Seven questions
At my request, benlehman gave me seven topics to write about. Comment on this post and I'll give you seven topics too.
(1) I primarily know you from AmberCon NW. Why fly across the country just to hole up in a hotel and play games?
I've been going to ACUS for more than a decade, and always heard tales of how cool ACNW was; when I graduated from college in 2009, I gave myself ACNW as a gift (going by first-class train instead of plane, because I enjoy train travel). I had such fun that I've returned both years since, even though I had to go by aerial sardine can.
There's something about the Ambercons that's special. The players and GMs are a community of friends, not just people with a shared hobby. So far, it seems to me that ACNW is even more marked in that respect than ACUS, because the Edgefield has such a strong personality and enables people to gather for food and drink between and after games so easily. I wish there were somewhere like the Edgefield that we could hold ACUS.
Anyway, gaming is my hobby, above and nearly to the exclusion of all others. I can't think what else would motivate me to fly across the country these days.
(2) I hand you Bliss Stage, as a property, to do as you wish. What do you do, and why? No fair immediately handing it off.
Oh man. I don't feel confident in my ability to develop a creative property. Web series? Except casting would be a problem, and content would be a problem. Lots of issues to dance carefully around. It would be fun to direct though.
(3) Outside of playing RPGs, do you have other kinds of creative expression, what are they?
Back in high school I used to act and sing, wrote and directed a couple of very silly short plays, wrote a couple of execrable short stories. I haven't really written anything creative since except a few weird blog entries. I have a granite-hard writer's block. Gaming circumvents it, which is one of the reasons I like gaming so much.
(4) What's your favorite pie. Why?
Pecan pie. I like the contrast between the crunchy pecans and the buttery filling.
(5) If you were trying to give advice to someone who wanted to learn computer programming, where would you start?
The first language you learn will mold your thinking for a long time, so don't start with Java, Javascript, C, C++, C#, Objective-C, PHP or Visual Basic. They all suck as cognitive models. You'll have enough time to learn them down the road. Start with Python or Scala, maybe even something weird like Haskell or Scheme or OCaml. Get good enough at one of those to forge your own light saber, then branch out.
You will have to go through the wall of fire at least once if you ever want to be a good programmer. That's where you spend several days coding on a project with which you have become obsessed, paying little or no attention to things like sleep and hygiene. When you feel the obsession coming on, budget the necessary time, then encourage it.
Speaking of budgeting time, one of the most valuable skills you can develop if you want to be a professional coder is the ability to estimate how much you can accomplish in a given time. I have never mastered this and it often bites me in the ass.
IDEs are a crutch. You will use them throughout your career, but learn to work from the command line as well. Learn shell scripting, too; it's endlessly useful.
The quality of a language's standard libraries is in many ways more important than the quality of the language itself. That's why I prefer Java to C#; C# is a cleaner language in many ways, but its standard libraries are hideous.
So in literal answer to your question, I would start by free-associating, I guess.
(6) Why do you live where you live? If you could live somewhere else, where would it be?
I live where I live because it's comfortable and rent-free. I plan to move soon now that I have a job. (Did you hear I got a job?) I'd like to move back to the Ann Arbor-Ypsi area, which will probably always be my heart's home, but for practical reasons, if I keep working at this job I'll stay in south Oakland County.
If I had to leave Michigan, I'd probably move to Portland, OR. It's the only other place where I know a critical mass of people.
(7) Any pets? Why or why not?
I live with a couple of cats, but they're my mother's cats, not mine, and we all know it. When I move out, I will probably get two cats so they can keep each other entertained when I'm not home. I've had cats all my life; I can tolerate some dogs, a variety of other critters, but I love cats.
(1) I primarily know you from AmberCon NW. Why fly across the country just to hole up in a hotel and play games?
I've been going to ACUS for more than a decade, and always heard tales of how cool ACNW was; when I graduated from college in 2009, I gave myself ACNW as a gift (going by first-class train instead of plane, because I enjoy train travel). I had such fun that I've returned both years since, even though I had to go by aerial sardine can.
There's something about the Ambercons that's special. The players and GMs are a community of friends, not just people with a shared hobby. So far, it seems to me that ACNW is even more marked in that respect than ACUS, because the Edgefield has such a strong personality and enables people to gather for food and drink between and after games so easily. I wish there were somewhere like the Edgefield that we could hold ACUS.
Anyway, gaming is my hobby, above and nearly to the exclusion of all others. I can't think what else would motivate me to fly across the country these days.
(2) I hand you Bliss Stage, as a property, to do as you wish. What do you do, and why? No fair immediately handing it off.
Oh man. I don't feel confident in my ability to develop a creative property. Web series? Except casting would be a problem, and content would be a problem. Lots of issues to dance carefully around. It would be fun to direct though.
(3) Outside of playing RPGs, do you have other kinds of creative expression, what are they?
Back in high school I used to act and sing, wrote and directed a couple of very silly short plays, wrote a couple of execrable short stories. I haven't really written anything creative since except a few weird blog entries. I have a granite-hard writer's block. Gaming circumvents it, which is one of the reasons I like gaming so much.
(4) What's your favorite pie. Why?
Pecan pie. I like the contrast between the crunchy pecans and the buttery filling.
(5) If you were trying to give advice to someone who wanted to learn computer programming, where would you start?
The first language you learn will mold your thinking for a long time, so don't start with Java, Javascript, C, C++, C#, Objective-C, PHP or Visual Basic. They all suck as cognitive models. You'll have enough time to learn them down the road. Start with Python or Scala, maybe even something weird like Haskell or Scheme or OCaml. Get good enough at one of those to forge your own light saber, then branch out.
You will have to go through the wall of fire at least once if you ever want to be a good programmer. That's where you spend several days coding on a project with which you have become obsessed, paying little or no attention to things like sleep and hygiene. When you feel the obsession coming on, budget the necessary time, then encourage it.
Speaking of budgeting time, one of the most valuable skills you can develop if you want to be a professional coder is the ability to estimate how much you can accomplish in a given time. I have never mastered this and it often bites me in the ass.
IDEs are a crutch. You will use them throughout your career, but learn to work from the command line as well. Learn shell scripting, too; it's endlessly useful.
The quality of a language's standard libraries is in many ways more important than the quality of the language itself. That's why I prefer Java to C#; C# is a cleaner language in many ways, but its standard libraries are hideous.
So in literal answer to your question, I would start by free-associating, I guess.
(6) Why do you live where you live? If you could live somewhere else, where would it be?
I live where I live because it's comfortable and rent-free. I plan to move soon now that I have a job. (Did you hear I got a job?) I'd like to move back to the Ann Arbor-Ypsi area, which will probably always be my heart's home, but for practical reasons, if I keep working at this job I'll stay in south Oakland County.
If I had to leave Michigan, I'd probably move to Portland, OR. It's the only other place where I know a critical mass of people.
(7) Any pets? Why or why not?
I live with a couple of cats, but they're my mother's cats, not mine, and we all know it. When I move out, I will probably get two cats so they can keep each other entertained when I'm not home. I've had cats all my life; I can tolerate some dogs, a variety of other critters, but I love cats.