I’m always looking for new languages to learn, especially ones that might come up in my line of work – and C# is one I used to continually get asked if I knew, and I always had to say no.  Not that I will become an expert by any means after reading this book, but having some more background on it is certainly a step in the right direction! This book is designed to be a quick and easy guide for computer science students – so if you have 0 experience with programming, you might not want to start here. (Or at the very least teach yourself strings, loops, if/else on your own before jumping in. These are pretty simple concepts and I’m sure YouTube has some great intro videos out there.)  The first part of the book is on hardware, which the intro said you can skip and come back to.  Since I am working as a software engineer, I skimmed it to make sure it was all things I already knew before moving on.

The rest of the book contained a lot of code and I think it would have been better if I had a project to build and follow along with, but it definitely was a quick read and learn.  I’m not sure in the end that C# is something I want to pursue, but I liked how this book was put together and I’m sure it would be helpful to many CS students!

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

If you need a quick and easy yet comprehensive book on C# programming, then we believe this is it.

No previous programming experience is required, because the book aims to teach you all the necessary things you’d want to know. We start with visually engaging explanations of how the computer actually works and you’ll have a great time flying through the book reading about bits, how things are implemented in hardware, what a computer memory is anyway and clear and practical explanations of object-oriented programming in C#.

We did our best to make sure the reader really gets it and provided some real-world code examples. You’ll be learning about classes, generics, inheritance, interfaces, delegates and events and why you would actually need them. To complement your learning with practical projects, you’ll build a fully functional game, and a registering system web application that IT companies would want you to do as a test job while applying.

Along the way you’ll be exposed to many other interesting and useful bits and pieces of code you wish you had been shown before. Why not take the leap of faith and see for ye self!

The beginning of 2021 was definitely a lot more virtual shows, with a few other sprinkled in.  While I was happy to be back to shows in person, being able to watch from bed did spoil me a bit…  As far as in person shows, I like to try and get a concert a month in and while I didn’t do it completely in person, I was able to make it happen combined with virtual.  I’m not sure how that streak will hold up for 2022 as I’m still not in a big rush o go to many shows, but we’ll see what I can pull off.

Since I’m trying to combine – virtual will be the first numbers and in-person the second.

Most expensive show:
Kris Allen & David Cook from London was $24
Jonas Brothers at almost $500 for a “Citi Presale” ticket I am pretty sure was Ticketmaster Platinum in disguise.

Least (not free) expensive show:
Hanson was $11.50 for the MON/TTA shows
Stephen Kellogg at the Kate was $36

Free shows:
Hanson’s BTTI streams were free, there was 2.
None of my in person shows were free (how rude)

# artists seen: 17+ / 28
# unique artists seen: 6+ one show was a compilation and I didn’t keep track / 10
# shows seen in CT: All Virtual / 9 in person
# of shows out of state: 2 / 12

Show farthest away: I watched Matt Nathanson while in Arkansas / Oklahoma for in person
Closest show: All the ones from bed / Wallingford, CT
$$ spent on tickets: $165 / $1593
Miles traveled: I’m calling it 0 / 18,296

Top 6 shows of the year?
Kris & David from London was probably my favorite.  The O-Town ones were also very fun because I haven’t seen them in FOREVER.
Hanson TTA Acoustic, Kris w/ the symphony were probably my tops,  although for a while there after every show I was like “THIS IS THE BEST SHOW EVER!”

Total number of shows in 2021? 15 virtual shows / 21 in person

First show of the year? Hanson / Hanson

First show with actual tickets: N/A  / Stephen Kellogg at the Kate

Last show of the year? Matt Nathanson / Stephen Kellogg at FTC

Most surprising show? I liked them all but nothing was really out of the ordinary / Alice Cooper

Most disappointing? None / Still the canceled and postponed ones and the one I had to miss because I was sick (not covid)

Farthest traveled? None / I think Oklahoma

States attended shows in? CT & AR for virtual / CT, OK, NY, AR for in person

Venue most visited? My bed / Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa

Band seen the most? Hanson then O-Town / Hanson

Best new discovery? I mostly stuck with what I knew / Carrie Welling opening for David Cook 

Bands seen this year that also broke up this year? None

Friends made at shows? The floppy bunny that lives in my bed was still my virtual concert BFF. / None

Band members met? No Zoom M&Gs this year / Hanson, Stephen Kellogg, Kris Allen, Jon McLaughlin

Best souvenir from a show? None 

Longest time in line? None / I don’t remember waiting for any of them too long – maybe like 30 mins before the Hanson ones.

