Why I Code

Seriously, calm down. It’s just code!

 

What’s in your pocket right now? (If you said: the ring of power, then you are my hero) Probably a few different things, but what’s the one thing that you know is also in your friend’s pocket, and the pizza guy’s pocket, and in the hands of your crazy athletic friends who are too cool for pockets?

Yep, a phone. And if you care at all about it, it’s a smart phone.

I am a creature of carbon-based flesh, but also of habit. Every day I wake up, put pants/shorts on, and then I turn to my bedside table to enact the daily filling-of-the-pockets ritual. Into my left pocket goes my iPod Touch and ear-buds, and into my right goes my wallet, some pens if its a school day, and my bite-sized GoPhone. (Why not just get an iPhone and meld the two devices? Some day my friend…)

So before the ramble sets in, where am I going with all this? Yeah we have phones and tech, so what?

SILENCE PART-OF-ME-THAT-WANTS-TO-KEEP-THIS-SHORT!
*cough*
*clears throat*
Sorry… where was I? Oh yes, let me tell you a story.

Once when I was a young sproutlet, I became interested in computers. Correction: technology. Anything would do. Hell, I could kill a solid 15 minutes just messing with a calculator. I was that annoying kid who always asks adults for their phones (I am sorry anyone I have ever done that to, I know what it feels like).

Flash forward a few years; I’m in middle school. My favorite classes are Latin and Computer Applications. While my Latin teacher has me translating Caesar and Roman myths, my Tech teacher has me taking apart a computer and building webpages. I learn what binary actually is and how computers evolved (If you’re curious, a trip to Wikipedia couldn’t hurt…). I learned how the internet started, and how for a while it was just a bunch of really ugly webpages (honestly, thank God for graphic design) full of all sorts of boring stuff. 70% encyclopedia, 25% geeky chat-room, 5% hackers trying to spy on/steal from you. Nothing like the time consuming and entrancing cyber dimension that it is today.

But the scope of it was what amazed me. Just for funzies, take a look at this video that my Tech teacher showed me all those years ago. It took me forever to find, but it’s awesome because it illustrates beautifully all the steps that happen between you hitting “enter” and a webpage loading.

Anyway, I digress. As I got older, I became very interested in software. I mean hardware is cool and all, and if computers ever go quantum, or use DNA storage I want to be right there, but what’s the skeleton without the lifeblood, the nervous system you know? Stories of overnight billionaires captured my imagination. Facebook and Twitter connecting people online… You know the story. Video games turned computer science into an art-form  and I was enthralled, but still, programming seemed like wizardry to me.

As “apps” took over the mobile scene, I entered my teen years, and acquired the aforementioned iPod. I explored a world of bite-sized programs for palm-sized computers. I saw how apps could be works of art (check out the apps “Thicket” and “Eufloria“). I began to wonder how apps are made. Could I do it?

Then my math teacher showed me this video.
WATCH IT. (It’s a fun time, seriously.)

I realized the advantages of having this kind of skill-set  You become a golden chicken nugget in the eyes of employers.

I wish coding was like playing an antigravity level in Dead Space…

I signed up for codecademy.com (and code.org), and started learning a new language: JavaScript  I want to learn how to make an app, to program a computer, to create a game. It comes from the same creative desire as my desire to write. I want to make something people will love to use, like Prezi or Pandora. I want to speak computer.

Yeah I know, that’s a super nerdy thing to say, but without people who are interested in that, your iPhone (or Android or whatever) wouldn’t exist. And without young people becoming engaged and involved in computer science, your phone will look the same in five years. And who wants that?

So, that is why I code. What I once thought was indecipherable nerd language (Weird Al says he’s fluent in JavaScript as well Klingon…) turned out to be a delightful journey into the world of programming. Why do I code? Because like Owl City says, this is the future. I dream of a future when even the most backwards hick can design simple applications. Give it a shot!

