True Stories
Depression and the Software Developer: The Last Straw (Conclusion)
By J. Timothy King on March 17, 2010
Another part of this series of posts, “Depression and the Software Developer.” This latest story I started on Monday, part 4 of “Depression and the Software Developer”. [Note: You can read the story from the beginning in order to catch up.] No client or employer will ever admit to you that he doesn’t want to […]
Posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged biography, depression, programming, software engineering, stress | 13 Responses

Depression and the Software Developer: The Last Straw
By J. Timothy King on March 15, 2010
Here’s a story I’ve been keeping on the back burner for almost a year now. I haven’t published it until now, because it still hit too close to home. But this week, I’ve scheduled an interview with Sharon Cathcart, author of In the Eye of the Beholder, which I am currently reading, and a memoir […]
Posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged biography, depression, programming, software engineering, stress | 5 Responses

Creepy Crawlies Everywhere, and Ants and Flies
By J. Timothy King on February 23, 2010
At the Museum of Science in Boston, the last time I was there, they had a display of cockroaches, big ones. (Similar to the display pictured here, which is from the London Zoo.) Even though the buggies were behind plastic, I felt an urgent need to get out of there as fast possible. My phobia […]
Posted in About Tim King, Stories, True Stories | Tagged ants, bugs, cockroaches, fruit flies

All My NetFlix DVD’s Are Accounted For
By J. Timothy King on January 28, 2010
Last week, I got the strangest email, and I still can’t quite figure out what to make of it. N, from the Natural Sciences department at Bentley University, found a sealed NetFlix DVD on a cart in one of the buildings there. She also noticed the corresponding torn-off part of the envelope, the part with […]
Posted in Stories, True Stories | Tagged anecdotes, NetFlix | 1 Response

The Roaring 20-Somethings
By J. Timothy King on January 8, 2010
I’m remembering my 20’s. Because everyone remembers his 20’s. I dropped out of school at 20 years old, met my wife at 22, married at 24, had my first daughter at 27, and my second at 29. Yes, the average American’s roaring 20’s are full of growth, choices, excitement, and dirty diapers, usually in that […]
Posted in Humor, Stories, True Stories | Tagged 20-something, 20's, college
When Nothing Goes the Way It Ought
By J. Timothy King on September 22, 2009
This past week, I asked on Facebook, “When NOTHING seems to be going as it should, how do you avoid getting all negative?” My Facebook friends gave me a number of possible answers, but nothing really hit home, this past Saturday morning in synagogue when we read a selection from First Samuel chapter 1. Suddenly, […]
Posted in Christianity, Fiction, Inspiration, Judaism, Religion, Stories, True Stories | Tagged depression, encouragement, spirituality
True Stories of Painless Births
By J. Timothy King on September 7, 2009
A few issues ago, the Human Givens Journal published an interview with Sheila Barratt-Smith, of GentleBirth birth courses (in the UK). In this interview, she tells us about normal, pain-free births. Now, I’m not a woman, and I’ve never given birth, and both of my daughters experienced complications while being born (so not “normal” births). […]
Posted in Fear and Love, Inspiration, Stories, True Stories | Tagged birth, fear, labor, natural child birth, pain, pain-free birth, pain-free labor, painless birth, painless labor, placebo effect, psychology | 2 Responses

Opening the Door to Your Own Destiny
By J. Timothy King on August 12, 2009
This morning, after I dropped the Missus off at work, I headed down Washington Street toward Mishawum Road, where I needed to make a left turn in order to get to the highway. Now, this particular intersection has two left-turn lanes. That is, if you want to make a left turn, you can either get […]
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Leaving Normal, Stories, True Stories, Wishcasting Wednesday | Tagged herd instinct, innovation, psychology | 9 Responses
A Programmer’s Empowering Daydream
By J. Timothy King on July 28, 2009
This morning, at my daughter’s sleep study, as we were waking up, I had a profoundly encouraging and empowering daydream. It wasn’t an intentional visualization, something I wanted to see come about, but purely a spontaneous daydream, of the sort that encroaches upon your consciousness in those fuzzy moments just after you awake. Last night, […]
Posted in Inspiration, Job-seeking, Software Development, Stories, True Stories | Tagged career, dreams, interviewing, programming, psychology | 3 Responses

Groped in Good Taste
By J. Timothy King on July 23, 2009
Jeremy Brooks, looking surprised A quick anecdote… Jim “Suldog” Sullivan’s post today about being groped by a woman (and then later, by a drunk man), it reminded me of a “groping” anecdote of my own, one that interestingly didn’t make it into the Love-Idiot book. I went rollerskating with some friends, in particular, a girl […]
Posted in Humor, Love and Relationships, Stories, True Stories | Tagged love, romance, sex | 9 Responses