My friend Sharon just passed her Project Management Professional exam. Countless years of work experience, 4 months of studying and 200 grueling questions taken over countless hours. Hard work pays off.
According to the PMP website, attaining that designation means you’re among the best in your field. Way to go Sharon!
I heard a rumor that Marcus is also thinking of going for the PMP. Is everyone turning into a PM?
To my dear dear friends: Please, if we are eating together and I contemplate eating something calorie-rich, remind me that I am on a diet and recommend that I eat something else. Apparently, I do not have enough will-power to maintain my diet when I am in your presence and I could use a gentle (or not so gentle) reminder of that fact.
Earlier this summer I began a diet with the goal of losing a lot of weight. It went very well for a long time. I managed to lose 1 lb per week every week just as planned. The past few weeks however, I have fallen off the weight loss wagon and regressed into overeating. I just barely managed to hit my goal of 192 lbs last Friday, but this week I have bounced back to about 194 lbs.
Over-eating is very hard to avoid. My weakness seems to be related to socializing and that seems to surprise me. In the past I always thought my problem was that, while I am working, I pay not attention to what I am eating. However, since starting my diet I find that I have no problem restricting what I eat while I am working. The real problem is that when I go out with friends, I eat too much.
In the past two weeks there have been so many occasions to eat socially that my will power was broken. At first I did well. On days when I knew I would be going out with friends, I would “save up” some calories by eating less earlier in the day. However, as of last weekend, all moderation went out the window. I managed to eat about 4000 calories over and above my budget! On my diet that is about 3 days worth of food.
Yesterday was a fine example of my weakness. I was having lunch with someone and we were discussing what to order. I pointed that I had had a particular sandwich before and it was great. Then I explained however that the calories were way too high. It is a ciabatta sandwich with grilled chicken, brie cheese, and mayonnaise. Of course, you would think that after explaining how many calories there were, I would order something responsible. Nope! My friend did, but I gave into temptation and ate that high-cal baked brie delight. At least I had salad instead of fries (not that it matters since they slathered the salad in some kind of sesame dressing).
I seriously worry that I will not be able to keep up my diet when I am back in University this fall. My fall-back plan is to add an additional 200 calories to my diet which should reduce my weekly weight loss to below half of a lb but will at least ensure that I do not put on addition weight.
For those of you planning to attend Access 2005, conference in Edmonton, you should make sure you are registered quickly. The conference is already past 75% full. I laughed when someone recently mentioned people scalping tickets to the conference… I laughed until I realized I was the only one laughing and everyone else was serious about.
I look forward to hearing Michael Geist speak and to seeing all my library friends again who have moved far away. Sadly, the conference is in the middle of the week and I have classes to attend and it is right around mid-term time too so I will probably miss some big chunks.
Way back when I heard a great song while listening to late night radio. Maybe it was Brave New Waves or Late Night with David Wisdom on CBC or maybe it was some long forgotten show on CJSR. I loved that song and hunted down the artist and album. That took effort “way back when” because there was an Internet but no World Wide Web. It was 1992 or 1993. The song was 2000 Light Years Away, the band was Green Day, and the album was Kerplunk! I had never heard of Green Day and I have no idea if anyone else had when Kerplunk! was released. Everyone knows them now.
Kerplunk! remained a favorite of mine for years. I played it continuously while programming and it was finally pushed out of rotation by The Lemonheads CD titled Lick. I let a friend of mine borrow Kerplunk for a while. A while turned out to be forever. He had the CD in his car under the passenger seat. Many times he came over to my place but each time forgot to bring in the CD. I always said, “No problem, I’ll get it from you next time.” Eventually my buddy sold his car with Kerplunk still under the passenger seat.
My buddy recently visited with his wife and Kids. It’s about 10 years since I lent him the disc. He grins and hands me a CD and says, “I finally got it! I found a copy of your Green Day disc!” It was Dookie, Green Days first big commercial success. We were both disappointed, but truth be told I could not remember the title “Kerplunk!” I only remembered the first track “2000 Light Years Away.”
So, now it is just a month after my friend tried to replace Kerplunk and I still couldn’t remember that it was actually called Ker plunk. I was in a record store with my wife. I’m not sure because I rarely ever go to record stores… they never have anything I want. I happen to spot something familiar in the “two for one” bin! I recognize the winking cartoon girl with revolver and the smiling-flower t-shirt. It was Kerplunk!
So I am not happily singing along to 2000 Light Years Away, Android, and Dominated Love Slave. Even after a 10 year absence, Kerplunk is my favorite Green Day disc. It has lots of energy, interesting lyrics, and an authentic sound (no over-production).
Today, just after Burhan finished his stint as “pace bunny” for a 1/2 marathon, his car was rear-ended. Everyone is OK, but the collision was not minor. His whole family was in the car. Nicole got some cuts to her face and the kids were pretty shook up.