3 month check in and new ideas/projects

3 Month Check in

So, it’s been 3 months since I started working, roughly. I started back part time on July 4th (what are the odds), and I went to full time 3 weeks after that. Since then… it’s been pretty good getting back into the grove… Then comes the learning curve that has been set upon me. With the amount of time I was gone, just about every aspect of the job has changed. Then put on top of that, having a new position and new scope, yea, it’s been a lot of learning.

To give an overview of the difference….. When I left, I was the sole developer of a process, and the manager was riding my ass about every little thing. He was making deadlines for me without any knowledge of what was needed by the requirements asked. Now….. I’m able to pick and choose what I’m getting involved in, within reason. There have been a few things that has come across my ‘desk’ that I have been excited to get involved in. In turn, I have injected myself into those processes/discussions to help.

New Ideas/Projects

With me getting into several areas as a hobby, it’s hard to just chose a few ideas and projects.

#1 - COH Log parser

I have been learning more about using Django - so I figured, why not use this as a project to learn more about Django/Python/Graphing. I have the basic layout in my mind, and I have started learning more about Django for web sites in python. Since it has been YEARS since I have used PHP, I wanted to keep with a language that I’m moving for. It’s been an interesting process working through this, but it’s coming along nicely. One of the things I found annoying so far, just getting the website ’template’ together and learning how to do CSS/HTML. I took the easy way out, I found a nice HTML/CSS/JS template, and I have started taking apart to make it my own. YES, I will be including credits to make sure people that want to know where the template is from, they can see. That’s the ethical thing to do, and I try to live my life within the ethics that I set as a kid. I will be blogging about this as well, maybe even making some tutorials about it. That brings me to idea #2.

#2 - Tutorials (blog and/or YouTube)

A friend of mine… that I have known a LONG time has decided to take up learning Linux, networking, docker, etc….. I’ve been helping him some and he has suggested for me to start making tutorials about these topics. I think this is a good idea due to the fact, I LOVE knowledge sharing. When I was in college, they wanted me to teach some classes, I turned down the opportunity. There were several reasons for this, which I will not go into. Back to the topic at hand. I will be creating some content for tutorials on a several topics. I’m hoping to start creating some content soon. Who knows, maybe I will make some videos/tutorials of me working on the COH log parse. I’m sure this will be humorous to some as I work through my thoughts/problems.

#3 - Learning the Guitar

I have been wanting to learn how to play a guitar for a long time now. I’m finally going to start dedicating sometime to learning this instrument. In the past, I have played the piano and an upright bass. I really enjoy playing music, and why not learn something new, that gets me away from technology. I’m planning on trying to get my uncle to help me learn, after all he is a very talented.