I Passed!!

So, all studying avoidance aside, I was able to focus and pass my PMP (Project Management Professional) certification exam last Thursday. The most amazing thing is, that while I was sitting there waiting for the computer to give me my results, I had no idea whether or not I passed. The test is very "open ended." That is, there are many right answers, you have to choose the "most correct" of all of them. Sometimes a single word in the question will change which one is most correct.

The test takes 4 hours and has 200 questions in it. I finished in 3 1/2 hours and scored 79%. This is significant because, on the old test, you had to score 75%. This one only required 61%. So, no matter what, I would have passed.

I haven't studied this hard since learning Japanese. It was about as difficult it seems. That's probably because I am getting older now and things enter the brain a bit slower.......

It points up the fact to me that you must keep learning and active if you want to enjoy life, though. This was very satisfying and makes me want to learn more, but without so much pressure. Maybe I will learn to write PHP after all.....

Grandpa Dreams

Fishing Memories

I haven't been fishing in well over a year. I am sad for that because it is one of my favorite activities. Part of the problem is that it takes so much time to get there and back and I really want to spend time with Mom on Saturdays. It seems that our weekends are more booked than our weekdays, with family and church commitments taking a lot of time. Well, maybe next year if my Butterfly comes to visit, I will take her fishing. Ever since I was small, I have said, "When I am a Grandpa, I will take my grandchildren fishing!" Fishing with my grandparents was one of the highlights of my childhood. I loved my Grandma Ions' salty talk, my Grandpa Parker's patient way of helping me tie knots and bait hooks. He always had little jokes he would tell me and private conversations, while my Grandma Parker was commenting on everything from the number of rocks to the attitude of the other people fishing around us. All of these things created a flavor in my mind that I relish to this day. I want Butterfly to have the same experiences. It's my dream she and all my grandchildren will look forward to fishing with Grandpa.

Mud and Motorcyles

Fishing is one of my zen activities. Driving and reading scifi or fantasy is the other. Fishing is a safe haven unless you mange to hook yourself or there are annoying people on loud ATVs roaring around. Speaking of which, I was up at the Lake once and there were two kids on motorcycles roaring around. One had a pretty weak motor and he could just barely keep up. The other more powerful bike went off an old log in a little jump, landed in some mud, lost control a little, and then turned around to watch the other do his jump. Well, the little putt-putt came off the log and did an endo into the mudhole covering it's rider with mud from head to toe. It was obviously satisfying to his riding partner, who laughed hysterically over the fall. It was more satisfying to me because they got what they deserved. I raised my Diet Coke to them and toasted the maneuver, "Here's mud in your eye!"

That's my dream. Every annoying person who disturbs my zen time should get face planted in the mud.

Studying and it's Avoidance

The mere fact that I am writing this says that I am avoiding my study time for the certification exam a week from Thursday. I have already postponed it once and really don't want to do so again, so I had better get on the stick.

I have been updating the Hull website of late and I think I may have the process down. I managed to wipe some of the content others had posted, but we will get that restored and hopefully that will never happen again.

Both websites have received major facelifts over the past 2 months which is part of the reason I never post here. If I have time, I work over on those sites. I have even considered moving my blog over there, but I don't think I will just yet. Blogger (nee Google) allows for easy customizations and it's not as simple with RapidWeaver, though I can do more with that. Photo Galleries and such are easier with RW and I can even do them in Flash (that's the fancy moving menu stuff you see on some pages). Flash requires Dreamweaver, which I refuse to buy, so RapidWeaver does the trick. I just let others write the Flash code and then I use it.

We had a nice Stake Conference yesterday and I sang in the choir after Mom guilted me into it. She stayed home sick for both the Saturday night and Sunday sessions. I was glad she did, it was quite good, even though I did nod off on Sunday morning. Not an unusual occurance for me anyway............

So, now it's back to Project Management Professional certification study. Ah, well.....