So my training for Microsoft IAG ended yesterday. It was, like many technical training sessions that last more than a day, an avalanche of information dumped into my head. I am very happy to have been able to participate in this training. If you talk to me in the real world, you know that my lack of knowledge in this area has been a point of frustration for me since I moved off the IBM radar. It’s nice to finally have a somewhat deeper understanding of things.

I find many parallels to life situations in whatever technology-like thingy that I am learning. I find that, the stuff that I think is SO mysterious and SO difficult is actually really straightforward and really easy to accomplish. I am once again reminded of that old saying “everything’s easy once you know how to do it”.

Take the example of publishing OWA (Outlook web access) through an IAG device. In all the time I have “worked” with this product, I have never done this. As time went on, my aversion to doing increased because I didn’t know how nor did I think it was a simple task. So, I avoided doing it. During this training class, it was made apparent that it was really as simple as picking the correct template, providing some very easy to find information and clicking through a few menu screens.

WOW!

This changes a big part of my outlook (no pun intended, geeks) on how working with this product should be. I am hoping that with this training under my belt, tasks such as these will not be so difficult for me moving forward.

In other news, I am doing MUCH better with my eating here than I did last time. Since I have been home (Monday), I have done 1 complete 24 hour fast as well as a few 18 hour fasts. I am also doing my best to not eat some of the crap that is very abundant around here i.e. chocolate, pancakes, insulin dependent foods of almost every kind… I think I am doing a pretty good job.

I am not sure what is on tap for the weekend. I don’t have any plans for Saturday so, if any of you NYC people want to do something with me, now’s your chance. I must say, your response has been less that encouraging. Sunday afternoon will be the memorial for my grandmother (on my dad’s side). Although I am not looking forward to the sadness of such an event, it will be nice to see SOME members of my family that I have gone years without seeing (yes, I did say SOME).

I will be returning to TX on Monday via JetBlue out of JFK (explitives…).