$25 Microsoft Certification Offer

Hello Everyone,

Just like me, I know a lot of you technical folks out there are always looking for opportunities to upgrade your skills and get certified.  I came across a very nice opportunity today, and wanted to share it with you.   Below you will find an email extract from Prometric.   Please note that I am not affiliated with this organization, nor do I promote their services.  I just came across their offer and just thought it would be nice to share it with you.  If the promotion expires or doesn’t work – please don’t email and harass me about it since I have not tested it.   I would appreciate your feedback if it does work.

Thanks and enjoy.

 

“Prometric is providing a limited offer to the first 4,000 individuals to help get your Microsoft Certified Professional status current or achieve an additional certification.
Offer available for customers who have taken their last certification exam prior to January 1, 2007.
Use this promo code 'MCPBACK' and get a $25 USD Certification (Normally priced at $125 USD). This offer is valid for any exam in the MCTS/MCPD/MCITP track. Does not include Microsoft Office or Windows end-user (non-IT) focused exams.
Go to: www.Prometric.com/microsoft to sign-up for your next exam.
But you better hurry!
You must take your exam by June 30, 2009.
Offer valid in US and Canada only.

Limit one per customer.

Offer cannot be combined with second shot or any other offers or discount.
Offer limited to the first 4000 registrations.”

Should've gone to Costco

When was the last time you went to Wal-Mart and didn't find what you were looking for?  An old buddy calls me up today and wanted to borrow my S.U.V. He wanted to pickup an outdoor swing set for his nephew which he claimed wouldn’t fit in his “roomy” Toyota Echo.  8:00pm, we decide to drive down to the local Wal-Mart.   After spending about 10 minutes and not being able to find the swings – we decide to ask a sales rep.  Sales rep responds by telling us the Garden center is closed, so there’s nothing she can do.  She was kind enough to tell us the next Wal-Mart is open until 11:00pm, and we may have better luck there. 

 15 minutes later, we’re there.  We see the swing set on display outside the store and decide to grab one from inside.  Walked directly into the Garden center where a rep had no idea what we were talking about. 

Now for rep number two.  He guides us to the Toys section and says that’s where they would be.  Moving on to rep number three.  He tells us they must be outside where we saw the displays.  After clearly explaining to him they weren’t there, and nor were they the Garden Center – he directs us to the Customer Service desk.  After a nice 10 minutes in line, the rep there too has no idea where to find this unheard of product.  We finally get directed to the manager on duty.  And guess what?  No, you guessed wrong – she actually knew where it was.  Back to the toys section we go.  After 2 Wal-Mart’s, 4 reps, 1 manager and about 1 hour of my life that I will never get back we found the swing set.  Never before have I had to ask more than 1 rep at Wal-Mart to find something.   Not sure what it was – perhaps the spring products are just rolling out and staff isn’t aware?  I don’t know, but I’m hoping it was a one-off experience. 

 

 

To Blog or not to Blog?

Hi,

Thanks for stepping in and welcome to my blog.  I’m not much of a Blogger (yet), and don’t know if I’ll actually become one - but I'm willing to give it a shot.  Over the past years, I (along with the rest of the world) have seen a dramatic increase in online social communities and groups.  I’ve tried to keep up with the demand and have held membership on various sites such as Hi5, Facebook and LinkedIn to name a few.  I never really knew what to make of these sites.  I mean the people I wanted to talk to were either on MSN or in my phones address book – so why write a message that someone will not see right away?  If I wanted to do that - I could just send them an email, right?

Well this very idea held me back for many years, until I got on Twitter last week.  I very quickly realized that I wasn’t using these so called “Social Networking Websites” for what they were really intended to do.  They were intended to not only keep you in touch with your friends and family but to also give you an opportunity to share your thoughts with the world.  I always kept my profiles private so only friends could see me and didn’t interact much with others unless I absolutely needed to.  Twitter has changed this for me.   It allows you to share your thoughts with the world – whether they’re relevant to anything or not.  If people care – they’ll follow you to read more.  If they don’t?  Well - life still goes on and your tweet gets buried in the millions of other tweets out there until you tweet again. 

After a week of being hooked to Twitter, I’ve decided to take things one step further.  Yup, you guessed it – Blogging.  I don’t know much about it, and didn’t really know where to begin so I started by creating an account today and adding this “Blog”. 

Seems easy enough, doesn’t it? 

Let’s see what Blogging does for me in the weeks to come.

Thanks for reading,

T.J. Walia