Where I'm Going in 2010... (Professional Life)

The first post of the year is something we ask ourselves every year at multiple times (relationships, finances, personal lives, professional lives, etc...) is where we want to go, what we need to do, or what we want to achieve during this brand new year. I will attempt to ask myself this from a professional side. Later this week I will cover the same topic from another perspective.

I think it's clear for everyone by now that masteringMaya hasn't only been put on ice, but has been shut in the freezer for a long time. I often get the urge to simply pull up Maya play around in it in order to re-familiarize myself with the application and maybe run through a few videos. But I don't do it. I hold back for a reason: I need to concentrate on a goal that I need for my profession. Work before fun, I guess you could say.

By the end of the year, I want to have fully dived back in Web Development. I want to become comfortable developing Web applications like I was back in College. For this, there are specific steps that I personally want have to take.

First and foremost, because of the Object-Orientated trend in various Web Development languages now, I need to get the hang of Object-Oriented Programming. I'm slowly starting the get it thanks the 3D Buzz's XNA Xtreme 101. So the first step I need to take is get done with the remainder of Volume 2 and go through Volume 3.

After that's done, I need a quick refresher on how to make a Website from a design (Photoshop to HTML, essentially) and then really bash some basic PHP into my head. Both can be achieved again thanks to 3DBuzz and the Web Design series. I've done Website designs in Photoshop several times in the past, but not in 4-5 years. I've also tried learning basic PHP not that long ago with Project Calender, but it's been a while and I didn't really need it back then.

All this just to dig in deeper PHP and learn to integrate mySQL and do some Object-Oriented Programming in PHP.

For those that don't like to read too much, here's what I want to accomplish this year in short:

• Complete 3DBuzz XNA Xtreme 101 to be comfortable with OOP
• Complete Volume 2
• Start and complete Volume 3
• Refresher on Photoshop-to-HTML process (not hard, but required)
• Learn basic PHP and be very comfortable with it (repetition)
• Learn some advanced PHP
• Advanced PHP concepts and code
• mySQL Integration
• Object-Oriented PHP

Essentially, putting on my Web Developer hat again.

Once this is done, maybe I'll then feel ready to jump into Maya again... Maybe...