I meant to put a few hours in the #SaltMine yesterday but it turned out to be a very busy day, so I never hit the keyboard. If I can get it set up right, maybe I'll give it a try today, with Redzone as background noise.

Had another good day in the #SaltMine yesterday. Amazing how much better a day it is when you write code instead of go to meetings, isn't it? And learn new things while doing it, which is what this developer lives for. Without learning, it isn't nearly as much fun.

@adrienne
Had a busy day in the #SaltMine yesterday. I did finally figure out my #SQL problem and was very excited. Google was no help at all. And now I have another small project, to figure out what reporting package to use. The guy who wrote the system has used Crystal Reports in the past, but it isn't compatible with .Net 7, so we need to find another solution. Any recommendations out there?

Put in a full day at the #SaltMine yesterday, mostly going over the #Blazor code. Definitely a complicated stack and hard to figure out where to put the logic. Currently, much of it is in SQL stored procedures, but there are plenty of drawbacks with that, like no versioning and hard to find the code. I'm trying to do some tricky #SQL searching to make it easier to find records but the syntax keeps tripping me up.

So yeah, I need to make a real effort to clamber into the #SaltMine and get cracking. The customer is antsy about getting some real progress on the finished app, so I need to find a way to contribute ASAP. I'm pretty confident in my #Blazor and #CSharp skills at this point, so it's just a matter of finding a way to contribute directly to our code.

As a lowly consultant, I should probably put some time down in the #SaltMine today. I need to get the #Blazor app running locally, which means solving a couple problems. While I have it reading the #Access database using the OPENQUERY method, it still doesn't work when using the '...' method. I'm not entirely sure what that notation - [LINKED_SERVER]...tblName.fldName - means, so I need to figure that out first. #SQL

Spent quite a chunk of time in the #SaltMine too. Not really used to that. Kinda like my time off! I'm pretty comfortable with the tech stack ( #Blazor, #CSharp, #SQL, #SQLServer), so I spent some time getting the work project set up and running. Spent way too long setting up a Linked Server to a local Access database. Googling for answers brought in too many crazy "answers". So annoying. The actual solution was pretty easy.

It was a crazy day yesterday and the #SaltMine was no exception. I spent the morning working on a #Blazor test app then had a 90 minute meeting with the other developer so he could show me the layout of the code. Already have a couple interesting tasks ahead of me and am looking forward to getting started today. Which is refreshing!

Had a productive day in the #SaltMine. I figured out my #Blazor #SQL connection issue. It's pretty amazing how good the C# completion is. Heck, it will sometimes autocomplete entire methods. I did have a phone interview with a robotics company but they want 5 day attendance (not unsurprising when working so close with hardware) and it's just a bit too far away, and I'm a bit too set in my ways, to imagine commuting again.

And another long day in the #SaltMine yesterday. At least these meetings feel productive, as we work with the customer to iron out problems and see what the next steps are. There is lots still to do, which means I should be able to put in as many hours as I want. Of course, that means figuring out a good balance between what I want to work, what my wife wants me to work and what the customer wants me to work!

I did spend some time in the #saltmine yesterday, if you count fighting with the unemployment website and tossing out a few more resumes. There were some pretty interesting sounding jobs out there. Wouldn't mind getting into embedded programming. I'll finish up my #Blazor tutorials and see if I can start contributing to the consulting gig finally.

Spent most of the last two days in the #saltmine working on #Blazor test apps. Getting a good feel of both the #.Net Core framework and #C# itself. Not all that different than C++ for the most part, especially in the snippet level code used in Blazor. Really appreciate the help I got from @mayadev! Isn't Mastodon great?

I'm finding it really hard to get back into the #saltmine these days. No, really hard. I've been kept busy researching topics of interest, like .Net, Blazor, and Unity, but nothing really focused. I need to buckle on the hard hat and climb back down and get some (paid) work done. I did have a pre-screen interview with FujiFilm's medical device division. We'll see if that goes anywhere. #JobHunt #ForHire

https://bit.ly/jda_resume

As for today's #saltmine foray, I will continue to research both #C# and #Blazor. I am definitely going to do some consulting for my friend's company, to help out on their project. Not sure how many hours yet though. Blazor actually looks pretty cool, at least for a glorified form generator. Compiling down to #webassembly makes it very portable. We'll see how it goes.

Well, I'm going to have to fill out the new #saltmine paperwork. I really can't put it off any longer without it getting embarassing. I should also take some more #Blazor courses so I can be ready to jump right in. I did toss out a few more C++ job resumes, one to Fujifilm health division and one to a financial services middleware type, both which sound interesting. I'd really love to explore some new industries! #JobHunt

https://bit.ly/jda_resume

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdarnold33/

So yeah, as I mentioned, I'll be working in my own personal #saltmine today, which is the way I like it. I need to fill out some paperwork to get started on the consulting gig although I need to figure out how long I can push off the actual start date - ha! Blazor and C# is the tech stack, which I am passingly familiar with (Blazor is kind of a fancy form generator for SQL). And that's what I want from consulting - learn new stuff!

Yeah, so just tossing out resumes and mostly just never hearing back. That's the closest I get to a #saltmine these days. I did make a commitment to do some consulting for a friend's company but I don't really want to get started yet. In my favorite detective series, Travis McGee said you should take "retirements" along the way, working when you have to and then "retiring" for a bit. That would be fun! If you'd like to know more about my many varied career:

https://bit.ly/jda_resume

#BigBangTheory

In season 3, ep 10 The Gorilla Experiment (where Sheldon tries to teach Penny physics), they use the #SaltMine :

Howard: Thought I'd give the little woman a tour of the old salt mines.
Bernadette (to Leonard): He doesn't mean salt mine. He means where he works.
Leonard: Yah. I know. I got it.

It's really kicking into gear in the 3rd season.

Working on creating my own personal #saltmine these days. Filed for unemployment, which will help a little bit. Talked to another contracting specialist. He had one job that sound interesting but the days of me driving up to an hour each way are long gone. I've been working full time remotely for over 20 years, so it's not something I'm going to give up easily. I'm working on brushing up on some skills. So far, pretty happy.

Still haven't ventured back into the ex #saltmine yet. I really do need to wrap some things up. Technically, they are paying me thru Friday - mighty generous of them after 22 years as an indentured servant, don't you think? And I do hope they still succeed somehow. I guess. A little bit. Ha!