Spring Classes

In early November I was able to register for my Spring classes. They are as follows:

• IT Programmer/Analyst Internship
• AJAX and JavaScript Web Development
• Professional PHP Web Applications
• Web Application Development Using ASP.NET
• C# Programming In Visual Studio.NET

My C# class is going to be on the west side of Madison instead of at the Truax campus. This will be a nice change since the drive in will be shorter for me as it is my only class that day. And it will also be nice to see what that facility is like.

For those following my website (www.davidendres.com) and/or blog my remember that I was planning to take MATC's Ruby on Rails class. Over the course of the last semester I've decided to focus my studies a bit more and the .NET direction was the way I decided to do that. Although admittedly I did want to also get some mobile programming experience by signing up for Google Tools and Android Development, but that was not possible due to scheduling conflicts with other classes. I'm sure once I'm in the middle of Spring that I will realize that 15 credits is plenty anyhow! Besides, I can always come back for more classes after graduation.

Making Decisions

The semester is rapidly coming to a close. It's probably been my most challenging one so far. I'm looking forward to a few weeks off before starting up again in mid-January.

Over the course of this semester I'm finally realizing what I want to do after graduation. While I'm still open to just about anything I've been learning how to do at MATC, I'd most like to work with something in the .NET framework. I think there are several reasons for this. First, Visual Basic came fairly easily to me. Some of this is because of my prior experience with VBA in Excel which introduced me to a bit of Visual Basic, Object-Oriented programming and the editor environment as well. Second, I've really enjoyed working in the Visual Studio environment. It makes it so easy to see if you're making a mistake and structures your application in a nice visual way. I also like the ability to trouble shoot your bugs by stepping through code at run time. I know Visual Studio isn't the only environment to do things like this, but I've become comfortable working with it. One of the last reasons is just the intangibles. I've liked using Visual Basic. I look forward to learning C# and ASP.NET as well next semester. At some point I knew I had to make a decision and this just feels like the right one.

PHP is still an option for me though. I do like the flexibility and freedom the language seems to offer over .NET. And with more experience I can see it being a very powerful language for me.

I am also in the process of finding an internship for the Spring semester. I have started looking for part time jobs again. Ideally these would be in the .NET framework, but I would gladly work in any type of website creation or PHP environments too. I'm not restricting myself at all. Currently, I plan to create an application for my brother-in-law's farm for my internship. This is an application I will be creating regardless at some level for him, but the timing and scope will depend on my job search in the next few weeks.

The next few weeks are going to be busy ones, as always. The break will be a welcome one, but it will also find me busy catching up on my To Do list around the house, watching the kids, celebrating Christmas and gearing up for another semester.

Halfway Point

It's hard to believe it, but the first round of exams are mostly behind me. As always, they were very challenging. I still have to take the XML one and I'm sure that'll be just as tough.

I've gotten the second round of projects done and turned in for most classes also. As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy doing the projects. The projects are finally starting to get bigger in scope, which is great. For example, the latest PHP project had us playing a game of tic-tac-toe and storing the game to a database. Then we needed to be able to choose which game we wanted to replay and show a replay of that game, move by move.

The next round of projects has us building a shopping cart (PHP) and retrieving and working with data from a database (VB.NET). While we've been reading databases in PHP since last semester this is the first time we're really getting into doing that in VB.NET. It's similar, but different and I'm looking forward to it. While these projects are in many ways small in scope compared to those in the real world, they are definitely the types of smaller building blocks that we'll be doing someday on a professional level.

So far I'm still on track to keep my 4.0 GPA. It's getting tougher each semester though as the classes get more in-depth. It's my goal to keep that GPA until I graduate, but I know realistically it will be a tough goal to accomplish.

Last week was the IT Career Fair on campus. It was great to visit the booths of many of the areas companies. While several are not looking to hire programmers in the .NET or PHP areas at this time, it was still great to learn more about them and talk to their representatives. There were also some other companies that had potential positions and I look forward to talking with them more in the future.

