What's been up

It has been a few months since I posted anything so I wanted to do a quick update. Things have been moving along sometimes smoothly sometimes not.

Home

Things are still coming together on the house. I know we've been here for a year and a half now and Heather has definitely made a nice cozy place for us. I finished the LED project in the kitchen and the fireplace nook. I've added hue lighting and automated it via the phones and my amazon echo. I've got some new toys to add I've just been lazy or too bush to get to them lately.

Home Office

Some work has been done to straighten out the disaster I have in here but it isn't where I want it to be yet. I have way too many books, games and a few unpacked or repacked (condensed from other totes) still to go through. I have some new shelving to put together that should clear up more room so I can organize.

Work

I've been in the new job for over a year and I'm still learning the ropes. When I think i have a handle on it something new pops up or something old that's been working breaks and I have to figure out how to fix it. I can't complain though I'm learning a lot.

Masters Degree

I'm in my third class Project Management Systems and almost finished, two weeks to go. Next up is Managing Change a Human Resources Management class. I'm not looking forward to that but we will see. Maybe it will be like Leadership and Organizational Behavior and be surprisingly interesting. I'm getting into a rhythm with the classes now. A lot more work than the undergraduate work as I'm finding out.

Conclusion for now

Things are going well though I don't feel I have enough time in the days. I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze about 5 more hours into the day so I can do all the things I want. Next time I'll talk about some of the new tabletop games I've purchased. For now that is all though, until next time remain safe.

Darin

Onward and Upward

Lets start with Happy Easter! Yes, it is Easter Sunday and I've been working on catching homework. I know you are thinking homework? I thought you would be finished with school for now? As I said in the last blog I started Keller Graduate School after I finished my Bachelor's. I'm currently working my way through Leadership and Organizational Behavior. This week I managed to fall behind and spent most of the holiday trying to catch up.

That said I'm learning a lot about leadership and different aspects of organizational behavior. I'm surprised I'm enjoying this class. So, what have I learned so far in graduate school?

1. You write a lot of papers
2. You do even more research
3. Which means you read a lot
4. Your papers are more subjective

I have a long way to go and I'm really just getting started but I am enjoying it. It is definitely challenging.

Social Medial Links

• GitHub
• Pluralsight
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

NEW Section!

Lately, I've started listening to Pod Casts while I walk in the afternoon and on the way back and forth to work. So listed below by subject are the ones I'm currently into.

Podcasts

Computer Programming and Information

• Coding Blocks
• The Stack Overflow Podcast
• CodeCast
• .NET Rocks!
• Herding Code
• Hanselminutes

Security

• Security Now

Gaming Podcasts

Board Games

• The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast

D&D-Esk Games

• The D6 Generation

Books I am Reading or Have Started On

• NEW! The C# Player's Guide 3rd Edition - Using C# 7.0 and Visual Studio 2017 - Page 16
• By R.B. Whitaker
• C# 7.1 and .NET Core 2.0 - Modern Cross-Platform Development - Kindle 30%
• By Mark J. Price
• Clean Code - A handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
• Robert C. Martin
• Getting to Yes - Negotiating an agreement without giving in - Page 8
• By Roger Fisher and William Ury
• Microsoft ADO.NET 4 - Kindle 10%
• By Tim Patrick
• Murach's ADO.NET 4 database programming with C# - Page 18 (Started 2/24/18)
• By Anne Boehm & Ged Mead
• Organizational Behavior - Page 552
• By Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A. Judge
• Parallel Programming with Microsoft .NET - Page 18
• By Colin Campbell, Ralph Johnson, Ade Miller, and Stephen Toub
• Pro RESTful APIs - Design, Build and Integrate with REST, JSON, XML and JAX-RS - Page 2
• By Sanjay Patni

