I like to think that it makes me more along the lines of super-efficient. What am I rambling on about? Let me explain. Yestereday I popped into the WotG IRC channel for a few minutes between running errands and I’d mentioned that I was thinking about building another WordPress plugin. The last one was fun to build and I’d like to do something a little more advanced than just building a widget. Then I took off for a day of running so many places that I spread myself thinner than an Ethiopian prostitute, typical day.

When I came back I started thinking about what the new plugin would accomplish, got a rough idea, and set out learning the Wordpress Plugin API. I knew enough from the last plugin I built to be absolutely useless. I started coding the plugin at roughly 3PM California time, stopped a few times for more errands, and stopped entirely for the night at around 9PM. Worked on it for another couple of hours this morning and it’s finished. Like, completely finished.

So, basically with about 4-7 hours of actual work, no prior training, and feeling my way through the entire thing, there’s nothing I can’t do. Or at least nothing I can’t do to the point that it will at least function, I suppose. Rack that up with the rest of the code I’ve written over just the past months and I’ve not had a bad body of work.

BitArtist, revisiting the WP-UserLogin plugin, a new members rotation script (member-specific nonetheless) for Bomb Shelter Comics, and then cranking the new one out that has yet to be hosted by WordPress (submission just went in today). I’ve been a busy little fella.

I’ve also noticed that I prefer my plugins to pull double-duty, but I won’t waste your time with that on this post. Maybe next time, but not now. For now, I have to get ready to…wait for it…run more errands. Either my butt is going to attach itself to the car seat permanently, or my legs are just going to evolve into wheels because they never stop moving. Anyway, enjoy the wall of text here.

BitArtist, the thing that has eaten my soul all-day everyday for almost the last year and a half, is finally done enough that it can move to beta-testing. Now I can focus on bug fixes and getting a stable release candidate ready for launch…instead of feeling like a crazy person perpetually working on vaporware that people would just roll their eyes at as soon as I mentioned it. It’s real now, bitches!…yes, anyway.

At any point, I’ve got a few people interested in beta-testing for me and the people who’ve seen it in action seem to be rather pleased. So I’m very happy about the feedback thus far. I don’t plan to make a million bucks off it, and it’s been so long that I’m a little fuzzy as to why I put it out in the first place, but I’m glad I did in any case. It’s been a very good learning experience and I’ve found out more about programming on this project than any previous.

I also have plans to open up an open-source code repository of sorts as a community supplement to Way of the Geek at some point, but that’s still a ways down the road. Although when I do launch it I hope it does well. We really do have a lot of bright readers, and I think with the right motivation or even just the right project they could go pretty far.