First Blog Ever?!

This is probably not a very unique back story but it’s the boring truth. I got started with computers as a kid growing up in the late 90’s. My mom used to buy these educational games for us made by The Learning Company, Knowledge Adventure, and a bunch of other studios. If I am being honest with myself they were actually quite fun to play and got us a little bit hooked to our pc’s. Had to google the name of the game as it’s been so long, “Clue Finders” had my brother and I wanting to learn.  The puzzles and story line were great for it’s time. Naturally this fixation to our computers was beneficial in learning more about the software and hardware of what was running our games.

Fast forward(skipping a lot) to today and I am currently working as a full stack Java developer at Bank of America. Future career goals are to become a senior software engineer but to do that I really need to solidify my technical skills. I tend to forget a lot of the material I have learned over the years and from the OSU post bacc program due to lack of practice. You would be surprised with how little coding you can do working in a corporate setting. Of course this varied from company to company. At least for me it will be easier once I graduate. I’ll be able to focus on leet code, problem solving skills, and personal coding projects. If possible I would like to get a Java certificate and/or spring framework certified as well. Spring is a very widely used Java framework. If I decide to stick with Java then I think it would be good to get that certificate. 

I say if possible because as I get older it’s really becoming a matter of juggling my time or creating time for things I want/need to do. For example, if money was not an obstacle I would probably be spending a majority of my free time learning Mandarin(Simplified Chinese). It’s such a difficult language and I want to speak it like a native speaker. That level of skill will probably take me anywhere from 3-5 years so the sooner I get started the better off I will be. One of the primary motivating factors is my kids whom are half Chinese and I am learning a little bit from them when I can. You know, like broken baby talk but in Mandarin :).  I’m really praying that my career progress goes well this year or the next. That way I can focus more on learning Mandarin and less on Computer Science related topics. I’m sure my spouse, kids, and in-laws would be ecstatic as well!

Luce coffee roasters in Houston, Texas. I love coffee so I’m sharing that instead of a photo of my family haha. Not sure I want to post family photos on the internet yet :).