Klarinet Archive - Posting 000226.txt from 1999/03

From: "B. Keplinger" <bcaslin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinets and the Comp. (was FROM LEAKY PIPES TO
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 01:00:55 -0500

**** After much hemming and hawing, I decided to post this to the list for
the benefit of anyone else seeking to change the direction his or her life
has taken.

At 09:10 AM 3/3/99 -0500, "Rob Breen" <robert.v.breen@-----.net> wrote:
>That would be me. Before I go on about where I am today, a little
>background:...

Well.
First of all, let me thank you from the bottom of my heart for your
response. All that you say about computer programming (and your
relationship with it) I have recognized in myself, but it took until
roughly a year ago for me to even consider that it was a possibility (the
"geeky, brainy" image that generally held of computer programmers was just
not in my repertoire of self-conceptions).
To encapsulate as much as possible, I changed employers (in architecture)
to a 60s leftover who nonetheless had a computer (dual-5.25" floppy -- this
was about 13 years ago, now). (I say "nonetheless," because until
relatively recently he has been a reluctant user at best and a hater at
worst, feeling, essentially trapped by the beasts, despite the clear
advantage of, in this case, being able to reuse and edit a construction
cost estimate for any number of new projects. And I say "nonetheless"
because, despite at least three occasions whereupon the power failed while
he was intensely working on an estimate that he had not saved for at least
two hours, he still maintains an almost wanton ignorance of the programs he
uses.)
I took to using the computer immediately. A part-time bookkeeper (and
credit union president) had recently purchased us a copy of Lotus 1-2-3 and
programmed a number of spreadsheets for our use in running an architecture
and construction business, and before long, I was editing and improving
interface and functionality. Although I can't say I ever became a whiz at
1-2-3's macro language (my job, after all is in architecture, not computer
programming), I was at least very competent, and able to create a number of
rather complex spreadsheets (and expand the functionality of a few existing
ones) and make them relatively easily usable to others in my office.
With the switch form Lotus to Microsoft came the switch from 1-2-3's macro
language to Visual Basic, and it took me a while to get past OO, but by the
time I finally took a class in VB, I had developed a good enough grasp of
the necessary terminology and concepts to be able to keep up with a class
of other programmers learning VB.

Over the years, I became increasingly aware of wasting my life in a job
which I was lukewarm about, and even in my free time I was studying singing
rather than the clarinet, my reasoning being that there were more outlets
for a decent amateur singer than even a very good amateur clarinetist, and
as a singer in a small, very select chamber were I was passionate about the
music-making, I was never passionate about singing itself.
Somewhere along the line I said enough is enough, and decided that there
is no better time than now to change my life. I started by going back to
school to get a Bachelor's degree (BFA in Interdisciplinary Studies,
studying historical and social change as evidenced in music and
architecture specifically, and the arts in general). And I put together
the recital I mentioned a few posts ago, which finally and in no uncertain
terms set me straight on the clarinet versus voice. So here I am.

What you say about "interactive puzzle solving" is exactly what I like
about programming, and what I think could fairly satisfyingly hold my
interest as a career (I know I can work at a programming problem for hours
(just like clarinet practice), where I find fairly frequent breaks at my
job to be a necessity). (By the way, my wife has been by the programming
bug as well; she is at this very moment behind me at her computer swearing
over the Pearl program she can't get to work the way she wants it to. If
you have a chance, check out SkanFest.org; its her baby, and in a few day's
she will have it updated to this year's hot-off-the-press (just e-mailed
from the music director) 1999 season.)

That's quite enough for now, you get the picture.
Since I'm still new at this programming stuff, do you have any particular
recommendations as to where or how to best get training or experience, or
any particular areas of concentration (or programming languages) that in
your opinion would be most beneficial for an inexperienced programmer to
pursue?

Thanks you Rob, (and all of you) for replies to my queries; I will get
back to as many as you as I can in the next few days.
-Bruce

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