Another New Adventure

In 25 or so days my contract with Giant Eagle will be coming to a close.  This wraps up a pretty cool gig and opens up some new doors that I'll get to walk through. 

 

One part of the newness will be getting to go back to the main office for a while a do a revamp of the companies websites.  Keep your eyes out over the next couple of months for a facelift to www.consultusa.com and www.pmcentersusa.com.

 

I'll be using DotNetNuke for the revamp of the site, it'll be the first time that I've gotten to use it.  The best part is, after getting DotNetNuke running 80% of my work will be done!  The rest will be updating the pages and the content and expanding the functionalities of the site.  I'm looking forward to getting this stuff moving.

 

I will have to custom code one or two modules, but that shouldn't take long.  So, I say that about 3 - 4 months I'll be back out in the real world looking to get placed in a new contract.

 

Now, to you, my faithful and dedicated readers, if your company is looking to bring in a contractor/consultant in the Pittsburgh area, call me at 412.963.8621.  That is the number for our home office, ask for Shaun Eutsey, I'll call you back when I get the message (I'm off-site at the moment.)  I would like to have my next contract open up some business opportunities for ConsultUSA.  That will do two things for me, one, it'll make me look great in my new .Net Practice Director position and it will allow me to work with you, my faithful and dedicated reader.

 

So, If you would like to see me, Shaun Eutsey, the Viceroy of VB, The Crown Prince of C#, The Sovereign of SQL, come and work for your company... Call Now! 

Heroes Happen Here!

Well, everyone, yesterday was the Pittsburgh Heroes Happen Here launch event for Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.  

All in all, it was a lot of fun.  I got to hang out with some friends, meet some new ones and hand out a lot of business cards.  We also got some pretty nice swag.  Check out me holding the cooler that we received, and it was full of food! 

There were three presenters for the developer track.  All three of them were very informative.  They ranged from ASP.Net, AJAX and the AJAX Toolkit to Office Development and WPF. 

The most interesting part of the day occurred before we even arrived at the event.  Apparently, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton decided to show up at a United Steel Workers Union conference that was happening at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, which is attached by a skyway to the Westin Convention Center (the location of Heroes Happen Here).  So my buddies and I decided to leave for the event early to combat the traffic which we were anticipating, and to accommodate the potential walk that we could have.

Well, could have a walk turned into did have a walk.  We parked by PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  For those of you who don't know, the Pirates are actually a Major League Baseball team.  About 15 years ago they were actually pretty good, but ever since then they have become the minor league team for the rest of the league.   PNC Park, in distance, isn't that far away from the convention center, but you do have to cross the Allegheny River, and walk about 10 blocks.  It's wasn't too bad, but it would have been really nice to have been able to park in the garage that is, you know, ATTACHED TO THE CONVENTION CENTER.

That really is my only real complaint about the day. All in all, it was pretty cool.  We did walk away with some nice swag and some good information.  The swag included:

• The pictured cooler
• Visual Studio 2008 Standard
• Windows Server 2008
• SQL Server 2008
• Windows Vista Ultimate (not expected)

For all of the things that people can fault Microsoft for, the one thing that you have to say is that they know how to do a launch event and make it work.  If only the presidential candidates would have come a day earlier or a day later my calves would be hurting nearly as bad as they are today.

4 Mid Level .Net Developers Needed!

Hello Everyone!

ConsultUSA has 4 immediate openings for mid-level .Net Developers.

So, I turn to you my faithful readers to help me fill these positions in the Pittsburgh, PA area.  These would be full-time consultant positions with ConsultUSA.  We have great benefits that include paying for continuing education and certifications.

Let me know if you, or someone you know may be interested and I'll have one of our recruiters get in touch.

Thanks, in advance, for any help that you can give.

--Shaun--

Promotion!

Promotion!

 

Well, it's finally happened!  I have been promoted to the position of .Net Practice Director at ConsultUSA in Pittsburgh, PA.

 

This new position has many challenges that I am responsible for accomplishing.  Some of these tasks I will be able to accomplish on my own, but for the vast majority of them, I will need help, from you, my humble, yet dedicated, readers.

 

My first and by far the largest challenge of the new position is to take ConsultUSA from being a Microsoft Partner through the path to becoming a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner.

