Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Outlands Spanish Project Management Child

A "short" status would be in order. The past weeks have been full of action. Mainly, the World of Warcraft expansion pack was released and I'm questing happily along with my guild mates in the Outlands. Always fun!

Other than that, I'm attending a 6 week course on project management - as defined and documented by the Project Management Institute (PMI). It's a crash course so I'm not getting any formal PMI certificate...but I will receive a limited course certificate.
It's great to get out of the flat and meet some new people with real experiences and different views on life, business, and not least unemployment :P

The course is quite good. Through my education I was always taught how to criticize the formal tools that this course hands you. The "new" project paradigm was preferred as the academic default. This course, however, gives me a much more exact picture of the tools, schemata, and procedures that are the foundation of that same critique. So, I'm learning project management backwards, one might say. It's good because I feel much more conscious about what methods fit which situations and projects. And why much of the "new" critique is well-aimed, providing you're acting within a modern and flexible organization.

Yesterday, I started attending a Spanish course - I figured that learning another language might be sensible before I succumb to mild Alzheimer's. 'Twas good fun and my few experiences in Spain with the company helped nicely as far as translation and "feel" was concerned.
I have to admit, that the "learning-by-heart" aspect of any language start-up is something I have to get used to again. That's a part of my brain that has been suspended for a long time...and now it's getting bashed in by two courses at once!

As a final but powerful note, we're expecting our second child sometime during the fall - actually, my girlfriend figured out the date to be the exact same as Thor's birthday - freaky. I am not exactly fully aware of the fact yet...life goes on...and the excited thrills and fears of our debut haven't appeared this time. But gradually we are adjusting and the next goal is to find a better place to live. We're sick of this flat by now...and it will be too small for 4 people anyway.
If only some certainty could be introduced through my getting a job, for instance...

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