Dolphinalex Enjoying Life

optifast time for me

2008-07-12T23:02:00.001-07:00

so after much laziness and weight gain over the past 15 years my doctor had me go the route of a supervised "diet" to reduce my weight. Its called optifast and I have to "eat" 5 times per day for 12 weeks.
The meals consist of either a milkshake, soup or a snack bar. Total calories are 800 per day.
There is a workout regime that also has to be followed over the 12 weeks that progressively raises the level of your heart rate. Another component is the weekly meetings with a counselor for support and discuss your struggles.
My target is 50 pounds loss over those 12 weeks.
I am on Day four and boy does my tummy rumble as I get used to this new diet but I will trade 12 weeks to improve my long term health.
From what I have read online the hardest part is the first couple of weeks.
I will let you know how it goes.

Where the Heck have I been

2007-02-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Its been to long since I have been able to jot down some thoughts.
I have been working at my new job the past 6 weeks. Its been fun but alot of learning.
There are many good people there and the company is growing like wildfire.
We just announced our IPO so I guess joined at just the right time.
One of the perks there is that we get as much free snack food, fresh fruit, and drinks as we want.
They say new people gain about ten extra ponds after working there six months.
They also feed us lunch one day a week and bagels on two other days.
It is a big change from last job...the blessings in my life just continue.

Back to work

2006-12-16T00:36:00.000-08:00

Since my network Security program was coming to an end I have gearing up my job hunt.
I participated in a interview by invitation for a smallish tech company about ten days ago.
It went so well that they asked me do an onsite interview yesterday. That went pretty good and thay called me on Friday telling me they wanted me to come work for them and that my offer letter was in the mail. I will start on Jan. 2 2007
All I have to say is yippeee and thank you God!!

interviewing, school and stuffing

2006-11-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

I am coming to the end of my six month school program. It has been a busy time especially with only one three weeks to go in the quarter. My wife and daughter have been so supportive during this time of me not having a job.
Since school is ending soon I decided it was time to really look for a job and I had an interview last week before thanksgiving. The interview lasted three hours with four different people, questions covered all aspects of my career and technical areas. The technical questions were the toughest, one interviewer asked me good written questions that I was able answer. Another interviewer asked some obscure Unix questions and he was not clear with them so I had a tougher time answering his questions. The difference between him and the previous guy is that the first guy had all of his questions on paper whereas the last guy was asking on the fly.
It was a good experience and the guys all seemed nice, I should hear something in the next two weeks.
Thanksgiving was a fun day, I finally got to eat my favorite part of the meal, fresh turkey stuffing. All the food was great, my my brother in law Clayton did a great job. the only hitch was that he put the turkey in late so it seemed we had dinner a couple later than planned.
We all ate too much but still had room for dessert which also great.
the whole family was there including his girlfriend Nell's parents so they got to have fun watching us be wacky.
I got to make fresh cranberry jelly for the turkey, everyone loved it and we promptly ate most of it.
My wife Linda is supposed to make a turkey for us this weekend so I will get more stuffing to stuff myself with just like Winnie the Pooh.

Heroes the show

2006-11-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

I have been busy at school. I decided to carry 16 units this quarter and I and find that it is a big load. Next time I will take less classes or classes that are not 5 units each. In my free time I started to watch whats become on of my favorite new shows
of the season Heroes on NBC. I was surprised how each episode has been well done, my only complaint is in the most recent episode they focused on the stripper with the dual personality power and it brought the episode down. I like Ali Larter, but her character is not sympathetic. She has killed about 6 people in the last few episodes so I would not consider her a hero. Unless they plan to make her an evil force that battles the other heroes in the show then I can understand why they need to develop her characterorigins.
They also have a drug addict as a hero who needs his heroin to "foretell" or paint the future he sees on his drug trips. His power is known as precog or precognitive.
All of the other characters are enjoyable. I don't have any problems so far with the cheerleader mostly because my daughter is a cheerleader so we enjoy watching her.
Hiro, is my favorite hero.
Watching this show has been a nice break from my studies.

been busy

2006-10-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in about three weeks. I have been really busy, I started the fall term in school. In that time I interviewed and was hired as a consultant with a staffing agency. I decided I did not want to start work until after October but when they hired me they told of a job at a small high tech company that seemed right up my alley and it fits my time table. I will see if it comes to fruition, if not I will just have more time to dedicate to my studies.
The class load at school has been demanding. I have a lot more homework to do and plenty of reading. It is a lot busier at school now with more people and cars.
I got a new laptop so I could do some of my school work when I got to the coffee shop, except now I have not gone to the coffee shop as much as I thought I would be going.
oh well, I love having to play with a new gadget.