 

I know, it doesn't sound that difficult, but believe me it is going to be much harder than it sounds.  First we need two Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP).  We have two already, but only one of them fulfills the next thing that we must gain...

 

Microsoft Competency in Custom Development Solutions (Web Development Specialization).  To get this we also need to acquire three references from current clients.  Well, I'm on site at Giant Eagle and I have been able to get one reference submitted.  This means that I have to get in touch with some of our other clients and get information on other projects that we are doing in other places.

 

The last part of becoming a Gold Partner is to earn 50 Microsoft Qualifying points (for Certified level) and then 120 points for Gold.  This happens when we have more certifications, more referrals and more competencies.

 

These are all things that I need your help, my humble, yet dedicated, reader.  If your place of employ is looking for some good .Net Consultants to come in and help boost your staff, or if you have one or more .Net projects that you would like to have done by an outside consultant, give me a call at 412.963.8621.

 

If you are a .Net Developer in the Pittsburgh, PA area and are looking for an exciting opportunity with the chance to grow, you call as well, we are always looking for solid developers with the desire to learn (we pay for you to be certified as well as give you the opportunity to become a Business Analyst or Project Manager through PMCentersUSA.)

 

In the meantime, I look forward to being of service to you, my humble, yet dedicated, reader!

Merry Christmas

This is one of my favorite times of the year; it's also one of the most frustrating.

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a Christian.  I'm proud of that fact.  In a time when it's not politically correct to be a Christian, let alone one proud of the fact I stand and proclaim, I am abundantly proud of my God and my faith in Him.

 

One of the things that frustrate me, in this era of political correctness, is that the words Merry Christmas have become taboo.  "Oh, you might offend someone…"  You know what, fine, if they want to be offended by my expression that they have a Merry Christmas, and then the problem is with them, not with me.  If someone wishes me a Happy Hanukkah, I don't get offended; I turn to them and wish them a Merry Christmas.

 

If you are not a Christian and want to wish me a "Happy/Merry Whatever-It-Is-You-Celebrate", that is fine, I promise not to be offended.  You wish me whatever good wishes you want for me, in anyway that you want, I'll take them.  However, in this season, I will wish you a Merry Christmas.  I'm not trying to convert you; I want you to have a good December 25^th!  It is with my deepest sincerity that I want you to have a good day. 

 

If Christmas day is just another day off of work for you and you have no intention of doing anything special, I hope that you are happy and safe doing it.  I hope that as you travel to and from where ever it is you go or whatever it is that you do that someone hasn't had too much eggnog and plows into you.

 

These wishes get embodied into the words Merry Christmas. 

 

I hate the fact that this world is getting so bound up (as in constipated) with political correctness.  I hate the terms Holiday Gift, when they mean Christmas Gift, Happy Holidays when they mean Merry Christmas and any sideways attempt at saying Merry Christmas without actually saying it.  I don't want to be hamstrung into say to everyone Happy RamaHanQuansMas.  I don't celebrate Ramadan, Hanukkah or Quanza, I celebrate Christmas, the birth of my Savior.  I most certainly don't celebrate Festivus, the new politically expedient thing to hit the waves.

 

Now that I'm done complaining; I want to explain why I love this time of the year.  Roughly 2000 years ago (probably closer to June than December) a baby was born to a mother who had never known a man.  He was the Son of God.  He came, lived a perfect life and became the fulfillment of Gods word.  That man died to become the sacrifice that was required to cover my sins, so that I wouldn't have to pay for them with my life.  He became the bridge between my Father and me.

 

My love for this season has nothing to do with anyone else.  It doesn't have to do with my family or my friends.  It doesn't have anything to do with shopping or gifts.  It has nothing to do with the government or even church.  It has to do with my relationship with my savior.

 

With that I only have one thing left to say…

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

InstallFest

A couple buddies and I had a pretty cool adventure yesterday.  We went to the Microsoft offices in Pittsburgh for the release of Visual Studio 2008, an event called InstallFest (I can hear the collective groan from all of the non-geeks that read this now.)

This was a cool event mostly because I got to hang out with my friend Rich Dudley from Armada Supply Chain Solutions.  I was contracted with them for a while before moving to Giant Eagle, Inc.

Anyway, I met up with Rich at the Armada offices where we got to hang around and talk a little, catch up on old times and what not.

