There is much more about me that obviously won’t be appearing in this blog entry.  I invite you to look around my space and learn more about me if you wish.

In the meantime, I’ll give you the “development” intro to me.  In January 2008 I decided to start a new journey in my life of learning the world of software development.  I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.  I was so green that I actually thought that web development and web design were interchangeable terms, even further than that it took me a while to realize that “.NET Framework” and “ASP.NET” were not interchangeable terms.  So, where am I at now?  Some days I feel greener than when I began :).  This, of course, is a direct reflection of the thickness of my head—not the skill of those teaching me.  I’ve actually been blessed to have what I consider to be some of the best mentors that any new developer could ask for: Bryan Phillips, Jeremy Sublett, and Tim Landgrave.

February 1st of 2008 Bryan and Jeremy brought me onto the Composable Systems team.  I’ve been on an extreme roller coaster ever since.  I started down this road with NO previous development experience.  I can’t say like Jeremy that, “I remember doing my first programming on an Atari when I was 8”, or like Tim, “I built my first computer at the age of 3”, or like Bryan, “I am a computer.”  Now here I am, a brand-new development student, no previous experience or understanding of development, with the greatest opportunity of a young developer’s life: working day in and day out with two of the most talented Microsoft MVPs and later getting to sit under the teaching of a Microsoft Architect at Sullivan University. 

I finally feel like I’m getting to the place where I can understand statements like, “Now this isn’t SharePoint.  It’s just straight ASP.NET.” and “Once you’ve done that, you can code against the object model.” and “This feature is available ootb with MOSS.” and “This is a computer.  This is a mouse.  This is a keyboard.”

So, with all of that said, what can you expect from this blog?  I’m going to guess one of two things:

1. You will get to read a few tips (or personal discoveries at least) from the perspective of a guy who knows what it feels like to read blog after blog that always seems to assume a much higher level of experience than you have (if you are a newbie like me).
2. You will get to read a few tips (or personal discoveries at least) that make you say, “This guy obviously hasn’t been doing this for long.”

Either way—I’m learning, having fun, growing, experiencing, and really enjoying the development world—and I hope you can say the same, even if you’ve been doing this for 20 years.  God Bless.