Last weekend I went on a little hiking trip with my spouse. We visited Lake Chabot Regional Park. Most of the hike was on relatively flat ground. The scenery was spectacular. The weather was a little mild. It was a great day to do get outside and enjoy the fresh air. The plan was to hike from the Marina along the East Shore Trail, then along the Honker Bay Trail and have lunch at the Family campground then hike back to the Marina.  The hardest part of the hike was the last half mile to the Family campground.  The trail ascended 300 feet. I am a pretty experienced hiker & camper,...

A few months ago we had some kittens abandoned in our backyard.  The mother was nowhere to be found, so we sprang into action.  We took care of those kittens. We bottle fed them, until they could eat solid food. We washed them and helped them learn how to go potty.  Sorry about the potty language. I don’t know if these are typical kitten traits, but this is what I’ve noticed. A few observations about kittens: They inspire older cats to play like kittens again They share their love as soon as they see you Their love is unconditional They are full of energy They learn...

Who says you can’t teach an Old Dog some New Tricks? I’m not really old, I’ve heard it said that you’re only as old as you feel, so that makes me around 29 years old . Over the past couple of years, most of the software I’ve written has been in C and C++.  A few years ago, while I was working at Prescriber’s Letter I received an introduction to SQL, ASP.NET, VB.NET and XML. I had opportunities to analyze SQL queries and write & debug stored procedures. I created panels for the PDA portions of the website. At the time I didn’t understand why...

When I was growing up, no one ever pushed me to go to college.  My parents graduated from high school, got married, had kids, bought houses and worked in very stable jobs for most of their lives.  We lived a pretty good life. Not knowing anything different, after graduating from high school, I decided to attend a junior college and get a degree.  I learned about the latest languages of the day IBM 360 Assembly, COBOL, RPG, FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal and APL.  After earning my degree, I got married, had some kids, bought a house and worked my way up the ladder. Along the way, I had to...

Whether we like it or not, people tend to categorize things.  Sometimes, they might associate a person with a particular activity or personality type.  Maybe a group of people will be associated with a cause or hobby. In work, you might have accepted the challenge of a specific task that nobody else wanted.  You did it so well, that you are now the resident expert on the subject.  The next time a task like this comes up, you might be asked to do a repeat.  A few more times and you’ve been pigeonholed.  To avoid this in the future, make sure you diversify yourself in the tasks that...