Writing

Once upon a time I felt the only thing worse than writing was having to speak in front of the class, so I avoided it as much as possible. Years later when I sat down to write my masters thesis I spent the whole first month writing just the first page. That was painful, it was terrible, and I threw it away and started over. A few years later my dissertation was done, both volumes. My girlfriend helped proof it. Our relationship survived. By then I had a handful of published papers to my name and had started writing experiments for the teaching laboratories. Not long after that I also started writing everything it takes to support and promote a laboratory facility. Then came the CD-ROM for a textbook, and web pages, and code, hundreds of thousands of line of computer code. So far there was nothing of interest to anyone outside of work, until I started racing. Racing notes turned into reports which tuned into faux newspapers and somehow I ended up compiling racers' stories and editing a 130,000 word book. Now it seems that if I am not racing or getting ready to race I am writing code, or prose, or having an occasional flail with poetry.

	Software - Yes, programming is writing, and I have to credit a lot of my ability to write for people to having written for machines. Code, which rarely more than a few people ever see, can be beautifully structured, containing exquisite expressions that are concise, precise, and which can tap into some deep, abstract, concepts. I program mostly in Delphi, a Pascal-based language that comes with one of the best developer interfaces available, and it supports several platforms (PC, Mac, mobile devices). The language itself is structured and strongly typed, making it easier to write clean, efficient, unambiguous code, which is not at all like English.
	Science - It has always been my favorite subject, so much so that I got a doctorate in it, wrote the usual research papers, and over time, developed quite a lot of course materials. Figuring no one wants to read about the superplasticity of beta-stabilized Ti-6Al-4V anymore, and considering the notebooks I've filled with laboratory experiments and demonstrations, my continued writing in science will be geared towards students and student-like people.
	The Blitz - The Blitz is the newsletter of the Opel Motorsport Club, a members-only publication that dates back to 1985. A few years ago I contributed a couple of stories to it and somehow, as of November 2013, I became the editor, which really means, I write most of it, produce it, and distribute it. It has been fun, challenging, and an education that proved valuable when producing the 24 Hours of Lemons book.
	Books - I've contributed to books, been consulted by authors writing books, have had laboratory manuals published, but not until recently (March 2014) had I ever produced a book. Granted, it was self-published and available print-on-demand, but it was a significant book in the community I race in. With this one out it has really pushed me to revive my other book projects, two which are now in the works, one is being still being researched, and yes, there are more coming.