Things I got from specific people
Sometimes it surprises me how things that I consider essential in my life—things that form parts of my identity—might have never found me. Only though happenstance did I learn about these things. People happened to enter my life and introduce me to these things I love. I thought it might be fun to call out a few of them. I’m indulging in a bit of nostalgia here. But that’s ok. When you have your own blog, you can do what you want. Just post.
Entertainment I got from Mike
Mike is the lead on the dev team I work with at MRI Technologies. I’ve known him for five years now, so I’ve had time to pick up a few things.
One of them is the fantastic game Slay the Spire. I’m generally terrible at roguelikes and deck-building, but I still had a lot of fun with this one. It’s a good one for me because it’s fully playable by mouse only and it doesn’t require any quick reaction times.
The other thing I got from Mike is books. I hadn’t kept up much of a reading habit, but thanks to the intermittent book club at work, I started reading again. Mike loves fantasy series and won’t shut up about his nerd crush on Brandon Sanderson. I’ve enjoyed a bunch of Mike’s book recommendations, including:
- The First Law series
- The Mistborn series (I’ve read the first three)
- The Stormlight Archive (I’m on book 3 as of press time[1])
The music I got from Dylan
My childhood friend Dylan is responsible for a number of artists and albums I like. But one towers over all the others.
It was sometime in 2007 when Dylan visited me in my apartment on campus at Mississippi State University. He was a DJ at his college radio station and he brought some new music for me to check out.
I didn’t really listen to contemporary Christian music for reasons[2] but I liked what I heard. The lyrics were cryptic with the hint of a story and the music hit all the buttons that a 2000s me (ok ok and a now me) wanted—crisp guitar, soaring vocals, piano, and cinematic background.
The album was Captiva by Falling Up.
I would go on to become a huge fan of Falling Up, experiencing their transition into sci-fi fantasy concepts, separation from their label, disbandment, resurgence as an indie band, the final album, and now the metamorphosis into a new band, The Chilling Alpine Adventure.[3]
The intro to web dev I got from Dr. Pearson
I was interested (and participated) in making websites before I went to Mississippi State University in 2003. But I wasn’t good at it. I was using apps and services that let you make websites without coding. I was frustrated with them but intimidated by the prospect of writing code myself.
In 2005, I took Dr. Rodney Pearson’s Advanced Languages 1. It turned out to be what I would now call JavaScript + HTML. Dr. Pearson had a unique teaching style that really forced you to learn things bit by bit and apply them. What at first was intimidating became comprehensible, then fun, then addictive. I couldn’t get enough. I started tearing down my WYSIWYG sites and rebuilding them from scratch. I learned how to make games.
That course sent me down a path that would lead to a fulfilling career in web development. A career which turns a decade old this year! More on that in a future post.
A nicer social media from Adam
In December of 2023, I wrote a post called omg.lol: an oasis on the internet. Much of it was gushing about Adam’s internet service, omg.lol. Part of the service includes an optional Mastodon account. I had heard about the federated social media system, but I had not joined yet as I had server decision paralysis.
Also I had quit using Twitter after Elon Musk turned off access to third-party clients, which was my preferred way of using Twitter.
The timing just worked out. Here I was wondering what I was going to do about my social media situation. And there it was. A Mastodon instance ready to go, administered by a good fellow, and inhabited by the nicest people.[4]
The job I got from my brother
As Matt tells it, we were both looking for jobs in web dev and he found a listing from MRI Technologies and put it in the shared spreadsheet we were using. We were kind of dividing the opportunities between us and he decided that I could apply for this one.
Turns out that worked out pretty well for me. :)
There are obviously so many more
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about all the good things I got from people. I mean, I had to get them from somewhere. But it’s just interesting to me to see which things I latched on to and contemplate what different paths I might have taken if I had met different people who gave me different things.
I didn’t really set out to write a blog post about being grateful but I guess now that I’ve written it, that’s kind of what it is. I guess I was just feeling appreciative today. In a world like the one we have, it’s good to savor moments like that.
Maybe I will do a part two one day.
I just like the sound of that phrase. Makes my blog sound fancy. ↩︎
When I was a kid, the church I went to was so strict that they discouraged listening to Christian rock because it was entertaining rather than reverent. ↩︎
I need to write a separate blog post about TCAA. This album is so good. ↩︎
I’m serious. I’m not the only one who has said this. People on social.lol are just so nice and pleasant. ↩︎