muse

I read books on algorithms and data structures and typed out the examples. The work computer was locked down for installers but I could download open source programs and compile Java. One of the more interesting chapters I remember was parsing basic math operations for a calculator into a tree structure, evaluating it, and converting it between infix and postfix notation.

My boss probably noticed I had automated things because sometimes they would send new data requiring an urgent redo of everything, and I would send results back in a minute instead of the 8 hours it used to take. He didn’t seem upset, more like pleasantly surprised that a temp-to-hire pulled it off. I even got a compliment at one point, which never happened before.

One day I applied for another job that was a lot of what I already did and some of what I wanted to do more of. I called in sick to do the interview and got the position. It was good timing because the place I was at got acquired, and that never goes well if you’re in a group that overlaps what the parent company already has.

Owning land is better to store wealth, but gold is better when fleeing to wherever land ownership is still enforced.

Want to automate your office document? Enjoy making your business dependent on a language

• that will be a dead end for your developer career
• where arrays can start at 0 or 1
• where checking for an array involves ignoring an error and resuming
• that is guaranteed to be broken a future patch
• that has to be given permission to run in a security center

Noita has some nice psychadelic cave music

Not all reasons are learned externally. It’s possible for someone to have a craving that cannot be satisfied, just as it is possible for someone to not be capable of understanding the feelings of another person.

Focus - Hocus Pocus is playing in my head now

There was an Outer Limits episode with this plot - “Identity Crisis” with Lou Diamond Phillips