Nice week off from school

2006-09-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

After turning in my two finals, I have been off from school. We will start the Fall quarter on the 25th. I decided to add a CCNA2(Intro to routing and routers) class to my schedule. It will add five units to my course load but it should be worth it.
I am also planning to study for my Solaris certification test.
Hopefully when all this is done I will be able to have the ammunition needed to land the job "I" want. Of course it is up to the good Lord to direct my paths so I will trust in him.
Later
Alex

Lunch with old friends

2006-09-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Well I had lunch today with a couple of friends(Dave and Jeff) who I used to work with at my old job doing system administration work. It was good to see them and brought back a lot of good memories of the days I was working. I was saddened to hear that the same old crud is still happening at work.
I do feel a sense of relief and trust that God removed me from that situation for a reason and to place me in a better job. I am still waiting for it. :)

Dabbler shirt is here

2006-09-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

Well I turned in my finals today and I had a package from Dabble waiting for me when I got home.
It was my dabbler shirt!!
It is a cool tool to collect and organize all the favorite videos you have on the web.
Try it out, you might like it. Meanwhile I will try on my Dabble schwag, I owe them a picture of me in it. I will have to come up with something that will make them laugh.

CISSP Final completed

2006-09-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

Well I finished my final all 289 questions. My other final(windows security), I still have about 10 questions left to complete.
I met with some of my classmates, one had completed his final and we were able to discuss some of the answers we came up with and the pages we found the answers. I was disappointed that some of the others who showed up seemed to just want the answers. I am all for helping or pointing in the right direction but don't come to the table unprepared or not willing to do the work. I worked my behind off to research all of my answers.
I decided to just ignore the blatant request for answers and just referred to the chapter were the answer might be located.
Hopefully my grades will come back and be good ones.

30 questions to go on my CISSP final

2006-09-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am nearing the end of my final I should have them done by noon today.
I will take a break and watch some college football. I am looking forward to watching the Michigan Notre Dame game....heck the whole day is full of great matchups.

I started to work on my other final and got through about 25 questions on that one.
Tomorrow I am supposed to meet some classmates to discuss/defend any questions we may have on our final. Our teacher said it was okay as long no one just comes to get the answers without doing any work. In other words, we will be ethical!!

Back to school night

2006-09-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well I got to attend my daughters' back to school night. I met all of her teachers. She seems to have a good collection teachers. Her Math teacher was quite entertaining. He appears to be very passionate about what he does. I guess we should all feel that way about our jobs.
Oh wait...I don't have one yet. I will just have to make a mental note for myself.
ENJOY your job!!!

Novell Suse Enterprise10

2006-09-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

I attended a half day class on Suse Enterprise 10 put on by Novell.
It looks pretty cool, especially if it delivers on the promises they made.
My next class in school will be on hardening a linux host and by coincidence we will be using Suse as our platform. Can't wait to dig into all the specifics.
Time to get back to work on my CISSP final

Still working on my CISSP final

2006-09-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

I am still cranking on my CISSP final. I missed making some entries here because I focused on getting it done. I average about 25-30 questions a day. Some of the answers take time to figure out. When I am done with this I get to start working on the other final I have.
That one is shorter only 69 question instead of 289.

Sept 11, 2006

2006-09-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

May the people who died on 9/11 rest in peace. My prayers go out the famlilies who lost
someone on that day.
May God richly bless you.

Good Morning, Sunday

2006-09-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

I had fun watching Ohio State run all over Texas last night. Cal looks like they are back from the dead after beating Minnesota last night. Stanford got beat by SJSU. It must be tough on the Stanford Alumni, newly remodeled stadium and bad team.
I got to sleep in this morning because church service did not start until 10:00am today.
We had an all church BBQ after the 1000am service. It was fun, we got to play games and hang out with our church family. My daughter, wife, two nieces, and sister in law all came along.
My daughter Alexis and niece Alexandra won gift cards in the bingo game.
I also got to hang out with my friend Bill Belew, he will be moving to Tennessee in about three weeks, so it was nice just to talk with him.
I am back at school tomorrow to start another week.

working on my CISSP final

2006-09-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well I am nearing completion of my intensive CISSP(Certified Information System Security Professional) class. Our instructor, Mike Murphy, decided to make our final test a take home project. It is almost three hundred multiple choice questions. Its due in about a week. The final is more like a research project, I think he did that on purpose.
We had to cover so much material in six weeks that he knows our brains were overloaded.
I will take a break to watch the Ohio State/Texas game.

Dolphins Lose WAAAAH!!!!

2006-09-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

My team lost its opening game last night. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
It was a bummer. The team had the lead late in the game and some mistakes eventually cost them the game. A questionable call to run the ball on third and two and a stupid hands to the face penalty on the defense gave life tot he Pitsburgh offense.
Who made the call to have Zack Thomas cover a tight end? The guy beat him and ran for a touchdown.
Oh well, there are still 15 games left in the season.
I still think they have a good chance to make the playoffs.