Books In the Queue to Read

• Intermediate C# Programming - Kindle
• By Troy Dimes
• JavaScript: The Good Parts - Kindle
• By Douglas Crockford
• Introduction to JavaScript Object Notation - Kindle
• By Lindsay Bassett
• Node.js 8 the Right Way - Practical, Server-Side JavaScript that Scales
• By Jim R. Wilson
• The Power of Habit - Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
• By Charles Duhigg
• Mastering .NET Machine Learning
• By Jamie Dixon
• Learning SQL
• By Alan Beaulieu
• The DevOps Handbook - How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations
• By Gen Kim, Jez Humble, Patric Debois, & John Willis
• Zero to Hero - Working with IOT
• By Manoj Thakur
• Docker: The Comprehensive Beginner's Guide to Docker
• By Miles Price
• Dancer's Lament: Path to Ascendancy, Book 1
• By Ian C. Esslemont
• Deadhouse Landing: Path to Ascendancy, Book 2
• By Ian C. Esslemont
• Fall of Light: Book Two of the Kharkanas Trilogy
• By Steven Erikson
• Zen of Analog Circuit Design
• By Anand Udupa
• Getting Started with Rasberry Pi Zero W
• By Agus Kurniawan

Books I've Recently Finished

• The Phoenx Project - A Novel About IT, DevOps and Helping Your Business Win
• By: Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
• Ready Player One
  • By Ernest Cline
• Project Management - Achieving Competitive Advantage
• By Jeffrey K. Pinto
• A Gift of Fire - Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing Technology
• By

A Fork in the Path

Catching Up

         It has been a while since i posted here. It seems the new job, college, and family time have conspired to keep me away. I don't say any of these in a bad way, just that we have to choose wisely how we spend our time. I've been on a self betterment kick, the quest for more knowledge.

         So where did we leave off when last i waxed eloquently? I had been telling you about the changes over 2016-2017 time period. So, as predicted I have finished my Bachelor's of Science in Technical Management. As of this weekend, I am a newly minted graduate of DeVry University. I've also been accepted to DeVry's Keller School of Management to do my graduate work to earn my Masters of Information Systems in Data Management. This is where things will have to slow down unless I run into some money I wasn't expecting but not just money I want to get in the swing of the classes before I try to take more than one every two months. I was prepared for the Bachelors level classes and two every two months consumed most of my time. Monday, February 26th, 2018 is my first day of class towards this degree. I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

• My Graduation Wish List (For Now)

The Job

         Is it everything I thought it would be? Yes, and so much more. I definitely have the tiger by the tail. It is my own fault for not staying current on my programming and working more with C# and learning the new architectures like MVC. Also, JavaScript has just exploded. I'm dying to get my hands on ReactJS and a few others but I don't see me doing this anytime soon because i'm trying to knock the rust off of my skills and learn all the new things from the past four years. Honestly, you may as well say I'm starting over. I remember the concepts but so much has changed. Take GitHub, Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team Services. I would have killed for these when i first was working on my programming degree. I remember making backups on usb drives and trying to remember where each was. These are so helpful and awesome for using either in a team or solo.

Speaking of GitHub

         I don't have a lot posted on GitHub, more on Visual Studios Team Services. However, I will place a link to my GitHub below and a few other Social Media Sites where you can check me out.

Social Medial Links

• GitHub
• Pluralsight
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Books I'm Currently Reading

• C# 7.1 and .NET Core 2.0 - Modern Cross-Platform Development - Kindle 22%
• By Mark J. Price
• Clean Code - A handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
• Robert C. Martin
• Getting to Yes - Negotiating an agreement without giving in - Page 8
• By Roger Fisher and William Ury
• Microsoft ADO.NET 4 - Kindle 10%
• By Tim Patrick
• Murach's ADO.NET 4 database programming with C# - Page 18 (Started 2/24/18)
• By Anne Boehm & Ged Mead
• Organizational Behavior
• By Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A. Judge
• Parallel Programming with Microsoft .NET - Page 18
• By Colin Campbell, Ralph Johnson, Ade Miller, and Stephen Toub
• Pro RESTful APIs - Design, Build and Integrate with REST, JSON, XML and JAX-RS - Page 2
• By Sanjay Patni

