Cranky-D

In my last post which I just submitted, I claimed that I’m worth a lot of money as a programmer. You might think I’m being arrogant (probably true), but the fact is, I am that good.

I’ve met many people who could program. I’ve taught many people who could learn to program. But there’s a huge difference between being able to program and being almost required to program.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I could live happily without ever writing a line of code again. However, I doubt that could ever happen as long as I use a computer because one day some repetitive task would come up and I would have to write a Perl script to handle it.

I hate Perl and I love it, which really means that I love it, because you can solve so many problems with it. Any time I need to do something which is impossible, I use perl combined with other code and it works just fine.

Anyway, back on topic. I have know many grad students in my time and in my field who cannot approach me when it comes to coding. That’s because they are people who can code. Being someone who can code (I know all the keystrokes to embed html without looking, yay me) is different from the few people like me.

Coding, for me, is a calling.

Just like some people are called to serve G-d, I guess (G-d hasn’t called me to preach, though I think I serve in my own way, somehow), I am called to write code. I can code for hours. I can lose time when coding. I’ve coded for 10 hours, 12 hours, and hardly realized the time has gone by. Furthermore, I like so much how a computer behaves when the code is wrong. There is always a good reason things aren’t working, even when that reason is obscure and difficult to track down.

I have been criticized by others, including someone at my previous contract, for not obeying their laws of coding. The fact is, I can find errors in code faster using print statements than most “coders” can using a debugger. Sure, I admit that if I have the time to learn the API I could be even faster, but knowing how to use various debuggers does not make one a good programmer.

If time is short and I haven’t figured out the API, I print things out. I have managed to write a lot of code that way, and I can make it work. It all started when I was a newbie, and the lab attendents didn’t know Fortran. “Use print statements,” they said. I took it to heart. They have rarely failed me, and when they have, the debugger failed me as well.

I’ve wandered far afield to tell you something, and that something is that some of us out here program because we must program. And we’re good. Really good. Better than almost everyone else.

I only know one other person like this, and he happens to be my best friend.

Fear us, worship us, or get out of the way. Better yet, pay us what we’re worth and we’ll hand you software that kicks serious ass. You’ll get serious value for your money, cuz that’s just the kind of people we are.

Tomorrow I start a three-day conference attendance. I’ve done this kind of thing before, but this time it’s in the town where I live so no travel was involved. That means that I don’t feel obligated to attend the whole thing. Which is why I’m still awake and finishing off some Irish whiskey.

I ended up doing a poster for this event, though it isn’t part of the conference, more as a representation of the University I work for currently. As it turned out, I spent way too much time on the poster, I am not all that happy with it, and I would prefer to not do another poster again, ever. I’m going to be 43 in less than two months, and somehow doing a poster at that age is disheartening. I felt that way when I was doing posters 6 and 7 years ago when I interned at a government lab.

A friend pointed out that the problem was that I felt I was in grad school again. He was directly on target and I told him he was. I have no desire to be a University student again. I would apprentice for a trade skill, but no more schooling. I have had much more than enough of that.

In the mean time, I may or may not get a temporary contract job related to my post-doc. Right now I have the feeling that it won’t happen since the guy who would pay is dragging his feet. I already postponed my search for a new job because of a shadow commitment from him. Of course, I would much rather work at home and be a slob than get up the same time every day and go somewhere else to work, and I’ll take the pay cut associated with that kind of choice. But this guy apparently thinks I want too much money or something when I am asking for what I consider to be peanuts.

He has no idea how short a time he has to commit, and I haven’t told him. This conference gives me a chance to meet people, and believe me if I get some follow-up the resume will fly to anyone who expresses an interest. I cannot continue the way I have for much longer. I have no security, no money, and not enough experience in the languages that make money. I’m getting “old” according to some bizarre standards, and that means opportunities are drying up.

You cannot prove your skills to someone blindly, and I don’t have the proper background. Then again, I quoted half of what he would have to pay anyone else for the skills I have and he is still dragging his feet. In fact, I said I would work for 3.5K per month until December. 1099 work, cash, where I pay all the overhead. No benefits at all. I’m worth more than double that under those conditions.

This contract is almost over. He is going to punt, and I will separate myself from it. I committed for the first round, and that runs out in June. If it even goes to the second round, I hope he’s happy with who he gets to do the work. It’s extremely unlikely that I’ll be involved.

This product is incredibly juvenile and probably wrong somehow. I haven’t decided whether or not to order it if/when they get more in stock.

Probably saw it at Ace of Spades but I don’t remember for sure.

Love dolls for your pooch.

What will they think of next?

via Ace of Spades

There’s a site you might want to visit. I advise a content warning, not safe for work, etc. It involves a parody of a certain “Hootie and the Blowfish” song.

If you are easily offended, don’t click. If you think South Park is not funny, don’t click.

Anyway, here it is.

It will take a little while to load.

I laughed so much upon hearing this song I think I added six months to my life. I still laugh when I think about it.

I’ve been drinking again. Anyway, it’s a Monday night and I decided that once I got home I would watch some teevee. This late at night, there isn’t much on if you can stay awake. After watching the show about little people on TLC I started watching the sopranos on A&E as well as whatever I’ve switched to now.

On the Sopranos, which I barely know the story of, Tony’s sister just shot her fiance. He hit her without provocation, in my opinion, not that provactation would matter since I cannot see any reason to hit a woman but then again I guess I’m weird. So Tony had to clean up afterwards.

All I really thought was, he did the right thing. She shot a bastard who desereved it, and probably will get away with it.

Best thing all around.