More to the point

I guess now is as good a time as any to explain the name I've chosen for my blog. If you already know me you might already get the play on words. For everyone else allow me to explain. I use the pseudonyms WrenchWarrior and WrenchNinja for gaming and personal account names. The initial reason I picked these names was that some of my favorite games featured a character using a wrench as a weapon. (Ratchet and Clank, Bioshock, Dark Cloud, Team Fortress 2) Even with an arsenal of weapons and gadgets at my disposal I still seemed to have the most fun taking enemies out with the swing of a wrench.

The reason the names stuck though is a bit more personal. In many ways I consider myself like a wrench. I know, I know, I just compared myself to a tool, but humor me for a bit. Now, a wrench can be used for plenty of things, including a makeshift weapon, but primarily its used to build and to break apart. As a programmer, or even just as a creator, I do just that. I build and I break apart.

The build comparison is obvious. I take an idea, find the necessary components, and assemble something for the world to use. The idea of breaking things apart, though, seems a bit more drastic for a code monkey. What I mean here is that if you want to understand or fix something, sometimes you have to break it down. Just like a mechanic would pull out pieces of a car engine to make the changes so the car can work. As a programmer I do that more often then you might think. Sometimes the best way to fix a problem is to break it apart. Then once you understand everything you replace a piece of code and reassemble it good as new.

Now that I've driven the simile that a programmer is like a wrench into the ground. I can readdress the title. By wrench in the works I mean that I, the wrench, am in development. Just like someone might say that a director has a new movie in the works; I'm still in progress. I mean that partially because I'm still working on getting a job as a game developer, and partially because I'm always in progress. As a programmer, even as a person, I'm learning and growing and improving. For that reason I will always consider myself 'in the works' until my last second on earth.

So there you have it. My little play on words. Fine, it's not the most clever name imaginable, but hopefully it helped me grant a little insight as to who I am. If nothing else it means something to me and even if I ever change the name; I will remember the original name and carry the idea with me.

Alright I've been on long enough. Despite the posts before this I still consider this to be my first real entry. I'm hoping to make this a weekly occurrence, but in the future I'll try to monitor the length. Until next time.