OK - where to begin.

It's been awhile, but I've been busy studying for the CISSP Exam that's become a requirement for my position as Information Assurance Manager.

This past weekend, I drove up to Dallas for the purpose of taking the exam on Saturday. I was taking no chances of being stressed out or missing the exam, so upon discovering it was being administered in the North Dallas Embassy Suites, I booked a room. This way, I wouldn't have to fight traffic or worry about getting lost on the way to the exam. All I had to do was wake up, head downstairs, eat some complimentary Embassy Suites breakfast, and walk over to the testing are. Piece o' cake.

All of that worked out perfectly, except that the maintenance folks at the hotel were having issues with the A/C in the ballroom where the test took place. It was nice muggy 85+ in that room throughout the test. As if the test wasn't bad enough (250 questions in 6 hours covering tons of stuff that nobody really needs to know to do their job), add in 55 people who were stressed about the taking the test, and you could cut the anxiety with a knife... provided it didn't melt into a puddle on the floor first.

Got through the test after about 4 hours, feeling like I totally blew it (I've heard that's typical... but I'm still not optimistic), I went back to my room, sat down on the couch, turned on the TV, and woke up something like 2.5 hours later. Called my friends Chris and Shelly, and we went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner... good call.

Drove back home today - uneventful. In addition to booking a room in the same hotel as the test, I also rented a car to drive to Dallas. I usually get stuck in some crappy little Toyota Matrix or something equally sucky through my travels for Uncle Sam, so this time I took an upgrade. I thought I would be getting a Pontiac G6 (like the one I had last time I went to Dallas), but no, they were all out. Avis stuck me with a Hyundai Santa Fe - a wanna-be mini-SUV. Yeah - thanks... not even. I got in the car and wasn't pleased at all. Part of not being stressed means not being physically in pain either. I went back in and asked for something else... they offered a Chevy Trailblazer, but nah - I didn't want one of those either. I asked about the Dodge Charger, and it was a whole $2/day more, so I went with it. Seems like a big car, ran fine, quite comfortable, but did kinda blah for gas mileage. $40 for gas both ways of roughly 603 miles - works out to something like 26.8 mpg... not too bad for a big car with a V6 that's essentially an aerodynamic brick.

Just got off the phone with my pal Bob - whom I haven't talked to in forever. Good to hear from him [finally] and if he reads this, I invite him to comment and/or make sure he drops me a note more often.