Hey there, my name is Ridha Hassoun, a student at Oregon State University – currently in my last course of the program, the Capstone Project! This blog will serve as a place to document my work, talk aloud (or on the internet) working through problems in my code, and random ramblings.
I got into computers very young – around the age of 5 or 6. My father was an early adopter when he moved to the United States in 1993, and old computers often filled our bedrooms and garage. My earliest memory was using Windows 95, playing Minesweeper. Eventually, we upgraded to Windows 98 and eventually Windows 2000, where I spent hours playing with Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, explaining my excellent proficiencies in these programs to this day. A family friend who had previously worked at Bell/AT&T in New Jersey introduced me to Java and programming, and during high school, I briefly hosted a Pokemon fan website, built on HTML, CSS, and PHP.
My current career is completely unrelated to computer science. I am a pharmacist, currently working in the inpatient and emergency department wards. Before that, I worked for about 4 and a half years in the outpatient setting, at various CVS/pharmacy locations across the greater Los Angeles area.
I don’t really anticipate switching careers at this time. When I first started the program, I had intentions of possibly switching to a more informatics role at a local hospital, but with my career trajectory in pharmacy where it is, it doesn’t seem very likely. This program has spurred interest in low level computer programming and architecture, and I have some hobby projects in mind (including bootstrapping my own hobby operating system.) This interest is why my current favorite project is emulating the Intel 8080 and running Space Invaders (hence the name of this blog!)
In my free time away from work and school, I like to work out and play video games (PC, PS4, Switch.) An injury precluded me from being able to do much, but now I am back at it again at the gym. In addition, I have gotten into cooking. No Hell’s Kitchen appearances any time soon, but I am slowly honing my skills as an amateur chef. Lastly, I enjoy the great outdoors: hiking and camping.
Looking forward to completing this course, the project, and graduating!
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