Welcome!
Hello, and welcome.
This is a personal blog I’ve created to document the part of me I feel comfortable making public. Saying that, I am not opposed to the idea of feeling vulnerable. I am a sensitive person, and sometimes that’s okay and acceptable if it provides others with the space to feel normal in their skin.
My name is Maurice, pronounced Morris, its a common Syrian name, due to the occupation of France in the middle east during the last century. My mother is Syrian, my father is Irish. I am English through birth. Irish through citizenship. Syrian in temperament. I am a father of two young children, Azriel my son is 3, Alaia my daughter is current 8 months. I am a husband to a wonderful wife. I am a Software Engineer by trade, and a tiny games developer by hobby.
I love programming. I’m not a huge fan of tech.
The beauty of creating art, systems and tools through words alone have always inspired me greatly. The beauty of great design and intelligent decisions are what draw me so heavily to this field, and what keep my passion for programming alive. But tech in the sense of the industry, and the gaping ravenous money making snake oil selling pit of dispair that comes with it is not to my taste. I wish we could be more responsible for our impact on the world. More caring of the needs of the many, rather than just the people on top. Less obsessed with the next big client, or next big advancement, and more invested in just making good, robust, interesting and extensible software.
Our profession is young though, and I’ve only been doing it 11 years now so I’m sure I’m not at the peak of my opinion on the matter. I’m sure with time, with guard rails, with a better understanding of how to manage the behemoth of code we continuously build upon, we will come to some sort out standardisation in the field. Maybe one day we will build programmes more responsibly. With more thought and care for those that come after us. With a better understanding of what it means to not only be a developer in the space, but someone that is responsible for the betterment of the art. Focusing on performance, and usability, rather than plethora of half baked features.
Anyways. Enough rambling about bad code. I’m making a game called “Life and Death at the End of the World”. Its partly based on the game Project Zomboid, and partly based on The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which I read earlier this year and it hit me harder than any book I’ve read in recent memory. The feeling of despair, and tiny triumph in such an uncaring and careless world were so well conveyed, I had to try my hand at it.
I am also doing a lot of writing at the moment, due to picking up Obsidian as a note taking app and really enjoying the process of filling out a daily journal. So that plus having something worth talking about has brought me to starting this blog.
Feel welcome here and if you feel so inclined, join my server on discord, and come have a chat, about games, about programming, about fatherhood, or anything you feel comfortable with.