Hello, world

This is a place where I will express and (on good days) satisfy my curiosity on programming, design, and writing.

In other words, I’m going to cover a lot of loosely related material, and I hope some of it will interest you.

Who am I?

You didn’t come here to learn about some random guy on the Internet, but to understand future posts, I need to tell you a little.

My name’s Robert Patten. I live in a white house at the end of a dirt road in eastern Idaho. By day, I manage the website for a local TV station and do my best to be a good husband and father. By night and insane hours of the morning, I attend school and work on my backlog of projects.

School

I am pursuing a second bachelor’s degree through Western Governors University, an accredited, online-only school. I’m majoring in IT-software. (My first degree was in English with an emphasis in creative writing through a brick-and-mortar school.)

I should be almost done with my program, but the school just came out with a software development major, and it’s more along the lines of what I want to do. Unfortunately, this means another year of school. I'm still thinking about it.

At WGU, every semester is six months, and you go at your own pace. This is a blessing for people with odd schedules, but a curse for procrastinators.

I’m a few months behind where I want to be, not because of laziness, but because of a recent health issue.

Cancer

I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in mid-2014. I won’t go into details right now, but the cancer is gone after six months of chemotherapy, which ended just before Christmas.

Chemo took more than my hair (which is growing back). Chemo victims, er, patients, often experience a condition known as “chemo brain,” which the American Cancer Society aptly describes as “mental cloudiness.”

My thoughts aren’t as focused, and my memory isn’t as strong as it was before chemo. Every day is different, and I know I’m getting better, but chemo brain is still not gone.

Projects

I had a lot of downtime during chemo, and I added to my already substantial list of projects. They range from a mod of a classic DOS game to roguelikes to interactive fiction (text adventures).

Although it’s a long way from being done, my project closest to completion is an interactive fiction sci-fi piece called Astronaut Unwritten.

The plan

I’m going to warn you right now. Posts aren’t always going to be sequential or related. I might talk about one topic for two weeks, jump to another topic, then return to the first topic. If you want me to write more on a certain subject, you can always contact me or leave a message in the comments.

This blog might be random, but I plan on making it consistent. My goal is one post at least once a week, so check back soon.

Also, I don’t believe in writing only about efforts with positive outcomes. Failure often has more to teach than success. At any rate, it’s more exciting.

Thanks for joining the journey!