boo me

i am such a wuss. on the last night here, i am at home going to bed. i know. i suck. last night was just too much. again - it was awesome.

day 4 begins..

again - last night was awesome.

this morning - not so much. mr IT had to drag his lazy ass out of bed today and get to class. the major issue was tiredness. although, i'm sure the after-effects of M. Lite were abundant.

The faculty were 15 mins late. that is how out of control it was last night. Apparently there was an after party in the game room. without booze. just a measure of the insanity.

so, we start talking about architecture, and not the kind with buttresses, when we notice this kid has been missing for quite awhile. wasn't there last night, and nobody had seen him.

the faculty calls and it is explained the kid was just sitting in his room working. why would you do that? the whole class is optional, wasn't like he was forced to come here. but, the best part - his last name and first name rhyme. ha!

anyhow - beaver cleaver has still not shown up. leave it to him.

let's boogie

there was a question from a reader: did either of us hit the fance floor.

While the IT guy enjoyed a "monster burger", mr KC hit the dance floor like a pimp with his hoochies.

I <3 Bar Shuffleboard

The SOA networking event went splendidly. Plenty of free drinks, weird conversation (I believe there was a hot topic on porn) and later on, dance parties from the least likely candidates. This place really has a magical effect on some people. The only strange part were the 2 guys in our class constantly taking photos (candid and posed) ALL THE TIME. They seemed to really like one girl in our class... even after she told one of them to stop, he said "I need to take more pictures of females with long hair." I bet you do, buddy.

SOA networking event

so tonight was the SOA networking event. basically, it was a fancy name for us to go to class again, but this time in a private ballroom without the stress of school nor sanity. instead, there was plenty of booze, which we quickly took to. it was an enjoyable time chilling with everybody, shooting down vodka and other random drinks. but the best story comes from when they were shutting the bar down.

it was free. it was plentiful. it was open to only our class. and so, we totally took advantage of the bar at the SOA networking night. and when i say that, i mean we were ordering drink two and a time, and then after leaving them at the table, we would return for more. i think we might have ended up with a case of opened, full beers in the table, and each person had two more.

a quick-ish stop by to the clubhouse later capped off the evening. a great time all around. just dunno how we are going to get up tomorrow morning.

Frickin Cheatin

Ok - so today, we talked all about hardcore tech stuff. I did the little excercises, but had no idea what i was doing nor why.

BUT - we did still play jeopardy. that was good. but stupid team C started cheating.

ok ok. the answers are on all of our laptops in class. and i am sure most people know about them, but they don't memorize them. team c got every single question right and wagered the max amount. they are now in the lead. and team tide is last cause we had wager everything, even though we didn't have the answer. i am soooo pissed off.


at least respect the cheater's code - take what you need, only when you need it. who goes about getting every single question right? WTF?

time for yet another exercise. I wish they would maybe explain these tools and ideas instead of us completing another assignment.

last night

last night was pretty good. I ended up getting my drink on early - got pretty drunk before dinner. and boy did we eat. then we drank more. then we fooz'd. then drank. then mini shuffle-board. then drank.

essentially, it was a sloppy night. but, we went to bed sober and tired.

Day 2:

Day two went alot better than day one... we got out earlier and... the end. Oh, and they had these tasty little mini sandwiches.

The real highlight was last night at the government social. The social consisted of about 9 people, mostly from core analyst school and either drunk or strange. Yes, I know how much fun Core Analyst School is. Yes, I know you haven't slept for more than 4 hours a night. Yes, I know you can barely remember Cadillac Ranch. Anyways, the senior manager that the event was for didn't show up until pretty late into the evening, but when he got there we all actually had a decent conversation. While he was a bit zealotish (he was angry as the portraits of Arthur Andersen were being taken down after the Q center changed hands), he was also fairly down to earth.

