This Reminds Me of Being a Kid

Back when I was in school, my dad would take time between Christmas and New Year's off. Since my son, Will, is planning on leaving for The University of Utah in a couple of weeks, I decided that I would try taking some time off. By the time I was done getting things planned, I realized I was going to need about three weeks. So I put in for all of them a while ago. I learned that I could have the time. It made things much less stressful not to have to worry about getting work tasks done and then getting ready for the holidays. This might be something I do in the future as well. I'll see how many others jump on my plan for 2009.

Christmas was great. We got to spend it with my sister's family. Those two boys while busy are really funny. It was nice to sneak around and do things for Will as well. He is such a great young man and tries so hard to be positive about what he goes through. I'm sure he'll do well when he leaves. It seems like such a long time before he goes, but honestly it's only a few days. For now, we're just going to have fun, watch lots of football, and try one more time to make a bunch of good memories.

Let's Talk Microsoft Geek-dom

I told you before that I would tell you all about the big certification I have been working on this year. My supervisor (or was it his boss) got the wild idea that we needed to be certified and started the process. Some of us got the COMPTIA A+ certification. This one was NUTS. (For those that don't know, this certification deals with computer hardware and electronics much more than with how to work them. We're talking about individual chips and circuits, not Operating System commands or other things.) This really didn't reflect what we do. Most of these skills we outsource, so we were back to looking for a new certification (I'm glad I didn't have to learn how to wear strips & plaids, which is part of the prerequisite for this test).

Then we learned about a Microsoft certification (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician), click to learn more. To make a long story short, we were told that we would be attending a four day long boot camp training (this is when you get to go away and spend ten to twelve hours per day, studying for the required tests). I had originally been scheduled to attend the preparation over the summer, but it was canceled, so instead I got to go to Santa Clara the week before Christmas, and work on this. It takes two tests (the first is a two hour test the second a ninety-minute one).  They are controlled by non-disclosure statements, like most MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) tests. Two of us went up and were both successful, as the preparations continued, we heard that about half of the people that take the test pass it the first time. This was a bit intimidating, since every body else in our group had been successful in the first attempts... So yeah, I was worried that I'd never get this, but as you can tell, I did it. Granted I had a bunch of help, but I was able to get done.

Conjunction Function 2008

OK, maybe I've been ranting about the bus too much, or maybe I've been a bit stressed about my Microsoft Certification (more on that later), but any way here's the latest from my grey matter. I was standing outside looking west about sundown a few days ago, and I saw a very beautiful sight. I've included a picture to refer to later. It looked this way in my part of the world, it was wonderful. It just really struck me as a neat thing as I stood there and thought about how blessed I am, and how lucky I am to see things like this. You know looking back, I'm glad I've had time to reflect on neat sights.

I've included a link to check out if you don't know about astronomical conjunctions

 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081201-jupiter-venus.html