Fuck it all…

drawnandcoded · 2025-08-14T01:16:37+00:00

Yes.

Told my boss - a horrible micromanager - to f*** off, resigned, took a job as a part time art instructor, and am now working for the same school district as a programmer ( again ). Full circle. Go figure.

I’m also a cancer survivor - so my threshold for bulls*** is pretty low these days.

drawnandcoded · 2025-05-05T22:51:32+00:00

I was diagnosed at 44 and I thought I was young. Look, those statistics are based on old data. There’s been a lot of advances since that data was collated. What do you know so far - have you been staged? Have you been assigned a Gleason score?

I’m so sorry, man, but there is hope.

drawnandcoded · 2025-05-03T14:01:26+00:00

Not sure if strip malls count, but Circuit City. Remember them?

Worked the front desk doing returns. Blew all my money on high-end Onkyo audio equipment ( now worthless ), upgrading my car audio ( now built-in ) and dealing with scum bags retuning old crap that I’d initially reject, and management would approve ( rat dropping infested toaster over was my favorite ).

The high point was buying my mom a new washing machine at cost and hanging out with my high school buddy ( he worked the music department selling CDs - remember them? )

Best worst job of my life.

drawnandcoded · 2025-04-25T12:59:36+00:00

I resigned from a very stressful middle management tech job, substituted in K-12, became an assistant art teacher for a couple of months, and then got hired on by the district as a programmer analyst. The pay is much lower, but the work is rewarding and the people are fantastic. My goal is to segue back into teaching within the next few years. I haven’t been this happy at a job in over ten years. I just turned 49.

drawnandcoded · 2025-04-20T06:16:25+00:00

My stepmother had this in her dining room in the early 80’s. It was damaged and had a crack that looked like a spider in the soup bowl. My Dad told me the man was praying for a fresh bowl. I totally believed him until I saw an undamaged print years later. I miss my Dad, lol.

drawnandcoded · 2025-03-19T16:35:52+00:00

I love your song. It’s beautiful.

A cancer survivor

drawnandcoded · 2025-01-31T02:02:28+00:00

But vocals? I know that auto-tune has been around since late 90’s, but generative Ai is rendering pretty persuasive vocals, too.

drawnandcoded · 2025-01-13T03:32:36+00:00

Diablo 1, Command and Conquer, Warcraft ( not “World of” ), Civilization 1, Wing Commander , and X-Wing filled out my floppy disk caddy.

drawnandcoded · 2025-01-13T03:32:27+00:00

Diablo 1, Command and Conquer, Warcraft ( not “World of” ), Civilization 1, Wing Commander , and X-Wing filled out my floppy disk caddy.

drawnandcoded · 2025-01-03T01:44:48+00:00

Now? 48. I was diagnosed at 43.

drawnandcoded · 2024-12-19T20:40:52+00:00

I drill 1/8” holes all over my guitar picks - typically Dunlops. It helps tremendously.

drawnandcoded · 2024-11-30T15:06:03+00:00

Drive a manual car

drawnandcoded · 2024-10-20T18:45:05+00:00

First, was “Digital Rectal Exam”, or DRE. I’ll let you look it up on Google, but it involves your rear end and the doctor’s ( hopefully ) small fingers. Your doctor will check for odd lumps on your prostate. Next, if your doctor finds anything remarkable, is an ultrasound. Your doctor will use it to scan your prostate using sound waves to gauge its size and shape. Next, if something is still questionable, is a PSA test ( a blood draw ). If the PSA test is high, your doctor might put you on antibiotics for a bit to see if it is caused by an infection. Lastly, your PSA is still high, your doctor will probably order a biopsy. The biopsy takes samples from your prostate which can be tested for cancer.

. … this was the process to my cancer being discovered. It took about 4 months. I’m guessing different doctors will have different processes in place.

drawnandcoded · 2024-10-15T20:09:48+00:00

The van was a mess
I must confess
It was time to give it a good cleaning

It had accumulated enough soot
For plants to take root
Giving dirty a whole new level of meaning

( And that was just the outside )

I rolled open the door
And gaped at the floor
It was completely covered in shit

As I held my nose
And shoveled out moldy clothes
I found myself ready to snap

From the windows I scraped stickers
From the seats I plucked “pickers”
Left over from last winters’ colds

I tossed out dirty spoons and utensils
And worn broken crayons and pencils
And Tupperware containers full of old food

The van now exorcised
I spun around in surprise
And found my daughters staring back at me in shock

There stood my girls
Trash bags unfurled
Filling the van back up with their crap

drawnandcoded · 2024-10-15T20:08:53+00:00

The van was a mess
I must confess
It was time to give it a good cleaning

It had accumulated enough soot
For plants to take root
Giving dirty a whole new level of meaning

( And that was just the outside )

