I finished the final on December 12 2015 for my CNT140 class. The class was hard, but not in the sense of content material, but just on the sheer fact that there was much to grasp in a relatively short period of time of 15 weeks, and the class only met for 1 day a week, on a Saturday no less.
The lessons Professor Larry Heinz has ingrained in me will no doubt prove useful for a lifetime. There was much material, mostly fundamentals, and lots of exposure to working and theoretical examples of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model.
Then there was my work environment. People well versed in networking like Brian Hitch existed in my workplace environment-- I never needed help from Brian on CNT140, but there were definitely workplace scenarios that required his assistance. In time, I sought his assistance less and less as more fundamental knowledge was engrained in me. BTW, I recently learned that Brian used to be a professor at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. Cool dude.
I'm fortunate as fuck.
My roommate used to be a professor at Estrella Mountain Community College, AND ran their own business.
My Vice President of IT used to be a professor at Estrella Mountain Community College too, AND ran their own business.
(These really are two different people)
The spring semester of 2016 will only hold more exciting opportunities. There'll be another Cisco class, CNT150, along with Windows Server, Linux Operating System, and IT Ethics. There'll be even more money saved and invested. There'll be a better future by the end of the year.
Would not have been able to do this without the enabling power that higher education provides.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Sunday, August 09, 2015
9 August 2015 - The death of blogs
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/01/blogging-isnt-dead-old-school-blogging-definitely-dying
After reading this article and observing the nature of how blogs have been dying over the years, notably how I haven't seen a consistently well-followed blog during these years, I'm inclined to believe that traditional old school blogging really is dead. We're just too busy to admit it.
In this day & age of social media dominated technology, one would think that blogs would have some relevance. But it doesn't. We spend too much time observing the more simplified versions of personal expression on the internet, like people posting 150 character tweets or Facebook meme reposts from twitter on how relationships are such horrible concepts and that Mr. Right is just around the corner to rescue you.
I think it will still be in my nature to express via blogs, but perhaps the content will be migrated into a more relevant platform, such as via Reddit, a popularized stream to deploy social media content.
To be of service to the universe, I will need to know how to speak in its current format.
After reading this article and observing the nature of how blogs have been dying over the years, notably how I haven't seen a consistently well-followed blog during these years, I'm inclined to believe that traditional old school blogging really is dead. We're just too busy to admit it.
In this day & age of social media dominated technology, one would think that blogs would have some relevance. But it doesn't. We spend too much time observing the more simplified versions of personal expression on the internet, like people posting 150 character tweets or Facebook meme reposts from twitter on how relationships are such horrible concepts and that Mr. Right is just around the corner to rescue you.
I think it will still be in my nature to express via blogs, but perhaps the content will be migrated into a more relevant platform, such as via Reddit, a popularized stream to deploy social media content.
To be of service to the universe, I will need to know how to speak in its current format.
Thursday, August 06, 2015
6 August 2015
Well, this is odd.
In the last couple of months, I've noticed an increasing exposure to "things IT". I took a summer course in Studio Music Recording, and also in Windows PowerShell. I succeeded in both classes. But I found more relevance in the PowerShell class, yet my need for music can't go unnoticed.
I recently applied to ASU in their Chandler campus for software engineering. I hope I get in. I've backed myself up with 2+ years of enterprise IT experience now, and I've taken a litany of IT classes both back in San Diego and here in Phoenix, every time getting A's in the class. My PowerShell class, I hit 100%.
This is where things get interesting. It is in my unique human nature to exercise in humanitarianism. But one can't go into humanitiarianism without fully solidifying their own personal foundation first.
* I need to get my degree.
* I need to have more solidified financial portfolios. 401k, IRA, savings.
* I need to develop more automated IT processes to manage my day-to-day life.
* I need to practice more cooking fundamentals.
** Simple ingredients, bursting with flavor.
In the last couple of months, I've noticed an increasing exposure to "things IT". I took a summer course in Studio Music Recording, and also in Windows PowerShell. I succeeded in both classes. But I found more relevance in the PowerShell class, yet my need for music can't go unnoticed.
I recently applied to ASU in their Chandler campus for software engineering. I hope I get in. I've backed myself up with 2+ years of enterprise IT experience now, and I've taken a litany of IT classes both back in San Diego and here in Phoenix, every time getting A's in the class. My PowerShell class, I hit 100%.
This is where things get interesting. It is in my unique human nature to exercise in humanitarianism. But one can't go into humanitiarianism without fully solidifying their own personal foundation first.
* I need to get my degree.
* I need to have more solidified financial portfolios. 401k, IRA, savings.
* I need to develop more automated IT processes to manage my day-to-day life.
* I need to practice more cooking fundamentals.
