I was formerly an Access guru and SQL Server DBA, as well as a VBA/VB6 programmer. I acquired a chronic illness in 2006, which has really impaired my ability to learn and concentrate...but I still have a lot of the skills and knowledge that I used to, and definitely the desire to program. This creates a conundrum of wanting to do the things I used to do easily, but now finding them difficult to learn, retain, and master. Nevertheless, I'm trying my best to learn modern C# and put it to use.

In various discussions here and elsewhere, it has become clear to me that I was really a hybrid of both DBA and programmer, with a lot of knowledge in both areas, but clear gaps as well. My formal education, such as it was, was back in the late '80s, so there are a lot of modern programming concepts (particularly in the area of OOP and patterns) that many people take for granted that I've just never been exposed to, or have an incomplete picture of. Combine all that with me trying to learn .NET/C# for the first time (in spurts of an hour or two), and the reasons for my bizarre combination of moderately complex questions alongside really dumb ones will hopefully be apparent. :)