It's getting to the point in the semester where there is no longer a clear busy period and then a lull. It's basically a fairly constant busy, yet manageable period. This should continue until early December when final projects are due and final exams come up. I can't believe how fast the semester is going, but I'm still enjoying learning everything they can throw at, so I guess that's a good sign!

Impressions

Now that I've completed the first four weeks of the semester I have a good feel for all of the new classes. I'm really enjoying my XML class so far. Not only is it easing us in to the topic, but in general I really like XML so far. I like how it is very particular about organizing and defining things. I think it is because it reflects part of my personality that I like it so well. Anyone who knows me, knows I like to have a place for everything and to be prepared well in advance.

My Object-Oriented System Analysis class is much of a logical continuation of last semester's UML class. This semester we take on a hypothetical case study. This makes us feel as though we are applying what we have already learned, which should be a great experience for transitioning to the work force as an Analyst.

We hardly skipped a beat going into the next semester of Visual Basic. It's amazing how much "rust" needed to be shaken off after just 3 months of time away from the language. But it all came back in the first day or two and it didn't take long to start learning new things. Each new thing is something exciting because I can start to see how all of this fits into a much large project. I absolutely can't wait to some day be part of a project with a much larger overall goal than the small projects we do in class.

Going back to PHP was much the same as Visual Basic. While I used PHP occasionally over the summer since my website required it, there were some aspects that I still hadn't thought about for the last few months. This also only took a short time to get back into and I feel the same way about seeing the larger picture of PHP projects. I look forward to the projects we will be creating later in the semester too, such as creating a shopping cart. It's these more practical, every day projects that make me feel like I'm getting closer to doing something that will soon be part of my career.

For those who have followed my blog very closely you will notice that I am no longer taking Linux Server. I decided to drop this class for Fall semester. It was not a decision I made lightly and I struggled over it for a long time. But I finally decided to narrow my focus just a little bit more at school. I felt the Linux Server class was getting me a bit too far off track by pulling me too much in a networking and administrative direction. In hindsight, while the decision was very difficult, I feel I made the right one. I also will likely not be taking Ruby on Rails in my Spring 2011 semester. Instead I will likely keep my focus on finishing up PHP and Visual Basic as well as taking a semester of C#. Next semester should also find me working my internship, and I'd really like to have adequate time to focus on that also.

It's hard to believe this semester is already a quarter over with. The first projects are due around this time for all of my classes. While the projects are always the toughest part of the coursework (except for maybe some exams), they are the part I enjoy the most.

Round Two

Today is the beginning of my second year at Madison Area Technical College. A year ago I was filled with excitement and wonder at what was to come. There were a lot of questions too. Mainly about what school would be like for me again.

This year it is once again exciting, but in a different way. I can see what is now ahead of me much more clearly and there is even a small "light at the end of the tunnel" now. It's far away, but it's there. Obviously, I'm referering to my graduation in May. While I'm enjoying learning, I am already anxious to take the next step and apply what I've learned at a job. I can't wait to become part of a larger team, whether it be a large programming department of some kind, or at a smaller company where I am part of the company as a whole.

This summer was a busy and rewarding one. My website is up and running at www.davidendres.com. I have a lot more recipes to add to that section of it, but it's off to a great start. I had hoped to work on other projects as well, such as some personal databases and games for the kids. Unfortunately time just didn't allow for it. My summer classes and watching both children full time kept me quite busy. I'm actually surprised at times I was able to create my website!

I'll update the blog again once I get some impressions of my classes for the fall semester. I'm particularly looking forward to advancing to the next level of programming in PHP and VB.NET as well as learning XML for website development.

Summer goes way too fast

I just realized that summer always goes by way too fast. It's hard to appreciate all of the good weather and to just remember to sit back and enjoy life once in awhile!

As always, summer has proven to be a busy one. Both of the kids are home with me this summer. It's great to be able to spend so much time with them. I doubt I'll ever get this chance again.

