My lack of posting here must not be interpreted as inactivity toward my goal of becoming a Microsoft code "hero" (vague as that may right now be). I have installed, troubleshot, asked for help, made discoveries all by myself, gotten things right, gotten things wrong, worn the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 t-shirt, studied C++ in advance of really digging into C#, scratched my head, thought I'd never get it, seen light bulbs turn on, sipped many a cup of the hot, black brew, dived head-first into Inside C# Second Edition by Archer and Whitechapel, gotten really excited, been overwhelmed, attended a code camp (as opposed to a coed camp), worn the t-shirt again while at the same time tried to come up with a sound backup and data archival strategy (when I worked for my last company, the network guys worried about that, now I have to), purchased storage devices and media, written backup scripts, tried to install Vista SP1 (without luck so far due to an Intel video driver not being yet compatible), tried to love and interact with my wife and kids, tried to love and support some dear friends who really need it right now, and on, and on, and on.

 

And yesterday at supper, I said to my wife, "I had fun today."

"Doing what?" she asked.

"Code," I said.

"Oh."

 

It reminded me of the thrill of my early days in learning IT back in the mid-80s. I can have that thrill again?!!?

 

WOW!!!

 

Back to it.

 

Two words. One exclamation point. Such hope.

 

It has been a very long time since I purposed to learn (not dabble in, not tweak existing code), really learn a computer programming language. And as I set my mind diligently to this mission, aware of the potholes, broken code, debugging, successes, joys, and challenges ahead, I smile at the future. It will be hard, but isn't it true that anything worth having is?

 

KP

So what was it that Billy Crystal said to Daniel Stern in "City Slickers" after Stern's character, Phil, had his mid-life crisis? It was something like, "Phil, remember when we used to play ball in the vacant lot and the ball would go in the corner where we couldn't reach it? We'd yell, 'Do over!' Well, Philly, you get to start over...you got a do over!"

 

I'll spare the details, but I am happily at a place of "do over" with regard to finding myself once again developing software. But since things have changed a lot since the 80s, I've got some serious re-tooling to do. When approaching the .NET vs LAMP stack decision crossroad, a CIO that I respect and trust finally tipped me over to the .NET side. He said, "Go for it, fully engage, and get their full tool suite." Now, having gotten my MSDN subscription, and while waiting for my shipment of DVDs, etc. from Microsoft, I've been scouring MSDN and elsewhere for the initial startpoint for the journey on.

 

I look forward to meeting (virtually or otherwise) and exchanging ideas with the community at large.

 

KP