Progress update as promised (late, but still as promised).

I've been avoiding this posting for a long time.  I was hoping I'd be able to have another screen saver so I could complete that ///todo list item but things just got in the way and life's just busy.  But still trying to make progress on all these things.  Here's the updates.

Completed	Goal	Notes
May 02	Present at Ottawa Code Camp 2009	Presented my Windows Services Down'n'Dirty presentation to about 25+ people.  It didn't go off without a hitch, BUT the hiccups made it all the more personable and interactive.  I was lucky enough to be able to give away four cool books, plus my Windows Service book to someone who was truely keen!
Mar 09	Get my next MS certification (Web Apps)	YAHOO!  I'm done and officially recognized by Microsoft that I can take a Microsoft exam! :>  But seriouly I learned a boat load of cool things about asp.net.  Ya, there were some dud info in there too, but the people were great in the study group!
	Learn WPF/Silverlight/XAML so much that I become the Markus Egger of Ottawa (if you're doing WPF and haven't heard of this guy, you're missing out on some great info), ya, I know this is a "reach for the stars" kind of goal but nothing ventured, nothing gained (any other clichés I can mangle? :>)	I think this one's gonna always be WIP.  Here's what I've done lately.  Attended Samedi.NET in MTL, doing a lot of personal reading, looking forward to giving a presentation about Expression Blend 3 at TechDays.
May 5	Start another study group, I have a bit of a training bug, this let's me fulfill that side of my personality	We have 19 fully commited and participating members!  Very cool!  Check out our progress and code on CodePlex! We're nearly done this one, two more (optional) sessions and then it's up to the individual people to sched, write and hopefully pass their exams!
June 2	Create a blog entry for creating/debugging/delivering a Windows Service (some juicy, time saving tips here!)	I JUUUUUST finished this one tonight!  This was two plus weeks in the making, it's long but VERY complete!  It has screen caps, (hopefully) straight forward and easy enough to follow
	Create two screen savers (just something I've always wanted to do, boring I know, but these will be slightly different, stay tuned!)	I have created one SCR,namely for the Numb3rs tv show (I'm a BIG fan).  I still have one more to go to complete this ///todo item but so many other things come up.  Life gets in the way I guess eh?  Just have to keep plugging away.
	Learn about unit testing with C#/VS	Still....... juuuuuuust starting to scratch the surface with this one.
	Help people via blogs (something I'm starting to see now and I LOVE it when someone posts a comment saying my entry helped them, I LOVE THAT!)	I've had a few people post and email with positive feedback about the site and posts!  I love that! :> I had someone call me up a few weeks back telling me they were looking into Exceptions and they say a comment from PCHenry, followed the blog and low and behold, they knew the guy (me! haha) who wrote them!  COOL!  I love to hear about that stuff, means I'm on the right track.
	Learn more about patterns	Still, no explicit progress on this one.
Jan 09	Install and expose sample code via SVN	Update (March 2009): I've since exposed some of my code via SVN. Code from/about/for my blog: http://www.pchenry.com:8080/svn/Blog/ Personally for my website: http://www.pchenry.com:8080/svn/PCHenry Update (Jun 01) Starting to rethink this one.  I've created two "projects" on CodePlex (ODNC Study Group andOttawa Code Plex) and after dealing with that learning curve, I'm growing more and more convinced for sharing blog code, that's the best way to share it.  Why not let someone else manage the IT/hardware/resources for me?
	Learn to better recognize negative personalities, then to avoid them, to not let them sway my convictions and to seek out positive people to surround myself and family	I am so lucky!  I'm around people who are awesome and a huge source of positive reinforcement and energy!  When things are going tough/wrong/slow a good laugh is literally just over the cube wall or in the lunch room!  You know people are a fun loving bunch when everyone in the lunch room is laughing at lunch time! Still very lucky, the people at the study group, Samedi.NET, ODNC, work, gynmastics, swimming, all very nice and positive people.  Love it (I just hope I can keep it up!)
Updates to the list (as things get completed I plan on adding new things to it, very Agile-ish :> sort of like a Product Backlog? :>>>>)
	Learn MVC	hhhhmm, this one's kind of taken a bad seat lately.
	Look into having a Saturday.NET Silverlight workshop in Ottawa	Seems like there's some interest in having something like this.  Any takers?

 

 

 

Past Progress: Jun 03, 2009, Mar 18, 2009, Jan 27, 2009, Jan 6, 2009