Should I be surprised?

Given recent events in my life... not that much, really.

Your Score: Dr. Gregory House

50% Eccentricity, 60% Confidence, 30% Kindness

Congratulations, you're the man himself, Dr. Gregory House! You're quite strange, and usually do your own thing regardless of what anyone else thinks. This is partially because a person with an ego as large as yours could not care less what anyone else thinks or feels about anything. Unless, of course, they're your patient and they're dying--but only if they're dying of something interesting! You're a definite asshole to most other people, but at least you know how to be one in style, with an awesome wit, comfortable sneakers, and a never ending variety of facial expressions.

Link: The House, MD Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

What kind of nerd are you?

I personally prefer the term "geek" to "nerd" because the former implies a natural ken or knack to do something many others find uninteresting or exceedingly difficult, while the latter not only is a little derogatory but also implies certain clumsiness.

Anyway, let's see how you do on the Nerd Test, v.2.0:

The day of the updates

Ph34r!!!

A long time ago and after having an interesting conversation with my dear friend Bruno, I decided to join the bandwagon and start writing a Blog like everybody else seems to be doing. Of course, things didn't exactly work out as expected: priorities change and shuffle, any available time is never enough.

However, after writing my own newspaper column for almost 8 years it becomes increasingly difficult to tame the desire to communicate. So why offer any resistance?

First things first:

- I passed my certification and revalidation test. YAY!!!

It took me almost 2 weeks reviewing all the things I was supposed to learn back in college. Several years ago it would have been an overwhelming task, but the almighty Wikipedia came to the rescue!
Some of the most complex subjects I had to study were explained in a simple, yet effective way. You can go as deep as you want on any of them so easily, that staying on focus can become a problem. Last time I felt that way was back in 1994; you know, back when the WWW was steadily gaining momentum and presence of mind among the populace and search engines were about to appear.

Another interesting phenomenon: The process of study itself seems to streamline very old memories and bring them back again to the conscious mind. Not only that, it also seems easier to establish firmer and more abundant links between new and old knowledge. My neocortex experienced a fsck (in the good sense) and full-defrag at the same time :)

The exam itself lasted 12 hours divided among 3 periods: 2 on friday and one on saturday. Was it a matter of endurance, tenacity, ingenuity? I am not sure. But one thing is certain: I didn't notice how stressed I was until it was over.
Naïvely, after it was done I went to buy some groceries and then drove back home for lunch. Since I was feeling a little sleepy, I decided to postpone lunch if favour of a nap. Just a few minutes, I thought.

When I woke up, it was mid-day sunday. My kitties were puzzled, staring at me and deciding on what to do with my mortal remains had I passed away. But when I reached for them, they felt relieved and their thoughts switched to more important matters (Food, of course).

All that happened in May.

Only last week I got the results and I still can't believe it. I knew I couldn't have failed the exam, but also wasn't entirely sure if I obtained the minimum score required to go on to the next stage.

What happens next?

I must schedule an interview with the jury and agree on a subject that will become my oral exam. Damn, I'm nervous but can't stop right now after all the effort it took me to get to this point.

Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to update this blog more frequently. Stay tuned.