In June I took my first summer class, Job Search Preparation. I've had a few jobs since graduating from the UW back in 1996, so I didn't expect to learn much from this class. But I was proven wrong. I was glad to find ways to strengthen the layout of my resume and cover letter. I also discovered new ways of finding job listings. This is something that is always important in this economy.

I finished my Job Search class up in about 2 weeks instead of the 4 that it took place over, since we took a family vacation the last week of class. All four of us packed up the car and drove out to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Badlands, the Black Hills and many other local attractions. It was a great time!

This week I have started my second summer class, Dreamweaver. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. I've always enjoyed making websites and will really enjoy learning a powerful software that will help me make my websites even better.

I continue to make my own personal website via a text editor. Soon it should be posted at davidendres.com. I'm in the process now of putting the final touches on the look of the pages and loading many of our family recipes into the database behind the site. I look forward to what I feel is my biggest accomplishment of the summer once the site is first posted. I know I will be posting more recipes after it is initially posted, but the initial launch will be a major victory for me as a website developer. Getting the site organized and writing the PHP behind it took some time and was a great review of everything I've learned in my first year at MATC.

Let Summer Begin

The Spring semester is now over. I'm proud to say I got an A in each of my classes. It's always nice to know all of the hard work has really paid off. Not only do I have an "A" to show for my efforts, but I also feel that I've really learned something in each of my classes. And really, that is the most important reason to be in school.

I continue to work on my own website, time permitting. I am now a full time stay at home dad for the summer and I will continue soon with school as well for the Summer semester. So therefore, the progress on my website and other projects isn't going as quickly as I'd hoped, but at the same time, spending all this time with my children is definitely worth the tradeoff!

On a slight side note, I was able to be enrolled in the Linux Server class this coming fall, so my schedule has come together quite well. I am also keeping my ear open for possible internship possibilities for this Fall already, even though I don't have to do this until Spring semester. I figure the more experience I can have, the better.

Perhaps I'm being a little too ambitious, but I picked up a used book about programming games in Flash. It's a bit dated, but it should still teach me the basics. I love video games. I realize the opportunities to work in that industry in the Madison area are limited, but I'd still love to do some things on the side. If even just to entertain the kids with my creations. I have a few ideas rumbling around and hope I can someday see some of them materialize.

Spring,Summer and Projects...Oh My!

While Spring semester is still in full swing, the end is now in sight. As I've mentioned before, it's been a challenging semester, but a rewarding one as well. With each new thing I've learned, I've found there are practical applications I want to do on my own to use this new knowledge. Already I have some projects lined up for the summer.

But first, a recap of Spring's classes. As far as programming languages, Visual Basic.NET and PHP have both been great, but are very different experiences. PHP brings a more complete experience to me, as I can see how things are developed in the database end and then it through all the way to a website design. I find knowing that one person can easily and quickly write a website to be very rewarding. VB.NET on the other hand is quite different. The class seems to be a slower paced, more structured approach to development and seems to be more geared for a team environment. But the idea of working on project large in scope is an exciting concept. At this point I cannot decide if I like working with PHP or VB.NET any more than the other.

Learning SQL has been great. Not only is learning how to use Oracle good experience, SQL is very useful in my PHP class as well while working with MySQL databases.

Object-Oriented Design with UML has been useful in more ways than I had anticipated. Not only did it continue what we started in Intro to Database, but it taught us the concepts of OOD which comes in useful in seeing the larger picture of programming an application. It also has helped understand concepts in PHP and VB.NET. The last month of the semester is seeing us work as a group to form a website storyboard for a local company. Presentations start in a week and I think our group has been doing a great job.

Computer Hardware has been a very diverse class and covered lots of important topics. I will definitely be able to use that knowledge at home and in helping others.

I have signed up for Summer and Fall classes. They are as follows:

• Job Search Preparation (Summer)
• Dreamweaver (Summer)
• Advanced VB.NET (Fall)
• Advanced PHP and MySQL (Fall)
• Object Oriented Systems Analysis (Fall)
• Advanced Web Development XML (Fall)
• Linux Server (Fall) (On wait list since it is not a required class for me)

I'm looking forward to all of the classes. I hope I will be able to get into the Linux Server class as this will be very beneficial to me for PHP courses and potentially my career.

