So I’ve decided to pick up yet another programming language. I’ve settled on Objective-C this time. It’s pretty easy overall, then again all languages are easier to pick up after the first one.

I’ve started off with the book Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegrass. It’s the new 3rd edition, updated for Objective-C 2.0 and XCode 3.1. From the reviews I read prior to buying it Aaron seems to be the man when it comes to teaching this stuff. People were waiting anxiously for months for the new edition to drop.

If you have an interest in learning Objective-C pick the book up.

Elaine has been at Fort Polk for over a week now. I’ve had the three boys and Zack. Man, I don’t know how single Mothers do it! This is rough. Amazingly Zack is the easy one, he’s hungry, bored, tired or wet/dirty. Everybody wants something and it always seems to be all at the same time. Or they all want or need to go in different directions and I’ve got to figure out how to get everybody to the right places for practice or games and drag Zack and all his gear along.

Hats off to you ladies that have raised multiple kids on your own. In fact that was one of the things that first attracted me to Elaine. She was a trooper, three young boys all on her own with no assistance, family or Federal.

Other than that it’s been great, just the guys here holding down the fort.

Well, well, well... It seems I passed the CISSP! A week of review and then sit down and take the 250 question, 6 hour long test, wait a couple of weeks and then keep hitting “Get Mail”, that’s all it took. Man I’m glad that wait is over, it was giving me heartburn.

The test itself wasn’t as hard as I figured it would be. They use several different tests so that people sitting at the same testing table can’t cheat, so lord knows if I got an “easy” version or what. I think I used 2.5 hours of the 6 they allow, and that included a bathroom break.

Maybe that’s what was causing me so much stress, maybe I was worried that I blew through it too fast. Or I went as fast as I did only because I THOUGHT I knew the answers but was seriously screwing up.

Anyway, now to get “endorsed” and send my CV and signed papers in. Yay!

So, I’m still waiting on the CISSP exam to be graded. They say it’s 4-6 weeks but there have been reports of people getting results in 4 days. Either way, waiting is killing me.

Zachary is rapidly approaching 6 months old now. This weekend we’ll most likely go and have pictures taken of him again. The “baby” stage isn’t lasting long enough, he’s growing too fast. Soon he’ll be moving out and going to College. Sheesh.

As for the other kids, school is out, today is the last day. Wheee!

Elaine is about to leave for her AT, this year it’s a full Month instead of the normal “two weeks during the Summer.” Sadly she has to go to Fort Polk in Louisiana. Nasty.

Well, I'm here in Coral Springs Florida attending a CISSP "Boot Camp" type class. I've been meaning to take the test for the CISSP for several years now, I've just never been confident enough to do so.

So far I'm two days in and damn if the Cryptography section isn't overwhelming already. I think I know my stuff, I've been doing this long enough I figure I should know most of it. Not that I don't know it, there is just tons of minutia to remember.

Anyway, we'll see on Sunday how I feel after taking the test, 250 questions over 6 hours. Then it's 4-6 weeks for the results...