The company I work for (The C.A. Jones Management Group) has an immediate need for ColdFusion, .Net, SQL Server, Ruby, and jQuery developers in our Nashville office, with multiple positions available.
Today is "How I Got Started in ColdFusion" day per Steve Bryant's call . It's simply a day designated for us all to tell, well, how we got started in ColdFusion. So, here goes.
My story is probably a bit different that most of the other CF Developer's stories, at least the ones I've read anyway. When I got into ColdFusion I didn't have any type of computer experience or college degrees (at least not IT related, anyway). In fact, some might say it was the opposite. I had gone to college some, but after getting my Associates degree in Criminal Justice I decided not to pursue that any further and went back to work on the family farm in south Georgia.
On Thursday, June 30th, a group of people from all walks of life came together and headed out for a small country in Eastern Europe called Moldova. While we traveled over there together as a large group, once landing in Moldova 13 of us would split off from the main group and head several hours away to be on our own for the week. For some of the people in our group this was a return trip, but for several of us it was the first time. Going over there, with the exception of one person, everyone in our group was completely unknown to me. But now we have returned home as a family, united by this experience in ways that can never really be explained, but will always remain in our hearts.
I started using Coldfusion Builder 2 this week, and the first plugin I installed was Subclipse. Even though the install went fine, I ran into problems when trying to use the plugin. Specifically, whenever I was in the Team Synchronization view I could not right click on any files. Well, I could right click on them, but nothing would happen when I did.
With a title like that, I guess it goes without saying that things have been pretty interesting around here lately. To sum it all up, last Wednesday was my last day at Vanderbilt, I start my new job as a Sr. Developer at South Eastern Book Company tomorrow, and as for going out of the country I'll be leaving next week on my trip to Moldova. To say that the month of June has been busy would be an understatement.
This morning I read an article on Michael Hyatt's blog by Jon Acuff, the author of Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job, in which he said something that really inspired me. He begins the article by talking about a recent experience he had as a guest on Dave Ramsey's radio show. He mentions how nervous he was and how he felt like he doesn't do such a great job when he's on the radio, especially compared to Dave, who just seems so calm and natural doing the show. After the show Jon came to the realization that, while this was only his second time on the radio show, Dave has been doing it for 17 years. That's when he came up with this principle:
"Never compare your beginning to someone else's middle."
That is a powerful statement, and one that I think we should pay attention to as software developers.
Right after the OpenCF Summit earlier this year, I read a few blog posts in which people mention the topic of "More Apps, Not Frameworks" (or something along those lines). If you haven't heard about it, this is basically the idea that CFML already has enough solid frameworks out there, and we don't need any more. What we need are more free, open source CFML apps that can help spread the use of CFML. Now, I'm not here to argue or debate whether or not we need more frameworks or not, the point of this post is to simply ask one question. If we do start building more and more open source CFML applications, should we use frameworks for those applications?
Tonight Greg Wilson from Adobe will be here to talk about CFBuilder 2, ColdFusion, and Flex on mobile including iPad/iPhone. The event will be hosted by the Dave Ramsey / The Lampo Group, Inc. at the Russ Carroll Financial Peace Conference Center just minutes from downtown Nashville.
If you're in the area, you'll want to be there. In addition to the awesome stuff Greg is going to be talking about, we've got some great giveaways, including a $2,100 Adobe software package, copies of CFBuilder, and t-shirts! Food and drink will be provided, so come on out and have some CF fun!
If you want your name in the hat for any of the software giveaways, you have to RSVP on the Nashville ColdFusion User Group website. And, as always, you must be present to win! :)
For a while now I've been in a rut. I'm not really sure of the cause, but lately I just haven't had the passion I once had for writing code. The spark seemed to be gone. I really haven't had much of a desire to work on any of my side projects, and getting stuff done for clients sometimes seems like a chore. Maybe it's because we've mainly just been doing tedious bug fixes at work for a while and no new development, or maybe it's because I lost a couple of my side contracts since they're moving away from CF. It may just be a side effect of me getting some non-programming hobbies and focusing my time on something else. Whatever the reason, sitting in front of my computer when I'm not at work is not something that I've wanted to do lately. In fact, I've found myself coming up with excuses NOT to get on the computer. But, that all changed last night.
According to the U.S. Department of State, human trafficking is the world's third largest criminal enterprise, after drugs and weapons, and UNICEF reports that worldwide there are nearly two million children in the commercial sex trade. Many of these children are orphans who were taken simply because they had no one to care for them and keep them safe. There are so many orphans in this world, so many children in need of help, it's hard to know where to start if you want to do something. Well, I've decided to start in the country of Moldova.