As I mentioned earlier, what I've learned in my courses has gotten me excited to do some projects on my own over the summer. I've been asked to create a website for a business a friend of the family owns. The goal is to have this project done by August.

I also plan to build my own website. I own the domain name davidendres.com (and daveendres.com). I plan to put both person and school/career information on this website. Many of the pages will initially be standard HTML designs. However, I do plan to use PHP to create a section on the site that displays family recipes. I will store the recipes in a MySQL database and family members (or other visitors) can search for recipes or look them up by name/category. I'm very excited to get this project up and running, but I know it will be a lot of work and require careful planning. I sincerely hope I do not run out of time this summer to do this project as it will be a good test of what I've learned in my first year here. Also, it should be very helpful to family members who need to find a recipe!

Finally, time permitting this summer, I plan to build a database of contact information. This will only be accessible on our home network but will likely be run with PHP and MySQL. Access is a secondary option. With the success of this database, I plan to also build one for our video game and movie collections at home.

I realize I have an ambitious summer and fall ahead of me (I will also be watching our children over the summer instead of them being at daycare), but I'm really looking forward to it.

It's a boy!

I'm proud to announce that my son arrived on February 23rd. He and his mother are doing well. His big sister is very proud as well. She has been doing such a good job as his big sister. I can't think of any moment being more rewarding than seeing a child brought into this world.

Things with school are still going fine, as I prepared in advance by staying ahead of coursework. I did miss one mid-term exam, but was able to make it up. I'm very grateful for the flexibility offered by my instructors the last week.

That's it for this update. More to follow in the next few weeks.

Spring Updates

After six weeks into the semester, things still seem to be going well. The pace is still pretty quick, but I am used to the pattern of how things are done in each class now. The first couple of weeks can always be a challenge just trying to find out each instructors pace and teaching style.

My first mid-term exam is tomorrow, February 23, in SQL. I feel well prepared for it and am anxious to take it so I can move on to the other mid-terms that are coming. So far I've been able to be off to a good start this semester in terms of grades, which of course makes me happy!

I proud to say I won the Jack Lussier Family Scholarship this semester. I am so thankful for people and organizations who are willing to help students make their way through college. Especially in these tough financial times.

But most exciting of all is the upcoming baby! My wife is due on March 2nd and my daughter is anxiously awaiting to see if she will have a baby brother or sister. Spring break is at the end of March and I'm sure the whole family will be glad to see dad have a break from school!

Another beginning

The spring semester has started. We're just over 3 weeks into it now. And wow, what a semester this is shaping up to be! The pace seems much faster this semester. The homework seems to be a much bigger load as well. However, I feel I'm keeping up and doing well. The following few paragraphs are my initial impressions of my five classes.

First, is Object-Oriented Design with UML. This class is picking up right where Intro to Database left off. Most of our discussion so far has been on how to take a user request and turn that into a database design. We are already into more complicated databases than last semester. I can see now how important those first building blocks were. This process is a challenge, but once I get more experience with it, I can see how rewarding it will be to set up a more complicated database. I already would like to set up some databases at home. Perhaps for a common contact list for the whole family. And an organization tool for our movies, my video games or my wife's crafts could also come in handy.

After OOD with UML, I have Intro to Visual Basic.NET. This is a course I immediately liked. Not only because of my love for programming, but also because the design environment is much like Visual Basic for Applications in Excel, which I have some experience with. So far, the course is coming quite naturally to me and I'm looking forward to surpassing what I had self-taught myself in the Excel environment.

My next course is Computer Hardware Essentials. While I don't currently have plans to have a career in IT support or building computers, this class is still very interesting. And I feel it will be a very important one. As a person in the IT field, I am already getting many questions from friends and family regarding their computers. It will be nice to be able to answer some of them, finally! But also, this is a great course to take for maintenance of my own computers. Depending on where I work some day, I may find myself in a role of not only doing programming or website design, but also being the IT support person.

