Introducing Me to Blaugust 2024
465 words.
I’m led to believe we’re supposed to write an introductory post for Blaugust 2024. I assume this means an introduction of me to you.
This is, of course, the worst thing that could ever be asked of me, as I have a particular distate for talking about myself. I have a fairly poor sense of self at the best of times, but when you do the “hey why don’t we go around the room and introduce ourselves it’ll be fun” thing, it turns into a full-blown anxiety disorder.
To make things easier I’ll stick to the verifiable facts that would stand up in a court of law. I’m Tom, but I’ve been inexplicably using the name UltrViolet on the Internet since 1997 (well, there is an explanation but it’s not particularly relevant here). I’m an adult Gen-X male who (shockingly, given the above lack of personality) lives alone with a couple of cats that I didn’t really ask for.
I’ve been a working software developer since 1990, and have somehow convinced enough people to pay me a living wage for most of that time. A real miracle because I’m from that older generation of software developers who typically has some kind of personality defect that socially ostracizes them in life, and makes them bad at job interviews and human interaction, but suited to the abstract detail work of programming (and anything else detail-oriented, really).
The rise of video games and the Internet intersected perfectly with my life, and it’s impossible to imagine a world where I didn’t fall completely under their influence and struggle ever since to maintain some sense of reality and perspective. (Though I have to admit I’ve been finding the video game “scene” somewhat lackluster for the last 5-10 years.)
I’ve had a web site on the Internet since around 1998. This blog has been around since 2013. I’ve been writing in some form or another since I was a kid. I find it far easier to write thoughts than to verbalize thoughts (actually it’s not that easy to write either because I’m not very good at word recall, but it’s easier to mask that in writing).
I used to write and record music but I don’t do that very much anymore. I keep telling myself I’m going to get back into that, but I never do. As a minor performative compensation, I started recording game videos and putting them on a YouTube channel around 2016.
I’m a big fan of dry humor, and it’s not uncommon for people to think I’m serious when I’m not.
That’s enough probably, right? Yeah, that’s enough. If it’s not enough, I also have an About page.
Please return to your normal business, while I have a meltdown for posting something that sounds way too personal.
Archived Comments
Bhag Puss 2024-08-01T20:46:25Z
Yay! Comments! I do believe the reason I stopped following Endgame Viable, which was one of my favorites for a long time, was because I find it just about the most frustrating thing, to read a post and want to say something about it and then find I’m not able to. I think it’s fine not to want to get feedback but then you might as well just make the whole blog private, which is a perfectly viable option.
Anyway, welcome back to my blog roll although obviously you never went away. Also, that picture looks very much how I imagined you’d look from your prose style.
Bhag Puss 2024-08-01T20:47:51Z That said, none of the authentications or sign-ins work on Firefox, even though the pop-up says they do. I had to use the dreaded Chrome, hence the slightly odd version of my name…
Brenda Holloway 2024-08-01T20:52:41Z
My partner’s name is also Tom. Hi, Tom!
My Tom doesn’t think it’s adult for me to call him my boyfriend, but whatever. I think he prefers “SO”, but that sounded really impersonal.
Hey, hello fellow old person developer with social issues! I have a story about the first time we had to do one of those “tell two truths and a lie about yourself” and I had no idea what was happening. We were supposed to send them to my boss. So reflected for awhile, dug down deep, and offered two honest truths about myself. I can’t remember what the lie was. Maybe it was something “I feel like my whole life is a lie”. Anyway, he came to my desk and told me he couldn’t use those, say something like “I ride a bicycle”. So I used that one. I couldn’t think of any others. I don’t remember what the lie was.
We were supposed to guess which truths and lies belonged to which person, but I couldn’t imagine anyone there cared enough about me or knew anything at all about me to have the slightest idea. Maybe they were all true. Or all lies. How would they even know?
I don’t do well in groups of strangers.
Heartless Gamer 2024-08-01T21:41:23Z Great post! I really enjoyed reading this. Felt like I was sitting down with an author’s personal biography and kept me engaged through the end of the post and I just wanted more.
Roger Edwards 2024-08-02T11:26:04Z I’m just naturally curious (or nosey if you prefer). I like to know about people. I don’t go as far as going through their trash or anything but I like to have a handle of who they are. Your introduction is very interesting and very personal. Plus I always enjoy reading your blog, especially when there’s a tangential cat related story.
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T13:17:37Z Ugh two truths and lie sounds like an awful experience. I had to write down a “fun fact about myself” on a post-it note for when I started a new job in 2021 because it came up in almost every zoom meeting for weeks.
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T13:23:58Z My cat stories mostly just revolve around them demanding food all the time. :)
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T13:26:56Z Yeah it’s been a real chore to get comments working ever since I switched to a statically generated site, but this CommentBox thing seems to mostly “just work” and it’s free. Welcome back!
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T13:28:03Z Uh oh… I’ll take a look at it and see if there’s anything I can do on my end. Thanks for letting me know.
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T13:46:41Z Well I got Google auth to work in Firefox but Facebook and Twitter auth didn’t work at all, and the Email auth seemed kind of buggy. Not ideal. I’ve been trying to avoid using the “industry standard” Disqus because it’s either not free or it’s ad-supported, but I may have no choice if nothing else works.
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T14:56:45Z Oh that was neat. I started a comment, then signed in, then it erased all the comment I typed. Make sure you sign in before typing your comment. Yeesh.
Anyway this is a comment in GraphComment. I signed in with Google auth again. Google auth is kind of the go-to standard isn’t it? I assume it is. Maybe it isn’t. How would I know? Once, I might have thought it would be Twitter auth but that can’t be the case anymore. And it’s definitely not Facebook anymore. Nobody uses Facebook outside of actual Facebook, as far as I know. There isn’t much left but Google or an email address.
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T14:57:52Z Oddly it didn’t fetch my avatar from my Google account. Quite silly if you ask me.
Endgame Viable 2024-08-02T14:58:55Z My first impression is that I don’t care much for the teeny-tiny fonts and the teeny-tiny little buttons.
This is a homegrown DIY comment system I'm working on. It technically works but it hasn't been through extensive testing yet. Good luck. Go here to enter a comment on this post without Javascript.