It’s been one of my goals (for a long time now) to start a blog, and actually keep it up to date! So, here goes…

Me and my lady

Since I’m new to this, it’s only polite to introduce myself, and convey my hopes for this blog. I’m thinking this blog will be mostly technical in nature, so I’ll probably focus on the technologies that I’m using on a day to day basis. These days, that includes .NET (Web and Windows), ASP.NET MVC, VB.NET, C#, Java, JavaScript (I love jQuery) and good old HTML. However, I’m sure some other topics will slip in occasionally. In my day job, I am a Senior Software Engineer for a large defense contractor, but I consider myself first and foremost a Web Developer… it’s what I love to do. I graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 1996 with a degree in Business & Communications - the broadest major I could find! I had no clear direction with what I wanted to “be” at the time, so it was the perfect subject, something I could apply to darn near anything.

My first job after college, while living with 3 of my closest college friends, was at Olan Mills photagraphy as a Store Manager / Photographer… the longest 3 months of my life, no question. I hated it. From there, I went into advertising, and that was just a little better. All the while, I was in a band with some friends from college called “Shillglen“. The first 2 weeks of my new advertising job, I was in limbo waiting for an account to be transitioned from another office, so in the meantime, I got online and taught myself HTML with the sole purpose of creating a website for my band. In that 2 weeks, something stuck… I loved it. I continued with the advertising gig for about a year, but all the while kept learning HTML and volunteering to help with my company’s website. As it often happens, my company downsized, and I found myself looking for another job. This time, though, I looked only for Web Development jobs, it took a while, but I finally landed one at a company that made products for the Healthcare industry. I knew in the first week that I had found my career, and during the year and a half that I worked there, I picked up (Classic) ASP, JavaScript and learned all about database-driven websites. It was actually a pretty cool work environment, most of the projects were for various departments within the company, and we basically owned each project we worked on. So that meant I did everything, gathering the requirements, designing the database, and programming the site. It was a great.

This was all during the dot com boom, and after seeing a collegue switch jobs and make a huge pay jump, I quickly followed suit. I moved to a company that developed supply chain software (written in C++) for large oil companies. They were looking to web-enable their product, and I was one of the first people on the web team. I spent 3 years there, and saw the web team grow to 6 or 7 people. After September 11th, like everyone else, the product struggled, and we had round after round of layoffs. I saw the web team shrink after each round, until they finally let the entire web team (including me) go. This layoff was tough, I was newly married, and I knew that I was in the career that I wanted, but the combination of the dot com bust and September 11th made it REALLY hard to find another job.

Regardless of my unemployed status, I worked everyday from home. I spent at least 8 hours a day job hunting, and taking small consulting jobs building websites. Finally, after 6 long months, I landed a temp job as the lead developer for an ASP.NET website with the company I’m with now. I had played with ASP.NET up until this time, but this was my first project where I actually used it… and I loved it. My manager and I wrote a Photo Lineup application for the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau that would search the NYPD database for employees who matched a physical description provided in a complaint. We did it all in about 6 months. After our success, I was sent to Virginia to see if I could help with another NYPD project that was having major problems. What was supposed to be a week-long trip, turned into a month-long trip where I worked about 18 hours a day, 7 days a week with about 2 or 3 other people. It was the hardest, most stressful month of my life, but… I was still a temp - which meant I got paid hourly. Nice! That helped a lot… I was even able to fly my wife out towards the end, and we ended up making the best out of it, by staying another few days in Washington D.C.

That month ended up being a turning point, and is one of the reasons I have the job I have today. I didn’t know it at the time, but one of the guys who I worked that month with was a guy from the corporate office. He was one of those guys who gets sent to oversee projects that are in as much trouble as this one was. The thing is, almost nobody knew who he was except management. Long story short… we were successful in turning the project around in that month, and I had a number of full-time opportunities available to me after that.

I’ve been in my current position for just over 5 years. After becoming a full-time employee, I started using (and learning!) Java on day one. I’ve found that I’m a little unique compared to other people who I work with. The majority have a Computer Science degree, or some other long background with computers, and started learning Java (and tons of other stuff) during college. Those that have also done web development seem to have come from a programming background (Java, C++, VB, etc.) - whereas I started with HTML and worked my way into higher level programming. Oh man, how I wish I had majored in Computer Science!! I remember the first time I looked at JavaScript and thought that I would never understand it. It took a long time, actually, but one day… it just clicked - like somebody turned on the light and I could see everything. It’s been that way for each new technology or language that I’ve learned. Although, these days I notice that I’m picking things up much faster. Anyway, all that to say, I now know and am comfortable with Java, but it was not easy getting there. However, having started on the Microsoft side of things - I’m still very partial to the .NET Framework, and have kept current on it these past 5 years as well.

For close to 8 or so years, I’ve also done consulting work on the side… and have developed a number of ASP.NET websites over the years for a bunch of different clients. I guess you could say that this is the technology I choose to use when given the choice. I’m not especially opinionated on the Mac vs. PC (I have both), or .NET vs. J2EE debates (I use both) - but I just find that I enjoy programming more when I’m using the .NET Framework. So, while you may see some posts that talk about Java ocassionally, I suspect that about 95% will be .NET related posts. Some other topics will be on ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, jQuery and any tips and tricks that I find along the way.

Well, that about wraps it up. I apologize for the length, I’m not usually this verbose…