So now that 2015 is upon us.  I'm proud to proclaim that I have accepted a position with a company called  VIN Solutions.  I will be a "Web Development Specialist".  It is a JR development role and I will start out as a contracter through a third party contracting agency.

It's funny because I actually interviewed with them about 3 months ago.  I apparently did not make the cut for that particular round of interviews.  So I was ready for the interview and I really just approached it as......"I got nothing to loose".   Woo Hoo!  Thank you guys for the opportunity.

January 5th will be my first day on site.  It is located in Mission Kansas and I already know a few of the guys from Centriq.  It would appear that it is heavily focused on JQuery and front end development.

Cool with me.   I'm pretty sure that I'm a front end developer......lol.  Man, I'm just thankful for the chance.

2015 here we come...........

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year....

2014 was a ride to say the least........ 

I'm getting natious just thinking about it.

Are the any Beatles fan's out there???????  Well if there are......The above picture is one of my all time favorite songs.  "Here comes the Sun" written by George Harrison.

Eric Clapton tells story's of how George would just show up sometimes early in the morning and walk with him.  They would bring a guitar and just play and create.  "He was just magical" was Eric's exact words.  One such day George forced Clapton up to walk out into the gardens of his then sprawling estate just before sun rise.  George was known to meditate of a morning while the sun came up.(he was very big into transcendental meditation)  This particular time they both had the guitars with them, strumming out random melodies and George started singing......"Duuuuuu mmmmm dooooo dooo Here comes the sun".

So cool.  love that story.  Although it's actually quite cold outside......I've just had this song in my head for the last week.

So as the Holiday approaches things are getting busy.  As I stated in my prior blog, we are staying in Kansas City.  Funny, my children are so happy to be staying in their particular school as well.  So I've been pretty focused on doing some freelance work.  I also have a couple good prospects for jobs as well.

I took a small contract with the KC school district doing some IT Admin stuff till the end of December.  It's not exactly creating applications but its just good to work around people.  It's lonely out there working for yourself.  I miss working with a talented team, having a group collectively building something.

All in do time.......I have a feeling the perfect spot will be coming across my path.  I'll keep ya posted.  till then.

What you can always count on.

It seems that change is inevitable. My wife had an opportunity with a job out of state and we began making the adjustments to take the entire family that direction.  This is not a small thing either.

Then "Life" stepped in and swiftly changed our direction again.  It was a very good thing that her job sputtered out and didn't work before we had fully committed.  I will be honest.....I wasn't excited to move to a small town in Iowa anyway.  We are city folk.

I love this town.  My family and I are happy to be staying in Kansas City.....my home town.  Love this city.

I've built two projects for business friends of mine.  It feels really good to code and build.  I will continue to pursue free lance projects and start up kansas city.

Change doesn't always mean that you loose something.  It is the opportunity to find other things that are new and interesting.  You never know, it might mean that you gain something much greater in the end.

The Kansas City Royals

I must admit.  I have been swept up in the Royals this year.  Funny because I started watching them again around August.  It was kinda fun to see the royals playing well.

I really haven't watched baseball since the strike back in the day.  I do however remember watching the world series with my grandmother in Carrollton.  I was young......

The math here is 29 years ago the Royals were in the world series.  If I'm 37 years old now, how old was I when I watched those games.  8 Years old.   Yep, one year younger than my twins now.

Ha! That's crazy.  29 years.  That is the longest streak in professional sports.  UUUUUUHHH  Maybe that is why I stopped watching all those years ago.  Although, over the last couple months, I've just absolutely been taken by this team.  All of them are just scrappy little suckers.  I Love it!  Its awakened the fun in Baseball for me.  The playoffs and now the World Series.  I'm telling ya, "I believe!"

Game 7 tonight........If we win, the kids and I are heading down town to go to the parade.  Calling out, kids too..........

This team has been So exciting to watch.  I can not wait to watch this game tonight.

GO ROYALS!!

The Job Search

. 

I have been out in the job market looking for work.  It's interesting.  I've really been focused for about three months.  Looking through all of the job boards and actively.  seeking a position to to start with.What I've learned is that there is a HIGH demand for these skill sets yet.......as a novice.  There is a distinct level of experience that the employers are looking for.  3-5 years experience.  So when working with the recruiting network it is an eminent question.  

They want verifiable experience.  So once you drill down to the junior level development positions even those require at least 1 year.The Centriq folks tell you to tout the experience you gained through the track is at least 1-2 years worth of working practice.

So......the interviews that I've been on will have the dreaded "technical interview".  This is by the strangest combination of technical knowledge, and company culture.   I've had only one interview in which the person giving the interview had any idea what the answers were.

I have to admit that I am at this strange point in my life as well.  I'm almost 40 and most of my classmates are in their early twenties.   I've noticed that I was different when I went through the class.  I'm older and traveled in different industries.  Not the Technical.  