** Simple ingredients, bursting with flavor.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
20 June 2015 -- transparency in posts
I've decided after a few weeks of thought that I should start making more of my posts public. Not sure about the ones I've written historically, but definitely going forward this is definitely a thing I should do.
I just came back from watching Inside Out in theaters. The concept is interesting, an exploration of the human mind through isolated concepts of human emotions playing character roles.
It is a feels trip and a reminder of why it's important to feel human in this lifetime. Don't discredit children's films. Watch it. Give it a chance, give yourself a chance.
I just came back from watching Inside Out in theaters. The concept is interesting, an exploration of the human mind through isolated concepts of human emotions playing character roles.
It is a feels trip and a reminder of why it's important to feel human in this lifetime. Don't discredit children's films. Watch it. Give it a chance, give yourself a chance.
Friday, June 19, 2015
19 June 2015
The "fundamentals" approach is one I try to stick to when completing tasks in my life.
Struggle is the key.
Vic is unsure of the destiny between us as work partners. I cannot lose Vic.
Struggle is the key.
Vic is unsure of the destiny between us as work partners. I cannot lose Vic.
Friday, May 08, 2015
8 May 2015
Studying more on general usability of Unreal Engine 4. Functionally it isn’t much different from any previous iteration from the engine, but the newest one has different usaiability functions even from the main window. Game assets are still the same thing, such as placing actors, objects, static meshes, all that shit. And “Blueprints” is the new label for Kismet back from Unreal Engine 3.
But the real meat changes in the engine rest are usability changes. The documentation starts off with a Quick Start guide that is actually relevant to the beginning end user, something previous iterations of the Engine suffered from and pushed away interest.
I’ve noticed that fundamentally, with the new engine that the emphasis has been placed on “easy to use” which seems to pair with the open system concept that I’ve seen a lot of organizations put into place in more recent years. For instance, most websites that require a personal login before participating in restricted functions like posting comments, simply link to your Facebook under a single sign on (SSO) integration.
Perhaps I will finally revisit the Unreal Engine from a more technical end user standpoint now, instead of mere surface level academic curiosity.
More to come at a later date.
But the real meat changes in the engine rest are usability changes. The documentation starts off with a Quick Start guide that is actually relevant to the beginning end user, something previous iterations of the Engine suffered from and pushed away interest.
I’ve noticed that fundamentally, with the new engine that the emphasis has been placed on “easy to use” which seems to pair with the open system concept that I’ve seen a lot of organizations put into place in more recent years. For instance, most websites that require a personal login before participating in restricted functions like posting comments, simply link to your Facebook under a single sign on (SSO) integration.
Perhaps I will finally revisit the Unreal Engine from a more technical end user standpoint now, instead of mere surface level academic curiosity.
More to come at a later date.
Monday, February 09, 2015
9 February 2015
I thought it might be a good idea to start documenting my opinions on what is going on in my classes this semester. Not in the sense of taking notes per se, which I already accomplish in class, but more so documenting my personal judgments into what is occurring on my day-to-day. This accomplishes two things:
1. It clearly reinforces in my mind the content that was delivered from professor to student that day
2. It associates emotions to the content learned in class and in my personal study time, thereby establishing a personal value to the content learned, which ultimately strengthens my learning initiatives.
Since I type 145-175 words per minute, this should be a fucking piece of cake for me to document shit quickly/effectively.
So, we're in week 4 at school and I’m progressing nicely in all of my classes. We reviewed file management today in Doug Nottingham’s classes, both in Digital Audio Workstation and Electronic Music 1, and it was nice to see the breakdown of the reasoning behind effective file management in the audio engineering world. As with any engineering field that utilizes file management (NOT just audio), filenames need to define the contents of the file cohesively, and in many cases the creator of the document too. Yes, directly INTO the filename. Most importantly, and I’m glad the professor stated this, because it was an instance of convergent evolution for me, for I didn’t know the professor would share my ideology prior to joining the class, but hey, great minds think alike.
Filenames should never have any spaces. If anything, use underscores. Because, for fuck’s sake, if I need to use basic software to navigate my way to that specific file I’ll fucking kill whoever makes me type Guitar%20Test%20Sheet%20Jason%20Chen%20May%202015.ptf (web site creators, you KNOW what I’m talking about) instead of just fucking Guitar_Test_Sheet_Jason_Chen_May_2015.ptf
Also, I’m glad that our professor is educating us on data backups. I greatly appreciate the requirement to carry an external hard drive to and from school. It was the best $200 I invested in tech hardware for school. All of my school shit gets backed up on there, on my laptop, AND on my OneDrive. Because, for fuck’s sake, there’s no one else to blame but myself if one of these repositories gets fucked due to a virus or drive failure and I have no backups available.
ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR SHIT.
