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@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ run: + npm install pipenv install pipenv run lookatme --theme=dark --style=vim --live README.md @@ -0,0 +1,503 @@ +--- +title: Origin Story +author: anonymous +date: 2020-07-01 +--- + +# Origin Story +## Mo + +# $ whoami + +mo khan | software engineer + +# $ history + +```bash + 1 gitlab --type=dev-tools + 2 cisco --type=security-product + 3 uppercut --type=agency + 4 arc-resources --type='oil & gas' + 5 ecompliance --type=startup + 6 thoughtworks --type=consulting + 7 medialogic --type=agency + 8 datashapers --type=startup +``` + +# $ uptime + +```bash +00:00 up 16 years, 1 user, load averages: 1.00 1.00 1.00 +``` + +# 1984 + +* Born in Caracas, Venezuela. +* Immigrates to Canada at age 4. +* Does not speak English. + +# Kindergarten - Elementary + +* Life at home is rough. +* Dad can't find work. +* Mom doesn't speak English. +* Dad turns to alcohol. + +# Kindergarten - Elementary + +* Wants to make friends but doesn't speak the language. + +# Kindergarten - Elementary + +* 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) of us live in a two bedroom apartment. +* Our building has drug and prostitution issues. +* Dads' car windows are smashed and urinated on twice. + +# Kindergarten - Elementary + +* Dad is abusive. +* Mom is new to the country and takes it. + +# Grade 2 - Elementary + +* Dad gets job. +* They move to a house with a yard. +* Dad is shipped off to Yemen for work. + +# Grade 2 - Elementary + +* New school. + +# Grade 2 - Elementary + +* English has improved but finds that Math is the common language. +* Refuses to speak anything else except for English because he wants to fit in. + +# Grade 2 - Elementary + +* The new school is mostly white. +* He has trouble fitting in. + +# Grade 2 - Elementary + +* His name is hard to pronounce, it sounds like Manure. +* He hates attendance. + * Teachers always pronounce his name wrong. + * Kids laugh. + +# Grade 2 - Elementary + +* He dresses in funny bright colors. +* He's told that he smells funny. + +# Grade 2 - Elementary + +His dad thought that he have a better chance if he could "integrate". +He was sort of right. + +# Grade 2/3 - Elementary + +* His father is sent home from Yemen and loses job. +* He doesn't know why. +* His dad starts drinking more. +* He decides that physical abuse is easier to take then the emotional abuse. + +# Grade 3 - Elementary + +* His mother finds a part time job at Zellers. +* She gets people to sign up for a Zellers club card. +* Her English is poor but she does the job anyway. +* She doesn't realize it when people insult her, but her child does. + +# Grade 3 - Elementary + +* His dad is still unemployed. + +# Grade 4 - Elementary + +* His mom gets a second job working in the same mall. +* She convinces people to sign up for Zellers club card during the day and Sears card in the evening + +# Grade 4 - Elementary + +* His younger brother and him walk to the mall after school. +* They sit on a bench across from their mom who is working in a booth. +* They spend their evenings there. +* They are so happy when they can convince their mom to buy them a hot dog from sailors steamed hot dogs. + +# Grade 4 - Elementary + +* They do their homework at the mall. +* They have to hide if their mother's manager comes by. +* He worries that someone from school will see them. They do. + +# Grade 4 - Elementary + +* His father gets a night job. +* He don't know he does. +* He hopes his father will cheer up. + +# Grade 5/6 - Elementary + +* His mother has been working through the immigration process to sponsor her sister, brother and mother to immigrate to Canada. +* His mother becomes a manager of a Macs convenience store in a rough part of the city. +* Him and his younger brother work nights with their mom. + +# Grade 5/6 - Elementary + +* He learns how to work the front till. +* He knows how to sell lottery tickets, porn mags and cigarettes to adults. +* Yes, he asks for id. + +# Grade 7 - Jr. High + +* He's the stereo typical immigrant kid. +* He thinks that he has no hope with girls. + +# Grade 7 - Jr. High + +* He's good at Math but he tries to hide it. +* He buys his first radio from Zellers. +* He loves listening to CJSW on Friday nights. +* He still remembers the first time he heard [Juicy by Biggie](https://genius.com/The-notorious-big-juicy-lyrics). +* The poetic story telling of hip hop helps him realize that he's not alone. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +* His mother saves up to buy a convenience store. +* She continues to work at Macs. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +* Him and his brother work at the store during the day while their mother works at Macs. +* He is robbed while working at the front till. