I've been putting off writing this blog post for some time. However, since my last post on Cathode Tan was the beginning of this year - I don't think it should come as much of a surprise.
I started writing Cathode Tan years and years ago, mostly as a way to chronicle my early attempts at modding. Modding Unreal was an experience that still has a special place in my heart - it solidified two long standing passions of mine: gaming and coding, and it also taught me more about coding than I probably ever learned in a singular experience. Want to learn how to code? Do it by blowing stuff up, I say.
Over the years, Cathode Tan joined what was a very small community of gaming bloggers at the time. I actually remember, and even exchanged a few notes with Brian Crecente at the time, when Kotaku was just getting started. Of course, eventually Kotaku started making a habit of occasionally lifting posts of mine without credit - and we didn't talk much after that.
I want to thank: Corvus Elrond, Regina Buenaobra, Thomas Wilburn, Debbie Timmins, Matt Matthews, Greg Tannahill, and Troy Goodfellow. These were the names that made up, for me, the core of the early blogging efforts for gaming back in the day and quite honestly made the entire experience worthwhile enough to continue on doing it for years.
That list is by no means exhaustive - I'm actually a bit terrified of who I am forgetting, and naturally includes all of my faithful readers over the years. Yes, I mean both of you.
I should also give a shoutout the Unreal modding community from back then - but that would be an epic undertaking all on its own, considering it would include everyone from cohorts to Epic employees. I really do hope that the new Unreal Tournament takes off, as I would love to write a new mod for it.
However, I will call out to EvilDrWongPhD - who more than anyone back then helped me with ideas, code, and just plain having fun. Man, I hope you are still coding.
Highlights for Cathode Tan include: getting mentioned by Penny Arcade for "frisking" Jack Thompson, receiving a free copy of Duke Nukem Forever (if only because it is one of the worst games I have ever played) and having some of lamest April Fool's posts ever.
I thank all of you, it was a pleasure doing this blog.
I am, however, not done writing. After a lot of contemplation, I am attempting to combine all of my blogging habits under one roof. When I first became a Developer Evangelist, this kind of thing seemed ridiculous. Who wants to hear about both movies and Apex code? Turns out - nearly everyone I know. And if one doesn't interest you - I find that I am pretty easy to ignore.
So please join me over at joshbirk.herokuapp.com. I already have several gaming and media posts over there, interspersed with some work posts as well. Since it is running Ghost on Heroku, I also have an extremely fine level of control over the blog - something I felt I was lacking after years of updates to blogspot.
I started writing Cathode Tan years and years ago, mostly as a way to chronicle my early attempts at modding. Modding Unreal was an experience that still has a special place in my heart - it solidified two long standing passions of mine: gaming and coding, and it also taught me more about coding than I probably ever learned in a singular experience. Want to learn how to code? Do it by blowing stuff up, I say.
Over the years, Cathode Tan joined what was a very small community of gaming bloggers at the time. I actually remember, and even exchanged a few notes with Brian Crecente at the time, when Kotaku was just getting started. Of course, eventually Kotaku started making a habit of occasionally lifting posts of mine without credit - and we didn't talk much after that.
I want to thank: Corvus Elrond, Regina Buenaobra, Thomas Wilburn, Debbie Timmins, Matt Matthews, Greg Tannahill, and Troy Goodfellow. These were the names that made up, for me, the core of the early blogging efforts for gaming back in the day and quite honestly made the entire experience worthwhile enough to continue on doing it for years.
That list is by no means exhaustive - I'm actually a bit terrified of who I am forgetting, and naturally includes all of my faithful readers over the years. Yes, I mean both of you.
I should also give a shoutout the Unreal modding community from back then - but that would be an epic undertaking all on its own, considering it would include everyone from cohorts to Epic employees. I really do hope that the new Unreal Tournament takes off, as I would love to write a new mod for it.
However, I will call out to EvilDrWongPhD - who more than anyone back then helped me with ideas, code, and just plain having fun. Man, I hope you are still coding.
Highlights for Cathode Tan include: getting mentioned by Penny Arcade for "frisking" Jack Thompson, receiving a free copy of Duke Nukem Forever (if only because it is one of the worst games I have ever played) and having some of lamest April Fool's posts ever.
I thank all of you, it was a pleasure doing this blog.
I am, however, not done writing. After a lot of contemplation, I am attempting to combine all of my blogging habits under one roof. When I first became a Developer Evangelist, this kind of thing seemed ridiculous. Who wants to hear about both movies and Apex code? Turns out - nearly everyone I know. And if one doesn't interest you - I find that I am pretty easy to ignore.
So please join me over at joshbirk.herokuapp.com. I already have several gaming and media posts over there, interspersed with some work posts as well. Since it is running Ghost on Heroku, I also have an extremely fine level of control over the blog - something I felt I was lacking after years of updates to blogspot.
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