Hello, my name is Rod Bergren

Who am I?  I am a geek/programmer/webmaster/Systems Analyst for a commodities trading company.  I write applications for Web Services and Windows.  I also do on the side contract programming as my time allows (which is not very much).

April 28, 2008 - Well at least I didn't wait a month until I updated my site this time.  You know when you work all day on other peoples stuff you really do not want to update your own stuff.  No one really reads this anyway.  I seriously think this is only for my kids. They will probably read it.  Anyhoo.  I have some new pictures.  Here is my favorite. You will notice it is the same as the winter one lower on the page. Anyone else glad winter is over.  
Links to one and two others. 


April 16, 2008 - wow, quick month.  I was just thinking that I had just updated this site last week and it has been a month.  Time flys when you are having fun.  FCStone has been a blast.  Just got back from Chicago.  Picks are here

March 21, 2008 - First Day of spring!  Yeah - First day off from new job.  We get off when the markets are closed.  I also thought it might be time to update my bio at the top with what I am currently doing.  It had been saying something about a community college.  <grin>  I hope all of you are having a blessed day.  I have had an awesome week at work this week and really have enjoyed the new opportunities and the chance to just sit down and write code or work on stuff all day long.  It has been awesome. 

March 12, 2008 - So I have been at the job at FCStone a week and a half now.  Things are going well.  It has been exciting to just sit and code pretty much all day.  The first day they setup my computer for me.  <Grin>  it was an etch a sketch with an old keyboard attached, and a few other weird items.  It was funny.  Honestly though they are treating me very well and there are some cool applications they are working on.  It has been a good week. 

February 23, 2008 - Ok Ok Ok, So I did it.  I wrote the software to create a Bible on the fly for anyone who is crazy enough to want to have a Bible like the one I printed for my Father In-Law.  I even decided to make a website and host the darn thing.  If you want to see it.  Go here

February 11, 2008 - Well this year is going to be interesting.  I just took a new job at FCstone,  It has been a really hard decision to leave DMACC.  DMACC has been an awesome place to work for the last 11 years and I have made some great friends and enjoyed my work very much.  FCStone is offering more potential for growth for me as a programmer and as a person, however I need to explore and discover the new things there are out there to learn.  I pray and hope that everyone will wish me well in my new endeavor.  One last note.  DMACC is a great place to go to college.  Students if you are reading this I can whole heartedly recommend that DMACC is the place to begin.  It is so much less expensive and the quality is just as good as any of the first two years at the four-year institutions. 

January 2008, Hmmm a new year.  Resolutions??  I don't believe in Resolutions.  <grin> 

Ok January is almost gone.  I have some interesting at least I think so pics of the snow storm the other day.  That really wasn't a snow storm.  -5 30mph wind

Been working on Otto's site and Brett's new site lately.  I think Otto's is looking pretty complete.  Brett's is a good start but still needs some more rounding out to be complete.

Some new cool pics

Christmas was good.  I made a Bible for my father in law.  Bob.  I downloaded a copy of the WEB (World English Bible) and then formated it in a font and size that he can read.  Then I included a ton of pictures of his grand children and others that he would want in there.  then I bound the thing using a perfect binding method and wrapped the whole Bible in a Leather case and gave it to him. 

I think it would be interesting to do this as a project for another person.  Sort of as a Family Heirloom Bible or specialized study Bible for a very specific person.  It was interesting to do.  Here is a copy of the final pdf of the Bible (keep in mind it is huge 1200 pages).

 My Friend Larry Walker showed me some stuff from Lucis Art's Filters for Photoshop.  Apparently this is a new way of doing HDR or faking HDR.  http://www.lucisart.com/pWhyeth2.htm  Some of Larry's pictures are very cool.  I think though that I will stick with Photomatix.  http://www.hdrsoft.com/  Either way there is some interesting stuff you can do with these software packages.  Here is a picture of Stevie.  

December 2007 - Wow fun fun.  Christmas is almost here.  hmmm what shall I get the kids. 

Played with some new Pics today.  It was fun.  One is a Moonset in the morning  The other was a creek running through town after the snow.  Looks cold

November 2007 - Really am enjoying doing HDR photography.  Here are a couple pictures on my picasa site that you can click on and enjoy. 

Of course the big pond at the Farm.  One of my favorite places in the whole world
And clouds over the Mile long bridge the other day.  Awesome