Teochew Thunder: Year Two (Part 2/2)

I’d love to report that the blogging year was a roaring success, but as with the previous year, it was a bit of a mixed bag.

Crash n' burn/

The first part of the year was rather slow, with viewership plummeting to dismal levels. Were readers tiring of web tutorials and the techy stuff? Well, too bad, then. This is what I do. This is what I like to talk about. Thankfully, I make no money from writing this shit, because if I did, I would feel pressured to write things that people like reading. As it is… 404: Fucks Not Found!

For some reason, I found myself writing quite a bit about Facebook. I wonder why.

Things picked up in the second quarter, rather inexplicably, I might add. Normally I’d think that Google's court case against Oracle is far more interesting than a mini-dissertation on the Three Great Virtues, but what the hell do I know, right? Rise of the Handphone Vigilante was the most popular post, followed by Social Media Mishap.

I’ve belabored to keep things short and in bite-sized chunks. Whereas in the past year I would simply cram stuff into one long blogpost, these days I segregate them into smaller parts. Examples: Data Passing Methods and Three Great Virtues. Some viewers may find this disconcerting, but trust me, it’s for the best. This blogging and stuff is pretty hard work. Gotta pace myself or burn the hell out.

Still, I’ve picked up some exciting new skills along the way and made plenty of interesting mistakes in the process. So web tutorials and the Spot the Bug series should really be a lot more varied.

Obstacles

Dollar Photo Club, the site where I got most of my images from, folded this year and handed my account over to Adobe Stock. I’m going to miss those really cheap stock photos.

Damn these hurdles.

Some of the content here is mirrored in http://www.teochewthunder.com, a site I sent up to lure in the head-hunters. Maintaining that in tandem with this blog, keeps me busy from time to time.

In the first half of the year, I was also busy with school (What, you think I got this awesome all by my lonesome?), final exams and getting laid off at work (Yes, that particular story will make its way onto this blog in due course. Watch for it!). All in all, it’s been quite an eventful year.

2017 beckons!

Things are looking up, on the professional front as I attempt to ride on the momentum of my modest accomplishments. I’m in another job, surrounded by people smarter than I am, and rediscovering the enthusiasm that so endeared me to my previous employers all those years back.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be write back in November! (heh heh)
T___T

Teochew Thunder: Year Two (Part 1/2)

Happy 2nd anniversary!

It’s two years to the day I first bit the proverbial bullet and started TeochewThunder. As with yearly tradition, the month of October will be used for introspection, preparation, and, ahem, a little break.

Every once in a while, I find it prudent to remind myself - and others - why I chose to start this blog in the first place.

Someone told me that I should be spending more time honing my craft instead of little vanity projects like my blog. Blimey, mate. Is that what you think I’m doing, stroking my ego? If I needed an ego trip, all I need to do is stand in front of a mirror and flex my pectorals. I certainly don’t need to spend those hours writing code, making sure it works and making sure my tutorials make sense.

Check these out, baby.

When you’re writing code for your own amusement, you can be as sloppy as you damn well please. When you’re writing it for the public eye and have to explain every bloody line, that brings your game up to a whole new level.

Think I’m not honing my craft? You’re watching me do it, right under your nose.

I kid you not. Looking back at some of the tutorials I’ve written in the past year, some of it might be charitably described as “amateurish”. Riddled with bad practices and excruciatingly inefficient in parts. But if I hadn’t bothered with the blog; indeed, if I’d just been happy to work nine-to-five and call it a day, none of this terrible, terrible content would have been written and I wouldn’t have learned from it.

So understand this - if you like what I’ve written and get value from it, I’m happy for you. If you don’t; you think my writing is abysmal, and my insights are naive and misguided, that’s OK too. Make no mistake: Ultimately I’m not writing this blog for you. I’m doing it for me.

Speaking of which, you could be forgiven for thinking that some of the code is horrible and a castrated monkey could do much better. But the idea behind the code is what really counts; and if you can implement those ideas with better code, good on you. Do it, and share!

Some more feedback I’ve received pertain to certain observations I’ve made, particularly those in the category Life as An Economic Digit. Apparently, people enjoy the brutal honesty, but some think I could be hurting my professional opportunities with the public criticism I’ve leveled towards companies such as Fixx Digital, and towards practices in the industry I regard as fucking retarded somewhat antiquated. Apparently, prospective employers like their employees docile and neutered.

It’s not that I don’t see their point, or appreciate the concern… but really, what professional opportunities? Like maybe some hotshot company will be interested in hiring me, but drop the idea once they see what I really think of some industry practices that they may have adopted, and get all butthurt about it? Are such companies even worth wasting time on? Or maybe I’m hurting my chances of being hired with great pay and a senior-sounding title? Trust me, that particular ship pretty much left the harbor some time back. Years ago, I made the decision not to spend time climbing corporate ladders and chasing meaningless fancy titles, and instead invested that time into building stuff, like an actual developer.

Maybe if I pretend not to see it...

Let’s face it - none of the observations and comments I’ve made are particularly insightful or groundbreaking. It’s stuff most of us would have realized at some point or other. It’s simply that many choose to lay low and keep quiet about it, hoping that their patience will be rewarded if they suck it up long enough.

Rubbish.

Dudes, your roadmap to success and promotion was ordained the moment you joined the organization. Not getting into trouble isn’t going to significantly increase your chances of getting that raise or promotion. The best you could hope for is not to get fired.

I don’t have some fancy managerial position to lose, nor some glamorous job at a Fortune 500 company. Therefore I should feel free to call bullshit out as and when I fucking please. In fact, I don’t have an excuse not to. Because I care about this shit. Way more than I care about living in a nice house, driving a nice car and having a bombastic title on my calling card.

Phew!

OK, with those rants out of the way, it’s time to report on the highs, lows, hits and misses of late 2015 to the third quarter of 2016.

Next

TeochewThunder’s loosely presented statistics.