Crokey!! Steve you will be missed

2006-09-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

Its been a couple of days now since the untimely death of The "Crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin.
With all the stories coming out about him and his love for animals, friends, and his family it is truly sad to see him gone.
I will always remember the fun I had watching his shows with my daughter and trying to learn
how to say "Crokey" just like he did.
It seemed he could always laugh at himself, my favorite commercial of his was the ESPN one that had him wrestling the gator mascot from the University of Florida. It was hilarious!!
God bless and rest in peace.

Flip this House Addiction is over

2006-09-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I have to admit I suffered from an addiction to a show that appears on the A&E network on Sunday afternoons(PST). Well I am glad to say that I have been cured of the addiction. A&E in their infinite wisdom decided for the new season to change the "Flip team" that was featured on the show, Team Trademark
led by Richard C. Davis.
The new teams based in Atlanta and San Antonio do not have the chemistry, dynamics, and know- how that Team Trademark shared every week with its viewers.
I actually watched to see what the new teams were like, my Tivo is still trying to recover from the torture of storing the horrible episodes.
The new team in Atlanta seemed intent on lowballing every contractor they hire. The want to excuse it by saying "Show me some love" and promising them more work in the future if they give them a deal on this project.
The San Antonio team got personal as we got to see the new house the owner of the company had bought for his family. The drama of the budget between husband and wife seemed contrived. I felt more emotional attachment to the son and his saying goodbye to the family turtle. His new home sure does have a huge backyard were he will get to play.

A&E made at critical error in trying to make the show the star and expect it to successful with whomever they plugged into it. I will just have to wait until Richard and crew come back to cable on the Discovery channel with their new show.
Since I have an open slot now, lets see what else is on on Sunday afternoons....

Colleg football is back!!

2006-09-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like the return of college football on Saturdays. A person can spend a whole day just sitting there watching game after game after game. The rest of the family can go shopping at the mall, see a movie, have all three meals and still college football is on the T.V.

It was fun to see a higher ranked team get beaten by lesser ranked team...Cal what happened.
Best games of the day that I got to watch, Notre Dame eeking out a win at G.Tech and USC reminding us how good they are.
I believe N.D. is in big trouble when their defense finally runs into a potent offense. Theye will have bad memories of the Ohio state game back in January.

Look forward to Ohio state and Texas next Saturday night. #1 vs #2 Woo-hoo!!!

For the record I am a college football fan, I swear no allegiance to any team. I normally like to root for the road team/underdog in games that I watch.
I did root for USC in the Rose bowl against Texas, I thought it was one for the best games ever played. I just wanted to see a three-peat in college football in my lifetime.
My number one game is still Ohio State-Miami

Gonna be a fun season.

Where have I been???

2006-08-14T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well its been awhile since I last posted. Alot has happened. I became unemployed, First time in twenty years that I have not worked. I must say it has been quite the experience. I have learned many things about myself. I like working and I miss the friendships you establish at your job.
I have had to cut out many things like buying DVD's and soundtracks every week, going out for coffee everyday and eating out.
Its no fun being out of work, I chose to start going to school full time.
I wanted improve some of my technical skills that I found to be lacking.
My first quarter in school was fun and interesting....I will elaborate in my next post.

Firefly series

2006-04-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the Firefly series that ran on Fox network in 2002.
Too bad I was busy doing other things when it was on television.
After watching the first DVD with the first four episodes I was hooked and had to get the rest of the disc's lined up in my netflix queue.
I dont think I have liked a captain of a ship Firefly so much since the days of Star Trek The Next Generations' Captain Picard.
Nathan Fillion does a great job as captain "Mal" in this short lived series.
I have to watch the movie Serenity and I will be all caught up with the Firefly series.
A thumbs up to creator Joss Whedon for this series.
I hope the series/characters can continue in other media forms.

cold and rainy today, great day for football

2006-01-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

when I woke up it was raining and a bit chilly, just the way I like when I stay home to watch football games. the dolphins aren't in the playoffs but I like to watch the nfl.
I do enjoy college football much more though.
What a great New years' it was all those football games and four great BCS bowl games.
I was happy to see Ohio state beat the heck out of Notre Dame. Loved that WV beat Georgia. Great gamebetween PSU and Fla state. And of course who could neglect that epic battlebetween USC and UT. As much as I wanted to see USC get three straight, UT played hard and had that one man wrecking crew of a QB. What a game!!
My wife was great, she knows how much I enjoy the bowl games, so she pretty much left to my own devices on nights I was watching the games.
Now that football is I guess its time to get back to watching 24, does anyone like that show? :)
actually my only cant miss show I enjoy is Battlestar Galactica.

see you all later

my first post of the new year

2006-01-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

I decided to log some thoughts in 2006, we will see how I do.

al