Emotions in a Blender

At the risk of getting too melodramatic here,

Today is our two year anniversary. Viks and I plan to keep it simple with a nice dinner at a new Japanese restaurant that recently opened near us. The past 7 years have been a blast and hopefully she feels the same way ... or else I am in trouble ;-)

One of my closest friend's Mom just past away. It's been somewhat difficult for me to accept since I just saw her a little more than a week ago. I vividly remember her smile and how happy she was as she was offering us refreshments after our bike ride. There has been an outpouring of support which I know is greatly needed and appreciated at this time.

I recently saw a few friend's/relatives' babies reaching their first or second birthdays and received news of a few recent additions or new additions soon to be coming.

Sometimes you wish had the power to change a person(s) situation but you can't for one or many reasons. And it becomes a thorn on your side. Yes, conventional wisdom says "eh..it's not your fault" but unless you really are a cold hearted.. reality says "If it were only that easy."

Why do I Blog?

Ah..it's Friday and Mel wants to know so here goes:

1) "Web 2.0" junkie
2) I am secretly a narcissist. :-P
3) Place to get on my soap box and feel like an ass for it later since no one listens to me anyway :-)
4) The "proper" conversation piece is no longer dependent on "the right time."
5) You might get to know me a little better and vice-versa.

Faces & Profiles of the VT victims

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18143312/

Great minds don't think alike about index funds

Good read.
http://tinyurl.com/2agvvz

Passed my PMP

Just came back from Prometric and passed my PMP. It's like all this weight has finally been lifted off my shoulders. I am still trying to grasp the fact that I do not need to study tonight. The last time I felt this much stress was during college finals.

The exam itself was pretty tough. There were plenty of questions in which I was caught off guard and a few I had no idea. This was to be expected from everything I have read re: the exam. What exacerbated the situation was this one girl taking the NASD exam who kept sighing and another girl typing an essay for some other test. I scored lower than the simulated exams from Rita Mulcahy but in the end I passed and that is the most important thing.

Some people have asked me how I prepared. I started studying in Sept of last year but did not do a deep dive until Dec. The following was my method,

1) Did -not- study the PMBOK ( I may be reprimanded for this but it's true).

2) Used only Rita Mulcahy PMP® Exam Prep System - 5th Edition and did the following

- Read Rita's book in entirety once with making notes in book itself.
- Re-read Rita's book and this time made my own notes on key concepts, "gotchas," formulas, sample problems, etc. on 8x11 sheets. When finished, I had hand written about 35 pages of 8x11 notes summarizing the ~400 pages of material from Rita's book.
- Took a stab at all ~1430 questions on the Exam simulation CD by knowledge area only. I scored in the 65% - 75% first time around. Again, these were knowledge areas and not simulated exams.
- Reviewed all missed question test answers from knowledge area and supplemented my notes.
- Took 3 simulated exams scoring 85% - 92% but did not feel ready/satisfied as a good number of the questions from the 1st & 2nd exam started to appear on the 3rd and did not cover enough of what I felt were my weak areas.
- Went back and redid all ~1430 questions on the Exam simulation CD by knowledge area only and this time scored 80%-90%
- Reviewed all missed question test answers again from knowledge area and further supplemented my notes.
- Reviewed Rita's Flash cards
- Made a table summarizing outputs (Really close to the exam at this point and so I ran out of time for inputs ..bad, i know )
- Took a simulated exam again and scored 97% but by this time I was familiar with a lot of the test questions.

I would say making my own notes, doing all of Rita's exam questions, updating my notes with key tidbits from the missed questions were key to understanding the exam material and identifying gaps in my knowledge and really helped boost my confidence.

I am not necessarily recommending that PMP candidates do exactly as I did above. But just wanted to share my experiences FWIW. YMMV + usual disclosures. In the end people need to decide themselves what works/what doesn't.

Has anyone important picked HD DVD to win?

I thought this was funny.

" i heard god is favoring hd-dvd

but some atheists out there probably don't consider his opinion all that important"

"It's A Terrible Time To Buy"

http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html

This entire page is worthwhile reading even if you don't agree with the dire forecasts. Many compelling arguments here and I think it's true re: point 29. " ...manipulation of your emotions for profit."

As current "homeowners" we knew the risks and we knew in advance that our current place of residence was projected to be ~5 years which falls in the proverbial "1st home" statistics. So if we were asked "if you could do it all over again, would you still buy?" And despite the dire forecasts and the telling signs today, I have to admit it's still a tough decision due to that "emotional" element. You can call it manipulation or whatever you want but it's true that it is hard to put a pricetag on that "emotional" element. I really do like thinking/feeling like I am a "homeowner" (since technically, it's the bank's until I pay off the principal), being able to tinker without asking for permission, that feeling of maturity / adulthood that somehow comes along when you're paying through the nose on your mortgage payments, etc.

OTOH, I think one needs to honestly ask him/herself (+ spouse if applicable) what the limits are ==> pride of ownership vs impacts of financial risks/stress + long term financial objectives. And I think the URL above does a pretty decent job in really trying to get you to assess those limits.

I think it's ironic if a person is willing to put in the long hours to get that promotion and earn say 10-20% more, will scrutinize/hunt for weeks/months to save a few hundred on a car or that new TV, but is willing to risk substantially overpaying for a bunch of 2x4 s all because of that "emotional" element. Right at this very moment, I am feeling a little bit like I fall in this category and it is a bit disheartening. Dammit, maybe I'll go put myself in more debt right now by buying myself an HD-DVD player. Retail therapy!