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