Updates on Life and CISSP

Life: 

    Sorry I've been away for so long.  My full time career has been getting in the way of my blogging.  We're up for another re-compete of many positions we have filled around the United States and I've been working on seeing how they are going and writing proposals as needed.  I pulled an all-niter finishing one proposal only to hear of another that should be coming through sometime today.  I needed a stress release so I took a few minutes to browse the Internet, catch up on some news articles I've been putting off reading and figured I should update everyone on what is going on.

    In addition to the re-compete I've been traveling quite a bit lately to prep the customers for what was coming.   I wanted to prepare them and do everything I could to help out before the positions were actually advertised.  Once they are advertised I am no longer allowed to speak to the decision makers.  These are government contracts and I would end up disqualifying my company from the work if I were to have any questionable contact with the decision makers.  It looks like I'll be spending about 2 weeks on the West Coast next month.  Heres to some good weather!

New Tenant in House #1: 

    The new tenant is working out well.  He's honest and keeps me informed of things that go wrong.  For example, while moving in he was backing his car up with the trunk open and hit the outdoor light that is next to the back door.  It ended up cracking the base where the light attached to the metal plate that is affixed to the stone wall.  He wired it up so that you can't tell it was damaged unless you get very close to it.  Actually I had driven past the property twice and never noticed it until he pointed it out to me.  He said he'll fix it and I'll give him a couple more weeks to get it done.  If it is still broken by the time fall comes, I'll go out and buy a new fixture and replace it.  I'll forward the bill for the fixture over to him.  If the fixture was old I probably just let it slide and replace it free of charge but the fixture is about 3 years old.

Existing Tenant in Condo #1:

    I never received the rent from my existing tenant in Condo #1 for August.  This was the first month that the increased rent was due.  The rent increase was just about 5%.  I know he works split shifts and ends up sleeping odd hours.  I've been keeping crazy hours with my travel and proposals so I typed a letter out to him one night and sent it off explaining that I hadn't received the rent payment yet.  I let him know what my schedule was like and that I didn't call because I didn't want to wake him in the middle of his sleep since I know he keeps off hours for work.  I explained what the amount due was and what the late charge was.  I asked him to let me know if the payment was lost in the mail so we could work something out.  The letter was sent out last Wednesday I believe so he should have gotten it by Friday.  

    This tenant has been with me for just about 3 years and has always paid his rent, occasionally falling behind, but catching up quickly  He usually lets me know when he's running behind so this is an unusual circumstance.  The rent is still well below market value for the area which is OK with me because he is a great tenant.  Pair the lack of communication with the fact that this month was the first with a rent increase and it gets me thinking. If I don't get a check by Friday or at least some type of response I'll call on Saturday and pop over with a Pay or Quit notice.  I'll keep you updated.

CISSP Examination:

    Well, the CISSP examination was quite an ordeal and I wasn't sure if I passed.  Turns out I just missed passing.  I received a score of 689 in the CISSP certification test.  700 is the minimum score required for obtaining your CISSP certification.  Coincidentally another person in the class received a 689 also.  I think that is just plain weird.  I've tried doing some research to see if a 689 in the CISSP exam actually means something like I passed the test overall but failed one section but I haven't been able to find anything.   Even though the entire class exchanged emails and a ew of us sent our results out for all to see, only a handful shared the results.  out of the 8 of us that shared the results, 6 passed.  that's a 25% failure rate which actually works out to the percentage of the class that was there the 2nd time taking the test.  Interesting statistic. 

    I want to take the certification test again before I lose too much of this knowledge.  I was planning for the end of September to re-take my CISSP test but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.  With the plan of being on the West Coast for 2 weeks and a mini vacation scheduled in there the second week of September I am booked up.  One good thing though is that I'll be able to get a decent amount of studying done while I am on travel.  There's 4 6 hours plane rides plus the evenings are open while I am away.  No dinner to cook, no family to be responsible for, it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise being away for 2 weeks.  My CISSP certification pursuit continues….

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