Certifiably... smarter

Well, it is finally done. I've finally finished my full Microsoft Certified Application Developer path. My test was 2 days ago on Wednesday and I had been reading the SQL 2000 book in my free time for a couple of months. With about a week to go, I start really dedicating my time to it... all free time including skipping soccer games (a really big deal!) I had gone through the book about 4 times altogether and had taken a few practice tests so I felt pretty good going in; but I was worried about the time limit. (100 minutes for 44 questions)

The test itself was more of a ridiculous sort of test than anything. The questions they ask you are specific to the syntax of the language and the nuiances of the language (aka gotchas) What bugs me about that is that those are the first things you forget. From my experience, the concepts are more important... when it comes to the details it only takes a few minutes to look it up online. During the test it was taking me a bit longer than I anticipated to figure out exactly what they were asking so I was stressing out a little bit. In the end, I ended up with an 87% which isnt too terrible but I felt I could probably have made that a 97% if I had another hour. (many of the questions were simply too long to figure out in the time frame)

Anyways, overall i'm extremely satisfied with the results and glad I took the test. I feel a better grasp of the language and have a better idea of how SQL will interpret and execute my code....which makes me a better programmer.

Now... onto a new challenge.....hmmmm.....

In need of some good elbow grease

Boy, just when I thought soccer was hard on the legs.... God enlightens me by showing that it can be hard on the arms as well.

I was having a pretty good game tonight. After watching my team play in a tournament over the weekend I was ready to get my ankle brace back on and stretch out the lungs. Everything was going good until about 30 minutes in when I was trying to dribble the ball. The ball got a little caught up in my legs and my toe got stuck on the ball. This happens every once in awhile... no big deal. You fall down and then get back up again. It is a turf field as well so the surface is fairly soft to fall on. This time though, when I fell my arm must have gotten caught under me in the fully extended position because I felt my elbow strain under the full weight of my body falling down on it. I didnt feel a pop or anything but my elbow ligaments were pulled farther than normal and it hurt quite a bit. There isnt much swelling and no discoloration so that is good.

For all my soccer enthusiasm, I'm left with an arm that hurts to move paired with my existing bum ankle. At least there is a bright side to it.... I have something to blog about!!!