What do you want in a Leader?

I’ve just started reading The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner and found a facinating on going survey of what people look for in a leader. It lists 20 different traits and their rank. Four of these leadership qualities are consistantly ranked above 50% in the voting. (The respondants choose 7 qualties they look for in a leader out of the 20 listed.) Here is the list of leadership qualities in no particular order, which ones do you see as being the most important 7?

• Independent
• Honest
• Self-Controlled
• Forward-Looking
• Loyal
• Competent
• Mature
• Inspiring
• Caring
• Intelligent
• Courageous
• Fair-Minded
• Ambitious
• Broad-minded
• Imaginative
• Supportive
• Determinded
• Strightforward
• Cooperative
• Dependable

I’ll post the results of the survey later.

The next book I want…

I was fortunate enough to have recently finished Head First HTML with XHTML & CSS which I wrote a review for on Amazon.com. The head first series is an awesome series, I have the Head First Java 2nd ed. on its way to my house now and am also anxiously awaiting the release of Head First Object Oriented Analysis & Design which is due to come out in September… perhaps a B-day present? (Probably not since I'll want to buy it as soon as its released!)

You can get a quick glimpse of the book from this pdf that is posted on the books official web site. 

Any way, here is a quote from the java ranch saloon from the author of OOA&D regarding the table of contents for the book.

Hi Ram,

Thanks for your interest. Here's the current chapter list (subject to change…but not much) to give you a rough idea:

1. Intro
2. "An OO Story" (a refactoring example)
3. Use Cases
4. Analysis
5. Encapsulation, Packaging and Access Control
6. Abstractions, Inheritance and Polymorphism
7. Types (static, dynamic, generics, etc.)
8. Associations
9. Objects (object diagrams, the heap, garbage collection, etc.)
10. Design Principles (OCP, Law of Demeter, etc.)
11. Object-to-Relational Mapping
Appendix. Misc Topics

A lot of core UML concepts are also included throughout the book (it's not a complete UML guide, but it definitely hits the high points).

Also, most examples are in Java, but there are also quite a few examples in other languages (Ruby, C#, C++, Python). It's not, strictly speaking, a Java book (but it's Java-friendly).

Hope that helps.

-Dave

——————–

You can read the whole post at the Java Saloon.

 After I finish with this book I'll finally be ready to read the Head First Design Patterns book that I bought a while ago.

Summer School

Summer school starts when Christi and I get back from Disneyland. I'm taking my last G.E. class at American River College. Here is a description of the class quoted from the ARC site:

ANTH 301 Physical Anthropology Laboratory 1 Unit
Prerequisite: None
Corequisite: ANTH 300.
Course Transferable to UC/CSU
Hours: ; 54 Hours LAB
Description: This course is an introductory laboratory course designed to provide students with an opportunity to become familiar with the methods of the science of biological anthropology while investigating topics in laboratory and field situations. Topics covered in the course are: the scientific method; sources of biological variation and forces of evolution; human osteology; human variation; taxonomy and comparative osteology of the primates, and fossil evidence for human evolution. AA/AS area 3A; CSU area B2; IGETC area 5B.

Schedule: Six Week – Second, Jun 26-Aug 03
MTWTh 08:00AM-10:05AM LAB C.Speckman Natomas Educ Ctr N201 12902

Now doesn't that sound like tons-o-fun?

The purpose of taking this class is to fill my B2 & B3 requirements.

After this summer… only two more classes!

• MIS 161: System Development Lifecycle II
• MIS 132: Management Science Techniques

Both classes will be taught by Dr. Leonardo Legorrta which is a plus!

What I want to be when I grow up (In 6 months)

I have a lot of time to kill while at work, so recently I have been looking up job descriptions and salaries for system analysts (aka Systems Business Analysts) and found this really good description of what the job entails. Here are a few choice quotes:

Computer systems analysts start their work by asking people what they need their computers to do. Then, they plan a computer system that can do those tasks well. A system can include many computers working together and different types of software and tools.

Here are some other excerpts from the article.

In 2004, the middle half of these workers earned between $52,400 and $82,980. The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $41,730. The highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $99,180.

