Neutral Drop!

These past few weeks have been something else. For those of you who were reckless teens with a car you may know what a neutral drop is. For those of you that don't, well, let me explain. It is when you put the transmission of a vehicle in neutral, rev the engine, then slap in into gear. Of course, the result is squealing tires and the unleashing of a whole heap of stupid on a transmission. Well, my brain has really felt like that poor transmission. From a state of rest it has been ignited, throttled forward, gears grinding, smoke billowing and has begun to burn out the dust from years sitting idle.

A lot has changed since the last time programming was done. It is no longer just one big sheet of code. As the first programming course in C# has introduced me to the object-oriented method there has been a bit of a period of adjustment from the old procedural mindset. Casting off the old BASIC, FORTRAN, and VB methodologies and delving into the new ways of organizing blocks has been a bit of a jolt. The way things are organized in classes and packaged into objects is really nice. It will still take some more getting used to, but I think I will really appreciate the structure. All in the name of progress!

Then there is the social networking class. Years ago social networking was actually getting up and going places to meet people and network face-to-face at functions. Now you just use your computer, or other device to post and hope someone stumbles upon your work via connected people. Personally the old way was much more fun, but the value of the use of technology has some big pluses. Using social media to promote yourself is wise if used well. You can really put yourself out there for people to see, for better or for worse as some find out the hard way. Though Twitter for personal messaging use still seems a bit silly to me. This will most likely just turn into a news feed for me since that seems to be the strongest use for it, as others clearly show. A hinting, looming aspect of this class though, is the cloud computing concept. This not something I advocate. It seems about as good idea as giving all your patents and design plans to the Chinese government to begin manufacturing, then wonder how the hell a product exactly like yours has made it to their markets before you have even begun rolling yours out. This is from a mindset of owning your stuff and your own intellectual property. You created it is yours, you should hold onto it on your own equipment. Read through some of the legal mumbo-jumbo of a lot of these sites, which is a terrible read yet a great lesson in legalese. Heck, my main workstation is not even online, nor will it ever be. Then there are the backups of the backups of the backups. Hard drives and storage is cheap, and what hides in those clouds..... may not be angels.

MATC, the first step on the Code Road.

   Years ago if you had told me I would end up working the same type of job I had in High School I would had laughed in your face, probably made some crude remark, and dismissed you for a complete idiot. Well, how things can change in a moment in an ultrasound room. Once the determination that the life of my first son was in jeopardy a decision had to be made, and plans set aside. Thus began a headfirst plunge into the realm of unskilled labor, minimal pay, and some of the best benefits a person could ask for to aid in saving this tiny life. This road however just leads on and on going nowhere. As rough as that road has been and the obstacles that had to be overcome it was time to chose a new path.

  After putting life on hold which path does one take? The original road once desired has long since overgrown, still there, still beckoning, but to cut some new ruts and travel there is just not a reasonable choice for the time being. Standing at the forks gazing, the Code Road seems a logical answer. Being no stranger to the Code Road and having wandered onto it ever since grade school it always seemed a place of comfort. It was once a path I looked down but passed by.  Cold logic, problem solving, non-box thinking, a real endeavor that can grind the gears of the brain like non other. Then there, MATC, an old friend who had thought me so much in the past and still has so much to offer in so many different arenas stands. There is little like a comfortable face that can set a person at ease when entering new territory. As I dust off the gears in my head and wrestling it from the atrophy of the mind-numbing  years of unskilled labor, MATC gives a nod and the first steps are taken onto the road. Thus begins a new chapter in my life.