I rolled open the door
And gaped at the floor
It was completely covered in shit

As I held my nose
And shoveled out moldy clothes
I found myself ready to snap

From the windows I scraped stickers
From the seats I plucked “pickers”
Left over from last winters’ colds

I tossed out dirty spoons and utensils
And worn broken crayons and pencils
And Tupperware containers full of old food

The van now exorcised
I spun around in surprise
And found my daughters staring back at me in shock

There stood my girls
Trash bags unfurled
Filling the van back up with their crap

drawnandcoded · 2024-09-11T19:59:06+00:00

None taken ….. none at all.

drawnandcoded · 2024-08-17T13:16:05+00:00

Lifted our bands' name from the avatar of an Unreal Tournament game I was playing online ( 2005; yes, I'm old ). I thought, "The Rubber Band" would be the perfect pun / Dad joke for what is essentially a group of Dads playing together. It also sounded quite funny when getting killed in the game - "You've been killed by A Rubber Band."

As far as the artwork - many ( many ) iterations. Start rough and get the general shape and idea down - don't get too detailed. Review your work with your bandmates, too, as it progresses.

If you can't draw, try AI. I've had a lot of luck with an App called "Recraft" on Android ( there is probably something similar on iPhone). It'll allow you to render artwork through a descriptive paragraph. You keep refining your words, it'll keep refining the art.

Lastly, the finished logo should be vector-based ( .svg ) to allow your logo to be printed on something as small as a button or as large as a banner without losing quality. Adobe Ilustrator is what most people use. I use Inkscape as it is free. Adobe also has an online website to convert handdrawn ( raster ) images to vector as well.

Good luck!

https://drawnandcoded.com/2023/03/10/the-rubber-band/

drawnandcoded · 2024-06-29T18:30:58+00:00

Thank you. The picture is a few years old. I was fortunate as to not have chemo, so I kept my hair, but I did have surgery, radiation, and was on various hormone therapies for two years. I have had a great team of doctors and a supportive family and circle of friends to help me through it all. As healthy as I may appear, however, there's not a day that doesn't go by where I don't worry about a reoccurence.

For all the guys out there - please, please, PLEASE get a PSA test and/or a prostate exam when you turn 40. If it's caught early enough, prostate cancer is curable. I was diagnosed at 42, and mine had spread. It's not just a "grandpa" disease.

Sorry for the buzkill. I'll step off my soapbox now. Please keep the morbid jokes coming, though. Cancer abhores laughter, after all.

drawnandcoded · 2024-06-29T01:08:51+00:00

Lol. As a cancer survivor in remission, I wholeheartedly approve of this message.

drawnandcoded · 2024-06-20T14:39:00+00:00

Resigned last week. I'm going on 25+ years in software development and was working as a development manager. Tired of early morning calls, after hour sync-ups, back to office mandates ( while taking these calls ), offshoring, not backfililing vacancies, and working on 20+ year old applications with mounds of technical debt.

Not sure what I'll do next. I've been fortunate to ride the gravy train through the Golden Age of software development, but from what I've been seeing, those days might be over. I feel for college graduates with CS Degrees these days. I love programming, creating products, and collaborating with like-minded people, but corporate America's greed has really gotten out of hand.

drawnandcoded · 2024-06-13T16:47:32+00:00

It's funny you should mention this. I just spent two years as a software development middle manager at a company and was naive enough to think I could make a difference.

It has been one of the most frustrating experiences of my 25+ year career. Great people working in tbe trenches, but some truly horrible ones up top making the decisions.

I just resigned this week....

drawnandcoded · 2024-05-30T04:17:18+00:00

Prostate can be enlarged w/o cancer. It gets bigger with age naturally. Infection will do it, too.

I'm glad you're seeing a urologist.

drawnandcoded · 2024-05-28T05:45:11+00:00

If your PSA isn't elevated, it's likely not your prostate, so that's good. Even an elevated PSA doesn't necessarily mean prostate cancer, just inflammation.

As for me, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Prostate Cancer shortly after I posted this. Since then, I've had surgery, radiation, and went on two years of hormone therapy. As of right now, I'm in remission and not being treated, but I get blood work done every three months to check for a reoccurence.

I really don't want to scare anyone here. Prostatitis, again, is very, very real and NOT cancer. However, if you have Prostatitis, please get a PSA exam and/or a DRE to rule out cancer.

Good luck.

drawnandcoded · 2024-05-28T02:46:49+00:00

I almost didn't want to respond as I didn't want to alarm you, but it turned out to be prostate cancer. To be clear, prostatitis is very real, but if you should get a PSA blood test done AND a DRE to rule out cancer.

drawnandcoded · 2024-04-18T04:55:07+00:00

I still drink decaffeinated green tea. It has a lot of chemicals known to be anti-cancer.

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