First week at new job and almost doubled my sales goal. Target was $2,000. Finished at $3,941.

That wasn't the hard part.

The hard part was spending three hours trying to get Win32 to recognize an Xbox controller.

I got back into coding a year ago after my brother dared me to make a game. Godot spoiled me. I'd forgotten what programming on the C64 was really like: line after line of code with nothing holding your hand. The 1.44MB Challenge has me writing C with the Win32 API and GDI software rendering.

I'm not Carmack.

I wish I was.

I've done a lot of stupid shit in my life, and I try not to live with regrets. I did what I did, and I accept the consequences. But every once in a while I kick myself for not spending more time with the C64 instead of being a dumbass kid. Maybe if I'd made one or two different choices, I'd understand this stuff well enough to sit down, crack open a Jolt, and watch the code pour out onto the screen.

Instead I'm reading MSDN, changing one line, compiling, swearing, changing another line, compiling again, and eventually stumbling into the answer.

Then again... that's probably how Carmack learned it, too.