Programming
For a formal programming resume, click here.
I have the extraordinary good fortune of being lead programmer at Action-Ed, a company whose flagship software is Civic Mirror. This video game is used in classrooms all over North America (and abroad) to teach students about Civics, Politics, Economics and more in a fun, experiential, and play-based way.
Programming has fascinated me since I was extremely young. I took my first course in programming in grade 4; while some kids would carry around a sticker collection or a pencil-case filled with eraser rubbings (that was a bizarre trend), I had a printed out replica of a Commodore 64 keyboard on which I would practice typing on the bus to and from school.
By grade 7, I would frequently be called out of class to help teachers get their software running (I remember being entranced at the ability to turn on "TRON", test the software, and find the line of code where the bug was and fix it).
There's a few things about programming that give it the appeal it has for me.
I think what appealed first and still appeals foremost is the threefold magic of it.
On the affective side, it has the appeal and wonder of magic: a genie in a box that can do such a vast range of things. In my grade 4 programming course we learned how to program a simple text adventure, and the fact that you could relatively easily make a computer tell an interactive story that would fire other people's imagination was entrancing.
On the effective side, it fits Crowley's description of magick as "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will": the ability to through focus, discipline and knowledge and insight one can create an electronic golem that will follow your instructions to the letter forever, systematically causing something to happen is amazing. I remember the sense of vertigo when in high school I wrote up a program to map the internet - it stepped through IP addresses, and made a 3d VRML representation of the computers it discovered. I left it running all night, and in the morning had a whole galaxy of little cubes, with their names attached to them. The ability to wade through almost infinite amounts of data and pull out interesting and relevant information is exceptionally exciting.
On the transformative side, I find programming a wonderful method of personal growth. Not only the mental discipline that comes with it, nor just the augmented abilities that programming enables, but I find when I'm engaging in artistic programming (of the sort rarely done on a contract, but which makes up a lot of my personal projects) it functions in a way akin to Jungian mandala work, allowing me to work out holistic models of my Self, or of different aspects of the universe.
Below I'll be putting down some details about past, present, and hopefully future programming projects of mine.
