My programming journey started at age nine or ten, when I started making art on my graphing calculator. I still have the notebook - somewhere - with all the formulas, some Cartesian, some polar. I didn't get started with "proper" programming until age fifteen, when I learned industrial G-code. My first programs were all hand-written and then manually typed into CNC controllers. I still have all my old programs in yet another notebook, mostly lathe projects. I've always found it easier to program CNC lathes manually, even if the program is fairly complicated, but I'm hopeless at programming a CNC mill or wire EDM without CAM software.

I tried to teach a SCARA (Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm) to play draughts when I was in college. I managed to get the robot to reliably pick up and place the pieces, but I never got to the "actually play the game" part before I had to move on to another project, given the amount of time I spent fiddling with the various end effectors.

Speaking of college, I spent an entire semester beating my head against a brick wall trying to program PLCs, which are counter-intuitive as hell. I still did well in that class, but to this day, ladder "logic" escapes me, and I'd much rather use mechanical (including pneumatic and hydraulic) means of automation, rather than relying on electronics for everything. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

Everything from here on doesn't really count as programming, but it's still STEMgeek stuff that's relevant to what I do.

My sister helped me with my first custom-built PC right after I graduated, though I have to credit one of my classmates with helping me decide on all the components beforehand. At the time, I used it for gaming and to run my Makerbot Replicator. I don't know what Makerbot is doing now, but back in 2012, their software was Python-based, and easy to tinker with for anyone familiar with Python. Too bad that my problem was hardware, not software. That computer is still my main, but I've had to replace the power supply and I've gone through 3 hard drives (word to the wise: WD 1TB Caviar Black has a tendency to fry itself for no apparent reason). I've also upgraded the memory, since it has a big motherboard with six RAM slots instead of the usual four.

I learned PC-DMIS (or, as my boss called it, "PC-dumbass") at my first (and so far, only) industry job, in which I programmed and operated two coordinate measuring machines (CMM). I also learned two different types of ERP software, but every time I tried teaching my colleagues how to use new software, whether it was new to me (e.g. Minitab, Globalshop) or familiar as the back of my hand (e.g. Excel, Mastercam), well... the less said about it, the better.

These days, I use Adobe Flash CS3 for 2D art and measuring raster images of blueprints (long story), Autodesk Inventor for making 3D models, Blender for processing .stl files, and PreForm for running my new 3D printer (I donated the Replicator to NIH, specifically VPPL, for which I also designed the logo).