Just a few updates.

I added my skills sets to the side bar, and updated my self study program to reflect the changes I have made.

Here's hoping that 2009 will be better than 2008. I am still looking at the possibility of selling my place and living off the proceeds to get by until things turn around, but the drawback to that is that when things do turn around I will not be able to afford the cost of a new home. That will be a tough choice, but it's either that or the sidewalk if I don't find work soon.

The things that really got to my after being laid off the second time this year, was that the lay off happened the day before Thanksgiving, and all through the holiday season the news kept posting stories about corporate greed. Reading about how the CEOs of some of those banks who were bailed out getting retention bonuses, and then buying million dollar apartments just put a damper on my spirits.

But to Hell with all that. I have got to move on and push myself to keep studying and looking for work. Eventually things will turn around for me and all the others who are hurting right now.

Back on the bus again.

I just found out today that I am being laid off due to a restructuring, so I am back to looking for work again.

What is particularly sad about this lay off is that I was working with a great group of people, and many of them are also being let go too.

I'm going to use the holiday break to decompress a little, and then get going with the job search again on Monday. I'll also be hitting the books harder too.

Wish me luck.

Fonts, colors, and weight with CSS.

I didn't get a lot of reading done over the last week, but I did dive back in to Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML and got going with Chapter 9. It is slow progress, but progress none the less. It's great learning how to set fonts, colors, and weight with CSS. It will be nice once I get done to finally apply this stuff to my sites. Yeah, I know, once I get done. This seems to be taking a long time, but given the dynamics of everything that has happened in the last few months, I think I am doing quite well.

As for getting started with the robotics, I decided to go through the NXT manual and familiarize myself with everything instead of just loading the software and trundling along getting lost. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have a little bot running around. I'll post some pictures if I get something running.

Catching up for the week.

I have been really busy over the last week, so I have not had a chance to post here until now.

Work is going great! I am settling in and I am making good progress and learning a lot. I would like to say I have been making the same progress with my HTML studies, but just haven't had time to sit down with the Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML book lately. I am hoping get in so study time over this weekend. Even though I have a job, I still want to develop and improve my skill set, and I definitely need to clean up my web sites. I also will continue to develop my interest in web accessibility.

I am going to drop the Apache, PHP, and MySQL studies for now, and start up with C# shortly. Studying C# will not only help me at work, but also may be beneficial with my robotics work using Microsoft Robotics Studio (MRS) from what I have been told. I will be using the Lego NXT system to start with because it can be used with MRS and it's easy to work with.

Given that it's now "that season" in the Seattle (cloudy, rainy, dreary) I'll be taking my astonomy interest inside and play with some of the free astronomy programs that come with Ubuntu as well as working with the Astro Link Blog and the Cloudymidnights Blog. I'll also be playing around with my CoCo, though I'll be posting more about that on the 8-Bit Retro Computing Blog.

I think I'll be busy for quite some time. Cheers! :)

Getting back to work.

The last few days have been really exciting. Like the subject says, I am getting back to work and will start my new job in a week. I'm really stoked about finding a new job, especially one that falls inline with with my goals.

I won't go into too much detail right now, but I will eventually rework my Linkedin profile to reflect my new position. What really made getting this job exciting is that it wasn't the only offer I had within a 24 hour period.

Getting back to work means I will have to change my self study program a bit, but I will still focus on web development. I plan to finish Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML before I start the new job and then move on to C# and do a little refreshing of my network fundimentals.

I'll add more over the next few days.

Moving on to CSS!

Because lot's of stuff came up between this and the previous blog Chapter 7 of Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML took a lot longer for me to finish than I wanted to take, but it's done and I am diving in to Chapter 8.

Chapter 7 dealt with XHTML 1.0 which is very close to HTML 4.01 that was covered in the prevouse chapters. According to the book XHTML is supposed to next thing, but given that the book is now several years old and that HTML 5.0 is coming out, I wonder if this is still true.

