Background
I was an average student in school until I took Chemistry in the 11th grade and Physics in the 12th grade. (See more about that on My Personal Life.) The teacher for both of those subjects was Jon Gerlack. He became my favorite teacher of all of my high school teachers. He was excellent at explaining all of the topics in each subject.
A friendly, non-judgmental person, Jon Gerlack knew the subjects thoroughly. He actually inspired me to study Chemistry (and in the following year, Physics) with all my heart and soul; not just study enough to try to pass an upcoming test.
In fact, I spent so much time studying all of my subjects, that at about mid-term in my senior year, I began to feel physically weak. My health had run down. I thought about my situation and was frightened. I realized that I needed to “back off” a little, or I might not have the energy to continue doing my homework. And if that happened, I would be sunk. So, I decided to spend some time each day “shooting baskets” on the basketball pole my dad had set up next to our house. That was the first time during high school that I conscientiously decided to do something that I considered “goofing off.” That outdoor exercise revived me after a few weeks. I continued shooting baskets for many weeks afterwards to maintain my exercise level, but I gradually increased my study time as I felt stronger. Of course, I had to do regular homework, but I intentionally spent time outdoors each day. Before long, I could see that graduation was, indeed, very possible. The physical activity gave my mind a rest, and it gave my body the exercise a growing youth needs. I learned something about pacing myself with that experience. That learning helped me many times later when I had tasks to do on the job.
I had been a little surprised, at first, at myself for being so dedicated to learning the material in Chemistry, but I knew that Mr. Gerlack was the reason I was so motivated. The motivation paid off for me because I made good grades in Chemistry and Physics on each of my six-week report cards.
I cannot thank Mr. Gerlack enough for his dedication and inspiration as a great teacher. He is truly one of the superior educators. I only hope that he got as much satisfaction from teaching over the years as I got from his teaching me and others.
College
After high school, I enrolled in college and eventually graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics. Luckily for me, several of the Math courses were actually programming subjects (since the college did not have, at the time, a degree program in Information Technology, or such). I say luckily for me because I really enjoy writing programs (and my math ability was never that great). I learned much about programming by writing programs on my own whenever I thought of something to write about. And I thought of many things to write about. Coincidentally [truthfully, unplanned], I wrote as many programs on my own as were required in each class.
Putting a program together requires much effort with the books to find the functions and techniques needed to do whatever is needed to accomplish the task. That is, coming up with the right code forces one to do research, and that requirement promotes learning. All in all, all of those FORTRAN IV programs taught me how to be dedicated and have perseverance, which I needed and used later in life when I worked professionally.
Jobs
From college, I lucked into my first job (I say lucked because I am not the type of person who can talk his way into good situations). That job was my most enjoyable job. After that job ended (much too soon), I worked in another city for a while. Eventually I found a “part time” job in Houston, TX. Things worked well for me there – the part time work turned into my longest stay with any company. I stayed with that company for more than twenty years.
At the company, I was promoted now and then and eventually was promoted one more time to DB2 Database Administrator (DBA) (after the initial DBA, Megan Stacy) moved on). DB2 is a type of database created by IBM, and the DBA is a person who prepares the file structures and rules for the data that the programmers write their code to handle. I first learned many of the facets of DBA work from an expert the company hired to train me. After that, with diligence and hard work and much study, I handled the tasks and problems that came along later. I was the company’s only DB2 DBA for quite a few years. Looking back on that, I feel good about myself because I was the only DB2 DBA for a multi-billion-dollar company.
Professional Organization
During the time when I worked at the company, I joined a professional group called the DB2 Exchange (later called the Relational Database Exchange). I attended the quarterly meetings and learned things about relational databases and associated techniques. I was encouraged to be an officer of the group after a couple of years and semi-reluctantly said okay. I was elected Treasurer and re-elected (no one volunteered to do those duties) several times (nine years in all). When we finally disbanded, it was sad for me to file the final Income Tax forms. But during all of those years, I met some nice people, one of whom helped me at times with database information and other, ordinary life, advice. Betty Petty was a good friend of mine, long after the organization ended. The years I was a member of that group will always give me pleasant memories.
The World Was Changing
The world was changing, especially in the technology area. The company was in motion to change database management systems (from DB2 to Oracle). I didn’t know anything about Oracle, and the company was interviewing people who did. I thought I could see the writing on the wall that might be saying I could be replaced (a.k.a., put out to pasture). I didn’t want to take a chance and so I decided to look for other work. A contract DB2 DBA job was available in downtown Houston. I didn’t want to work downtown, but I needed to make my move then or maybe miss an opportunity. So, I chose to take a chance.
The contract job lasted only six months, and it was pretty boring because I spent most of my days reading technical stuff about the new release of DB2. Occasionally, I would work with the programmers on some of their projects, but mostly I would just read. When I left, I was on my own again (in other words, out of work).
My Introduction to the Visual Basic Language
The time I was unemployed lasted about ten months. That was the longest time I was ever out of work. During that time, I began studying Visual Basic 6 at home. I began to like the language as much as I had enjoyed the PL1 language that I had used at one of my previous jobs. But my true love of programming was not quite yet to be.
SQL Server DBA
Through a good friend of mine, Betty Petty, and by an opening that happened at the right time, I interviewed with a company in 2000. Things worked out, and I was hired as a DB2 Database Administrator. After around four years, DB2 went out, and SQL Server came in. I was now a SQL Server DBA. I stayed with that company for almost eight years. My experience as a DB2 DBA let me handle the SQL Server DBA job without needing to go through much of a learning curve since DB2 and SQL Server databases are very similar.
“Don’t Let the Door Hit You on Your Way Out”
After the 2007 recession began, I (and a few others) were laid off in 2008. At first, for about a year, I worked/played with SQL Server on my home PC and bought books and practiced tasks to keep my memory of SQL Server activities active and my skill level up. I even succeeded in a couple of projects at home that I had never tried at work. I was quite proud of myself. But no job offers showed up (at least in Houston, where I wanted to stay). After a while, I became tired of doing SQL Server tasks, and so I decided to work some more with Visual Basic. I downloaded the VB.net software and bought more books and began having fun (much fun) writing programs. My love of programming had finally happened. In the span of about two years, I have written more than a dozen good-quality programs. (See My Programs for the list of those programs.) A dozen might seem small, but keep in mind that sometimes it is harder to think of something good to write about than it is to write the coding to do that task. I try to put something new into each new program, learning all the while.
A New Project
In 2013, one of the teachers of my Tai Chi class asked me what I had done for a living. When I told him that I had been in Information Technology, he asked me if I could work on the Tai Chi website and “spruce it up a bit.” I said, with humor, I had made my own web site in 2000 but the site went down when a disaster happened to the Internet Service Provider. I told him I would have to relearn basic HTML and then learn modern features that go hand-in-hand with HTML. He said that world be all right. So, I decided that learning about web stuff might be interesting. (I had finished my latest program and was “resting.”) So, in July 2013, I read, for the second time, the book I had first used in 2000. That began to refresh my memory about the HTML language. I found three other Teach Yourself / Step-by-Step books (about HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and JavaScript) and worked as many of the exercises as my PC hardware and software would allow. When I was done with those (in October 2013), I gingerly began to put that web site together, using the techniques I had seen in those books. By January 2014, I had completed everything I had set out to do with that website (Personal Life, Professional Life, all of the Tai Chi pages, and a list of my programs). That website eventually morphed into this website/blog.
At this point of September 2021, I have not yet started with any changes to the Tai Chi website, but I hope to begin soon.