Looks like I have some explaining and catching up to do on this blog, as it can be clearly seen that I haven’t posted in quite a while. First explaining then – there are two reasons behind the recent lack of updates: first I had some technical trouble again, this time with my home computer. Not to bore you with details my Windows XP broke down on Tuesday and it was only on Friday that I gave up on trying to revive it and did a fresh install. I guess it was due to fail after 2.5 years since its initial installation, it’s miracle it did hold so long – Microsoft’s stuff has a nasty habit of degrading with time by itself. Installing anew wasn’t easy as my hard disks are packed tight with data and I don’t want to invest in my desktop since I plan to acquire a state of the art laptop at the end of September. But, somehow, by Friday afternoon I got it up and running again.

The other thing is that I was studying hard towards my PMP exam that I plan to take next week, which of course limits my time. I received my eligibility letter just a day before my birthday, on 16th of August, which meant that my experience and education credits were accepted and I could take the exam. Since then I have been studying a lot, refreshing my knowledge of the PMBOK and project management theory in general. I lost those few days on bringing my computer back to life and now I have to make up for that. Luckily, I can choose the date of the exam so I can be sure I will come prepared.

By the way, I joined the Project Management Institute which is the organization that created both the PMI standards and the certifications based on it and as part of membership benefits I received access to a service called “eReads”. It’s basically an electronic library in which I can access and read books on-line. My PMI membership gave me access to a collection of PM-related books, and although at first I was a bit skeptical I have to say that I’ve spent half of today over one of the PMP exam preparation handbooks from that site and it was very useful. I could have ordered the book to have it on paper, but it seems it’s not worth time and effort for this kind of book – and I save money too. In fact, just the books there could have a total value that would make the PMI membership well worth its price. Which surprises me, as I didn’t expect this type of organization to bring anything really useful to its members besides the PMBOK and certifications. But this is a kind of surprise that I definitely like.

Another thing that happened recently, that is totally unrelated, is that I spend last weekend in the middle of a forest away from civilization at my friends’ country house with them and their friends, all of whom are dog lovers. In fact there were four quite large dogs there, three husky and one boxer. All of them quite friendly, but being with them made me realize how much I have become a cat person. You see, those dogs required constant attention. With the exception of moments when everybody was relaxing and more or less just laying around they were all the time watching their owners, trying to get their attention (especially so during meals, when usual pet-begging scenes took place) and so on. With that it were just a few moments when one could really have some peace and quiet. I must say that if I had my cats with me in this situation they would just go to explore the surroundings by themselves occasionally coming to check on me and get stroked. No begging during meals. No loud barking. No constant hanging on people. I think I like that more – and that makes me a cat person definitely, doesn’t it?