I Am Xeno

Welcome creatures of the internet; this is the newfound home of TheXenocide. I had some spare time whilst waiting for someone to get back to me in the office and I decided that I would start a blog :).

Who? Online I go by TheXenocide; if my real name is ever of any pertinence simply bring it to my attention and we can work things out ;). I am a Software Engineer in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States currently working full time and finishing my undergraduate course load part time. I've been tinkering with code since about 1992 when my stepfather introduced me to Basic, since that day my interest in computer science has never waned. Beyond all the professional crap though, I'm a generally fun loving, relaxed, easy to get along with guy who likes to hang out with friends, play video games, eat/cook good food, travel and most importantly learn. I've always said I never met a boring subject, just a boring teacher.

Why? To be honest, I'm not really sure; I've tried it before and wound up not liking the situation it put me in. Maybe I want people to see all the cool ideas I have, maybe I want to help software engineers and developers in the same ways other blogs have helped me, maybe I just need a place to vent. In reality it's probably some twisted cocktail of all of these and some whiskey sour from someplace in my subconscious.

What? This blog is my brain dump; you're liable to find anything from random events in my life to cool websites i stumble upon to generally useful software engineering concepts and the status of my personal projects.

When? Whenever; If you're that interested in keeping up with my posts I'd recomend some sort of RSS reader because I have absolutely no idea how often I will be posting.

... so... let's get started ;)

As of late, I've been working for a wonderful company that takes pretty good care of me. I'm really happy that I finally found a job that would take my experience seriously; Previously I've had several internships where the employers decided to treat me like some kid who didn't know anything; when I finally demonstrated my worth to them these companies saw nothing more than better slave labor and started asking more and more of me while treating me the same. Finally I'm free.

Outside of work I have also been working on a research project for some time. By some time, I wouldn't say my work is very close to complete, much of my time has been spent trying to plot and calculate the best ways to design my system and playing with features of various programming languages and platforms here and there to ensure my ideas are headed down the right path. The topic of my research is deeply connected with some of my theories on the recursive nature of existence and many repetitive occurrences in mankind's history. I'm sure there'll be more details later, but to give the topic as short and sweet as possible I'll be using a lot of big words :p--I am working on a "Multi-Language Pervasive Distributed Extensibility Platform" that I hope to use (and to see others use) to tackle many common compatibility problems engineers, developers and even users face today.

When I'm not attached to a computer (or rather, when I'm attached to less computers, seeing as how my PDA Phone is pretty much always by my side) I love watching Anime, Adult Swim cartoons, Comedy and most recently Heroes (AKA the greatest show on the planet!). I also enjoy reading, though I can rarely find time for it anymore, and I absolutely love (for some reason) driving around... Book-wise I enjoy Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Non-Fiction (computer books sound a lot more boring then they really are :p), more specifically I absolutely love Orson Scott Card's work (did anybody notice "The Xenocide"/TheXenocide :p) and I'm not at all ashamed to say I also really enjoy the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I also spend a fair bit of time watching Discovery Channel's awesome science, math and physics shows and studying up on beginner String Theory, Quantum Mechanics and general Physics.

That's pretty much all of me (at least all of me that I could think of or rationalize placing in a single post) so, in closing, I'll leave you with some of my favorite quotes:

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Love is Like War - Easy to Start, but Hard to Stop" - Some Fortune Cookie a long time ago.

and some of my more recent media favorites:

Waking Life - great movie, a really fun approach to philosophy.

A Scanner Darkly - also a great movie, directed and co-written by the director/writer of Waking Life; it's a little jumpy and, in my opinion, not quite as good as Waking Life, but still worth watching.

What the BLEEP!?: Down the Rabbit Hole - Absolutely awesome introduction to quantum mechanics but truly just an interesting work. Take it with a grain of salt and anything that sparks your interest should be something you take the time to research a little yourself, don't just take the things said as fact, but rather immerse yourself in a creative thinking environment, otherwise you may miss the point.

With that I think I'll call it a day (especially since it's time to get back to work :p),

-TheXenocide