A Review of Paul Rouzer’s: A New Primer of Literary Chinese

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Paul Rouzer’s A New Primer of Literary Chinese is pretty much the best book of its class that I’ve seen. It covers literary Chinese for English speakers looking to learn in a self-contained package. The book does not build on any specific series and is completely standalone. By being standalone, it is suitable for pretty much any learning path. It also covers the Japanese Kanbun pronunciations as well as Korean Hanja pronunciations.… Read the rest

Rebounding From Rejection

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Rejection sucks. Revolutionary statement of the century I know. Just because it sucks, doesn’t mean it can’t be used as a catalyst for positive change. Rejection is going to happen, so you might as well make the best of it.

If you’re in any creative field, from writing to art or even programming to design, you’re going to face rejection. Anything subjective is going to carry the risk of rejection.… Read the rest

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Object-Oriented Principles

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Object-oriented programming is by no means new, but it’s definitely not old news either. Even though functional programming and similar may be the new hotness, Object-Oriented programming (OOP) is still arguably the backbone for the majority of the industry. OOP is the natural evolution of procedural programming and turns lone functions and data structures into reusable, encapsulated objects and allows for greater abstraction.… Read the rest

Smashing The Wall: Getting Past Writer’s Block

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Between a kid, a career, and furthering education, I carve out precious little time for my writing. Writing gives me a release and lets me escape the doldrums of my job. The last thing I want when I finally manage to wrangle a few minutes in front of a word processor is to hit a wall and not know what to write about.… Read the rest

Teaching to Reinforce Your Own Learning

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I’ve seen a flood of news from email chains and group chats about learning by teaching as an easy way to master skills faster, especially in tech. Rubber duck learning (where you explain the concept to a rubber ducky) is common in software development, but this new trend is a shift to actually teaching other people. Several articles about learning retention have been passed around to accompany this trend.… Read the rest

Windows 7 and Server 2008 (R2): The End of Times

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January 15, 2020 is going to be an important day in the tech industry. Not because of some new product or the coming singularity, but because of the end of life for Windows 7 and all Server 2008 and 2008 R2 derivatives.

Windows 7 and derivatives will have received just over a decade of support by end of life and were essential for ending the era of Windows XP.… Read the rest