I just wanted to take a moment to introduce my new category, From Monkey to Master.  I have a friend who is a designer and aspiring developer who has asked me to help him take the leap into the world of VB.Net.  I have decided that we will do a series of posts here that serve as a tutorial for him and hopefully be of assistance to others as they learn.  I figured that by making this a public discussion, my friend will benefit from everyone's experience as they weigh in and share their insights on the topics we cover.  I also decided that this open forum would help to keep him from developing the bad habits I've developed by offering him the benefit of differing opinions on the topics covered.  Most of what we discuss here will be a result of specific questions that my friend raises, sample tasks that I've given him to help him on his road, or topics that just need covered to gain an understanding of the development process.  This will start out pretty simple with a general hello world task, but hopefully will increase quickly in it's scope and intensity as he picks up the basic concepts.

I encourage all of you to join in as we embark on this journey, from monkey to master!