It’s nice to see that I’m not the only power user anymore in my classes. For once in three years, I’m surrounded by the smartest minds the new generation is starting to spit out. These are the students fresh out of high school, they’re not even 18 yet, but they can siphon WEP keys using WireShark from their neighbors like child’s play. These are the personality types that utilize hotkeys as easily as turning on the faucet in their bathroom. These are the types of users that treat their workflow like water, dragging out their Chrome windows and pinning tabs where the circumstance demands it.
For once, I feel challenged to do more.
These statements I am making today in this blog entry are suggestive of an aggressive, opinionated, even dick like outlook, but frankly, after sitting down in two audio engineering labs, once back in 2007 when I recorded my audition CD on cello for music school, and last year in Q4 2014 at a studio here in Phoenix, I can say with measured confidence that the audio industry doesn’t value slow workers. It doesn’t value people that aren’t going to know at least 85% of their power user shortcuts. As my professor says, “All I care is that you are fast”. I’ve now not just seen this in the academic environment, but in workplace too.
It was also nice to see that my experience taking classes in Business Administration with emphasis in Hospitality Management actually paid off. The professor called out seven file name tracks, 3 parameters for the file type, and parameters for each individual file name track. In the restaurant industry, when the head chef calls out the order, do you really think they’re going to tolerate that one junior chef who goes “Sorry, what was that order again?” Or worse, asking a third time.
I get the feeling that I’ll be heading in the direction of a maintenance engineer to start, or perhaps interning directly for an engineer who could manifest positive benefit directly into my portfolio.
1. It clearly reinforces in my mind the content that was delivered from professor to student that day
2. It associates emotions to the content learned in class and in my personal study time, thereby establishing a personal value to the content learned, which ultimately strengthens my learning initiatives.
Since I type 145-175 words per minute, this should be a fucking piece of cake for me to document shit quickly/effectively.
So, we're in week 4 at school and I’m progressing nicely in all of my classes. We reviewed file management today in Doug Nottingham’s classes, both in Digital Audio Workstation and Electronic Music 1, and it was nice to see the breakdown of the reasoning behind effective file management in the audio engineering world. As with any engineering field that utilizes file management (NOT just audio), filenames need to define the contents of the file cohesively, and in many cases the creator of the document too. Yes, directly INTO the filename. Most importantly, and I’m glad the professor stated this, because it was an instance of convergent evolution for me, for I didn’t know the professor would share my ideology prior to joining the class, but hey, great minds think alike.
Filenames should never have any spaces. If anything, use underscores. Because, for fuck’s sake, if I need to use basic software to navigate my way to that specific file I’ll fucking kill whoever makes me type Guitar%20Test%20Sheet%20Jason%20Chen%20May%202015.ptf (web site creators, you KNOW what I’m talking about) instead of just fucking Guitar_Test_Sheet_Jason_Chen_May_2015.ptf
Also, I’m glad that our professor is educating us on data backups. I greatly appreciate the requirement to carry an external hard drive to and from school. It was the best $200 I invested in tech hardware for school. All of my school shit gets backed up on there, on my laptop, AND on my OneDrive. Because, for fuck’s sake, there’s no one else to blame but myself if one of these repositories gets fucked due to a virus or drive failure and I have no backups available.
ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR SHIT.
It’s nice to see that I’m not the only power user anymore in my classes. For once in three years, I’m surrounded by the smartest minds the new generation is starting to spit out. These are the students fresh out of high school, they’re not even 18 yet, but they can siphon WEP keys using WireShark from their neighbors like child’s play. These are the personality types that utilize hotkeys as easily as turning on the faucet in their bathroom. These are the types of users that treat their workflow like water, dragging out their Chrome windows and pinning tabs where the circumstance demands it.
For once, I feel challenged to do more.
These statements I am making today in this blog entry are suggestive of an aggressive, opinionated, even dick like outlook, but frankly, after sitting down in two audio engineering labs, once back in 2007 when I recorded my audition CD on cello for music school, and last year in Q4 2014 at a studio here in Phoenix, I can say with measured confidence that the audio industry doesn’t value slow workers. It doesn’t value people that aren’t going to know at least 85% of their power user shortcuts. As my professor says, “All I care is that you are fast”. I’ve now not just seen this in the academic environment, but in workplace too.
It was also nice to see that my experience taking classes in Business Administration with emphasis in Hospitality Management actually paid off. The professor called out seven file name tracks, 3 parameters for the file type, and parameters for each individual file name track. In the restaurant industry, when the head chef calls out the order, do you really think they’re going to tolerate that one junior chef who goes “Sorry, what was that order again?” Or worse, asking a third time.
I get the feeling that I’ll be heading in the direction of a maintenance engineer to start, or perhaps interning directly for an engineer who could manifest positive benefit directly into my portfolio.
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