Here, I intend to introduce myself, and generally get started.

For those who don't know me, I'm 25 years into a programming lifestyle that started when I was about five years old. Naturally, nobody could teach a five year old to program, so I had to do that part myself. Just as naturally, I didn't do the same kind of job that a formal teacher would have done. I just sort of played around on the Applesoft interpretter and went bananas when I found out about machine language.

I tried to major in CS in college, which should have been easy after so much hobby programming, but what actually happened was something else. I had not developed the qualities it took to get through certain courses of study, so eventually I stopped going to college, got some jobs in tech support, married, and kept on programming on the side.

All of this was well, but I had always wanted to be a real programmer. You know, the kind that makes money at it. One day, I found my opportunity. I was hired.

About four years later, I concluded that the life of a programmer was not for me. I joined the military instead, and now I have an outstanding career path with lots of opportunity. I work with a number of very talented and sharp people saving the world one day at a time. Oh, and did I mention the benefits? They're phenomenal.

I did not, however, give up programming.

You see, programming computers inspires in me a sense of magic, of absolute power that none can fully master lest it master the practitioner. I want to form worlds, shape consequences, and generally make cool things happen. I learned to do that on the computer.

These days, I divide my computer time between a handful of far-out blue-sky projects and one significant client who I seem to have completely won over. Actually, I'm no longer completely sure if she's with me because of satisfaction or a sense of vendor lock-in, but I have started a "pay-what-you-wish" campaign with her. Of course, it's difficult to get it past her accounting department, because I'm supposed to send invoices. I figure that eventually, we'll find a good solution. The fact is that I'm happy enough to keep working on the site, and she keeps coming up with ideas. It's a hobby for me now, a pleasant distraction from my real job, about which I shall speak no further.