Ok so it's been a while since I've updated my website with what's been happenin' with me!  So here's a run-down since July 2008...

Job Hunting
I got an offer for a job about 40 mins from me, and at the same time received a matching offer from my current workplace!  It was a hard decision to make, but I decided to stay with my current job and build them a Legal Management System.  Something I know will help make my resume stand out when/if I decide to go job hunting again. 

New Apartment
In light of the new job status at work, I moved into a new apartment.  It's bigger, it's better, and more expensive!  Lately it's been getting even more expensive... they have been charging me other fees that I have no idea where they are coming from.  I still have to talk to my landlord about it, but I will get to the bottom of it and will get my money back if in fact they were wrong! 

PALMS
PALMS is the name of the system I'm building at work.  It incorporates a lot of features that Knots has, and by the time it is finished it will be well polished and very customizable.  Because of my work on this system, I've been unable to continue progress on Knots.  The deadline for PALMs is set for early February, so I'll likely be starting up Knots around that time.  The deadline is pretty strict actually... I started PALMS in the beginning of August and am planned to have it done by the beginning of February.  Only six months!  It is a lot of work, but so far I'm on track.

Girlfriend
It's been a while!  But I finally have someone I can share the world with and more.  We've been dating for about a week and a half now (since November 9th, 2008 to be exact), and it's been awesome!  We've talked so much I'm not sure there's much left to say!  Christy and I dated in high school for a while, but it didn't work for us back then.  We re-discovered each other only a year ago and have been talking on and off since then.  It was only a few months ago that we actually saw each other with some friends, and then just over a week ago we decided to take the next step.  I have to say... I'm really happy.  I wish we would've "re-discovered" each other sooner, but at least it's not later.  Coincidently, Eddie found a new girlfriend as well and she just happens to be a friend of Christy's!  So now we get to do a lot of double-dating!  I'm excited!  I'm sure we'll all have tons o' fun.

Website Updates
So besides all this... I do plan to have some updates to my website over the next few weeks and months!  So you'll need to keep checking back! 

I've just recently updated my website to the most recent version of Knots.  Many, many changes all over the place - this post would be too long to try and explain it all!  I've also changed the design!  Also, I know I haven't posted in a while!! I'll try to get back into the habit soon!   Keep checking back!

My website can now be accessed from the following domains:

http://www.jasonstiles.net

http://www.jstiles.com

The current domain will still be active as well: http://jason.sycodesigns.com/

Now it's easier to remember what my website address is! Enjoy!

This week I will be spending much of my free time evaluating Knots, the Content Management System I've been working on since January 2008.  There are three main requirements that I want the system to meet: it must be unique, easy to use, and powerful.  Not an easy thing to do, but I'm totally confident in my abilities to make it happen. 

Already Knots is far superior than many other Content Management Systems that are out there.  Trust me, I've test-driven several of them and in my honest opinion none of them can compare to the power of Knots.  I will say that I'm ranking Joomla! pretty high on my competition, but I'm confident that Knots will be superior when it's ready for debut.

The next major version of Knots will be made much more interactive.  I'll be including AJAX functionality absolutely everywhere I can fit it.  AJAX allows parts of the web page (or even all of it, if desired) to change without the page having to reload.  It makes content accessible much faster than by loading the same page through the browser.  The Knots JavaScript Framework includes an easy way to handle AJAX implementation already, but I'll be sprucing it up along with the rest of the framework to given even more functionality than before. 

I'm tellin' ya, Knots is on its way to being one of the best (maybe THE best) Content Management System on the web!

So I'm on the job hunt again.  My current job is pretty comfortable I'd say, but in order to get where I want to be in my life I need a job that can propel me in the right direction.  Which direction is that?  Up, of course.  Where does up lead to?  As high up in the sky as possible.  I won't go into much more detail than that for right now, but let's just say that I'm meant to be a leader.

I've been working on a few companies: one in Nashville, TN; another near Chicago, IL; and another just 20 minutes from me near Flint, MI.  I talked with the VP of Engineering for the company near Chicago this last week and I seemed to hit it off pretty well.  Then I had a more technical phone interview with one of the team leaders from the same company a couple days later.  I gotta say I'm a lil' rusty after that interview.  I'd say I scored around 70%... the guy asked me a few questions that I actually knew the answer to, but didn't do a good job speaking it lol.  Hey! I get nervous, who doesn't on interviews?? 

I answered wrong to what an immutable object is.  It's an object in which the properties can't change.  I've actually never heard that term used before, but I should've recognized that he was talking about "constant" and "final" objects.  So that was wrong answer #1.  Then I screwed up a hidden question about multiple inheritance.  Java doesn't have multiple inheritance, you can't extend more than one class.  However, you can implement more than one interface!  That's sort of the work-around in Java.  The actual question was what the pros/cons were of inheritance and interfaces: why would you use an interface over inheriting and vice-versa.  Argh, wrong answer #2.  I think there was another question I may have gotten wrong or at least 50% on.  It was sort of hard to understand what he was asking sometimes... not sure if it was the phone or my ears, but I had to repeat his questions sometimes to verify what he was asking.  I guess we'll see how that interview went if they want to take the next step for an in-person interview.  I hope they will.

My next interview is in-person and with the company near Flint, MI.  I'll be going out tomorrow (Sunday) to find some new dress clothes.  I don't like to shop for very long so I hope I find what I want quickly. 

In other news, let's talk about Knots.  The Content Management System I've been working on.  I've been working on Knots vigorously since January this year, and then I took some vacation a few weeks ago.  Since I got back from vacation I haven't started back up on Knots, until this weekend.  I've got some big plans: I'm actually re-writing all the code again from scratch.  I want to make sure that it is fully documented the whole way through and to fix some inherent problems the system had before.  Also, I'll be giving the User Interface a HUGE usability improvement.   Finally, when I release the beta version of the Knots CMS it will be complete with many features and be much easier to use than before. 

I'm going to be very straight-forward here in what I'm about to say.  I will be starting up my website design company "SyCo Designs" featuring the Knots CMS, and I will have an official website for Knots up in likely a month or two.  After that, I'll be opening up a couple other websites: one for hosting guilds (for gamers) and another for hosting social networking (yes, another Facebook and Myspace, but with a twist).  It's going to be good, you'll see.  But first, I've got to finish the foundation of Knots and then give it a face in the virtual world of the intarwebz!