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +* School starts. +* Things start to get complicated. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +* He receives a summons to appear in small claims court. +* He's being sued at the age of 11 for ~= $800.00 CAD + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +* His classmate, Travis, used to beat him up in elementary school. +* Travis was caught using a stolen credit card. +* Travis blamed him because he worked at a convenience store. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +* Something happens that causes Travis' mom's boyfriend to want to collect the money by suing an 11 year old child. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +I'm the bad boy at school. I'm no longer just the immigrant kid. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +Months pass between being served and getting to court. I defend myself in court. +I brought paystubs, calendars and as much data that I had to prove my innocence. +Travis admits to stealing the card # from his mom's office at work. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +Judge scolds Brad for suing a minor. I'm not guilty. Too late, stress, reputation +and negative impact has already happened. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +Dad, mom, aunt, uncle, bro and I live on the top floor of a house. We share 3 rooms. +Uncle sleeps in my bed during the day so that I can sleep in it at night. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +Foothills grocery fails badly. No customers, business shuts down. Family is +devastated and didn't have money to lose in the first place. Home is stressful. + +# Grade 8 - Jr. High + +I'm relieved that I don't have to go to work anymore. +I was robbed while working the till. + +Adults are... not cool. + +# Grade 9 - Jr. High + +I stopped smiling to make others feel comfortable. I'm tired of it. +People are afraid of me now. I don't know why. + +# Grade 9 - Jr. High + +> "Are you in a gang?", "Do you know where I can get some weed?". + +I don't know why I'm being asked this over and over. If I'm not at school, +I'm working or trying to play video games. + +# Grade 9 - Jr. High + +Dad used to collect seismic data out in the field. They don't need him anymore +because... computers. He works at Sears now trying to get people to sign up for +a Sears card. He is defeated. + +# Grade 9 - Jr. High + +Dad buys a Pentium I, 200MHz computer. He doesn't know how to use it or what it does +but he thinks my bro and I should learn it because it took his job. + +# Grade 9 - Jr. High + +I love the internet and ICQ. People don't judge me based on how I look. +I can be like everyone else. I fit in. I have friends on ICQ. +My favorite games are Quake I, Diablo, StarCraft. Battle .Net is amazing. + +# Grade 9 - Jr. High + +Mom buys store across from the high school that I am supposed to attend next year. + +NO!!! + +# Grade 10 - High School + +I'm tired of being the immigrant kid. I forge signatures and transfer to a different +high school. + +# Grade 10 - High School + +First day of school, I jumped on a bus and made my first friend. He just moved here +from Ghana. Wow, my new school is scary but there are more immigrant kids there, like me. + +I fit in. + +# Grade 10 - High School + +Mom is upset that I switched schools. She wanted me to work the store at lunch and +after school. + +# Grade 10 - High School + +People from Jr. High find out that I went to a different school. Now they're calling me +to see if I can "hook them up with weed?". + +# Grade 10 - High School + +I'm now in a position where I can access marijuana and we still need money. + +# Grade 10 - High School + +For the first time in my life, I have 'friends'. I know spend my time doing +what I want to instead of what I have to. + +# Grade 10 - High School + +I'm kicked out of school for skipping. No warning. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I went from an episode of "Dangerous Minds" to "Barney". I thought I accidentally +walked into a jr. high school. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I have to check in and check out with Mr. Chee. He's the assistant principle. +He saw something in me and I didn't give him much to look at. He saw me for me. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I spend my lunches in the library. Ranchlands posse leader, Chad Buckart, +doesn't like the way I look at him. Tries to jump me in a bathroom stall. +He failed... badly. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I'm labelled again. Aw.. man. I'm the bad boy. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I start working as a dishwasher at Debaji's. Monday -> Friday 5PM - 10PM. +I hate washing dishes. + +I get a pager. