I'm fascinated with programming. I regret that I didn't take it seriously years ago when I was first exposed to it. My mother worked in Data Processing beginning in the late 1960s and I got to spend hours hanging around big computers, tape drives and keypunch cards. In 1981 a good friend bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 and began teaching himself BASIC. When he progressed to the next model up (with floppy drives), I bought his computer and began to learn BASIC myself. After working with it for a few months, I got bored with it (I didn't know where to go with it) and put it aside. In 1994, the company that employed me invested in a new computer system that included a report writer that used a BASIC like language. All of that code I learned 12 years before came back to me and was useful. Unfortunately workload and family obligations prevented me from becoming a real programmer with the newer languages of the days.

Fast forward to 2012: The company that had employed me for 26 years had to cut into the muscle to survive the economic downturn that began in 2008. I was let go. In the midst of a horrible recession and being 53, it's been difficult to find employment. I've got time on my hand. In June of 2012, I took the first of two courses at my local college learning Visual Basic. I'm loving it! I can't learn it fast enough to suit me. Unfortunately, I've learned enough to know I have so much more to learn...... Which has brought me here.

I hope you'll reach out and help. Someday, I hope to be able to return the favor to some other newbie.... Just like me!

Don