By J. Timothy King on May 13, 2009
On March 28, at about 5 PM, 9-year-old Sarafina, probably in tears, talked to the 911, while her 23-year-old brother was stabbing her two sisters with a kitchen knife. When police arrived, less than a minute later, he was decapitating 5-year-old Bianca, the youngest of the family, while Bianca’s uneaten birthday cake still lay on […]
Posted in Personal Improvement, Stories, True Stories | Tagged crime, dream interpretation, dreams, psychology, Sarafina Revelus, true crime
By J. Timothy King on May 6, 2009
Ever since man has been able to think, he has tried to understand his dreams. He has called on dreams for divine guidance or for self-understanding. Many methods have been put forward for interpreting dreams. Some theorists have written off dreams as mere random thoughts that intrude into our sleep. Others have gone through great […]
Posted in Personal Improvement, Stories, True Stories | Tagged dream interpretation, dreams, Ivan Tyrrell, Joe Griffin, psychology |
By J. Timothy King on April 21, 2009
(This is a continuation from part 2 of “Depression and the Software Developer”.) [Note: This is a recounting of an experience from several years ago. Read the story from the beginning in order to catch up.] According to psychologist Joe Griffin, the cycle of depression starts when innate needs are not being met. Among these […]
Posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Personal Improvement, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged biography, depression, Ivan Tyrrell, Joe Griffin, programming, SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Software Development, software engineering, stress |
By J. Timothy King on April 20, 2009
(This is a continuation from part 1 of “Depression and the Software Developer”.) If one of the most powerful weapons against depression is hope, one of its most powerful fuels is hopelessness. I attacked my next job with gusto and enthusiasm. The company had previously outsourced a project to an offshore contractor, and now that […]
Posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Personal Improvement, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged biography, depression, programming, SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Software Development, software engineering, stress |
By J. Timothy King on April 20, 2009
I’ve created a new blog at stories.JTimothyKing.com, at which I’ll serialize fiction and creative non-fiction that I’m writing. If you subscribe to that blog, that will allow you to keep up to date with my newest stories, in bite-sized chunks. -TimK
Posted in About Tim King | Tagged blogs
By J. Timothy King on April 17, 2009
Knowing what I know now, I wonder how I avoided depression for as long as I did: Stress causes depression. Perfectionists are more prone to depression. Isolation reinforces depression. As a software developer, those frequently go along with the job description. Seasonal Affective Disorder has gotten the rap for at least some of the funk, […]
Posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Personal Improvement, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged biography, depression, programming, SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Software Development, software engineering, stress |
By J. Timothy King on March 24, 2009
Software developers have a wonderful explanation for why there are so, so many software bugs. Unfortunately, it’s a highly technical explanation that’s very difficult for the layman to understand. I’ll try to summarize, but be aware that the following is a gross oversimplification. The root problem is that software is complex. And it’s not just […]
Posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged bugs, programming, quality assurance, software engineering, testing, unit tests
By J. Timothy King on March 21, 2009
One way to deal with poor communication on a software project is simply to ignore the people around you and do what you wanted to do anyhow. Of course, this strategy can backfire, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. But in that case, you probably won’t know enough to notice it backfiring, so […]
Posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Humor, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged communication, Damon/IEC, innovation, programming, software engineering
By J. Timothy King on March 8, 2009
I’ve been noticing a change in the programming in many cable TV channels. I am therefore proposing the following name changes: The Discovery Channel will henceforth be called the Extreme Feats and Blowing Stuff Up Channel. The History Channel will henceforth be called the Dangerous Jobs and Ghosts and UFO’s Channel. The Learning Channel will […]
Posted in Entertainment, Humor, Television | Tagged TV |