Blog Post #25

Greetings Programs!  Ok.  Please forgive me – I’ve always wanted to say that.

Over the last few months my blog has been putting together a tiny glimpse of me and what makes me tick, so to speak.  I once heard that if you listen long enough when someone is talking that eventually they will accidently let something slip that you can use…  “Use?” you might ask?  Ok, I have to admit that the above theory was stated by a fictional character on a TV show – Michael Weston on Burn Notice – but that the theory really is sound.  Let’s use me as the example…

By now I am sure that you have discovered that I’m quite the geek…  Ok, geek might be too strong of a word.  How about – uh – er – um – geek?  (See the Venn diagram below that I found on laughingsquid.com).  My Link-Friday posts have really highlighted to me the shiny things that grab my attention the easiest – the internet, Legos, Star Wars, heroes, stupid criminals, etc…  Now, each one of these items by itself could be considered a “passing fad” if you didn’t have the bigger picture created by combining all the blog entries that I have written.  Unfortunately, they all seem to point to the fact that I’m a computer geek.

When my parents bought our families first computer (a Commodore 64) I immediately took it over.  At first we didn’t have any software for the machine so we were left with the difficult task of creating our own.  I saw “we,” but it mostly fell to me.  Sure, my bothers picked up a book that was full of game programs that one could type in, but after the 15 or so hours it took them to enter the first program they quickly tired of the efforts.  I, on the other hand, kept at it – just for different reasons.  I was teaching myself how to program and I’ve been hooked on it ever since.  (There has always been something peaceful and orderly about coding for me.)

So, what does all this have to do with “Greetings Programs!”?  One of the first programs I wrote was based on the Master Control Program from Tron.  I wrote a small little security program that would load games off of the floppy disc drive based on your menu selection.  But, more than that, I had made the program lock down the computer.  I was really proud of the first time I used my little program.  We had all been called to dinner and I had left the computer running.  I knew full well that none of my brothers would be able to use it because nobody, and I mean NOBODY, was going to crack my little program.  After dinner, my older brother took off and headed for the computer.  Knowing I was safe, I took my time cleaning up.  At first I could hear him protesting loudly about not being able to do anything.  And then, silence.  When I finally entered the room with the computer there were a couple of my brothers playing away as though there was no tomorrow.  I learned a valuable lesson that night – the off button made my security program pretty darn obsolete.

So at this point I’m betting that you’re wondering what all this has to do with my original statement – if you listen long enough when someone is talking that eventually they will accidently let something slip that you can use.  To be perfectly honest…I’m not too sure.  Michael Weston deals with spies and the like – therefore he uses the intel he gathers to serve and protect (he’s one of the good guys).  But, if me and my blog have managed to give you a “tiny glimpse of me and what makes me tick” I hope that you will understand that these things are from the heart and help to tell the story of me and my family.  When I wrote my little security program I thought I had a perfect understanding of everything.  Turns out I was wrong.  So, my final thought is that each of us could really benefit from understanding others better.