Shows seen from the barricade [front row]– Technically all, I guess. / AJR, sort of. Hanson at Cain’s this summer.

Most shows in one month? 

January – 5 / 0
February – 2 / 0
March – 1 / 0
April – 1 / 0
May – 1 / 2
June – 0 / 1
July – 2 / 0
August – 0 / 4
September – 0 / 7
October – 1 / 2
November –0 / 2
December – 2 / 3

Most shows in one week? The Hanson January shows was 3.  / Any of the OK trips was 2. AR was 2. 

Biggest crowd? Probably the Hanson shows  / Alanis & Jonas 

Any drunk encounters? Definitely not! lol one major perk to watching by yourself from the safety of your own bed.  / None in person either, phew!

Missed shows:

Hanson’s Back to the Island in January was postponed.
David Cook was postponed but happened later
The Hop Jam was postponed.
David Archuleta was postponed to 2022
Mandy Moore was postponed to 2022
Backstreet Boys was postponed to 2022.
Jason Mraz was canceled (due to hurricane)
I skipped Eric Hutchinson due to being sick
I sold Harry Styles due to not being ready to be at the casino.

Made it to 21 concerts in person in 2021.  Saw Alice Cooper for the first time. Finally saw Alanis Morrissette in concert.  Finally saw AJR in concert.  Worked from home for a full year.  Visited Iowa and the Field of Dreams.  Visited Arkansas.  Stayed ahead on scrapbooking by making a page each time I bought concert tickets.  Continued to embrace the virtual concert.  Took a road trip to Annapolis and stole a bus. Got stung by a bee.  Got my hair semi-professionally done for a charity ball.  Did a lot of volunteering.  Found some Oklahoma stout beers I love.  Tried beer soft serve.

2020 Anti Bucket List
2019 Anti Bucket List
2018 Anti Bucket List
2017 Anti Bucket List
2016 Anti Bucket List
2015 Anti Bucket List
2014 Anti Bucket List
2013 Anti Bucket List 

Last night, Stephen Kellogg brought his Sad Songs, Funny Stories tour to Stage One in Fairfield.  For this show, all attendees were required to either be vaccinated or have a negative covid test to attend.  I had on my N99 and another disposable mask over top, so I am hoping that was my best line of defense.  (Guess we’ll fine out when I have to test negative to get to Jamaica in 10 days. eek.)

SK started his set with a medley of The Open Heart, Glassjaw Boxer and Irish Goodbye and teased that what if the whole show was like that and he just did a couple lines of all of his songs and then said it was over.  The show was broken up into 4, possibly 5, acts: Life, Love, Family and Legacy. The 5th act would be the encore.  While the set was short, there was a lot more stories than usual (although apparently we got a more edited version because his wife and kids were in the audience)  He also played the Foreigner song “Hot Blooded” and told us to listen to the lyrics closely and think about them in terms of today.  If you haven’t, you should. It’s probably more entertaining with Stephen explaining it, but most of it you can probably figure out for yourself.

I was happy that he ended his Legacy set with one of my favorites, My Favorite Place and I really liked his new song, It Goes Fast.  Closing out the year with an SK show is a tradition of sorts so I am glad that he ended up bookending my 2021 concert experience and being my first and last CT shows in 2021.

Last weekend I went to my 29th state- Arkansas. While I am trying to see Hanson in every state, they have never done a tour show in Arkansas so I figured when the opportunity came up to see *a* concert in a new state I would take it.  (Maybe I’ll have to modify it to a concert in every state instead of just specifically Hanson lol)

Thursday morning I had a ridiculously early flight out.  It was one of my worst travel days. I had gotten next to no sleep the night before, the flight attendant woke me to ask if I needed the wheelchair I asked for, only for it not to be there when I landed (or someone else took it, there were 3 that showed up and 3 that got wheeled away.)  When I went to find someone to push me, I ended up also being with a man and his seeing eye dog who my pusher barely got to his gate in time for boarding. (He also liked patting me on the shoulder every time he talked to me, which I am *never* a fan of) and when I got to board my final flight of the day I realized too late they “moved me closer to the front” but into an aisle seat which I loathe.

I got to the hotel 3 hours early and their app had no way of me telling them I’d show up any earlier than 4pm.  Fortunately, the girl at the front desk, though super annoyed I was there so early, was nice enough to check on the room I had checked in online with and found out it had just finished being cleaned so I was able to get in early. It was a rainy evening so while I had initially had plans to go to the Zoo for their GloWild event, I decided that would be better off happening the next night, ordered some BBQ and spent the night in my room and did no exploring.