We then got on the road to Microsoft.  I followed Rich over, as I had never been to the MS offices before.  If you've never been to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you must understand a few things.  It is the hardest city to get around in and is easy to get lost.  Traffic patterns make no sense and there is no grid, like in a "normal" city.  Pittsburgh is centered around the confluence of three rivers (there is a rumored fourth, underground, river, but we'll stick to the three you can see.)  This confluence of three rivers gives the city an interesting landscape, since the rivers form a Y in the middle of the city.  Along with the three rivers you have a TON of bridges (There are more bridges in Pittsburgh than any other city in the world) and mountains.

All of that being said, the trip there was pretty non-eventful, other than me almost getting run over by a 16 wheeler who was going to make that turn no matter what.  He missed me by an inch or so, and my car and I both thank the driver for being so... so... observant.

InstallFest, for all intents and purposes, was about swag.  We went into the building, signed in, took the elevator up to the offices, signed in to the event, got our little name tags.  Then we received our T-Shirt, "WhirleyThing", install disks of VS 2008 Express, our VS 2008 sticker and finally, the coup de grace, the full blown copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Version!  Yes, this was only the 60 day trial, but we got a code to get a license key that would unlock the full glory of the development environment.

Then the fun began!  We all pulled out our laptops and started to install VS 2008!  Yes, it took 1.5 hours to get it installed, but during the time it took to install we got to hang out with Dani Diaz, one of Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net Evangelists.  Dani is an awesome guy.  He got to show us some of the cool features of the IDE and talked about some of the other events that he was taking place in.

All-in-all it was a great time.  The next time they hold an event at the MS Offices, if it's a topic I'm interested in, I'll be there.  This one was well worth the $4 that it cost to park, and it saved me a bunch of money on buying VS 2008.

If you are interested in seeing VS 2008 in action, or getting some info about it check out this site.

Message

This past Sunday, I had the great honor to minister to the main congregation at Family Fellowship Christian Center, where I am the youth pastor.

I taught on Revelations 3:14-22 and had an incredible time.  If you are interested in listening to the message you can go here to listen to it.  The title of the message is Sitting on the Throne with God.  At the moment of this blog post, it is the top one on the list of podcasts.

I think it is really cool that I get the opportunity, once in a while, to act like a preacher instead of a teacher.  I talked for over an hour and it seemed like 20 minutes.  No one in the congregation was even getting figitty, which after an hour and nine minutes, I would have expected.

I also started to realize just how much work goes into a Sunday service, how much responsibility that I actually have on a normal Sunday and how much more I would have if I were also the senior pastor.

To put a normal Sunday Service in perspective, here is a list of things that have to take place to make the time between 8:30 am to 12:30 pm go smoothly.

Pastor arrives to building 8:15 am, turns on heat, sets up the first service (Bible and a Bagel).
Pastor waits for people to arrive.
Pastor ministers to the early morning bible study.  (This is the same message as the main service, even though the two messages are delivered in an entirely different manor and the two are seldom, if ever even in the same ballpark.)
Pastor ministers from 8:45 to 9:30 (or a little later.)
9:30 - 10:30 worship team starts practice/sound check for main service. (The pastor and I are both on the worship team.  He leads the worship team, but when he's out, it falls to me.)
10:30 - 11:00, worship service. 
11:00 - 11:15 - "The Pastor" - Pray over school aged children
                                         - Take offereing.
                      "Me"            - Prepare sound for recording
                                         - As youth pastor and elder, pray over the school aged children
11:15-12:30 - Main service ministry / recording.

Now, that is the overview.  These duties are normally divided between me and Pastor Rick.  However this past Sunday, all of this fell to me.  For about 4 hours I was running around like a frantic beast.  When everything works well this whole process is easy.  When things start failing though, it's crazy.  Not letting people see that things are falling apart takes skill, or luck.  On Sunday, for worship practice, my wireless guitar transmitter was flaking out.  I had to use a mic.  This is no big deal, but it limits my freedom of movement.  After we were done with worship, I went to get the wireless mic for preaching and the mic was not in its normal place.  We found it after a couple of minutes of frantic searching, then, for some reason, it wasn't being broadcast out of the main speakers.  After a quick rewiring job, we got everything going and service started, about 4 minutes later than normal, but the people in the congregation were none the wiser.  It was cool.

Anyway, that was a morning to remember, the chaos didn't crack us and the word of God was delivered.