/waves

'sup folks?

Just popping in to say Hi and that I'm still alive and well. Hope everybody's doing well and had a good holiday.

Apparently it's been awhile -- I took the longest hiatus ever from FiPG in the years I've been here. It wasn't a conscious decision or anything, time just got away from me. I got loaded up with lots of stuff going on, and there's only so much time in the day.

We're expecting our 6th grandchild (youngest daughter's first) any day now. Due date is Feb 10th but my daughter has been having lots of false labor lately, going to the hospital a couple times a week. I think the Doc is about ready to take it early, so we'll see.

Work has been crazy, but at least I have a job. My closest colleague took a job in another department, and instead of filling his position, my bossed rolled his team into mine. Now I've got twice as many people to manage, and what seems like three times the workload. No extra pay though! Although I'm glad to have a job so I'm not complaining -- our company is still profitable but having dropped $2B in revenue due to the housing market, they finally had to do some staff reductions to get G&A in line with revenue. We lost about 10% of our IS staff. Our department only lost two, and my team was spared any cuts, but everybody has to take on a little extra work now so it's busy, busy, busy. We also reorganized so I got a new boss, with all the usual stress that comes from that, but I've worked with her before and we get along well so I expect it will actually be a good thing.

Spare time has been mostly playing online poker. Had a good year last year, up maybe $10K which is pretty good considering the relatively few hours I get to play, but the last couple months have been on a terrible downswing. I'll probably take a break and recharge the batteries, I've tended to do better after doing so in the past.

I've also become the webmaster for my shooting club and have been busy getting their web site moved over from a crappy Yahoo site onto a proper host, adding forums, etc.

I've been keeping an eye on the FiPG server here and there just to be sure it's running smooth. If time allows, I'll check in and hopefully be able to contribute as I used to. Maybe swing the banhammer a few times before disappearing into the mist again. )

Who are you?

I am the walrus.

Koo koo kachoo.

glad your doing alright overall buddy...keep at it

Welcome back! Glad you are doing well. I am majoring in information systems...do you think that being a system's analyst is a good career choice?

Glad to hear from you! Lately I have been struggling to find a way to do well on the LSAT. I'm not sure if law school is in the cards considering my little progress thus far. Law school admissions sucks seeing as LSAT is so much more important than your GPA.

[quotee72df0138d="Stroid"]glad your doing alright overall buddy...keep at it[/quotee72df0138d]
Thanks, you too.

[quotee72df0138d="TFOAF"]Welcome back! Glad you are doing well. I am majoring in information systems...do you think that being a system's analyst is a good career choice?[/quotee72df0138d]
Sure. I suggest you cut your teeth on coding, though -- you'll probably have to start at the bottom anyway, as a rare few get SA jobs right out of school. When I was starting out, nothing I hated worse than a systems analyst that didn't grasp coding, problem solving, etc. And there were lots of them, surprisingly. We used to say that those who code, do, those who can't, become systems analysts. Oh, and don't make the mistake of believing the coding you do for class remotely resembles real-world coding. It (sometimes) gives you the fundamentals to enter the work force, but it doesn't prepare you for a real job.

[quotee72df0138d="Powerbook"]Glad to hear from you! Lately I have been struggling to find a way to do well on the LSAT. I'm not sure if law school is in the cards considering my little progress thus far. Law school admissions sucks seeing as LSAT is so much more important than your GPA.[/quotee72df0138d]
Better man than me, I couldn't wait to get out of school. No way I could deal with an advanced degree right out of the gate. Might go get an MBA someday if I get really ambitious about moving further up the ladder, but I'm making a good living doing what I enjoy as it is, so I don't really see the point.

Nice to see you dmo. )

Where do you play poker D?

[quotead9a01d3fa="sandra habina"]Nice to see you dmo. )[/quotead9a01d3fa]
You too, Sandra.

[quotead9a01d3fa="Twon"]Where do you play poker D?[/quotead9a01d3fa]
Off the top of my head, I have accounts at PokerStars, FullTilt, SportsBook, UltimateBet, and PokerTime. For the last year or so probably 98% of my time has been at FullTilt.