Code Monkey

If you would had told me a year ago that I would be spending at least 50% of my work week programming, I would have been mildly skeptical. If you had told me that additionally I would enjoy, look forward to, and even spend my free time programming I would have seriously questioned your sanity. But here I am.

"You know, programming is actually quite creative, it is kind of like painting" ... at least that's what I tell myself to justify staying up until 2am, coding away with a caffeinated beverage and iTunes playing in the background... or when trying to recover some inkling of a sex appeal after meeting a new guy. Cause let's be honest ladies, its already a questionable outcome when you say "I'm an engineer", but adding "I like to program... for fun" to the conversation doesn't always get the "Oh that's cool, tell me more" response one would hope for.  So true, I'm not using an artist's typical tools... instead of using acrylics or oils I declare variables, instead of considering lighting I create logic loops, and instead of presenting my work on a canvas I use a GUI.

Clearly, I get joy out of this, perhaps rather unfairly stereotyped, activity. And while I'm not going to run out and purchase a deck of Dungeons and Dragons or start wearing Star Wars t-shirts (not that there's anything wrong with that)... I figure why not embrace my code monkey side and make the most of it.  Therefore I've given myself the task of learning another programming language (Adobe Flex). I've finished the first 5 tutorials in one of the books I purchased and look forward to maintaining this current pace and finishing this book by the end of February.   I still will need to learn MySequel and Java/PHP in order to see my projects through to completion... but its a start.  I'll keep you posted on my project status, new programs, and inevitable road-blocks.

So in the mean time, to all my fellow heavily-caffeinated, iTune-junky, code monkeys out there... happy coding!