Books In the Queue to Read

• Intermediate C# Programming - Kindle
• By Troy Dimes
• JavaScript: The Good Parts - Kindle
• By Douglas Crockford
• Introduction to JavaScript Object Notation - Kindle
• By Lindsay Bassett
• Node.js 8 the Right Way - Practical, Server-Side JavaScript that Scales
• By Jim R. Wilson
• The Power of Habit - Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
• By Charles Duhigg
• Mastering .NET Machine Learning
• By Jamie Dixon
• Learning SQL
• By Alan Beaulieu
• The DevOps Handbook - How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations
• By Gen Kim, Jez Humble, Patric Debois, & John Willis

Books I've Recently Finished

• The Phoenx Project - A Novel About IT, DevOps and Helping Your Business Win
• By: Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
• Ready Player One
  • By Ernest Cline
• Project Management - Achieving Competitive Advantage
• By Jeffrey K. Pinto
• A Gift of Fire - Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing Technology
• By

A Long Walk Back Into the Sunlight

So things begin again. I've neglected things for far too long. So here I am writing a new post. Lots of things have happened since last I sat down to write anything here. I've remarried, bought a house, changed jobs, and I'm working on my Bachelors of Science in Technical Management.

So last November 7th I purchased my first house. I never thought I would like being a home owner but I do. Its not a large house but it is very cozy. We have a dog, Willow and a cat, Winnifred (Winnie). Then there is my wife Heather. She has done much to make this a home and not just a house. She still thinks I'm a geek but she is a gamer chick and a little bit of a geek herself she just won't admit it.

So November 8th, Heather and I got married. If you ever plan to get married and buy a house in the same week. Please reconsider, it is a very stressful experience. I don't recommend it though we made it through it.

On to the new job, I'm still with DTNA but in a new capacity. I am the software engineer for the Gastonia facility now. It is a big transition and I've had to do a lot of brushing up on C#. All in all, I enjoy the challenge.

So after four associate degrees I'm finally in hot pursuit of that first Bachelors degree at Devry University. At my current pace I will finish at the end of February. The plan right now is to start work on my masters degree at the beginning of March with Keller.

That's me for now. I don't have any links or pictures for this blog. We will see what I come up with for the next one.

So, it's been a good while since I posted anything new on the blog. A lot has happened since I was last here but I won't go into all of that. Suffice to say that things progress. I don't have a lot to say today other than to update the blog. I will try to post more at a later date. So onward and hopefully upward.

Ingress

So lately I've been dabbling with Ingress a fun game that is played using your smartphone and GPS. I've joined the resistance and battle as agent Raarge along with my friends Kukek, Iceman365, Kraark & DrifterXXXXX (He likes to remain partially anonymous). I'll include some links to videos and game info and let you decide for yourself if you think it is for you.

• Official Ingress Site
• Ingress Wikapedia
• Ingress Help
• Ingress Field Guide
• Ingress YouTube Channel

Guardians of the Galaxy

So I've been waiting for this to release since early June. I caught the advanced showing Thursday, Jul 31st and I have to say it was amazing. It might have started off a tad slow but it quickly got up to speed. I enjoyed the blend of action and comedy. Groot was a very well played character even though the sum of his lines were, "I am Groot." So I'm recommending this one as a must see if you are a Marvel fan.

Guardians of the Galaxy Official Trailer

Well kiddies that brings us to the end of this blog. I know it's been a year and you expect more but that's all I have time for now. Thanks for reading.

Things to come

Well it has been a long while since I posted anything here. I'd almost forgotten about the ole blog. That was until I got back into Twitter. You can find me on Twitter as @raarge . Mainly because of a show on YouTube by Geek & Sundry called TableTop hosted by Will Wheaton. I love pen and paper games and lately I'm into... you guessed it Table Top games. Here's a few of the games I'm into.

