JavaScript Language Life Cycle

 

How to Calculate Dog Years

Here’s how you convert your age from “human years” to “dog years”:

• The first two years of a dog’s life count as 10.5 dog years each.
• Each year following equates to 4 dog years.

Stop the Facebook Madness!

This is my first post since taking a break from Facebook starting on June 2. The first two weeks I simply removed FB from my phone and removed desktop notifications from my laptops. Then, I deactivated my account for some time. Here is what I learned -

1. I was addicted to Facebook. I pride myself on being a safe driver and NOT checking my phone for text messages or notifications; however, I found myself subconsciously grabbing my phone while driving, checking for a notification that wasn't present. The first week was the hardest. I kept grabbing my phone regardless of where or what I was doing. No notifications so you check for personal email that doesn't matter. After the first week, the habit was breaking and it became easier to just drive and enjoy the drive. I still don't have Facebook on my phone and won't put it back. I'll just log in from time to time from my laptop (without desktop notifications) if I want to pass the time for 30 min to an hour every few days.

2. My anxiety levels decreased. Checking Facebook all the time invites a lot of negativity into your life. We get enough of that in today's biased news channels. I found myself (before taking the FB break) taking 30 day breaks from "friends", unfriending folks, or blocking them. It was still too much to digest on a daily basis. I'm not a political person and feel like the book has become a political platform when I believe the initial intent of it was to bring people together. Instead it seems to do the opposite. Limiting this intake has allowed me to judge people by their character when sitting in front of them instead of nonsense that is posted because they did not think things out before posting.

3. I am able to do more constructive tasks with my time. Whether it is my continuing education to learn Spanish, tackle web development projects through CodeAcademy, or update and install work products on my ESXi server or Microsoft Azure site. I'm not constantly taking breaks to respond to posts or check updates, etc.

In summary, removing Facebook from my mobile device and removing desktop notifications has helped me in more ways than one. I am able to enjoy life a little more. I am able to see people by the way we interact together in person. I am able to LIVE AND LET LIVE.

Steps to Calculate Reserve Retire Pay

To easily calculate your pay at retirement (using today's dollars), follow these 5 simple steps.

1 - The first thing you need to do is figure out how many retirement points you have by going to https://www.hrc.army.mil. (Under Services select Self Service>My Record Portal>Use CAC Login>Reserve/Retiree/Veteran Record>Retirement>CHR Statement of Retirement Points)

2 - Estimate how many more you will get before you file for retirement. 

     a. The most retirement points you can receive in a year is 365 (except for leap year: 366). These    points can be acquired by -

• Active Duty Points: Transferring to the Reserves from Active Duty, Deployment, Annual Training, and Active Duty for Training (ADT). 
• 130 Non-Active Duty Points 
• 48 MUTAs (Battle Assemblies), 15 membership points, 24 RMA points, 12 ATA points. This equals 99 points. To get to 130, you can serve for retirement points (requires DA Form 138

Note: If you are not on Active Duty then the most you can get in a year is 130 retirement points.

3 - Divide this  number by 360.

This gives you the total number of years equivalent to Active Duty years.

4 - Figure out the base pay for the grade you anticipate retiring at by going to https://militarybenefits.info/2021-military-pay-charts/

Note: Replace 2021 with year you run these calculations

5 - Multiply the base pay by the equivalent Active Duty years from step 3 and multiply the result times 2.5%

• Note: For the Blended Retirement System you multiply the result by 2.0%

That is it. You now know your monthly retirement pay.

An example is below.

Step 1 + Step 2

Let's say that my retirement points at retirement are anticipated to be 3600. This is based on my actual retirement points as reported by HRC and my estimated anticipated retirement points. For example, let's say that I have 3 years until retirement but I am sitting at 3300 points. I anticipate getting 300 points over the next 3 years by actively drilling and attending extra training (SHARP, EO, etc). So, this brings me up to 3600.

Step 3

3600/360 = 10

This means I have 10 eligible years for retirement pay calculations

Step 4

Let's say that I am currently an E7 pay grade. I am promotable and plan on achieving E-8 pay grade before retirement. Navigating my browser to https://militarybenefits.info/2021-military-pay-charts/, I find E-8 base pay for 26 years service (these years of service are based on your LES years, not equivalent active duty years). 

