Some of this year’s career goals

1. I want to become more efficient and focused in whatever I may be doing.

2. Books: I want to finish  books in these categories: Software Development, Logic, Neuropsychology, Math, Electronics, Networking, and Vocab and Spelling.

3. I want to get more into deeper development steps and processes.

4. I want to show more consistency in my work and reliability.

5. I want to become better with time management and learn on a track to finish one or two steps at a time.

What did I ship in 2010

I was reading Seth Godin’s blog and he put together a list of all the things  he “shipped” (means ideas you made into products and put into the world) in 2010, so I wanted to offer the same list from myself this year.

• Trained in PHP/MySQL
• Created my personal site
• Received my first IT job (non-freelancing and paying)
• Moved into my first apartment
• Bought 2 or 3 cars and returned them all (losing somethings in the process but became a car expert ha)
• Made my first stock investment
• Had my first Christmas in a long time
• Recreated my site
• Began reworking a business idea (A. Harrel)
• Became a team leader
• Learned Java basics

My list is in all thankfulness in God and for enabling me all of these opportunities this year.

You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Overall a great year and I will continue to pray for every blessing and every downfall that makes me stronger.

Now I believe next year with the help of God will be a really exciting year and today I will say goodbye to 2010.

Christian

(i just bought an iPad with the money I saved with google voice)

I was recently considering trying to lower my high cell phone bill.

If you’re curious I am using AT&T(i know, i know), but I hope that next year they really get their service to what it should be.

I have an iPhone and I am paying around $125  on a monthly basis and will be doing so for the next 2 years, or so I thought.

A few months ago I managed to get into the beta version of voice and loved the interface, it has a cool-and-suprisingly-accurate voice to text, along with contact organization, and a bundle of other great features.

I use it for texting and calling such as when I post craigslist ads and I don’t truly want to give it out my actual number.

But I started thinking, because you can turn off text forwarding and it will essentially not count against your texts then you could just use this for your texting plan and almost eliminate your texting plan (will take some time for people to use that number instead). Along with the iPhone app you can cut $20 off of your bill just by enabling google voice to be your texting machine. If it is too tedious to use one for texting and calling just use the google number for calling too, (since the calls forward to your cell phone anyways).

So just do it, you’ll be saving $480 on a 2 year contract.

(i just bought an iPad with the money I saved with google voice)

Stock Market….

Today was the first day I invested in the stock market, I went all in, over 2500 shares. Bad thing is I have a limited amount of information on how the stock market and I am just betting on the Irish because of Allan Harrel and because I’m partially Irish, so it’s a little bias. But what better stock than the Luck of the Irish, I mean what could go wrong…?

We’ll see what happens…

Consulting or Not

Honestly I have to say, I’ve been working or observing a consulting firm lately and I can’t help but think to myself that I can do everything they are saying they want us to do. They take a rather simple outside business perspective and right the steps accordingly, me being introverted I’ve had the path all along, but everyone else is in awe of a path being laid in front of them.  But the frustration in it is that if you don’t step up to the plate with all of your skills then you may easily get exactly what I am getting. But what stinks is I’ve provided a great plan and now it’s like I am being micromanaged… I have to say being micro-managed  is one of my pet peeves, but what can I do…Maybe it isn’t all consulting firms but this one in particular.

Beacon Support Programmer

I was deemed “Beacon Support Programmer” by Decipher Inc yesterday and after sleeping on it, and it’s already began to grow on me. Beacon being a great platform that’s been developed, me being on the Support Team, doing any programmer changes, this all seems to make my title a very cognizant choice.My role has expanded since I’ve been here and theres been a lot of work for me to do. I thank God for blessing me with the opportunity to work and glorify him through my work here as I build a future, the need for building skills is still forever present and I am continuing to progressively study, my girlfriend keeps me on track and I am blessed to have her with me and just pray that I stay grateful for all things given, even overtime.

What I do: I program fixes for client surveys that use our DIY tool (python and/or xml), which is part of the Beacon process. I can’t help to say “Beeeeaaaaccooon” in that holy tone as if it was emerging through a couple of carefully placed clouds to brighten my day. I also program in Javascript, Html, CSS, and even sometimes some SQL on our current site, support our whole company and our clients.

I am starting to rewrite my programming skills and feel the need to build theories along with my practical experiences, I am excited about the opportunities here, I would suggest anyone to work at Decipher, it’s definitely a place I advise to my progressive natured friends.

Christian Ramsey