About Me

Hello fellow bloggers, I'm Steven Hartzog hailing from Centreville, VA (Washington, D.C.).

I'm new to Geekswithblogs.net, and .TEXT... but I've been a .NET developer for several years (starting with C#), and an ASP developer since the ASP2 days. I'm 32, was in the Navy for 7.5 years and am now a contractor in the DC area. I have written no books, but I'm very oppinionated and have a fairly proficient grasp of the US-English language (perhaps one day I'll write a book?).

My first blog, http://homepage.mac.com/shartzog/iblog/, sprang from a growing consternation caused by a number of folks who *didn't* know that I was a geek and a developer (despite being tortured in the fiery pits of system administration hell with Microsoft's worst product since Bob, Systems Management Server) at heart. This blog was designed to showcase my development skills and understanding, as well as a way to document my drive to MCAD.NET and MCSD.NET certification. Although I took the C# Web app test (830 thankyou very much ;o) in September, I haven't taken any other tests since then. The next logical test is the C# Web Services test... and then the SQL2005 test when it comes out.

I've even been linked to by Greg Reinacker author of Newsgator; Rob Caron author of the MSDN Labs Team System blog; and most recently in the Slashdot Review podcast by Andrew McCaskey.

Despite my initial goal, my blog turned out to be a better soap box then I could have imagined. I started to use it as a place to spout off about .NET development and certification... but have since branched into dreams, movies, music, gadgets, hashing, podcasting - and most recently, Politics.

Yep, I've got something to say... and have already said quite a bit (200+ posts strong). Unfortunately, development of my favorite blogging app, iBlogger - has somewhat stalled (besides there is no server-side capability at the .MAC site). So I went off to see what I can find. Although I found WordPress to be a strong contender, I love .NET so much that .TEXT called to me rather loudly.

So here I am... hopefully I'll continue to have something interesting to say. Thanks for hosting me at the Geekswithblogs.net family. I'll be gradually moving over important content from my old blog so I hope you guys find something interesting. If anyone can offer any help in this area, I would be greatly appreciative.

// Steve

posted @ Thursday, November 18, 2004 12:54 PM

Print

Comments on this entry:

# re: About Me

Left by Robz at 11/18/2004 11:33 PM
Gravatar
I like the sound of it. ZogBlog. Mine is the RobLog. I had not heard of yours when I was thinking of what to call mine; it just sounded simple, yet brilliant (much like yours does).

Aside from the fact that you are an MCSE, we have pretty similar goals. I have been in the military for six years (albeit Reserves), I do .NET development (albeit VB.Net), and I haven't written any books either. lol

My goal is to get my MCAD, followed by the MCSD, but not to be assimilated afterwards :). Amazingly enough, I passed Web Forms (905) in September. I take my 70-306 test tomorrow afternoon (Windows Forms, AKA 70-316 in C# talk) and hopefully finish the round by the end of January.

Of course I am newer to the whole development cycle than most, kind of wet behind the ears, but they are drying up faster than the other newbies. I have been involved with .NET since it first arrived on the market. Of course that was while still in college. The professional part of the development cycle I have only seen for a year and a half. And that being padded by the government agency I work at has shielded me from the late night pizza runs while finishing up a project. Yes I am hourly. :) And no, they don't pay developers overtime. :(

Anyways, back to studying. Nice to read your blog this evening. You seem very interesting, and although I see we don't agree eye-to-eye on everything, I welcome that different outlook. I look forward to reading more of what you have to say.

-Rob

# re: About Me

Left by Steve Hartzog at 11/18/2004 11:59 PM
Gravatar
Yeah, there's actually a few other ZogBlog's out there (which I didn't know when naming it)... but I think mine comes up first in Google now (albeit - the .MAC one, but soon this one!).

Thanks for the comments, and good luck on your certification quest. Also, I look forward to seeing your comments on the posts that you disagree with... as I also welcome different ideas/outlooks.

Conservatives tend to fascinate me, but I haven't met one yet that could provide a cogent argument for those view points for which I disagree. As I grow older perhaps more facts will sway my opinion - but for now, you could label me as a moderate liberal. ;o)

Your comment:



 (will not be displayed)


 
 
 
 
 

Live Comment Preview:

 
«November»
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345