• Arkham Horror
• Catan
• Star Trek Catan
• Forbidden Island
• Pandemic
• Lords of Waterdeep
• Chuthulu Fluxx
• Munchkin
• Chuthulu Munchkin
• Zombie Dice
• Chuthulu Dice

The new edditons to my gamming arsenal.

• Fluxx
• Ticket to Ride

Recent Gaming Exploits

June 23rd, 2013
Gaming Group: Donny, Wayne, Will & Myself

Game 1: Chuthulu Fluxx
Winner: Chuthulu

Game 2: Chuthulu Fluxx
Winner: Chuthulu
Thoughts: The game is very easy to pick up. Lots of ways to lose. Casual game little luck and a little strategy with every changing rules.

Game 3: Lords of Waterdeep
Winner: Wayne
Thoughts: Very fun and easy to pick up. I really enjoyed this game. Full of quests and mystery. Each player is a secret lord of waterdeep who is trying to do certain things with his agents as the game goes on. While at the same time trying to block the other players from completing their quests. I enjoyed the game a lot. Reminded me of my Dungeons and Dragons days. Except instead of questing you are sending people on quests.

Game 4: Forbidden Island
Winner: Everyone
Thoughts: I have to say I really enjoyed this game. This is one of the first cooperative board games I've played. In this game everyone works together to win. There are so many ways to lose and only one to win. Basically, everyone is running around trying to get the treasures so we can get off the island before it sinks.

Game 5: Pandemic
Winner: Everyone
Thoughts: Technically we didn't win. We misread one of the rules for swapping cards. Still this was such a fun game. This game and Forbidden Island are created by the same person. Basically, you and your team work to stop 4 diseases from becoming a pandemic and killing all of mankind.

Game 6: Pandemic
Winner: Pandemic
Thoughts: Take 2 of Pandemic. This time we upped the stakes and played on the epic level. To quote Will Wheaton, "I had more fun losing this game than I have winning most. Everything started ok but soon escalated beyond our control. We managed to cure 3 of the 4 diseases. We made the hand off to Donny who after Wayne's turn would turn in the last cure for the win. Unfortunately, another epidemic broke out and spread ending the game. Much like Forbidden Island there are many ways to die and only one to win.

Links & Other Such Nonsense

Geek & Sundry

Shows on Geek & Sundry

• The Guild
• Space Janitors
• TableTop

A long over due post.

     So it has been a good long while since I posted a new blog so I figured it was time.  I've been on vacation and I've been doing all the things I normally put off until I have time to do them.  So what is new since we last spoke, well I graduated with my two degrees and I'm still at my new job in IT.  Additionally, I'm back in school studying web technologies.  I have to say so far I'm not a fan of HTML or CSS sheets.  So I'm just putting my head down and pressing on.  Its not that I can't do it just that its not as interesting as programming.  Though I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I get the web pages built correctly.
    
     So vacation, I've mostly caught up on things but I did make two new programs.  Nothing special just some things to use with remote desktop or vnc.  The first is DriveTime.  What it does is adds a small set of two boxes to the system tray that simulates the drive lights on the front of the computer.  Sometime when remotely connecting to a computer to install a program you can't tell if its frozen or if its just taking a long time to install.  With this program you can see when the computer writes to or reads from the hard drive.  The second program I wrote shows basic information about the computer.  I this named InfoCPU and it shows a graphical representation of available physical memory and virtual memory as well as user name, computer name, domain name, IP address, max physical memory, max virtual memory, available physical and virtual memory, tells if the computer is on a network and also has the option to show drive read and writes.  So far the only work on Vista and Windows 7. Something in the close on DriveTime keeps it from working correctly in XP.  Also, if I remove the read write code from InfoCPU then it will run on the XP platform.  I didn't discover I had broken InfoCPU till after I'd added that code.  Anyway, both have Microsoft install packages written for them so they can be removed via add / remove programs on the control panel.

     Anyway, it wasn't awe inspiring but it is a new blog.  Until next time....-