My wife has given me a little kick in the pants to get me back on here writing again. She created a blog called “Payneful Business” which you can reach by clicking on the “Sara’s Blog” link to the right under the blogroll. She has been faithfully writing on her blog every single night. She’s awesome about it. She plans to have her posts made into a little memorable book each year. Its really fun to see her with a hobby.

So now that I’m back what should I discuss? I have been moving between jobs quite a bit in the last year. I left Vantage Controls to get some kind of development experience in something other than their proprietary home automation, which is great but not something you can stick with your entire life. I got a job working at an e-commerce software company called StoresOnline. This was all fun and games for about 9 months when the company decided all the new developers they were bringing on were just a bunch of added overhead which they felt was unnecessary. I was told that I could relocate to Arizona and stay with the company or find another job.

I scrambled for the next week applying to every job I could. I took a few interviews and before a week had passed I was offered a job working for a health and wellness company developing software in their Finance Department. The company is called Xango LLC. and they have been very kind and patient with me while I take the necessary time to come up to speed. I find it difficult to work on Financial Software but the job is close to home and it brings in a steady income.

Meanwhile at home I have been trying my hand at different projects. I have been playing with the Go language and started working on a little app to prove my skills (to myself) using Go and Web.Go. This is all fun and games but I’d really love to put together something useful and create a long-term financial solution for my family.

I love my family. My son is getting SO big. He will not be my “little boy” for much longer. I’m very proud of him though. He is smart, social, and amazing at everything and also, he is a big guy. I always wished I weren’t so small so I’m probably guilty of living vicariously through him. I hope he doesn’t mind.

My little girl is the most beautiful thing you could ever lay eyes on. She is also the sweetest little girl in the world. Even if she is hurt or sad for some reason, if she notices that I am sad as well she will put aside her tears and sadness to take care of me first. Its a very strange feeling to know someone cares so deeply about you.

My wife is the most amazing and supportive woman in the world. She is encouraging to push me to increase my knowledge and understanding around my field of study and she also encourages me to put that knowledge to use by having hobbies. We both hope that one day these hobbies will lead to bigger and better things, but she is so amazing that she has no immediate expectation. She just supports me, and loves me no matter what life brings us. I am super lucky to have found her. I love our marriage and I am excited to see what the future will bring us.

I’m pretty excited to have this app on my phone. It reminds me of what I used to imagine while reading the sequel books to Enders Game.

Awesome!

its from bison10el@yahoo.com feel free to spam.

This fall (2009) UVU Computer Science students are being subjected to learning C# as a beginning course rather than C++. This decision was made without consulting students and without consulting industry workers.

In the past students have had the opportunity of choice to pick their development environment. C++ has many different implementations, and can be done on just about any platform. This choice has been taken away as some professors choose to grovel to the great software giant in Redmond Washington. The argument from these professors is that the choice isn’t taken away due to projects like Mono. This argument would seem not to hold much water because it would segregate students not using the “standard” Operating System.

Failing to teach fundamental, and core principles to enable faster development of more abstract concepts robs students of valuable knowledge that could be used to carry them forward in the field of Computer Science. Principles like pointers, and memory management for solving less abstract problems are essential in more advanced courses. Do professors think this all just too hard? Will adding a C# as a crutch help or hurt students?

As a graduate of Utah Valley University I am quite disappointed in the lack of research put into this decision, as well as the lack of concern some instructors have for their students. What will happen to these people as they try to program in C for their future Operating Systems course? My belief is that these professors have truly lost their connection with students, and are much more interested in pushing forward their own personal agendas.

The point is that being motivated by Freedom often leads a person down some “risky” paths in life yet folks often achieve what they are seeking from life, the issue is that most are seeking for security. Often times those motivated by freedom are willing to provide the security sought by others and in return the others scenselessly provide the freedom.

I often ask myself what I am motivated by and if my motivations are leading me toward what I want.

What are you motivated by?

So lately I’ve been trying to figure out what is next on my journey of life. I have a pretty good job that lets me provide for my family which is really great! The question is whether or not I’m progressing anywhere or if I’m doing the right things. I have all this knowledge and I seem to be wating around for life to show me what is next. I think I should really sit down and plan for my next move so-to-speak.

In the meantime it has been, and I’m sure will continue to be great to spend time with my family in the hours when I’m not working to provide for them. This has thus far been the greatest hours of my days, and hopefully some day I wil l find a way to spend more of my day with them, but until then I’ll continue to work on the software projects I have at work.

School started up again so I’m back to work ing on Saturdays. My older brother and his wife are moving to Autrailia…sounds awesome. My wife has been feeling kind of sick today so kr0w has graciously accepted to watch Caleb.

On the technical side of things I’m planning my Senior Design Project. I tend to keep most of it under wraps until I’ve completed it but I am using this chip and eval board to design it. I’m pretty stoked to be working with one of the new Cortex Chips. The one I’m using has a clock speed of a screeming 50 MHz.

As for school, I’m finishing up this semester with a Microelectronics course which has me quite scared, an Advanced Digital Disign with the HDL Verilog. This is a language designed for creating complex digital circuits. Obviously as stated earlier I’m working on my Senior Design Project, and I’ve also thrown a Software Engineering class in there due to the fact that I needed the credits and that was the only 2000 level course that will still count toward my degree. I know I’m being lazy…

The next four moths are going to be killer due to School, Work, and adjusting to the whole being married stuff. I love it though and would never trade it for the world! Wish me luck…

Beautiful Sara

For more information please visit the launch party site, and make sure to RSVP with decriptor!

Hope to see all of you out there, it should be a lot of fun!