SQL programming is another of my courses. I am definitely liking learning how to write database queries with Oracle iSQL*plus. The basics of writing a query were initially quite easy, but already, they are getting more complicated as we head into grouping statements. And I know there is much more to go. There is a lot of work into learning all of the different SQL statements, but it is a very rewarding experience.

My final class is PHP with MySQL. This class has introducted me to working with a Virtual Machine and Linux. I am glad to have the opportunity to work with these tools already. I've been in a Windows environment almost exclusively since the early 90's. I find the PHP language very similar to JavaScript in many ways, but also it's very different. I'm really looking forward to creating some projects with PHP and integrating it with MySQL. For this semester I have chosen to run my projects on my Windows XP laptop in Apache 2.2, PHP 5 and MySQL 5.0. Getting all of those programs set up and running correctly on my laptop was a challenge in itself and taught me many things regarding configuration files and .ini files. I may try IIS at a later date, although there shouldn't be much difference. This summer I may also upgrade to Windows 7.

The spring semester is definitely off to a running start. As mentioned, there is a lot more homework and the pace is definitely more accelerated than in Fall. However, I have been expecting this and have handled it well. I hope to be ahead of my work as much as possible when the baby arrives in another month or so. I am so excited to have another member of our family arrive!

Transition to Spring (aka Winter Break)

Well, the Fall semester is now behind me. I'm pleased to say I got an A in every one of my classes. I truly enjoyed the semester.

As mentioned in my last post, I'd like to briefly discuss the rest of the classes I took in Fall. First is Introduction to Database. This class laid some great groundwork in helping me understand how databases are set up. Granted, the ones we did for our projects were simple in comparison to any I have seen in a work environment. But as with most things, the basic concepts must be understood before complex databases can be build. I found it amazing how fast even the simplest databases started to get complicated. Just adding a few fields or tables of data create a multitude of new questions regarding the database structure. In my opinion, it takes a keen eye and a good mind for organization to keep a database working. I'm looking forward to taking these concepts to the next level in the Spring semester.

Next is the Website Development course with HTML. I was initially not sure how I would react to this course. But after only a few weeks with it, I immediately loved creating web pages. In this class we learned how to write HTML code in a simple text editor. Initially I used Notepad, but switched to Notepad++ halfway through the semester. I found it very exciting to be able to create web pages using HTML. I absolutely cannot wait to learn how to take my web development skills to the next level and learn how to make dynamic web pages that interact with both users and servers. This class was one of my favorites of the semester.

Finally, I also truly enjoyed my Introduction to Programming with JavaScript class. Not only did I enjoy learning about programming, but I also enjoyed using JavaScript. As with Introduction to Database, we only did what I consider simple projects. But again, these projects covered the fundamentals that will be the building blocks of everything else I do in programming. A lot of duplicate ground was covered with the programming class I took when I was at the UW. But I also learned a lot more than I think I did in that class. Especially the concept of creating algorithms and documenting code. I suppose some of that is attributable to that class having been taken over 15 years ago.

I also really enjoyed this class because I had one of the best instructors I've had in a long time. Eric Knapp did an excellent job not only of teaching the class, but also of providing valuable information on the programming career as a whole and on offering general advice on our choices at MATC. I felt I learned twice as much in this class as in any others and this may have been my favorite class of the semester.

The Spring semester starts next week. I'm ready to go! My books are all but packed in my backpack already. Spring will be more of a challenge than Fall, but I feel I'm ready for it. Not only will the classes be more challenging, but I will be on campus at MATC four days a week nearly all day. Mondays I will be there all day as well as staying for a night class. Also in Spring, my wife and I are expecting our second child. I absolutely cannot wait for our new baby to arrive! Spring is going to be a very memorable semester indeed.

I'll post again once the semester has started and I can offer feedback on the new classes.