I don't think that I look and speak like a technical junior developer.  Long story short.  I've just struck out for the majority of the jobs that I've gone for.  

Mean while, many of my classmates are landing the positions and starting work.  I know that it is possible.  It just hasn't happened for me yet.  I haven't lost heart but I'm quite frustrated.

If I were completley honest with myself.  I do want to freelance.  I'm just a touch trigger shy after my last business struggles.  

I will say that My wife has a wonderful opportunity that has come up that we may have to look at.  If this executive position with the hospital works out.  I may be moving to another state.  More to come.................

The job search begins.....I'm still on a Beatles High from Paul McCartney last week

Random Post.



The Job search begins....My obsession with the beatles continues.

Course Completed!!!!!!!!!! Final Projects live.....check it out!

Tech Support Tracker Project

Screen Shot of the Full Resolution Home Page

Student Admin Tool

Screen shot of the Original Home Page.

Wooooo.  I made it.  Project weeks were a true test.  I was stressed, frustrated, and worried that I wouldn't be able to do the projects.  Up until the moment we presented I was having technical issues.  

I was so excited to present these projects.....I think I presented well.  

I'm off to have cake with my family.......we've missed each other these last few months.  This weekend soak up my kiddos.  Monday....MTA....JOB.

Wrapping Up-----MVC---Lightbulbs

Long time no blog.

Back in the thick of the .Net Developer track.  Last Week I got into MVC with Neil Horton.

Head Instructor
Centriq

I think that the true power of the Centriq business model is it's Instruction. I'm impressed with the quality and care of the entire staff.  Centriq has a great "Synergy" of corporate & raw talent going through the school.  Granted, it 's  positioned perfectly in the Kansas City Market during one of the biggest technology booms of any Metropolitan City in America.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/bizventures-kc/2014/05/10-high-tech-cities-you-want-to-call-home.html

I'm glad I've gotten to be a part of the program.

As I post this blog I'm down to three weeks before the July 18th project presentation.  Tick Tock..... I'm feeling pretty good.  I've begun to have those lightbulbs go off.  FINALLY!

                     I was really getting tired of getting punched in the head by some of the concepts.

My instructor Chuck Wieners teaching me Details View in Webforms.
"Fresh Schema, Fresh Schema, Fresh Schema"  :)

Strangley, it really was the MVC class that really started making things clear.  When you compare the two

technologies (Web Forms vs MVC) it's much clearer how and why you do some of the processes.  I think I've been looking way too close at some of the code.  If you step back and look at it from a higher plain it starts making more logical sense.

In the market Webforms are still 70-80% of all Asp.net sites.   I personally like the Designer and the toolbox.  Drag and Drop never bothered me but I'm a visual person....that makes sense.  MVC is super cool and a simpler answer but the market demand isn't there yet.  MVC is just very "clean" in how you build it. It also doesn't have all the bloat of PageLifeCycle.  Speed and Simplicity...... It'll catch on.

I've built out two Projects...(Widgets and Gadgets for Webforms and Widgets and Gadgets for MVC) both were built out from my old Mo Wine Tours Menu.  Pretty cool.

So I'm gonna get back to working on my personal site.  I would like to relaunch it again.  Stay posted.....

Memorial Day Weekend.

Great three day weekend.  I wrapped up the ASP 3 with our instructor (The man, the myth the Legend) Chuck. The content was pretty intense.  We were tying SQL into our ASP.Net Websites.  We had a bunch of sample databases and actually built our own for practice.  The material wasn't necessarily too heavy but it is easy to get turned around when you are are doing data Binding and adding the multiple view types.

You have your grid view for the majority larger glimpse at the database.  Then we tied in a details view or a form view for the specific detailed view of each product and or category.  Now the cool part was when we added the functionality to the "admin" to change and modify the database from the client level.


Below is a screen shot of Widgets and Gadgets.  A website we built in ASP3 and added onto in ASP4

I have so much content from Mo Wine Tours that I built a database as a class project

For our widgets and gadgets class project.  Chuck told us to build our own database for something that we

care or are interested in.  I have so much content from UDA and Mo Wine Tours that It was very easy

for me to build it out using some of my own stuff.  

It really brought the material to life.  The power of this is incredible.  It is very dry to learn (for me at least) UNTIL you put in your own products or something that is relevant to business and real world. 

                                

I'm pretty burnt out right now.  I'm looking forward to next week.  It's a break week.  I'm gonna focus on the job hunt.  I'm gonna start throwing hooks out to see if  "Daddy" can get a job.  Sacrificing five and  half months of income to do this is risky business especially when you have three children and a wife at home.  I will continue to put in the hard work and keep the faith. I resolve to get through this school and find a new career.  It is easier for me to put it into perspective when I realize that this isn't for me.  It's for them.