Volunteer Voluntschmeer

I'm so freakin' tired right now.

ConsultComm 4 development is proceeding slower than snot, but what's new. Work is workin' me... like... 45 hours a week, plus I've got family matters to attend to. I'd like to have help development this next version - but whom?

I've tried to get colleagues and friends to help out, but that lasted for less than a week once their interest waned. I put out a job posting on SourceForge and received two responses, but they never e-mailed back. I've tried recruiting, but no luck.

I can't say I blame 'em. Finding volunteers for an open source project sucks. I'm just as guilty as the next guy. I volunteered and did some coding for PlaneShift back in the day, and I loved it. Stayed up late nights in IRC, chatted with the technical architects, worked hard. But in the end I had to quit my day job, find a new one, perform for interviews, etc. The fun development had to go on pause for a while. And when I tried to resume development, the PlaneShift developers weren't really interested in taking me on anymore. Can't say I blame 'em.

I tried to just "donate code" to the Java Desktop Integration Components library, but I was convinced instead to create a new incubator project. I feel guilty from time to time... I just didn't have the time or desire to keep up the project, and it's basically remained dormant since the time I dumped off the source & JavaDocs.

It's tough to donate time and effort. Life sucks up a lot of energy. And often life just plain ol' sucks. When you already donate 10 hours a day to work, 6 hours a day to sleeping, 4 hours a day on family and 2 hours a day on basic upkeep of the house and oneself that leaves... lessee... two whole hours?

Great. One can only wonder why I can't finish anything. The sad thing is, I know all my fellow hackers out there are in the same boat. We're getting old. We're getting jobs. We're getting families. And our internal organs are shutting down. It's hard to have the gusto to be a nighttime hacker extraordinaire.

Sing it with me! "Shiny, happy people holding haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaands!!!!!!!"