Sit down, strap in, and learn some shit.
High School C++
The Teacher, a Soccer Coach with a PhD in Math who ran the Computer Department at my High School, put the challenge out loud on the first day of our C++ Programming Class, using Borland I’m pretty sure:
If you can get Text Character entry in Graphics Mode, you will automatically get an A in this class, because there is no cross over.
Almost a perfect challenge, in that putting it out there would get guys like me, Shifty, and Wilson interested to study harder to see if it was possible. Graphics Mode was Chapter 8 or so. Coming from QBASIC the year before with a different teacher and with a head full of steam, me, Shifty, and Wilson huddled on the side. Could we maybe pull it off? Uh, maybe.
Between the three of us, we did find our avenue to get Text input into Graphics Mode. It was a project in and unto itself. I don’t think Shifty or Wilson would argue, but it was my idea of a game of Hangman we could program, and use a mapped out keyboard on the upper right of the screen so a person could click a letter in a mapped out area using the mouse — because the keyboard would not do input in Graphics Mode and that’s what the Teacher was gambling on couldn’t be overcome. We did it. Showed him, let him stress test it.
Watching a very successful person who shot their mouth off have to eat crow is something that I’ve learned will happen to me as well. My guitar skills are top flight, and I can flow on the keyboard like second nature. All of that talent has gotten me nowhere in the grand scheme of things. 2 Albums, 10 EPs, 4 features and 2 TV pilot screenplays. All that work, much of it in need of improvement to be commercial…and where have I ended up?
F**ucking nowhere when it comes to recouping time as money.**
JavaScript By Recommendation
After talking with some serious critic friends, they re-ignited my understanding that code and software design is a very creative endeavor. They were very sympathetic to my passion for music and writing, but could see the lines on my face of being beaten down. The result of the conversations was to use my creative impulses, my love of crafting and building things as the scaffolding to learn JavaScript.
It’s the one language that was recommended because it can work on mobile, on web applications, and open doors for contracting work Mercenary style. So yeah, in my world, being a musician and writer has been a tough slog — there are no regrets for putting in the effort, for working toward something. The awakening that using software development as a whole new realm of possibility is pretty dope. I want to work with John Carmack. I have to start somewhere.