The base pay is $6,452

Step 5

Monthly pay = ($6,452*10)*2.5%

Monthly pay = $1,613

Note that Monthly pay is shown in today's dollars. Army Reservists draw retirement pay at age 60 (with an exception of deployment time subtracting from 60 after the year 2008). As a result, retired pay will be more based on cost of living annual increases.  

Note that to get the E-8 pay grade, I would need serve at that level for at least 3 years (High 3). 

I hope this helps clear up any confusion with retirement pay for Reserves.

Sources: 

https://www.hrc.army.mil.

https://themilitarywallet.com/guard-reserve-points/#:~:text=Earning%20Annual%20Participation%20Points,Inactive%20Ready%20Reserve%20(IRR).

No individual should be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character

As we prepare to take off for a long weekend, it might be appropriate to take just a moment to think about why we aren’t coming to work Monday … Martin Luther King Day – for his commitment to equal rights, non-violence, and social change.  The inspiration of Dr. King and the civil rights movement led our nation and the Federal government to a new standard of equality and inclusion, which was Dr. King’s purpose.  He wanted to challenge our country to be a better place, where every person is valued and respected. 

Dr. King challenged us to overcome oppression and violence.  He urged us to reject revenge, aggression, and retaliation.  His vision that “no individual should be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” set in motion changes that led to the passage of civil rights and voting laws.  In honor and respect for his contribution to the improvement of our national attitudes, policies, and laws, the Federal government celebrates Dr. King. 

Over the years, there has been some speculation on what Dr. King could have accomplished if his life had not been so tragically cut short.  He was only 28 years old when he was elected the first President of the Southern Christian Leadership Council.  He had already graduated from college at 19 and graduated from Divinity school at 22.  By the time Dr. King was 29, he had published his first book, “Stride Toward Freedom.” In 1964, he gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech to 250,000 people who marched on Washington in support of pending civil rights legislation.  In the same year, he was successful in getting the legislation passed and he won the Nobel Peace Prize.  A lot of accomplishments for a man who was only 35 years old.

Dr. Martin Luther King believed in our country and its potential for greatness.  He also believed that each one of us is essential to achieving its full potential.  Although Dr. King’s primary efforts focused on equality for African-Americans, his ultimate goal was the equality and inclusion of every individual.  As Dr. King said“There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose.  People who have a stake in their society protect that society.  But when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.”

-Curtis L. Coy

Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Opportunity

Professor Messer

Professor Messer is a great learning resource for all kinds of certfications including A+ and Network+.
His online videos are free. You only have to pay if you want to download the material.
I used the free online versions to supplement my learning.
And, a cool little fact...Mr Messer live in Killearn Lakes, in Tallahassee. ;)
Here is the link:
http://www.professormesser.com/

Extreme Programming

Tired of your nerd friends wearing those cool 'Extreme Programming' shirts and not knowing what it's all about? Look below, so now you know! 

Extreme Programming broken down into its tasks:
• Realistic planning: Customers are to make business decisions, programmers are to make technical decisions. Update the plan when it conflicts with reality.

• Small releases: Release a useful system quickly, then release updates on a very short cycle.

• Metaphor: All programmers should have a simple shared story that explains the system under development.

• Simplicity: Design everything to be as simple as possible instead of preparing for future complexity.

• Testing: Both programmers and customers are to write test cases. The system is continuously tested.

• Refactoring: Programmers are to restructure the system continuously to improve the code and eliminate duplication.

• Pair programming: Put programmers together in pairs, and require each pair to write code on a single computer.

• Collective ownership: All programmers have permission to change all code as it becomes necessary.

• Continuous integration: Whenever a task is completed, build the entire system and test it.

• 40-hour week: Don't cover up unrealistic schedules with bursts of heroic effort.

• On-site customer: An actual customer of the system is to be accessible to team members at all times.

• Coding standards: Programmers are to follow standards that emphasize self-documenting code.

• Horstmann, C. (2010). Big JAVA: Compatible with JAVA 7 and 8 (4th ed.). Wiley ISBN: 978-0-470-50948-7