The end before the new beginning

Every so often there is a point where you start over. A place where you begin again. It is never like the first time. Some things you can never recreate. A new look or a new idea can be a good thing. It is a chance to reconnet and grow. This is where I start again. In this place in time. Directions will change and ideas will shift. The things you know by looking back no longer exist as they once did. The reflections of things that came before may have no light on the things ahead.

As what I had before I let slip away. Forgotten in time and left as it was. While every new start is a chance to do better, not every start can go without end. With this I end what was and I begin what is new. A new path to a new light. A new direction with what I have.

Reflections

When you think of logical thinkers, very few names ever come to mind. That is unless you know Kevin. He has a logical approach to everything even when there is not supposed to be a logical approach. This is most apparent when you see him interact with computers or related technology.


Many times you may see him perform very random or unusual actions only to later find out it was very calculated and very precise. Everything from driving, to monopoly, to interacting with his kids. You never know what to expect and that is exactly what he is counting on.

Perfect Light

There is such a thing as perfect light. It raises all kinds of emotions in those that experience it. Its perfection can last forever. It can be heart warming or heart breaking. It can be its own stunning glory. A moment in time to be saved and preserved. Its an etching of light captured to be shared.

The power of a photograph.

KTT:Kevmar's Tortage Toolkit Branding

I just released a mod I wrote for the Age of Conan game. I wanted to give it a name to set it appart and to lable it as mine. I already had Tortage.com waiting for the right project. So I wanted to use that site this time. I ended up with Kevmar's Tortage Tookit: Kill on sight list and combat stats / damage meter.

Looking back I can see that I over branded it. Adding my name and my website name into the title only made it hard for people to discover it. Once you know what it is, it is very easy to find it. But the initial part of the name (the part people see the most) gave no indication what the mod did. So telling people what the name is would only prompt them to ask what it does.

The title is shifting as I see the problems that I have already caused. KTT is the short abreviation I started with this week. KTT: KoS list and Combat Stats.

I should call it a damage meter, but that causes other issues. Alot more people would be able to find it. But the AoC community would bash it more. Alot of people in that community despise any influence that World of Warcraft is having on AoC. And this mod looks like it was something directly from WoW.

This is trial and error. It was a chance to lean a new lesson. I just went overboard with the branding. I think KTT will serve me well. You can already search for KTT AoC and its the top result. That is acceptable for this type of mod to have the game name also in the query.

If you ended up here looking for the mod, you can find it at my other site. KTT:Kevmar's Tortage Toolkit; Kill on sight list and combat stats / damage meter.

Starting over means giving up alot

Sometimes a simple task in code can easily grow to several lines. If it is someone else's code, its common to want to recode it. You know things they don't know. You see a better way to reduce code. You forget about the things they know that you don't know. You forget about the time already invested in testing and troubleshooting the problem.

If you need a script to map a drive and rename it, how long would it take to write it? How long would it take to find the same code that has already seen production? I use that example because the task is simple. You could write that script in as little as 4 lines of code.

I did write that script. It started out at 4 lines of code. Now it sits at over 24. Those extra +20 lines came from the maintenance of the script. That overhead makes it more reusable, simple to use, and has solved the bugs that were only uncovered in production. Now that I write that, I'm not sure 20 lines is enough to handle all that.

But my point is the next guy will have this great desire to recode my script because it can be done in 4 lines of code. Starting fresh means that sometimes you give up all the research and testing that came before. Willing to repeat the same bugs that have already been solved. Willing to resolve all the same problems that have already been solved.

I should have found a script online, but I wanted to do it myself. Some lessons are worth learning yourself.

Walking the line

I close my eyes and I see a man walking a line. One step at a time over and over. Never changes direction. He has gone to far to turn back now. No distractions on either side. Nothing exists outside the line. The line is so defined that its a black line on white paper. He never stops, he can't stop, he does not see the end.

He knows that its a line. He knows that every line has a beginning and an end. Never questioning the details he knows. No reason to question the facts. Limited only by his own mind, he never discovers that the line has no end.

That the line he does see is only a piece of a much larger circle. He will forever be a prisoner of his own mind. Unable to escape the reality that only exists in his head.

I open my eyes and think to my self. Is this how I see the world.

Every problem is a nail

The full quote is "If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" and the original quote is "He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail." A quick search lead me to a entry on www.brainyquote.com that indicates Abraham Maslow is the author of that line.

This is why you expand your set of tools. Every new tool expands your skills and gives you new solutions to new problems. Sometimes a hammer is the exact tool you need. The better you know your tools, the more confident you will be in knowing that the hammer is or is not the solution.

I write code and I see how this impacts me all the time. I find it important to learn new tools. I also find it hard at times not to over use new tools. New tools are like a new hammer, you look for a reason to use it.

In the end, I know I should be bound by the tools I have. In some ways, I am. In other ways, I know the tool I need does exist. Even if I dont have it already, I know its available to use.