"you must classify and define your boundaries. Otherwise, you might get corrupted"

oh yeah...

last night we had a govt little event with booze. sponsor showed up an hour late. a total of 15 people attended, included KC and me. we killed a 12 pack. and kept talking to the sr exec. i don't think i got fired. we stayed 70 mins.

the morning after

holy moly! my toe hurts like a bear trying to jump a gorge. i woke me up last night. had to beat it down into submission (i.e. advil)

new motto: been hit with a few SOAPs, now i walk with a limp.

seriously, i can't be breaking 2 mph at a brisk hobble.

this morning we prep for our QA meeting. honestly, we copy, paste and then change the word business to component. we had 20 mins, and after 2, our reviewer had nothing to say, so we asked asinine question to keep him off the documents. Great success was achieved.

looking forward to some lunch today - skipping breakfast is totally justified by seven and a half more minutes of sleep.

don't just stand there, bust a toe

oh wow. just wow.

well, had a marathon session last night, involving some govt peeps, KC and a lot of miller lite.

and then a subdued night at the local bar/hangout - to wind down and get ready for sleep

so, after we are done and off to bed, what happens?

i slip and in trying to stabilize, drag my sandal clad foot across the pavement.

ouch. very ouch.

and then was the hilarity in trying to explain to the front desk that i just needed some bandages.

i received a giant metal first aid kit that looked as if it had been around since 1965. I dragged my ass over the men's room where KC and I marveled at the irony.

bandaged and limping, I headed home for some much needed rest.

core first aid school

I just learned a new skill at SOA school... first aid... courtesy of mr. IT Professional.

my afternoon

Does being hot guarantee one's being fly? "I'm hot cause i'm fly, You ain't 'cause you not" would seem to clear that up. It would appear that fly and hot are interchangeable. If you are one, you are both; if you aren't at least one, you are neither.

Consider this tautology:

If you are fly, you're hot. If you are not fly, you are not.

yeah - that about sums it up

End of Day One

We've completed day 1... and it was a long day 1. Some of the people here feel they are more intelligent than the others, and therefore, there is much arguing and doing that thing where you tell someone your viewpoint, they nod their head, then they retell what they just said. No matter what you say, it's generally the same. The tables are also really, really cramped which, when coupled with abrasive type-A personalities, makes things that much better. And finally at 6, after a long hard day of looking at boxes with arrows and calling them fancier names, we are told we can go, some people still stayed behind and "worked." One person even asked if he could come back tonight to look at more things. I sure hope that was only for brownie points and he wasn't serious.

Oh, and the instructors have this neat way of fielding your questions and carefully not answering them, instead saying that either it is out of scope for this discussion, we will cover it later (referred to as the parking lot,) or my personal favorite... answering a different question altogether. As a fellow knowledge champion, I am impressed and will be taking notes.

Da Nile ain't just a river in Egypt

alright, I suck at this stuff. I've given up on the SOAP stuff. Now, I just want to ace the little afternoon fun-ish jeopardy stuff - cause I am a trivia master. perhaps a jedi - i'll never know.

(later on that afternoon)

Teacher 1: What is the longest river in the world?

DB 1: The Nile!

ME: THAT is WRONG! The answer is the Amazon river. You have to keep mind the capillaries and tributaries.

Teacher 1: No, that is the biggest river in the world. I said longest.

ME: ...

And i wagered all the points.

I guess I am just sucking right now. But, I am looking forward to playing with this tool and its boxes and arrows.

SOAP - not just your friendly cleaning product

day 1...i wish i could say it went smoothly, but it was more like a rough tide. Speaking of, apparently, i'm not the only who thought SOAP stood for commercial cleaning products. Hence my new team name - Tide. And perhaps that is why we have already fallen behind.

so, i'm trying to get my head around how you do a SOA implementation. First they're saying lose the couple, then they are telling me about animated objects or something - all i want to know is which application to open from my desktop.

and then i found the participate guide, which tells me exactly what to do.

break is over..more later

Why are they talking about soap?

So - here we are again. back at the lovely Q Centre, ready to embark on a new mission. But, this time, there is a twist. Rather than some general training, I'm not here for SOA training. what's next - SOB?

so, i gather that stands for Solutions Oriented Applications. Not really sure - I tried to follow along on the CBT training - but they kept talking about weird stuff like XML, SMTP,CRAP and SOAP. What!?!

There was even a question that asked me what kinds of soap are good for the client. how should i know? I guessed Dove, cause that is what I like, but the computer told me I was wrong. whatever.

Tomorrow it all begins - let's hope they are a little more clear on their questions. I mean, at least limit the answers to P&G.

One note - for this training, I am blessed to be joined by a colleague, Mr KC. Look Out! -ITP