Mike's Grey Matter

Start of 2007 Fall Term

2007-09-10T11:10:00.001-05:00

Greetings - Here's to the start of another term with UMUC :-)

It's been a long time since I used my Blog for my school work, but as with riding a bike - you never forget how and can quickly get back into the groove.

Good luck to all my classmates this term, GO NAVY - BEAT ARMY!!!!!! and Go Ravens!

Mike

Fall Term Summation

2006-12-19T20:54:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-19T20:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-19T20:23:00.000-05:00

*** 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

2006-12-17T22:55:00.000-05:00

*** 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

2006-12-17T22:38:00.000-05:00

*** 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

2006-12-17T22:02:00.000-05:00

*** 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

2006-12-05T22:06:00.000-05:00

*** 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

2006-12-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

*** 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

2006-12-05T21:19:00.000-05:00

*** 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!!!!!!!!

End of Week 7

2006-10-25T19:31:00.000-05:00

Another week, another ... week ;-) This session's material was entertaining. It's amazing how complex things can be when applying technology to business management. This chapter really reinforces how proper planning can make life a lot easier when applying technical solutions to real life problems. Navy had the week of and so did the Ravens. Next is Notre Dame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also attached is a picture of my better half and my kids. My sanity is still holding on :-P

End of Session 6

2006-10-15T19:06:00.000-05:00

This was new territory for me - I did not fully comprehend the complexity of what is required for transactions using technology. The sheer volume of transaction data to be processed and stored really caught my attention from a security point of view. All of that data that needs to kept confidential, error free, and accessable to those who need it - Wow!

I went to Homecoming and met up with a Classmate of mine from the Academy Prep-School and the Academy. The picture is of John and I posing with Major General Terry Murray, USMC (retired) He was the Deputy Commandant of the Academy when we were Midshipmen ('92-'95) We had our heads handed to us by Rutgers - were were shut out and lost our starting QB in the 1st quarter :-( But, hey the Superintendent of the Academy, Vice Admiral Rempf, has spinning rims on his golf cart! :-)

End of Session 5

2006-10-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

***** Late entry - Had trouble uploading to Blogger.com for some reason?? *****

Another week gone by and it ended on a great note: Navy prevailed over Air Force for the 4th year in a row!! I spent most of Saturday doing training for Cub Scouts - the picture was while I was there. Information Security is my area of "expertise," so this session was very comfortable. I really had to think about what I could say about a potential security flaw - it goes against all my training to discuss something like that unless it was an internal attempt at correcting procedures, etc.

End of Session4: Sanity still intact :-}

2006-10-02T22:19:00.000-05:00

Well ladies and germs, so endeth Session4. The DB chapter was interesting - it has been a long time since I have touched upon DBs. I understand it a lot better now than before. It has also given me a better appreciation for the design and implementation of websites such as Zillow. The Mids routed UCONN 41-17, my Ravens are still undefeated, the contract I was on ended Friday and I already started on a new one supporting the front office of the Acquisition Directorate today, and I had my problematic 2005 model car replaced with a 2007 model - life is a big bowl of okay ;-) MDA

Start of Week 3 - I'm still sane :-)

2006-09-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

I think I finally have three ideas for topics for my paper. BTW I hated writing papers when I was in prison at Annapolis and I still do! ;-)

Navy trampled Stanford and is 3-0 with a good chance to be 4-0 after the Tulsa game this weekend :-)

And my Ravens are kickin' some serious tail on defense! Now if we could just get McNair to click with the offensive system .... MDA

This is going to be a long semester ;-0

2006-09-10T08:48:00.000-05:00

This week went by pretty quick! If you have worked in the Federal sector as a govie or contractor, then you know how hectic things can get towards the end of September :-)

The reading for the course has been interesting - making me see things in a different light or maybe because my grey matter has not been exercised enough lately ;-)

Navy barely escaped with a win over UMASS 21-20. Army actually won a game and Air Farce almost pulled an upset over the Vols on the road!! This year will be difficult to keep the Commander In Chief Trophy because we play Air Farce on the road and Bobby Ross's program at West Point will get better every year. GO NAVY - BEAT EVERYBODY!!!!!

Sanity still intact after Labor Day cook-in & a Navy Victory :-)

2006-09-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

Well ... Our Labor Dat cookout turned into a cook-in.

However my nieces and nephews made it necessary to have an adult beverage before and after they left :-0

And to sweeten the long holiday weekend even more was a Navy victory over East Carolina 28-23!!!!!!

Bring on my Grad school class now! :-)

MDA

What I look like prior to the start of class ... Sane :-)

2006-08-31T16:18:00.000-05:00

So here we are just a few days from the start of class!
This should be very interesting since I have not been
back to school since graduating 11 years ago :-0

Ernesto is due to dump a nice amount of rain on us - mowed the yard before this post - hopefully it won't ruin our cookout plans this holiday weekend.

Signing off for now - until then, Hasta luego!

MDA
Go Navy! Beat Army!

Two pics of me

2006-08-12T14:41:00.000-05:00