Well now.

I'd be lying if I said I haven't tried my hand at this before, but I'm giving it another shot. Plus, it's tied to my professional identity this time, which is kind of like holding my own career hostage.

Hi. I'm Jacob. Nice to meet you.

I do a bunch of things. I go to school at the University of Waterloo (in the frozen North). I intern at companies from time to time. (My LinkedIn profile is a good source of truth on what I'm up to in that regard.) I write software from time to time, mostly simple I-wonder-how-fast-I-can-whip-this-up-in-Python things. I read books and listen to music, and when asked can never describe my taste in either, but usually have a point of view on whatever. I play some music too, mostly classical piano. I play video games, though it's kind of like my book-tastes: I never really know which ones. I bike places when my bike isn't broken, which is rare. I like good beer (lager in warm weather, amber ales in the winter), good wine (mostly Riesling and Chardonnay), and good company.

I don't know what I want this blog to be yet. I have some programming-related rants that have been kicking around in my head for a while, and some short-story ideas I'd want to flesh out a little more. I try to stay away from politics, but who knows? If you're still reading at this point, chances are better-than-even that you know I haven't exactly had the best run of luck the past couple of months, and I'm on the fence about just how much of that I want to get off my chest in such a public and tied-to-me way. Or I might just talk about things I don't know anything about. Yeah, probably that one.

So there it is. Basically who I am in two paragraphs. If my writing style hasn't driven you away yet, it probably won't. So sit and stay awhile.

I'm sure it'll be worth it.

J