Yama Kuma - Up and Running.

Had my business plan approved today, which means I am now officially in business. (Actual start date is the 17th of November). Here is the logo I designed. I actually designed a group of about fifteen and ran them past my fellow students. This one was unanimously chosen by all. The good thing is a lot of them chose it even though they hadn't been in the room when others had chosen it. SO I know it was by far the best one (which is a little strange, as I was tending towards one of the other designs, though this one was certainly in my top three). This is how my last few days panned out. Yesterday - the B'day of young Joshua (my nephew). Went to his party and realised how darn boring it is to be at kids parties all the time. I really needed a book to read! Was amazed at the audacity of both my sister and younger brother. Both of them KNOW my mother is ill, going into hospital in a month and isn't supposed to be doing ANY looking after kids etc! Both of them have approached my mother to ask her to look after their kids!!!! My mother lost her filling from her front tooth. We've been making jokes about it. Paul kept on making hillbilly jokes (Pass the beans Cleatus!) and stuff. I told my mother she sounds like Sylvester (Thuckering Thuccotatthhhh!!!) My mother has had some good laughs because of it. The idea is to be ingenous and invent new jokes. She's getting it replaced on Wednesday. I spent a long time discussing with her gettng some flooring done while she is in hospital. I received my funds today (only came to AUD$28,000 though). I'm still rather p***ed off by the whole thing! AUD $72,000 invested, plus all the money I paid over the years into this managed fund and I come out of it with a lousey AUD$28,000. It seems like I am cursed to work like a dog all my life only to have other people take my money from me all the time. I was paying $6,000 in each year on top of the $72,000 ... and that was over a few years, plus the extra $5,000 I put in one year!!!! Darn! That's like $72,000 plus $24,000 ($6,000 over four years) plus $5,000 = AUD $99,000 Minus the $28,000 I got out of it ... means I lost $71,000!!!! There is one born every minute and I guess I was the one this time!!!! Okay, September Eleven was the main problem I had because of it, and then AMP and Telstra took a few nose dives to finish it off!!! I'm so p***ed off by the whole thing! Especially when I wanted to exit on AMP and my Financial Advisor talked me out of it!!!! Arrrgh! My own fault! Should have followed my gut instinct!!!! Wooops! I went off topic! Though I wonder if the new business enterprise will waste what little I have left! Arrrgh! Today - Had the meeting in the city to get approval for my business plan etc. I had been asked to take my business plan in with me to change it if need be, so I bought a thumb drive the other day (128mb) and loaded it all on. (Because my computer eats floppies!!!) Was reading 'Diary of Anne Frank' on the bus. Am about a quarter of the way through it. I've visited her house in Amsterdam, so is good to read the book AFTER visiting the house, as it comes alive knowing the rooms etc that she is talking about! I think reading the book first ould have made the experience different - where going to the house would have brought the house to life imaging what the book had spoken of. I think this experience is a lot better. I was an hour or more early in the city, and went and joined the 'Music and Performing Arts' library. I am allowed three things on loan and got out

• Pearl Jam - Ten (for guitar)
• The Romantic Guitar (Music from the Romantic era, NOT love songs for Guitar)
• Bach - Le Quattro Suite Per Liuto (Four suites for lute)

The Pearl Jam songbook is just to satisfy my own ROCK 'N' ROLLIN' spirit. The Romantic Guitar stuff is because I don't think I've played anything from this era on ANY of the musical instruments I play (except maybe some clarinet stuff I just remembered whcih was boarder line Romantic/Classical era!!) I then trudged off to my meeting. Arrived at 10:50 AM. They'd asked me to be early (my official meeting at 11:30 AM). What I didn't know, was they were running late! I ran into Neville as I was leaving (one of the guys from my course!) He'd got through! Woo hoo! When I got inside Seanpol was there waiting for his turn! Officially he was supposed to go in at 10AM! Wooops! They were running late! I was supposed to see a lady named Veronica, but she wasn't there. Instead, I was seen by a lady named Jeanette. She ran through some stuff with me and got me to sign a form which basically says all sorts of stuf regarding my business. It was fourteen pages of - If You Do This We Will Shut You Down! It included such items as:

• If you veer from your business plan
• If you take a part time job to suppliment your income
• If you are not making enough money in a month
• If you do too much study
• Operate the business outside Australia

