Here in NZ we have a celebrity chef who has become famous for hosting a show about NZ cooking. It's a great show and I love watching it. He also does advertising for a supermarket chain. I see his cardboard cutout visage every time I visit the local supermarket.
He also happens to work for the University.
I work in an old house on the edge of the campus. We have our own parking lot out the back (parking, much like Universities in the U.S., is a scarce resource here). There is a garage behind the house that is used to store various items from around campus, so from time to time trucks arrive to drop off or pick up said various items. It can be amusing due to the wide variety of stuff they drop off. Because we have so many people on the team at the moment, I often park in front of the garage. And also because I'm the boss so I get the closest not really a parking space. R.H.I.P.
Today I had to move my car so that Celebrity Chef could offload a giant (we're talking big assed) chandelier into the garage. He was accompanied by what was probably a grad student with an old dog. We had a pleasant and meaningful conversation about how many chandeliers he intended to move and that he wouldn't be going back and forth all day.
I just found the whole exchange oddly amusing. And I guess that's what I love about NZ - our Celebrity Chefs move their own chandeliers.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Even Here We Are
So yes, it's been a long time since I created any sort of meaningful post. Heck, any sort of post at all. My excuse?
I've been busy.
As my faithful readers will know, I am managing my first major project. It is, at times, challenging for me. On many levels. Not the least of which is my inability to suffer fools gladly, as it were. That's probably the most difficult part for me. I just want to scream "they will do it because IT IS THEIR JOB!!!". I'm having to work lots of hours and weekends to keep up with everything, and my stress levels are at DEFCON 4 much of the time. So, there's that keeping me busy.
I recently attended a week's worth of PRINCE2 training. PRINCE2 is the British Government's version of Project Management. It's much more popular on this end of the world than it is in the U.S. The broader concepts are essentially the same as PMI's, but they use entirely different terminology for everything. Did I mention that you sit two exams in the five days? The first exam (Foundation) is a multiple choice question exam on their terminology and themes. You have to pass this to do the second half of the class, which is preparation for a Practitioner Exam. This is where they give you scenarios and ask questions, and you have to pick the best answer out of several multiple choice options. So, when you receive your pre-reading for the course, they say "if you have 2 or more years of project experience, spend 1-2 hours reading our overview document". If you are new to PM, read ... you get the idea.
What they really should tell you is "If you have never been exposed to PRINCE2 methodology, you should do a LOT MORE READING. I swear it was like trying to learn French in three days. Sure, I knew it was an apple, but I had to know the name of the apple AND the process of juicing it in a particular manner. In French. It was bloody hard! I was up every morning at 5 and awake until Midnight studying for the gosh darn exams. Any way, I passed the first exam and found out yesterday that I passed the second (much harder) exam too. Woo hoo! Now I have a PM certification. Which will help me in applying for the job that I'm already doing.
What else? Our Granddaughter (and parents and Uncles) will be joining us for next week. I now have a car seat in my car. The car smells kind of like baby already. Not in a bad way. Just like ... baby. We are looking forward to the week even if our little house will be full to the rafters.
Going to see Crowded House in Auckland in early April. They're doing one NZ show. Looking forward to it.
Kind of disjointed, but there you go. What I've been doing over the last few months.
I've been busy.
As my faithful readers will know, I am managing my first major project. It is, at times, challenging for me. On many levels. Not the least of which is my inability to suffer fools gladly, as it were. That's probably the most difficult part for me. I just want to scream "they will do it because IT IS THEIR JOB!!!". I'm having to work lots of hours and weekends to keep up with everything, and my stress levels are at DEFCON 4 much of the time. So, there's that keeping me busy.
I recently attended a week's worth of PRINCE2 training. PRINCE2 is the British Government's version of Project Management. It's much more popular on this end of the world than it is in the U.S. The broader concepts are essentially the same as PMI's, but they use entirely different terminology for everything. Did I mention that you sit two exams in the five days? The first exam (Foundation) is a multiple choice question exam on their terminology and themes. You have to pass this to do the second half of the class, which is preparation for a Practitioner Exam. This is where they give you scenarios and ask questions, and you have to pick the best answer out of several multiple choice options. So, when you receive your pre-reading for the course, they say "if you have 2 or more years of project experience, spend 1-2 hours reading our overview document". If you are new to PM, read ... you get the idea.
What they really should tell you is "If you have never been exposed to PRINCE2 methodology, you should do a LOT MORE READING. I swear it was like trying to learn French in three days. Sure, I knew it was an apple, but I had to know the name of the apple AND the process of juicing it in a particular manner. In French. It was bloody hard! I was up every morning at 5 and awake until Midnight studying for the gosh darn exams. Any way, I passed the first exam and found out yesterday that I passed the second (much harder) exam too. Woo hoo! Now I have a PM certification. Which will help me in applying for the job that I'm already doing.
What else? Our Granddaughter (and parents and Uncles) will be joining us for next week. I now have a car seat in my car. The car smells kind of like baby already. Not in a bad way. Just like ... baby. We are looking forward to the week even if our little house will be full to the rafters.
Going to see Crowded House in Auckland in early April. They're doing one NZ show. Looking forward to it.
Kind of disjointed, but there you go. What I've been doing over the last few months.
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