Friday I decided to check out the Old State House Museum that was right next door to my hotel and their “Play It Loud” exhibit about concerts at a venue in Little Rock.  It was really cool and I probably could have stayed there for hours.  I would have, if not for so many without masks on coming through.  The museum even had a penny machine! I checked out some of the other exhibits they had as well and it was really cool.  I ended up going back to the room to order food but falling asleep and waking up in time to get to the Zoo.  Uber and Lyft were VERY slow and not a lot of cars available.  I don’t know if something else was going on this weekend or if that was always the case, but I had to wait 20 minutes for a car who did about 5 other drop offs before getting to me to get to the Zoo.  I also realized that I kept thinking the show wasn’t until 8:30 but that is what time it was EST and what had been showing up on my Facebook Events all week when I was home and doors were actually 6:30 for a 7:30pm start time.  Keeping this in mind, I raced around the loop of the lanterns at the zoo twice (they were so pretty and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything!) and had to get a surge priced Uber for the way back to the concert – but managed to get to my seat 15 minutes before the show started.  (And paid about $2/min I was actually at the zoo, but I am glad that I did it and it all worked out!)

For the first night, I decided to get seats in the front row of the balcony for the show to get a full perspective of the show.  I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, just knew Kris was super excited about it since he played in the children’s orchestra as a kid.  The orchestra did about 3 songs without Kris and then 3 with Kris and then he left the stage and it was time for the intermission.  Since they were calling it the “Kris Allen Holiday Spectacular” I was expecting, well, more Kris Allen.  For the second half if was about the same – half just the orchestra/choir and half with Kris as well.  At the very end they did a sing-a-long and this was when I decided to order my dinner as I had eaten nothing but a cinnamon bun (which was delicious, I might add) all day and hope that it would have made it to the lobby of the hotel by the time the show was over.  My hotel was connected to the venue which made things nice and easy pre and post show.  Definitely worth the extra money I spent to be closer, hands down. And I only had to wait about 5 minutes for my dinner to show up from the Mexican restaurant.

Saturday I ended up being so wiped out from everything I did on Friday, I had no desire to leave my room at all. I watched some Disney+ and ordered a large late lunch that held me over (I thought I’d do a post show vending machine snack run only to find out it was change only so I was limited to just 1 item) and then headed over for the show around 7.  For the second show, I was front row orchestra seating, so I couldn’t see much more than Kris and the front of the orchestra.  Kris seemed to be a bit more relaxed this show having gone through it all the night before and had a bit more witty banter going on. I ended up enjoying this show much more than the night before – I am not sure if it was because I knew what to expect, or I didn’t have a giant maskless man taking over half of my seat, or because I hadn’t been running around all day or because I was so much closer.  I was glad that I decided to do 2 of the shows though and while Kris was going to be streaming Sunday afternoon’s show, it would be started just as I landed back in CT so I didn’t even attempt.

And it was a good thing I didn’t event attempt the stream.  I tried to get an uber at 4am as my flight out was 7:30am and I wasn’t sure how busy the Little Rock airport would be.  Turns out it is the smallest airport ever and I was off the hotel shuttle, through security and at my gate before 5:30am.  The TSA agent even complimented that I knew what I was doing and must have done it before.  (The first half hour I was at my gate was a steady stream of “who forgot their ID, phone, hat, etc at the checkpoint” announcements)  Upon getting to my gate there was a woman with a violin who proceeded AT SIX IN THE MORNING to play every Christmas song she knew for an hour.  (I kept track of the setlist)  We left Little Rock without a problem, a wheelchair was indeed waiting for me (after a nice pilot helped me get my bag up the giant jet bridge – he told me it was only C that had the long ones, A and B were much shorter) and I only had to go like 2 gates away (of course).  The gate across from mine was the earlier flight out to Hartford (what are the odds) but it was final boarding by the time I realized what was happening to even ask if I could get bumped on to it.  Then I realized all the flights around me were being delayed at least an hour and then I got an alert mine was delayed 20 minutes.  There must have been some bad weather that needed to be diverted somewhere, despite everything being delayed, everything did end up taking off and I landed just 23 minutes later than expected (but the pilots bragged we were 39 minutes EARLY? oh. no sir. that’s not how this works lol)

I’m glad I was able to find some outdoor and socially distanced activities to participate in and not stuck in the hotel room the whole weekend (although it did have a nice bridge view – when it wasn’t super foggy, that is) and cross off my 29th state!

More Hanson Wintry Mix

Wintry Mix Boston and NY