Where to begin?


By Kawigi
TopCoder Member

Where to begin? Do I care about wasting some of my 500 words in the name of artistic style? Nay! Most blog posts are probably around 500 words anyways. Of course, if a hyperlink is worth 1000 words, I’m already up to 1043.

Let me start by explaining why I think I’d be an appropriate person for this activity. I think you’re looking for someone who knows how to blog. That, of course, means knowing how to link and when I don’t have anything appropriate to link. You probably also want someone who’s witty, and is well-known and well-respected in the TopCoder community, and also someone who has made contributions and given support to your operations since the day I joined TopCoder in 2004. Maybe it would reduce some overhead if you picked someone who has written for you in the past.

Then, since it’s not something you get to do every day, maybe you should pick me just to get the opportunity to meet me, at least for the part of the TopCoder staff who hasn’t already met me. Likewise, I’d like to meet you and the other competitors and spectators. History has me falling flat on my face in early rounds of the TCO or just being ineligible, preventing me from getting the opportunity to meet the best in the business, and everyone else that shares my passion for programming, and also others that may attend. And now it looks like I’m up to 25248 words.

Promise: the following paragraphs will have fewer hyperlinks than the last one. Most of those links aren’t that useful anyways (and are probably somewhat in excess of what I’d attempt in blogging for the TCO).

For those of you who are female, with me also comes pictures and short videos of the cutest baby in the world ( sorry, I just can’t help it when Gwynneth is involved). If I could know sooner, maybe she could even come. Voices of people everywhere would raise entire octaves.

For those of you who coordinate travel, I’m just in Seattle. Someone must be giving dirt-cheap fares from Seattle to Las Vegas. And while staying in the same place as all the competitors might be fun, it’s still an option to stay with some obscure relatives I have in the area.

For those of you who are obsessive compulsive (or just grammar Nazis), I have good spelling and grammar and I usually express myself very clearly when I try to.

For those of you who are interested in legal issues, yes, I can avoid making comments about OCD and Nazis, and any statements that might tie them together.

For those of you who are more into running the contests, I think I would enjoy watching the TCO (even as something more of a reporter than as an administrator or spectator) more than just about anyone, and I have the capacity to understand the problems and solutions.

And if you like round numbers, this is exactly 500 words.