In 2004, there were 487,000 computer systems analysts. Many worked for computer consulting companies. About 28,000 were self-employed. They often moved from place to place working on different projects. Analysts also worked for governments, universities, Internet companies, and financial institutions.

The number of computer systems analysts is expected to grow much faster than average between 2004 and 2014. People with proper training should have good job prospects.
Those who have college degrees in business and courses related to computers also should be able to find jobs in this field.
New jobs are expected as more businesses try to use computers well. New Internet and wireless technologies are also expected to create more jobs because people will need to learn how to use these tools.

This is the career path I want to move in. My internship at the DMV should be an excellent resume builder to get me in on the ground floor with a company like EDS, CGI-AMS, or even with the State.

I plan on getting my projects, school deliverable's, and personal projects and organizing them into a portfolio after Christi and I get back from Disneyland. I also really need to start practicing what I've learned in MIS 160 and what I will learn in MIS 161 here at the DMV to help build up my resume even more!

Packing my bloging bags

Well, I'm packing up my bags and heading on over to Word Press.
Just felt like a change of scenery, nothing really exciting is happing at Blogger as of late.

Enjoying summer

This weekend Christi and I went on a picnic with MIS 161 alummni. Dr. Legorreta has set up a type of MIS 160/161 alum group for the students that pass his class, that way we can network with students from prior years.

It was fun. The picnic was at William Landpark and about 25-35 people showed up. We all hung out and chatted, it was quite relaxing.

After we got back from the picnic we then decided to go to the river cats game. It was fun, but damn it was cold! I always forget how cold it gets there since it is so close to the river.

The Rivercats lost 2-8 (I think?). However, I don't recall who they played against. Shows how much of a baseball fan I am!

Graduate School?

At this point it feels like, for me, that graduate school isn't a question of if but rather a question of when.

Towards the end of this last semester I started contemplating what to do after I graduate (Something it seems every graduating senior does!). Obviously my first priority will be to put my freshly printed degree (Signed by the Govenator!) to good use in finding me a well paying job. But what about after that?

Sacrificing to go to college has done something irreversible to me. I value the educational journey I am going on quite a bit and I have become a big proponent of pursuing an undergraduate degree. I know part of this activism I have is due to the fact that I want to justify to myself that this degree I will be earning, the sacrifice that I have made, is not worthless. But that should be true for anyone who pursues an endeavor they find valuable. However, this isn't the only reason I believe a college degree is something everyone should strive for.

Another reason that I believe makes a college education important is that you learn about things you wouldn't care to if not required to do so; and you are taught these various things in the proper manner, not pieced together from various different life experiences. After enduring the college gauntlet you realize, hopefully, that many different things in many different areas of study have many similar underlying themes. It would seem that in having your brain setup to start to recognize these patterns you will be able to learn other topics quicker than if you didn't recognize these patterns, which would make every topic seems like a completely new concept with a completely new foundation.

Of course, this isn't something you go and take a class for, there isn't a course called "Learning-the-Foundations-of-Learning-New-Things-During-Your-Life 101" this is something you learn as a by-product of going to college. At least it is something you learn if you take your education seriously while you attend; if college is something daddy is forcing you to do and he pays for it but you don't really want to go then you might not pickup on the bigger picture this educational experience gives you.

While there are dozens and dozens of reasons I think college is something worth pursuing I'm only going to list one more so I don't bore you too much!

After I graduated high school I knew what I wanted to be, a video game programmer. Why? Because I loved paying video games and from reading all my Nintendo Power and various other gaming magazines I had learned that to make video games you had to learn to program on a computer. This was the one thing I knew about and was the one thing I enjoyed. Obviously I am no longer pursuing a degree in computer programming. I am, however, pursuing a semi-technical degree mainly because of my passion for computers which have become something I am good at. However, my degree is grounded much more in business than it is in the technical areas of study. I am thankful for that because this has opened my eyes to a lot of other possibilities that are out there and given me enough skills to be confident in pursuing which ever one interests me the most.

If I had stopped pursuing school the only things I would know are those that are right in front of me everyday, which is an extremely small and narrow view of the world and my potential possibilities. To look at it another way, if I had never played a video game I would have never had the desire to pursue computer programming. But because video games were what was right in front of me everyday and I enjoyed it I didn't think anything else would be more enjoyable.