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I quit dish washing. I still have to pay my pager bill. +I get a job at Domino's Pizza. When asked "Can you hook me up?" my answer +becomes yes. I go to school from 8-4. I work at Domino's from 4:30 - 10:00. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I buy a car. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I graduate from making pizzas, answering phones, cutting pies, routing orders +to occasionally delivering when we're short drivers. + +# Grade 11 - High School #2 + +I'm arrested outside of the Metro night club during a midday all ages dance +for possession of a controlled substance. Constable Ramsey places me in the +back of a police van and jokes with his partner +"We should do him like we do out East, and break his legs and make him walk home." + +# Grade 12 + +tldr; +I'm arrested several times before I realize the only one making money from +me selling marijuana is my lawyer. + +# Grade 12 + +I meet my future life partner and her family. + +# Grade 12 + +Her family invites me to dinner, then again the next day and the next. + +# Grade 12 + +They encourage me and support me. + +# School of hard knocks + +I enroll at SAIT after doing some upgrading at Chinook College. + +# SAIT + +I finish a 2 year diploma in Computer Control Technology. + +# SAIT + +I realize that I'm capable of completing Calculus, Electronics, Programming courses. + +# SAIT + +I didn't just complete them but I also was also good enough to provide guidanxe to others. + +# SAIT + +While at SAIT I work Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights at Domino's pizza as a driver. + +# SAIT + +I clean parkades and paint lines on Saturdays. + +# SAIT + +Picking up used condoms, needles and other drug paraphenilia is humbling. + +# SAIT + +I'm proud to say that I paid my own way through school. +I had the help of the people who employed me. +My manager at Domino's wanted to see me succeed. +So did everyone there. + +# SAIT + +I finish school. + +# SAIT + +I'm still delivering pizzas. + +# SAIT + +I apply for call center positions at Shaw and Telus. I can't seem to get a call back. + +# SAIT + +I'm sleep walking through life. +I go through the motions of working until 2-3 AM everyday and sleeping until 10-11 AM. + +# SAIT + +I get a call at 10:00 AM one Thursday morning. +It's someone named Alex something from SAIT. +He was a substitute teacher for one of my courses. + +# SAIT + +He has a friend who is looking for a C programmer. + +# SAIT + +The teacher that drove me crazy, Graeme Smith, recommended me. +I can't believe it. + +# SAIT + +I thought that he dismissed me from the first time he saw me. +I sat in the back of the class with my hat back and I remember him looking at me like +"he doesn't belong here". I wanted to prove him wrong. I did. + +# SAIT + +He motivated me by challenging me and being the most difficult instructor. + +# SAIT + +Everyone hated him. I did too, until I didn't. + +# SAIT + +Then I saw that he had to be tough, it was necessary for me. +I'm thankful for that. + +# SAIT + +I showed up at an office at 1:00PM of the same day that I received the call. + +I met Sergio, he was looking to hire a C programmer to help port a gift card and loyalty applications to different point of sale terminals. + +# SAIT + +I took 3 C programming courses at SAIT but I didn't think I was a real programmer. + +# SAIT + +I took 2 C++ programming classes in high school. + +Mr. Sag had a phone in his classrooms. He let his students use it. I enrolled in +his course because I thought it would be an easy option and so I could use the phone +when someone paged me. + +Mr. Sag gave us a textbook and told us that we would get a credit for each module that we finished. +No lectures, no assignments, no nagging. Go learn at your own pace. This was amazing! + +# Programmer + +Sergio hired me. + +# Programmer + +I showed up for my first day of work on June. 14, 2004. +Nobody knew who I was. Sergio wasn't there. +He quit and hired me as quickly as possible to be his replacement. + +# Programmer + +Kevin Turco met with me in his office. He needed a C programmer because +he had noone else. Sergio and Richard joined Data Shapers through an aquisition. +They both left and the company had committed to deploying a gift card application +for Sport Swap. The first version was to be deployed in September of 2004. + +# Programmer + +Kevin offerred me $30,000.00 CAD/yr. I said I was looking for $15.00/hr. +He laughed and said that $30,000.00 CAD/yr was $15.00/hr. + +# Programmer + +My first full day as a programmer was Tuesday, June. 15, 2004. + +# Fin + +Computers changed my life. + +1. It gave me a `$HOME`. +1. It provided me with `$ jobs`. +1. It allows me to `make`. |