The more I learn...

So comes to a close another week of learning geek skills. This week I attended a class at Interface Technical Training in Phoenix taught by Dan Wahlin. The class was focused on ASP.NET 2.0. I'm currently using ASP.NET 1.1 at my 'day job' but I've had some limited experience with 2.0 on some personal and side projects. Dan was a great instructor (not uncommon for Interface) and I learned some great things in his class. I commented to Dan that the class should be called 'How to hate your ASP.NET 1.1 Project in 5 Days or Less' since it seemed that every cool thing I learned was limited to version 2 and higher. I guess I needed some additional incentive to buckle down and get into the nuts and bolts of upgrading applications at work anyway. Now I have tons of ideas that I can't wait to implement. Now the crappy part is that I can't take advantage of any of this stuff until we upgrade our database server to SQL Server 2005. We're currently using SQL Server 2000 and that just isn't gonna cut it. Hopefully we can go to SQL '05 and Visual Studio '08, but at a minimum it'll be SQL '05 and VS 2005 (VS 2008 may not be approved for use on our network yet). Anyway, it was a week well spent. I had fun, I learned quite a bit, and my passion for web development has been renewed.

I definitely recommend Interface Technical Training if you're looking for some geek education.

Oh the irony

This is just too good to be true. The irony here is killin' me! And of course, the California list is topped by none other than the Local here in my little corner of the world. Hey all you dues paying members of AFGE...how do you feel about providing money to your fellow union members who happen to be in need of some spare change for bail?

Only a heavy-handed, intimidating, over-bearing, criminal organization like a labor union would need to set up a system like this.

Unions continue to make my case for me.

Motorcyclist riding with rattler critcally injured in crash

BWAAAA! That's just funny. I know the guy is nearly dead (and that's uhhh, sad) but this story just makes me laugh.


Be sure to take a look at the comments that other readers have posted. VERY funny.

The thought police are on patrol

Click the heading of this post for some interesting reading. It seems that a high school teacher in Wisconsin was arrested for posting his opinions in the comments section of a political blog. While you may not agree with his comments (I don't) you can't convince me that he should have been arrested for them. Scary stuff. Thoughts?

PopLight in the desert

In my travels I (very) often pass through Amboy, CA. Near Amboy is a dry lake bed known as Bristol Dry Lake. It's a very flat, very quiet, very dark, and often very hot place. If you pass over Bristol Lake after dusk on any given weekend you're likely to see a brilliant display of lights in this isolated place. Check out PopLight.net to see what I'm talking about.

Nice work, Helena. Keep it up.