Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Syllabus

In no particular order, here are the technologies with which I wish to dabble/learn/master.

  • Silverlight
  • Windows Phone 7
  • Windows Embedded (in a strictly hobbyist, build your own pet dog, approach)
  • MEF
  • Rx (Reactive Extensions)
  • Parallel Programming
  • Web Design (my skills are way out of date, like the HTML 5 spec!)

Though I have never been diagnosed with anything, I suffer from an incessent lack of focus. Call it what you will... ADD, ADHD, Shiny Key Syndrome... it sucks. It makes an evening that could be focused on learning and using a technology, such as WP7, one that quickly degrades into "ooh... Twitter" or "did you see what Kelly put in his FB post just now?" or "Hey, Futurama is on!" Those who experience this channel flipping in their own head could sympathize. The materials are there, ready and waiting; the time is blocked out, and yet... nothing. Mindless staring. Reading of useless news articles and rampand skimming of RSS feeds.

I have an action item in my head to solve this, but it may take time. I will start by clearing out my office of all possible distractions while I learn. Perhaps shut down facebook and keep my iPhone far out of reach. I should also make a calendar for what I wish to work on. If I set aside time for certain subjects, and store all of the blog rolls and web pages away into something like Evernote, this may be viable.

Can i stay the course? We shall see.

Hi, I'm Paul

Allow myself to explain... myself. My name is Paul Johnson, and I'm a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I work for Sparkhound, Inc., a local IT firm who does great things with great people. I've tried blogging through the years only to find it boring, and I really didn't have that much to say. However, in my travels, I have learned 3 things:
  1. There is no shortage of things to learn,
  2. It's easy to get behind, and
  3. It's hard to catch up.

This blog is more of an exercise (possibly in futility) to keep my technical wit sharp and current, and I will rely on others to help me achieve that front.

Together, I hope we learn something!