Well another year older. Yay!!! Time is moving far to quickly. I can still remember being in high school, hell even when I first moved to Pennsylvania back in the 7th grade. Every time though when I'm called mister by the students at work it's like reality slapping me in the face. Not in a bad way but it's just a further realization that I'm not a kid anymore.

I see this in other ways as well. Take today for example. I spent a good part of it thinking about Roth IRAs, Mutual Funds, and how much I love and hate politics. Where as not even 6 years ago I would be occupied watching the latest music videos, sports game, or wondering about which video game I wanted to buy (though still do this last one. :) ). For a while I was wondering if there was a visible line one would cross to fully signal one had reach adulthood. Sure there isn't and I know that now. It was a gradual process, one I'm sure I'm still making. However life would be so much simpler if there was.

On a different note I'm making progress on my studies for some of my certification test. I'm putting in all the time I can since I really don't want to waste the money I spend on these test. First up tough is going to be my Microsoft cert test for Windows XP and then Vista (finally bought a copy but just have to install it now). Those two seem like they are going to be the easiest and cheapest. My CompTIA A+ test however is going to take longer. I'm having trouble with the hardware aspects. I'm more software, design, and theory focused. That's due to the nature of my education over the years and my personality. I know what I'm doing it's just being able to recall all of the different hardware aspect from memory. Having a hard time with that. When it comes to troubleshooting, customer interaction, etc.. areas I'm fine.

I was lucky though that I was contacted by a representative from uCertify after I had mentioned I was preparing for the A+ test in a previous entry. The testing of one of their programs has been extremely helpful. I'm going have to e-mail them back with my thoughts but was trying to wait until I had take the test to give a more full review on just how well it helped but at the moment it has been a big help. One thing I really like was that the program tracks what aspects of the test questions I got right and what I got wrong. This way I know what to focus more on. Without that I'd just be wasting time going over everything. I also like how it keeps track of my overall grade as I take the various example test. Thankfully it's been going up each time I take a test. I'm also glad the program explains what the correct answer is when you get it wrong. Between this program and the books I'm reading I feel confident I can pass the test but like always I wanted to sure so the test is being pushed back a little. I had wanted to take it this month but seems I'll wait until June or early July (the Microsoft test are being done at the end of May if all goes well, at least the Windows XP one).