Hump Day!

Not being able to sleep does make it hard to wake up in the morning. Add to that a cat who wants to sleep on your face, and last night was pretty much a bust.

Professional Associations
Back In The Day, I was a member of and attended monthly the FUG (Foxpro Users Group) meeting in South Florida. I found it to be interesting, the meetings were informative, they had raffles for software packages and the people were friendly. It was held at a hotel and was pretty relaxed, you could hit the bar before or after or even bring drinks into the presentations room. When I moved to the Atl, I couldn't find a FUG. I attempted to get involved with some other types of computer user groups, but when the scheduled speaker was an 11-year-old kid talking about gaming programming, I decided that wasn't for me. These types of groups are great for networking, exploring new ideas and talking to people in the same field. Finally, when I needed it the most, I found an Atlanta chapter of FUG (AFUG). Unfortunately, at that point, I was more technically advanced that the presentations and it wasn't worth my time. I needed some help and insight into issues I was dealing with at work, and I couldn't find anything there.

Last night, I attended the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysts) to do some networking. What a cool group! Once things loosened up, the people were friendly, I made several good connections, I even got fed. It was held at the UPS headquarters. Have you ever been there? Brown is Good. The building was amazing, the conference room was plush and comfortable, but not over the top. The topic was web application security and how easy it is to hack a webpage. (Victoria's Secret got hacked over Christmas, USC and UCLA get hacked once in awhile) The best thing about this was that, as a BA, I only have to be aware of putting that in the application specs, I DON'T HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO DO IT!!!! I have to have a high-level of understanding of how a webpage works, and the possible problems, but I don't have to know how to do it! You don't know how thrilling this is.

Networking
I have several business cards that I'm sending resumes to today. Not the company or the Resume Black Hole that is a job board, but actual people that I met and shook their hands. This can only lead to good things. The room was a good mix of men and women, unlike FUG groups or any programming Users Group, mostly men. One speaker at an AFUG meeting commented that our group was lucky, we had 2 women members. I also saved myself a couple of thousand bucks. I was going to start the BA certification process by taking some 2-day classes but you are to committ to 7 classes over the next 3 years, each class costing from $1095 - $1895. But once you've taken the classes, you still have to take a test that's close to $750. That's a commitment I'm not ready or willing to take at this point. The IIBA has several 'study groups', specifically set up to study and discuss certification issues. I can learn about the job, I can network, and I can meet professionals. How cool is that? I will still have to take the certification test, but, if I join IIBA (local and national) I get a $300 discount. And once I start working, that won't be an issue. Wish me luck!

Cat In The Face
As I've mentioned ad nauseum, my kitty, Katrina is a cuddle kitty. She loves to sleep cuddled in my arms at night. She lays against my body with her head on my upper arm, or she'll sleep on the pillow, with her head on my chest. Last night, she was cuddled in the crook of my neck, or on the pillow with MY head on her paws and her cheek resting against my face or just basically laying against my head. I thought it was cute, but then it got sort of annoying (in a nice way) and then kinda gross. I swear she was raised by dogs, she licks me all the time. Cat tongue's are rough and constant licking on your hand gets annoying, but when she's trying to lick your cheek or nose or lips (yuck! Cat germs!) it's gross. You know where that tongue has been? So I kept waking up and she kept moving around, trying to get comfortable. At daybreak, I discovered the problem, my other kitty was sleeping on top of the blankets, but close to me, partly in Katrina's space. She couldn't snuggle because Remy was snuggled there, so she picked the next Best Thing, sleeping on the pillows and my face. I think this is Just So Cute, but I'll tell you, we have to come to some compromise. Notice I never kicked either kitty out of bed. I'm a sucker.

State of the Union (or Dis-Union)
I got home in time to watch Bush's speech. I'm still up in the air about his 'new' Iraq 'strategy'. We can't leave them without a working solution, but we also can't sacrifice our soldiers in their civil war. And Bush is right, we can't afford to lose, but what is our goal anyway? A Free Democratic society? They don't want that. Their culture doesn't support a democracy, just as the European culture in the Middle Ages couldn't have supported a democracy. I think the best we can do is to get a government working for about 6 months, the run. They will turn out to be a Cuba or Haiti, the government will collapse and they will fight amongst themselves. And the rest of the world will blame it all on us, just as they do Israel. Unfortunately, the moment we invaded Iraq, we were doomed. Why are we there? To punish the man who tried to kill his daddy? I thought the whole reason we went to the Middle East was to get Bin Laden. Remember, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. 'But they harbor terrorists', you may say. So does Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, to name a few, why didn't we overthrow those governments? Some of them really do have weapons of mass destruction.
What really made an impression, was how the Democrats didn't move when Bush made a point, but the GOP gave him standing ovations. The GOP was the same way when we had a Democratic president. I thought these people were supposed to be adults, not little children, ill-behaved children at that. That's what disgusts me about politics, it's all in appearances, but this didn't appear to me like we should respect these men and women.

Food for Thought
OK, so we have Bush41 and now Bush43, if Hillary gets elected, we'll have Clinton42 and Clinton44. Sounds like dynasties to me, unfortunately there are more Bushes than Clintons. We've got to get some new blood in the White House.

More to come...
As things happen, I'll be posting. Thanks for taking the time to read. You're opinions are welcome but if you have to start calling me names, don't bother, I won't read them. As my Dad says 'Opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one.'