Fall Term Summation

Somebody make the bad man stop! Oh - it's over!! Where has the time gone? I really enjoyed my first online learning experience outside of computer based torture/training (CBT) Hee-Hee :-) I have re-learned time management with a family - the last time I was in school, all I had to worry about was moi :-) This is definitely not the route anyone without any self discipline should try. The material exercised the Grey Matter inside my thick skull - hasn't happened in a really long time. I think I will draw upon my learning in this course for many classes to come - many thanks out to my Group project members . They made that experience a smoothe and enjoyable one. Thank you Les for your guidance and chat sessions - I really enjoyed them :-) I hope I have the chance to have you as a teacher again - you rock!

Sanity Check: Going, going ....... GONE!!!! It's outta here - Bonk!!
Z z z z z z z z z z

End of Week 15

Finally Caught Up!!!!!!!!

Whewwwwwww!!!! Session entries complete, and my research paper submitted - only one hurdle left: The Final!!!! Wow, is it just me or did the last discussion questions make us recount all that we covered this term? ;-) IT'S OFFICIALLY FESTIVUS!!! Ravens in the Playoffs - look out, here comes the Purple Pain!!!!!

Sanity Check: Look at the picture - what do you think? Perhaps just enough to finish the Final?

End of Week 14

*** Late Entry ***

Now I remember why I hated papers when I was in school!!!! But I think I finally know exactly what to write about concerning SOX. First you need to color coordinate & match the pairs and roll them into balls and tuck the ends in so you have a smiley face .. What? OH!!!!!!! Wrong SOX :-P

Anyways, I enjoyed the discussions about teleworking and got to impart my knowlege about compliance management - thanks to my SOX research -into my reply posting :-P Someone beat me to webMD for the website - luckily I remembered how useful the National Hurricane Center website was - Whewwwww! Yeah Ravens (10-3) I think I have visions of "Festivus" dancing in my head!

Sanity Check: Not much left - tryin' to hold on!!

End of Week 13

*** Late Entry ***

It was interesting seeing what everyone had to say about standards and outsourcing. The outsourcing question was one of the best discussions we had as a class so far - just my humble opinion :-)

Middies gave us Alumni and the entire Naval service an early X-Mas present - A 5th straight victory over the Army Mules AND a 4th straight outright Commander-in-Chief trophy AND a 4th straight Bowl game, this year against Boston College :-) Unfortunately the Ravens (9-3) dropped a wet one , literally, against the Bengals. Oh well, can't win them all - but would be nice :-)

Sanity Check: Is that light I see at the end of the tunnel?????????????

End of Week 12

*** Late Entry ***

Holy $h!*!!!!!! When it rains it friggin' pours >:-( My mom's brother had a liver & kidney transplant this past summer and is now back in the hospital with complications, my dad almost threw his back out while visiting my uncle, and just to make things even more interesting - my father-in-law was admitted to the hospital for what was initially gull bladder problems, but ended up with him having 5-vessel heart bypass surgery the day after Thanksgiving. Oh, and my daughter Marisa got an ear infection too. Needless to say my brain was ready to implode from all of this happening inside of one week - AAAAUUUGGGGHHHHH!!! This weeks topic - thankfully - was a comfort zone. The previous contract I was on was supporting the Systems Engineering Office for the SIGINT Directorate which deals a lot with the Agency's systems development processes.

The Middies were off for Thanksgiving and the Ravens (9-2) flattened the hapless Steelers 27 to ZERO :-)


Sanity Check: WTF hit me!? Did you get the license number of it?!

End of Week 11

*** Late Posting ***


What an interesting and busy week! :-P I learned a few things about strategic planning, analysis, and that it is okay not to feel guilty about going to a Ravens game with my son thus putting off my assignment submissions ;-) I thought I wasn't going to find a decent "Novel" enterprise, but I managed to pull one out of the never-regions again! The Middies (8-3) had a "hoot" of a time destroying the Temple Owls and the Ravens (8-2) stomped Michael Vick and the Falcons :-)

Sanity Check: Recovered from Disney - Still trying to come to terms with how the Dems managed to commit voter fraud writ large by running as conservatives!!!!!!

End of Week 10

*** Late Posting ***

Disney was fun & exhausting :-P The kids had a blast so it was definitely worth it! My sanity, however, took a beating ;-0
Discussion question 3 was challenging because I was trying not to repeat what everyone had already said - that's what I get for waiting until Monday evening!!!! I had fun with the Data-mining & privacy discussion - thank God the elections are over - no more political ads on TV :-) I wasn't too impressed with Alice the bot, but I can see the technology advancing pretty quickly in a few years to the point that I could carry on a true conversation with the bot.

Navy (7-3) 49 Eastern Michigan 21 :-)

Sanity Check: Recovering from Disney

End of Week 9

*** Late Posting ***

Adios week 9! Disney is great so far - even with my parents ;-) It was a challenge concentrating on the material this week. One thing I have noticed about all the material we have covered so far is how much PMBOK material I am coming across - for example, a component of organizational memory is documenting Lessons Learned for projects. Yeahhhhhh Wiki :-)

Navy (6-3) 38 Duke 13 --> Meineke Bowl!!!!!

Sanity Check: Experiencing a little turbulence ;-P

End of Week 8

*** Late Posting ***

Well, another week has gone by. My son's Cub Scout Pack had their Fall camp out - it downpoured rain all Friday afternoon and through the night! We ended up staying in the lodge where it was dry & warm - of course we had a propane catalytic heater ;-)

It's pretty cool looking at websites we use on a regular basis from a different perspective. DELL's website proved to be set-up/planned even better than I already thought when I was answering the discussion question. The sales tax on the Internet question provoked a great amount of conversation in the conference :-) And lastly, I thought I was stuck without an idea for the mini-project but I finally came through.

Sanity Check: Steady as she goes - Disney is just ahead!!!!!!!!