of the flow here, but I don’t think giving it up is the right thing to do. I’ve been doing some retrospection (in volumes one and two), and have been reviewing what I’ve done here. I’m getting some ideas, and hoping I can get myself back into acting on them.
It might be a little while before I produce anything on a regular basis, because I’m currently working on a third book, entitled Professional JavaScript Frameworks. And, on top of that, I’ve got a bit of a transition going on in my life right now.
But, waking things up here is something I’d like to make part of that transition.
One Comment
Interesting. In six years it never occurred to me you were interested in help. I always just thought you were posting about stuff you were working on in the basement.
From wiki blog hybrids and amphetadesk mods, to Agent Frank, outliners and the rest. It’s all stuff that’s run hauntingly parallel to things I’ve had the energy to start but only half the motivation required to finish.
Of course I’m sorta just casting this out in to the void but what the hell.
Let me know.
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[...] So here I sit all broken hearted… wait that isn’t right. So here I sit at 4:15 in the evening having not been awake long. I felt compelled to write something even though I have nothing to write about really, so I guess it will be one of those what am I doing posts. I’m crawling through my del.icio.us network links and catching up on some reading i.e. 0xDECAFBAD. Tomorrow I plan to contact the local manager for The Shreveport Times and begin an exciting career as a paper delivery boy. Funny. I know. Thirty-one years old and hoping to get a paper delivery route. But really in this area there aren’t very many options. I’m thinking this will land me about 800$ a month for three to four hours work per night. This in turn will allow me more free time than my current job and still net me about two-thirds of what I’m making now. Perhaps I’ll have time for a second job. So now I’m off to read this post [...]