Year: 2010

Catcher in the Rye

I finished reading Catcher in the Rye last night. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading this book. There are a lot of other great books that I’ve never gotten around to reading. I think next up is maybe Catch-22 or For Whom the Bell Tolls. I’ve actually never read any Hemingway, and it seems like I should. I vaguely recall having a conversation with my father about a particular Hemingway novel that he liked. I can’t remember which one it was though.

Well, now that I’ve read Catcher in the Rye, and Salinger’s short story Laughing Man (which I read a year or two back), I should probably re-watch the Ghost in the Shell: SAC anime series. There are various references to Salinger throughout the series, and I think the series as a whole might make a little more sense, having read a bit of Salinger.

progress

Over the course of this week, I managed to get through chapters 6 through 9, and most of chapter 10, in the 70-536 book. I’d like to have finished chapter 10 today, but I’m feeling a little under the weather, and I can’t really concentrate on anything too complex right now. So maybe tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep.

I’m hoping I can get through the remaining chapters (11 through 16) next week, then take the exam on Saturday April 3, maybe.

Visual Studio 2010 pricing

This blog entry from Microsoft has all the details about VS 2010 pricing. As usual, it’s more confusing than it needs to be. I may actually opt to pay for the $299 upgrade from VS 2008 Standard, assuming my free copy of VS 2008 Std is eligible for the upgrade price, which I can’t really be sure of.

I don’t think I’ll really need a copy of VS 2010 right away. I think I’m actually going to do the “Web Developer on Visual Studio 2005” certification path first, so that will keep me busy for a while. Then, I’ll take the upgrade exam for VS 2008, then I’ll think about VS 2010. So, no rush. I’ve actually got quite a bit to learn before I catch up with all the current .Net stuff.

more snags with my .Net studying

I hit another little snag in my attempt to get through the self-study material for Microsoft’s exam 70-536. I’ve gotten to the section on creating a Windows service, but that only works with Visual Studio Professional, and I’ve only got Standard on both my desktop & laptop. I have a license for VS 2008 Pro, from the Dreamspark account I had last year, when I was taking a class at NYU, but I need to press the ISO to DVD, then do the install (which will hopefully work OK over VS 2008 Std), then re-apply any VS 2008 patches.

This all got me to thinking about VS 2010, and what the status was on that. I haven’t really been bothering to keep up with that lately. Turns out it’s scheduled for release April 12. If I want to buy an upgrade, it looks like it’ll cost $549, based on this page. This article, though, indicates that it might be possible to buy an upgrade for $299. I’ve managed to avoid spending money on Visual Studio so far, getting my licenses through either Dreamspark or at launch events, so we’ll see if I can wrangle a free VS 2010 license one way or another.

studying for 70-536

I did get through chapters 1 to 5 in the self-study book for exam 70-536 last week. I didn’t get any reading done on the weekend, though. The books24x7 account I have through ACM stopped working. Heck of a time for *that* to happen. ACM seems to be aware of the problem now, so hopefully it’ll get fixed.

I decided to go out today and buy a hard copy of the book at Borders anyway. I had a 30% off coupon, so the book cost me about $50. I got through chapter 6 today, and will continue trying to get through a chapter or two each day, until I’m done and (hopefully) ready for the test.

The book is pretty well-written, and does cover a bunch of stuff with which I’m not terribly familiar. So, it’s worth reading regardless of whether or not I take the test.

Somerville St. Patrick’s Day Parade postponed due to flooding

Somerville St. Patrick’s Day Parade postponed due to flooding

No St Patrick’s Day parade today in Somerville. Looks like they’ll try again next week. That’s OK. I’m not feeling too well today, so it’s a good day to sit inside reading books, and sipping tea.

Microsoft certification

After all the changes I’ve gone through over the last several months, I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with my life next. I’ve tentatively decided, though, that I’m going to pursue a Microsoft certification, probably some variant of MCPD. I’ll have to start with exam 70-536, regardless of which path I take, so I’ve started working on that. I’m reading through the official MS Press book for this exam, via my ACM Books24x7 account. I’ve succeeded in reading a chapter a day for the last three days, so if I can keep this up, I can probably take the test a few weeks from now.

I’m not sure how serious I need to be about practicing for the test. Should I buy a practice test from Transcender or MeasureUp or somebody like that? Or just wing it?

I stumbled across this page on CodeProject this morning. Looks like something that would be worth playing with after I make it through the book.

Stephen Fry and W.H. Auden

I just finished watching the Craig Ferguson show from a couple of weeks back where he interviewed Stephen Fry. I’ve been watching it in bits and pieces on YouTube. Near the end, Fry mentions Auden’s line “We must love one another or die.” I wasn’t familiar with that poem, so I Googled it, and found it here. Wow.

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade

He was talking about the thirties, of course, but that beginning at least could certainly apply to our most recent decade. I was reading an article in the Economist last week about how the previous decade was the worst (for the US economy) since the thirties. Scary bar charts.

I had lunch yesterday with a group of former co-workers who are all still out of work, since the company we worked for went bankrupt at the end of 2009. At this point, more of my friends are unemployed than employed. I know the unemployment rate is well under 50%, but it looks like a little over 50% from where I’m standing.

The “we must love one another or die” line resonates with me right now, since the support of so many of my friends and relatives is the only thing that’s kept me sane over the last several months, dealing with my Dad’s death, Mom’s dementia, then death, and (to a lesser extent) the “demise” of NMS, the company for which I’d been working for over ten years.

Economically, I’m certainly doing much better than many people right now, as I still have a job (for now) and I have some savings to fall back on if I need to. I’m really hoping the economy picks up, though, as I’d like to see more of my friends working, and I’d like to avoid the unemployment lines myself.