Dragon Hunters

Middle Earth dragons go hard

Sorry for the long break guys, I’ve been quite busy these last couple months. I am assuming of course that there are people out there who check this blog on a semi-regular basis.  Who am I kidding? As I warm back up to WordPress, I want to start posting more of my own writing. Thus far, I have hardly gotten my feet wet. To start off, I have a poem for you today! *people applaud wildly* Yes I know, amazing. This is a poem I wrote a few weeks ago, and it’s narrative. Maybe I’ll put it somewhere in Evernight, who knows? Well, I do.

Let me tell you a tale,
o’er a good pint of ale,
of my friends: Spick and Baerú.
In days of old,
we made some good gold,
as Hunters without fail.

Fire rises on the mountain,
said my friend “Look, turn your head.
Like a blazing sun, the dragon comes,
to reap a toll of dead.

And I said to he
“You just come with me,
let us arm against this threat.
For by force of steel
and courage we’ll
make the dragon pay its debt”.

Water falls upon the downs,
iced with frost of winter’s chill.
Yet it melts away, ‘neath the dragon’s flame,
the beast’s intent: our blood to spill.

Armed and ready we,
sturdy warriors three,
lay in wait to trap that devil.
With our hearts set to kill,
there’s not a group with more skill
than Spick, Baerú, and me.

Wind whistles through the canyon,
bearing two great scaly wings.
And the evil gaze falls on us, a waste,
shielded by our magic rings.

His weapon denied,
our bolts pierced his hide,
and down like a rock he fell.
The tension was lifted
by we who were gifted,
and joyously I cried.

“With the hunting done,
now let’s have some fun,
I could do with food and soon.
A mighty feast we’ll make,
and the carcass bake;
I’ve grown fond of dragon steak!”

Mmmm… Dinner!

Evernight: Prologue

This is the prologue of my current work in progress, which I am almost certain will be called Evernight. It’s pretty cryptic I know, but I intend to reveal more about the story and characters in future posts. Enjoy!

Prologue

In the darkened room, silence hung everywhere in great black sheets, deadening even the slightest sound. However, an even stranger sensation captured the attention. An acute sense of waiting, of expectancy, permeated the air like a thick fog just waiting for a gust of wind to banish the uncertainty. It was an almost palpable pressure, pressing in from all sides like water at great depth. In it, there was something else, something—

Venezio awoke with a start, the fog dissipating. It had been only a flicker; a faint light just beginning to grow in strength. He had been so close; he had actually felt it, felt him, for he was sure now that it was a male child. He had the vaguest sense of his location; just enough to know that he was close, Manhattan, probably somewhere in the upper west side. That would have to suffice, because he had sensed something else. They had felt him to, and they were closing in. He knew it would be a race now, a race to find him, to keep him from them. He had sensed power, great power in him; there could hardly be a mistake as to the fact that he was the One, the one they had sought for so long. They would be bold now, now that he was almost within their grasp. Venezio knew that the child would almost certainly shift the balance of power in the war, the balance of power in the world, indeed on many worlds. There was no time to lose.

Standing up from the bed, he drew the silence back into himself, and the room lightened. The usual city ambiance resumed as normal: the hum of engines, crunch-slosh of tires and boots in the dirty snow, and the distant beep of a truck in reverse, backing into a loading bay drifted in through the open window. Venezio frowned, shutting it. He turned, his dark leather coat splaying out behind him as he did so. Then he descended the dusty hotel stairs and drove into the night. It had begun.

Vantage Point

pic from comingsoon.net

My friend once gave me the idea of creating a world and following the story of one character, and then starting another book (or even another series) set in the same universe/world, but with different characters, and a seemingly unrelated plot. As the plot-lines progressed, they could touch only rarely, at epic moments so I could explore how they affect the different characters in different ways. As both stories came close to the end, the stories could gradually intertwine, until eventually the separate characters would come together in the final climax, revealing the overarching plot that has been going on all along.

I know that sounds complicated, but I think it’s an amazing idea. It reminds me of the movie Vantage Point (2008), where it continually rewinds and looks at the same stuff through the eyes of different characters, until the whole story was revealed. What I’m thinking of is essentially that on a larger scale, with events spanning years, not hours.

I’m not sure yet if I want to do that with Evernight, but if not I have ideas for a few others that could be structured this way. What do you think? Post in the comments!