Waning days of bachelorhood

CISSP – Last week I found out that I became a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)! This certification marks a high level familiarity with various security aspects covering such topics as Physical Security, Access Control, Cryptography, Encryption, and Operational Security. It is becoming more frequent that IT security projects at the DoD, DHS, and the Intelligence community require that project leaders have this The exam itself was rather grueling; it was scheduled to last for six hours and I finished at the 5:55 mark. I was studying while many of my friends were on their annual summer vacations; on one hand that is a good thing since I had few distractions. On the other I want my summer vacation! I guess that is what the wedding is for. Only two weeks to go!

The wedding – Our wedding is coming up faster than a bullet train. On September 13th in Virginia Beach, Amy and I will do our own march to the sea and become husband and wife. I’m still giddy about it, even as we have been living together for a while. I’m not sure how it will change us, if at all; but I suspect there will be something more ethereal present. Back when we became engaged my sister asked if anything changed. I said to her that it “made the highs, higher and the lows, lower”. Everything just meant ‘more’ to us since we were a couple committed to a destiny together.

The house hunt - One of our pet projects has been to find a house to move into. The search has been long and has absorbed countless Sundays. In my opinion, the housing crash never visited Northern Virginia. We have seen a good share of wrecks which might have made a flipper content, but they were not places we wanted to live. Other places we bid on, only to find the offers were not as good as somebody else’s.

Walk left, stand right – I’ve started to work on a new project in Downtown DC. Every Tuesday and Thursday I will be near McPherson’s Square. If you are around, let’s have lunch or coffee after work.