This is interesting. Thanks for playing along with me.
Can I ask another question? Now that you've implemented the algorithm, would you feel more comfortable employing AES encryption on a future project, or less comfortable?
Is your question specific to AES itself, or just my own implementation? If it's the latter, I'm hesitant to say more comfortable. It's not something you can just implement in a couple days from memory. There's always a chance something might go wrong.
If you mean will I be more comfortable in using the algorithm itself, then definitely yes. At least for the moment. IIRC, there have been some partially successful attacks against AES, but nothing that has managed to break it fully.
Can I ask another question? Now that you've implemented the algorithm, would you feel more comfortable employing AES encryption on a future project, or less comfortable?