I'M THE OPERATOR WITH MY POCKET CALCULATOR

OnClipEvent (load) {
  if (_root.consciousness_status == awake){
    _root.thomas.gotoAndPlay(“write_code”);
  } else if (_root.consciousness_status == asleep){
    _root.thomas.gotoAndPlay(“dream_in_code”);
  }
}

For the past few days it has been difficult to speak, or write, or, in fact, to communicate in any normal, narrative manner. You see, I have succumbed to the lure of code, of information architecture, of interactive structures, and logical processes, and it is beginning to take its toll on my linguistic processing. This is nothing new for me, I tend to slip all too easily into code view; I actually begin to perceive the world around me in terms of code relationships:

if (this._x > _root.me.x) {
  _root.me._x += 1;
}

Sometimes, when things get really bad, and the code swirls behind my eyes – though in a way entirely dissimilar from anything to do with The Matrix – I actually dream code. Many a night, when in the depths of a project and its usually attending semi-insomnia, I have been awakened by an elegant phrase or structure that somehow comes to me in the midst of a dream. I know that sometimes I find these fragments as part of the dream – on a scrap of paper or written on a blackboard within the dream itself – but sometimes, I believe, I actually dream in code.

It is not that I am a particularly expert programmer – I probably shouldn’t even apply that word to myself. I mean, I do quite well at what I do, but let’s face it, I am an artist and not a computer scientist – though I am currently striking out on a path to close that gap. But, to return to the point, I am, in fact, enamored with this linguistic slippage that I so often experience in the early stages of a new project. The standard syntactic and grammatical structures of the English language cease to function as they should and are replaced by logical arrays, variable structures, and objects to be dealt with independently of the content they may contain. It feels as though I am experiencing the world anew, or one that generally resides a few inches to the left of the one I have around me when Strunk and White are looking over my shoulder.

This, as you may well imagine, can be quite disconcerting for the wife, as I stand in the center of a room after a prolonged bout of scripting with a vaguely glassy look glazing my eyes only able to muster a semi-slackjawed nod of comprehension in response to the words she speaks to me:

If (_root.brain == codey) {
  _root.responsiveness.gotoAndStop(“indistinct”);
}

Luckily, this state does not commonly last very long, though it seems to be a necessary part of my working process. Usually a gentle reminder from the wife that the world is there is sufficient to bring me back to proper linguistic functionality, though occasionally a mild smack to the back of the head is required before I reluctantly leave my happy little geek cocoon:

if (_root.brain == codey && _root.thewife == waiting) {
  _root.nudge.gotoAndPlay(“gentle”);
} else if (_root.brain == codey && _root.thewife == still_waiting) {
  _root.smack.gotoAndPlay(“mild”);
}