The Recordings
My day-job is software development and as part of my rite-of-passage to attain that position I had to start a programming blog and write posts about it. For awhile I wrote plain posts doing just that. Vaguely snarky things just going over what I had learned and all that dull jazz.
Then I read a series of programming posts called the The Craftsman Articles.
I was inspired, which is never a good thing. A devious idea came to my Neraq (mind) that was rather insane but totally me. That idea was to write a series about Empirians (aliens) that pretend to be Human on Earth and learn the Human art of programming. Other crazy stuff happens along the way and it gets derailed as usual, but there is code there! Some nuggets of actual wisdom! Personal experiences in the land of software woven into a sci-fi/fantasy/comedy narrative.
The result was The Recordings.
The Recordings are perfectly canon to everything else in my glorious world. It is not set at the same time of the main series--actually in the future, but I won't reveal too much. The Recordings also add some new details and flesh out the mindset of the common Empirian. And explores backstory implied in The Adventures of the Trinity and the One.
The characters are Lapadj and Sarela. Lapadj is a Kharatzara trying to learn about Human programming. Sarela is his invisible Szarehan companion, mocking him and his 'mission.' Together they experience the strangeness of Human culture through Anna, Lapadj's Human coworker, and the bizarreness of Buhukiea. I won't spoil too much, but it gets pretty out there in the Empirian-ness.
So, basically, The Recordings another playground for me to run amok in. I don't update it or write for it nearly as much as I should, but it is already very long. And it is still growing. I have the series plotted out in my mind far down the road like anything I do.
One day I'm planning on constructing an e-copy for it so it isn't a mere blog series, but as I'm still playing around with my other stuff's formatting. In the meantime, it'll still live over there and I'll get to it bit by bit.
Some parts of it probably won't make much sense if you aren't a programmer, but the humor and plot is definitely the focus. I love writing humor like this. So much banter and random Empirian nonsense. I enjoy writing it when I do and I hope someone enjoys reading it.
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