I've been really bad about blogging lately. So much to do, and so little time in which to do any of it. One thing sure remains constant: time keeps ticking away.

Over the last couple weeks, I've been working on a book proposal and outline. It got submitted last night. I was approached by a publisher a few weeks back to author a book, and if all continues going well I'll likely take the offer. I'm particularly excited about the project albeit a bit scared about the time commitment.

Progress on my Scheme compiler has been minimal because of the book effort. This is really a shame because I'd spend all day working on it if I could. Like I said, time is something I'm short on at the moment.

I began writing a paper which I'd love to complete, but that will likely take some time. It explores using structural equivalence for type matching and operational subsumption, foregoing the artificial inheritance policy that OO slams on types. I'm particularly interested in exploring how this would enable rich ecosystems of types to borrow and share implementations from each other at runtime, introducing mutations in parallel. Basically, an evolutionary type system.

Microsoft has been going well, although it obviously eats up most of my time and energy. Mostly this is a shame, simply because I have research work like my Scheme compiler that I am completely in love with. The energy people have there is just sickening at times, and it's difficult to remain in the game 100% of the time. I've found that it's easy to fall behind and lose effectiveness, simply because of a loss of focus for a minimal amount of time.

I had one of those "you're a moron" moments today. Was sitting there, and suddenly some guy shows up at my office door. I was so involved in what I was doing, my brain just couldn't do the context switch fast enough. Paraphrasing... "Hi, I'm Herb. Do you agree with the premise of the email I sent earlier?" I responded, "The value type finalizer thing?" Blank stare between the two of us. Him: "Value types don't have finalizers..." Perplexed, I thought about it for a moment. Ahh, yes... "Oh, disposable value types." Turns out it was Herb Sutter, a C++ Architect and smart dude. It always amazes me how whenever I open my mouth I make myself look like an idiot.

I went to a friend's place last weekend to hang out. It's great to unwind and let the noggin' relax for a little bit. Unfortunately, it again reminded me of my lack of a strong long term career goal. I used to think that it was being a (successful) entrepreneur, as various business topics have always interested me (such as competition and macro-economics). However, computer science is my passion, and academia and/or a research environment seems like a natural fit. I thought of this because many of the folks at the gettogether were PhD's and there was at least one professor from UoW. I wonder every day if that's my real calling.

Chilled with KitG, JoelPob, and AMoore tonight for a couple beers. Two Aussies and a New Zealander. All on the same team. Who woulda thunk it? Good fun.

Anyhow, it's only 1AM and I've got some reading to do!