19/192

Continuity
219.6 lbs — YAY! It’s been 19 days of controlled weight loss and I’m down 6.4 lbs. I’m eating more but still losing weight. Studying for both the Certified Associated in Project Management (CAPM) and Project Management Professional (PMP) exams. Feeling a little overwhelmed but I know I have the time to get it all under control.

Entry
Talked with “The Rackmeister” today, a Sergeant from my unit who would like to be friends now that we can be. There is a professional distance between the Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) that prohibits us from forming real friendships with them. The argument is grounded in the reality that you’ll have a harder time putting your friend in harms way or your flat out won’t pick them for the dangerous job even though they’re the most qualified or dependable. You’re taught to be the three-Fs: “Firm, Fair, and Friendly but not their friend”, in short you still need to be approachable. I’ve had a couple of one or two hour phone conversations with him and he’s going to stay in a few more months to get his 12-years of service medal, then release the next day. That’s what he’s in for, recognition of the years of his life he has given the same group of people I have and received terrible treatment in return. Seriously, he was with the infantry unit a few years before I joined then switched to logistics, like I did. He was able to clarify for me that the infantry turned to a shit unit around 2002, about 2 years before I joined, and the logistics unit turned to shit in 2007, one year before I joined. Tragic timing but: FUCK THEM. That’s my only response these days.

Tallying my hours as a project manager is brutally mind numbing and time consuming. But I’m getting there. Made it about 10% of the way there today but there will be some slower points and fast tally instances. I think I should be able to get it all done and signed off in 2 weeks? Then I can complete my application online and, if I’m not audited, pick my test date.

For the CAPM I should be able to pick May 5th. That’s just under two months away and will give me a few weeks lead time on writing the PMP exam, which is awesome. I expect a chunk of the questions will be very similar. I found out I didn’t have to tally my 1500 hours of experience to apply for the CAPM, just state that I’d taken more than 23 hours of education on the matter, which my 36 hour course from UofM counts for. Ta-da! I get to write! Then, I get to add the letters to my name because they are internationally recognized. I may well end up a few hundred hours shy of the PMP hours of experience, 4500, which means I’d have to write after I had the hours. This will likely mean I write when the new edition is on the exam, which means I’ll have to study the new stuff too. This would ultimately most likely delay earning my PMP designation until the late summer/early fall but that’s okay, that was more what I was expecting anyway. I don’t need the PMP designation to be a good PMP, and the CAPM will be enough.

So… daily studying, working on my PMP application information, sending out more feelers to contacts, following up with those I have contacted, ideally another interview this week and then later this moth following up with my friend Noah… things continue to move in the right direction!