Ricky Martin’s Blog

Just wanted to wish happy holidays to everyone who reads this. All the best for those who celebrate Christmas today and tomorrow. Looking forward to the new year and all the opportunity it will bring.

Well as I had stated before, I have been working on getting certified. With several different ones in mind. But given my new position, I figured the Microsoft route would be most beneficial right now and would apply most to my current environment. That and the fact my exposure to network infrastructure in this position is minimal to non-existant the Cisco certs can be put on hold a little while longer. But with everything that has happened in the last 6 months that was kind of hard.

But I took a big step towards my goal about 2 weeks ago. I wrote the 70-290 Microsoft exam, and I passed! It was funny after reviewing the transcript online I realized it has been almost 10 years exactly since I wrote my first certification exam for Microsoft back in the days of NT 4.0.

So with that feat done I have my goal of writing 1 to 2 exams a month does not seem so hard I took about 3 weeks of prep for this exam by reading the ms press book and preparing with simulation exams. That seemed to be what worked best for me as I wrote the exam in about 1 hour.

Now on to the next exam which is the 70-291. I have already booked it for December and am working on prepping for it now.

Will keep you all posted on the progress and outcome.

Well with the way the market is going. And after almost securing a position last week only to have it fall through at the last minute. After much deliberation my wife and I have decided if nothing comes up within the next month we will be planning on returning to Canada, Unless between now and the end of next month we get an offer to go somewhere else or stay in Phoenix. We may have some news next week as I have several phone interviews with companies in Canada and USA, but they are both back east so one way or another we will probably be moving in that direction.

Well with the job hunt in full swing. starting to get more calls coming in this week after my E-mail attack last week. I have gotten calls from all over the US and Canada. I have phone interviews set up for tomorrow afternoon with a company based in NY but the position is in Ottawa, as well as waiting on follow up for some other positions in Chicago, Boston, Arlington, Miami, Toronto and Baltimore. Had one in California but the Company did not seem too serious, so I did not move forward with them. Also still waiting on news about a couple of positions here in Phoenix, had the initial interviews and now waiting for the next step. Seems that companies are taking longer than usual to go through the whole process.

Ok with everything going on from the move back to the US and the job hunt I had to put the CCNA study on hold for a little while, just couldn’t put my head down and focus on it properly, I thought I could bang through a good chunk of it on the plane ride over from the UK as that was nine and half hours to kill, but no luck, I started but just couldn’t focus, not to mention I did not sleep a wink on that flight, which made for a very long day.

But now that we have been back for a little while, and I am in somewhat of a routine as far as the job search goes, I decided to start to tackle it again as it can only improve my prospects at getting a job.
So as of Sunday night I started to go through the material again, and I have gone through 2 videos of the 2nd disk from trainsignal so far, and plan to finish it off before the end of the week so I can start the practice exams and schedule the real thing in the next week or so. After I get through this I will probably start to tackle the MCSE.

Well in the process of my job search, I came across a job opening for a company called zipcar. which offers members the service of renting a car for a few hours or a day as needed. they have several locations all around the US, and international as well. I got lucky as we are in Tempe they target university Campuses predominantly in the US, so they have several location on Campus which is close by to us, and makes a lot more sense to rent a car to run an errand than to rent a car from a traditional rental car company. So I signed up for the service and I am now waiting to receive the access card, which is the key to the whole system from what I have been able to tell from the website.

What I like most about this, is for about $8/hr you get a car with insurance coverage and gas included. especially if you only need it for a few hours it makes a lot of sense. Once I receive the card and actually use the service I will give a follow up review.

Well we headed out to Tempe Beach park to check out the Greek Festival, Entry was $2 per person, which is not too bad, they had a lot of different stands selling food and pastries and they had Greek beer, as well as a Taverna. We tried the Chicken Gyro and the Souvlaki Pita and they were not bad, washed it all down with a Greek Beer. The food was not bad but I have had a lot better back in Montreal. Guess it is the problem growing up in a mostly Greek neighborhood you get used to authentic Greek food.

Well with all the uncertainty right now with the job market, I am still looking even though I have had some excellent interviews, still waiting for the next step on several positions with several companies. As such I have also expanded the job search area, I am now looking at most of the major cities in the USA as well as some cities in Canada as well. Right now we are thinking where ever we get an offer will be where we will go, or stay if it ends up being in Phoenix.

I think after sending out about 120 e-mails today, all across the country and into Canada, We will wait and see what comes of it next week. Hopefully we get some calls as a result.

Well The job hunt continues, so far a few good interviews and now waiting to hear back from the latest one I think went really well. But I still am waiting for news on some other leads and until I secure something I am still looking for interesting positions out there. I have been getting a lot of good luck wishes from my friends and Family on Facebook. I have also come to the conclusion with the help of my wife, that we have to broaden our search as much as we would like to stay in AZ, reality is the pool of companies is smaller than other markets especially in IT, so I have been looking at positions in CA and NV and even looking at the east coast again even though would prefer to stay here in the southwest.

Have also started to look into starting a company with a friend of mine, that is still in the beginning stages but is showing some promise as we explore it further.

Well I managed to get some tickets to the advance screening of the movie which was held on Tuesday this week, the movie opens officially tomorrow.

I have to say I was impressed, I was not expecting much from this as I had seen the first 2 movies and passed on the third, this one brings back many of the big name actors from the first movie which I think made it a big hit.

Spoiler alert:
The story basically centers around Dominic(Vin Diesel) wanted to get vengeance on the person who killed Letty(Michel Rodriguez) meanwhile Brian (Paul Walker) is now working for the FBI and is trying to take down the head of an illegal crime syndicate that is importing drugs into the US through Mexico using street racers. Turns out they are both after the same organization.

This has a lot of the same special effects and racing stunts similar to the first 2 movies, only difference is you have the original cast back. I found the action enjoyable, and the plot believable, dialog was a bit predictable, but overall a good movie, I do have to say the music in the movie which I imagine will be on the soundtrack was good. There is also a couple of appearances from Don Omar and Tego Calderon, which if you understand Spanish makes their dialog a lot funnier than what they put in the subtitles….

Also as usual these days the ending leaves it open to make another sequel.

Fast and furious Trailer