Get my point?
The more exposure to different 'things' the better the chance you find that which interests you.

Of course there are many people that know from a young age what they want to do and pursue it through its entirety. There are other people who have a life changing experience that set them on a certain path and they pursue that as their life mission. However for the most of us we change our minds every so often. Unfortunately if you don't have a formal college education nor the will to pursue something new you will most likely stay put, and miserable, wherever you are at since it's comfortable. However for pursuing new life endeavors, I believe ones will is more important than a college education. But, a college education will give you the life tools you need and the big picture (or at least a bigger picture) of the world to more easily facilitate a new pursuit and be more successful in doing so than through sheer will alone.

So back to my original proposition to myself… What to do after I get my degree and get a job?

First I plan to think more about my life and what I want to make of it. Then, unless something major changes or I have some sort of epiphany that leads me down a new road, I plan on taking the GMAT and pursuing a graduate degree of some sort, either an MBA or an MSBA (probably no later than two years after my graduation).

Yes school has been the hardest thing I have ever done, yes school has been the most stressful thing I have ever done, and yes school has taken me much longer than I had ever imagined. Fortunately in looking back on the experience and what I have gotten out of it, it was worth it. Very worth it. Sure I would have definitely done things differently if I had the chance to do it over but I have no regrets and am quite satisfied with where I am at now.

Perhaps graduate school can be my do over?

Now I just need to figure out which type of graduate degree I want, I probably won't be able to answer that until I am away from school for a little while.

One last note to anyone contemplating an undergraduate degree. My biggest fear from jumping right into getting a bachelors degree right away was the fact that I felt like I HAD to pick the one thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Whatever it was I picked I was stuck with. That isn't the case. Yes college is much more focused on the type of career you will want to pursue than high school is, but it is still just a stepping stone to other possibilities. It will take you quite a while to achieve compared to high school. So get started ASAP. After you graduate you can apply your degree to a plethora of fields, and if you want a more focused education you can pursue a graduate degree which doesn't have the boat loads of G.E. classes you have to take like the undergraduate degree does. For example, If I wanted to get an MSBA in MIS I'll only need 30 more units, compared to the 155 units I have now!!!

If you want to read what others think check out these two links:

• Why is college the default?
• College matters… sometimes

About Sacramento State’s business program. AACSB.

For anyone who lives in northern California and wish's to attened an inexpensive business college then Sacramento State is a school you should look at. It may not be ranked the best, but it is AACSB accredited which is a voluntary accreditation the school goes through every few years. This accreditation is recognized world wide as a basis for an excellent program in business/management. To quote from their site:

AACSB International accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement for business schools, worldwide. Institutions that earn accreditation confirm their commitment to quality and continuous improvement through a rigorous and comprehensive peer review. AACSB International accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in management education.

AACSB International accreditation assures stakeholders that business schools:

• Manage resources to achieve a vibrant and relevant mission.
• Advance business and management knowledge through faculty scholarship.
• Provide high-caliber teaching of quality and current curricula.
• Cultivate meaningful interaction between students and a qualified faculty.
• Produce graduates who have achieved specified learning goals.

So if a business degree is your calling and you don't have someone to pay $160,000 for your education then you should check out Sacramento State University.

Still Waiting For Greenhouse

Skeptical about man-made global warming?
Still Waiting For Greenhouse

GORE’S HOT AIR By KYLE SMITH – New York Post Online Edition: Movies

Al “I helped create the internet” Gore needs to go away ASAP….

GORE’S HOT AIR By KYLE SMITH – New York Post Online Edition: Movies: “His implication that he is our only hope – every ticket bought for this movie amounts to a soft-money contribution to his 2008 campaign – is ridiculous. He and his friends were in charge for eight years. His charts say global warming got worse in that time. The environment doesn’t seem to care whether the president is a Texas oilman or the Man from Hope.

Global warming hasn’t noticed that we got the lead out of our gasoline or that Stage One smog days in Los Angeles fell from 121 in 1977 to zero in 2004. All regulations and taxes to date have done nothing. Does this hint that pollution isn’t the cause?”