Does anyone out there have an opinion regarding HTML vs. XHTML that they would like to share? If so, post a comment because I would like to others think.

It's hump day, and I am tying to get over some humps

The brand new printer that I got to print out cover letters and customized resumes died yesterday. I have solutions to work around the problem until a replacement printer arrives, so I am not completely stuck and I am moving forward (albeit a bit hobbled).

What was left of my time yesterday was spent working on my job search, so didn't get in any time for my studies. It looks like today will be focused exclusively on the job search, but hopefully tonight I will be able to get in some time and learn more about XHTML.

I know what I want to do with the knowledge I will get from Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, but I am not sure if I should move forward with the PHP studies, or shift my focus to C#. I would like to learn both because both interest me and I see the demand for those skills, but I only have so much time.

While I know what my long term goals are, I am struggling to find the right path to get to where I want to go. There are so many pathes that present opportunities that I lose my focus at times. Keeping my focus and continuing to stay hopeful are are just two more humps in the road ahead for me, but I will get over them.

Done with Chapter 6 and moving to XHTML

I finished Chapter 6 of Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML over the weekend, and I can definitely say I learned a lot about web standards and compliance.

It was interesting to use the W3C Markup Validation Service to check the code samples in the book, as well as my own sites (miba51, cloudymidnights, and urbanspelunkers) I wasn't surprised to find that all three of my sites had bugs, but I am still going to hold off correcting and updating my sites until I am done with book.

Since I am paying for hosting those sites, I might as well use them as part of my portfolio with cloudymidnights emphasizing accessibility, and urbandspelunkers to experiement with style.

I am now starting Chapter 7 and diving in to XHTML and hopefully in a couple more chapters I'll begin working with CSS. I wish I were making faster progress, but there are other priorities, and at least I am making progress on many fronts right now.

I scapped out 4 old PC hulks I had lying around, and I have two or three more to scrap out by the end of next weekend. My place is looking more organized than it has in years. Who knows, I may actually get some of my other projects off the ground. It's amazing what you can accomplish once you define and narrow your focus.

Coming up for (but just for a little bit)

The job search is plugging along and I am starting to make some good contacts. I am still staying positive and working toward my goals.

I've been networking with some great people in the accessibility field and I have found some great resources that will help me move forward. I am impressed at how helpful people are in sharing information about accessibility.

My studies have been going in spurts. As I have stated before this is due to the time I am spending on my job search, but like my job search I am making progress. I am currently on Chapter 6 of Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML and I hope to finish it by the weekend.

I am finding that HTML seems to just come naturally to me and even though I haven't started working with CSS I have been able to understand the few examples that have been listed in the exercises.

Even though it's a cloudy day today, I'm feeling pretty positive about where I am heading.

Something's missing! Look to the left.

If you look over to the left you will see that the "Free Books" comment and link are missing. That's because someone came over today and picked up a bulk of the books. What was left wasn't worth trying to find a home for so they are now residing in the recycling bin. All of the non-fiction books are heading off to a used book store tomorrow. I am finding as I become more focused on my goals, getting rid of stuff I don't need is becoming easier.

Studies are going slow, but I am still moving forward. I believe that clearing out a lot of stuff will provide a better study environment, and help me move towards my goal so things should pick up. I'm also starting to do some research on web accessibility for the visually impaired, and I am gathering a lot of information which I hope to incorporate in to my upgrades to the Cloudymidnights site.

Since I have Tron running in the background at the moment, I guess I'll end this entry with a good old fashion "EOL"

Staying with it.

I decided to take a break after the late night session on Monday night / Tuesday Morning otherwise my efforts with the crash course book may have resulted in my crashing and burning.

The one thing I have learned from the reading this book so far is always make certain that the material you are reading about is up-to-date. Having said that, I will say that I did learn from my efforts, so I am staying with it. It will just take more than a weekend to finish this book though.