As I said, it was fourteen pages worth! I should read it! The basic jist of it was that I would behave as a law abiding citizen and run the business within the law etc etc. (Plus a few extra restraints). I then got to sit and wait a little more. By now Susan (another student) arrived. She was actually due to see the panel before me. I was able to find out some useful gossip from her concerning some of the other students! One of them John, had problems with the lecturer, and had moved to the course in the city. (Neville had told me John had been there while he was leaving). John knew a lot about Jungian Personalities, and we'd had soem good discussions about it. John had complained that he was a Sanguine, and that the lecturer was a Choloric, and that the Choloric lecturer wasn't bending to meet his needs. I offered some diplomatic advice. Eventually I suggested to John that, as someone who could see the problem, maybe he could bend to suit the lecturers style of teaching. After all, he could see the problem, but the lecturer (being Choloric) wasn't going to! John told me off for being too phlegmatic! (In a nice way of course! I actually got on well with both John and the lecturer, who co-incedently was called John also). I suspect that the lecturer also had a lot of Melancholic in him, which might have been the real cause for the incompatibility. Also, there as another lady in the course (who I've previously spoken about. She was going to start a councelling business and had an arguement with the lecturer and ran out of the classroom crying). Anyway, she apparently had a nervous breakdown. Very sad (and I won't name her for reasons of respecting her privacy). Part of her problem was that her husband had written the business plan, and she didn't know what was in it. If she'd come before the panel she would have failed pretty badly. I guess that's enough to cause anyone to stress out. Susan went in,and while I was waiting, Ellen arrived, and after fifteen minutes Terry arrived. So three of us were waiting to go in. Twelve came around and I was allowed in. I promised everyone I'd be as quick as I could. I spent the time explaining Network Engineering and why it differed from other computing stuff. (The funny thing is, one of the ladies wanted to know why her business couldn't find any Network Engineers listed in the yellow pages NOR advertising in the normal newspaper! Well, I think it's because we're in short supply and DON'T need to advertise! There is so much work out there, I think they're all knocking the work back!) They asked a lot of questions regarding my business plan trying to find a hole in it. I answered all the questions and they could tell I knew my stuff. I think I even impressed them when they discovered that I was on a course already for my Cert IV in Assessment and Workplace Training this week. I'd had to get permission to miss today, which was the first day of the course). Basically, they saw it as me being enthusiastic and not stopping for a breather since finishing the Business Cert IV. They asked for a look at my Business Card and I showed them the design I'd left in the appendix of the business plan ... they also noticed I had advertising and a BROCHURE! The brochure REALLY impressed them, and the guy noticed something I'd written on the brochure and asked about it! FORENSICS! He aksed if I really could do that. I didn't realise at the time, but he was thinking CSI type forensics, while my brochure was refering to Computer Forensics. I think my explanation of tracing malicious people etc made him realise what the brochure ment, though I didn't realise the mistake till I was halfway down the road after the meeting. [I should also have included the story about the time we had someone on a South Korean Server trying to hack into us via hole in SQL. They'd hit our firewall and couldn't get through. Naturally, as our firewall didn't run SQL! Pttthhh! Anyway, we sent a message to the ISP in South Korea with copies of what we were getting and asked them to investigate it in their country! ie get the police involved! I don't think they took any sort of action at all! Pttthhh!] Anyway, the brochure (like a lot of my business plan) wasn't supposed to be something concrete. They were things I did as part of the course. I want to redesign them and do some other stuff. Well, eventually they told me I passed and congratulated me and everything. I was quite excited. I went out, and by now Ben had arrived. So there were three peopel waiting. Ellen remarked at how quick I was and we all had a bit of a chat regarding it. Then they called Ellen in. It was now only 12:25! Woo Hoo! I'd helped shave some time off the wait! I hope they all appreciated it! I walked out the door and Rob (another student) had arrived! I had long chat to him and explained the wait, and the panel and everything. As I said to him, it all seemed pretty routine and I think they were actually hoping we'd all pass. It's sort of funny. They want to pick holes, but they also want to know you've got those holes covered. I was then in the mood to celebrate. I also had a cravign for Vegetarian Lasagne!! YUM! I know a great place in Sydney to get it from, but I have yet to find a place in Perth ... till today! :-) Only, by the time I found it, they told me they'd sold out! :-( BUT, I know where to go first next time. (Or better yet, I need to make myself some! I hav eto admit, I don't make it anywhere near as good as the guy in Sydney ... oh, and he's chinese! Not even Italian!) Well, I settled for some overpriced spinach and three cheese pies from a pie shop! I won't be going back for that! Tasted bad! I think the girl was really tired from the day, as she wasn't very helpful. I asked if they had any vegetarian pies, and she just pointed at a list, which I couldn't even see a vegetarian pie on ... though there might have been. Then I think she clued into what I'd said and went, 'Oh, these ones are vegetarian and we have this other one from last season.' It seemed they only had a choice of the spinach (with 3 cheese) and a teriyaki vegetable. (Teriyaki??? Did they really cook it on a rock? I don't think so!) I then went and opened my 'business' bank account. Won't be getting the card for a few days. I would have had to wait for an hour before they could give me the card (for some reason) so I asked them to send it to me. (I wasn't even allowed to stick any money in it yet! So I have a balance of ZERO dollars!!!!) I'd spent so long looking for a Vegetarian Lasagne, I now had to leave on the next bus. Once home, I raced to where the course was that I was supposed to be attending, and picked up my official Manual and Workbook. I was given some homework to do (which I should do now I think!) :-) Apparently, the PCYC had installed Windows XP over the top and Win200 and it had lost the network. I spent half an hour getting the computers to work on a network again! Easily done. I then had a nice discussion regarding the business and everything. So, tomorrow (and the rest of the week) I am doing another course. Once this finishes (and I have another piece of paper to say, 'I am smart pttth!', then I can book myself in for my CCNA exam, followed closely by my CCNP exams (five). I'm wondering about the CCIE stuff too ... though I think the CCSP would be better. Don't worry if you're not following all those crazy CC-letter type things ... they're Network Engineering Certifications (of the Cisco variety). I'm just talking out loud (as per usual). Here is a revised list of topics:

• How to burp tunes and blow bubbles out your nose.
• Thesaurus - the dinosaur I can't find in a museum!
• Tautology, repeatition, iteration, duplication - how I fill out my blog posts. :-)
• Oxford, English Dic and Hary - worlds hardest book to follow the plot of!
• Alien Abduction Tale Part III
• The Day I became a Neurosurgeon
• The Art of Dumping a Girl You're Not Even Going Out With
• Baggy Trousers – Why my balls still work!
• Eddie – The guy who couldn't get a Date

As per usual, if you want me to talk on a topic, then just leave it as a comment and I'll either write about what I know or make something up! :-) I didn't do it as numbers this time, as I have no idea which order I will do them in! :-)