Introduction

Hello! Everyone I've encountered on Steemit says I need an 'Introduction' post; so here goes....

About me

I've moved all over the United States as a child because my father was a US Marine - once a Marine, always a Marine (as they say). I'm a Marine-by-proxy, I guess. I feel that I was raised by the Marine Corps; as such, I don't really count any one state as my home. I pretty much consider the entirety of the US as my backyard. I've visited most states and have lived in many of them. And by "lived" I mean that I've lived more than 30 days in a given US state.

Trade

I'm a self-taught computer programmer (in today's terms, "Software Engineer"). In fact, I've been programming computers in one capacity or another since 1978! I started when I was 9 years old. That was a time when Amazon didn't exist and the Internet was still a budding loose conglomerate of research labs and high-priced universities.

In 1978 we didn't have the luxury of opening a browser and locating (within minutes) the information we required to learn programming - by either ordering a book through Amazon or researching the latest and greatest Application Programming Interface(API).

None of that existed. The books, the Internet (as we now know it (in 2018)), or even websites. Hell, at the time, my first computer (a Commodore PET 4016 CP/M) didn't even have a modem let alone a Network Interface Card (NIC)! It would be some three years later until we got a VIC-20 with a 300 baud modem. All we had in the 1980s were chat rooms on Bulletin Board Systems (BBS).

Anyway, as messages arrived you could literally watch them render to the display at about 48 characters per second. God forbid someone typed a really long message!

Because of a lack of books and available training materials I can probably be categorized as a Reverse Engineer before I became a Software Engineer. I read other people's code all the time. You see, I started out programming in Basic on a Commodore. At the time, the computer language I had access to, Basic, wasn't compiled - it was interpreted. At that time, obfuscation techniques weren't as developed as they are today so more often than not the source code was 'shipped' with the program's cassette. Open Source software didn't really exist in today's terms.

And that's how I got indoctrinated into programming.

I've stayed interested in computers since my childhood. Early on the computer helped me in one aspect that I didn't expect nor understand until I was much older. And that was abuse. The physical, emotional, and psychological kind. My father suffers from PTSD and he used to beat us kids unmercilessly. I had no real escape.

Abuse

Once, when I was about 10 or 11, I received a beating that lasted a full 12 hours. Mom was at work (a nurse) and my father took to beating me. I had received two F's in History. But this warrants a back-story.

Six weeks previous I had received a single F in History; it wasn't hard, I just didn't care. I came home knowing I'd get my ass kicked. I showed my report card to dear 'ol dad and he belted me with a balled fist right in the face - right cross on the left temple. Down I went. He told me not to get another one.

So, I promptly went out and collected one more; six weeks later the next batch of report cards were handed out and I had received two Fs this time. After Mom left for work he came upstairs and beat me for 10 minutes then he'd go back downstairs for five minutes. At which point he'd come back and rinse repeat for an additional eleven hours and fifty minutes.

He broke his favorite belt to hit us kids with on me that night. I'll never forget that belt! It was 1/4" thick and every 4" it had a chrome metal insert/attachment that was 2" wide and equally as tall as the belt (vertically). That seemed to really piss him off. So he went outside and grabbed a wood handle from a broom - he used that on the bottom of my feet for a few strikes. I think even he thought that using the wood was over the top. He still hit me with it; though not as long. He eventually found another suitable belt for which to torture me.

He beat me from until the time Mom left until a few minutes before she got home. He told me that if I made any more noise he'd come back upstairs and finish the job.

I never told Mom what happened until I was 16 years old. I was taking Chung do Kwon Tae Kwon Do at the time and I was good; real good. I told her that if he ever hit me again I'd kill him. She told me, "If he ever hits you again you tell me; I'll kill him!" I think she meant it.

Back to computering

Anyway, because of that abuse I escaped deep into my mind and into that of the computer's. It was a glorious time of exploration! It was the perfect apparatus to escape, albeit temporarily, the memories of abuse. It was the one place no one could chase me and tell me how to do things or yell at me because I "wasn't doing it right!". It was my freedom. I think, even today, that it still is.

I programmed the computer to do all sorts of things. I even programmed it to do my math homework! I remember one day I had math homework that required juggling multiple variables. So I wrote a program to do it; this was the late 80s, so, again, the internet didn't exist to just ask Google. But that's ok; I was really good at algebra so I actually enjoyed it.

Well, my father happened by and said, "Son. If you use your computer to do your homework you won't learn anything."

Risking life and limb, I casually replied, "Not true. I have to program the computer to do the problems, then check to ensure the computer did them correctly. And, before it can do it correctly, I need to know how to do the math problems so I can program the computer to do it! So, in essence, I'm learning two things."

He blinked and squinted his eyes a couple of times while nodding his head then walked away. I was incredulous! Normally, I'd have a caught a beating for talking back. But, he seemed to agree, and I think, he was a little impressed.

I knew I was on to something!

I'll probably talk about abuse to some degree from time to time in an effort to deal with my own issues stemming from it and perhaps it will motivate others to get the help they need. For now, though, let's move on.

Online Gaming

I enjoy, like most computer jockeys, the odd computer game or two. Currently I'm fascinated with ARK: Survival Evolved. I'm more a Player-vs-Environment (PVE) than a Player-vs-Player (PVP) type and my brother and I play on an Official Server. I used to rent my own server but it wound up just being my brother and me and it got expensive to run and maintain. Every time there was a compatibility-breaking patch, I'd hear about it. LOL

Other activities

I like to hike/bike/backpack/camp/RV/kayak.

Mountain Biking is one of my most favorite activities of all time; though I've been relegated to road riding due to the rainy climate I live in.

Android

I've started programming Android devices and am beginning to feel a longing to program those devices in much the same manner as I used to program when I was in my teens. Back then, I used to program whatever hit my fancy. I'm feeling that itch again.

I've been considering making a tutorial or two for connecting to the Internet and pulling down data. I'll add that to my 'To Do List'.

ToDoList

Speaking of 'ToDoList'; Abstract Spoon is one of my favorite windows applications. In fact, I use Wine on Ubuntu to run it on a Linux system or two. It is, as its name implies, software that manages things to do. It has tree views, table views, gannt charts, you name it - it's got it.

It's free and open source. I've been using it for years and love it.

Conclusion

Well, that's me in a nutshell. I hope it wasn't too long, boring, or dramatic. In any event, I'll see you around!

Attribution

Image is Creative Commons (CC); downloaded via Pixabay.