first blog using melchor

apparently, trying to access blogger while on dialup is hell. you might want to watch grass grow while the site is pulling up. it's THAT slow. i tried my other blog site, and that turned out okay (albeit at a slow pace still). in fact, i was able to blog more than once during the weekend. now that's a big leap forward.


anyway, a lot of things have been happening since the year started. for one, melchor came into my life. before lewd thoughts start entering your dirty little minds, allow me to explain: melchor is my laptop. i bet yo're all dying to know why i named him as such. it's simple, really: melchor because he was given to me after the feast of the three kings. not very creative, i must admit. but hey, it felt right anyway. sotr of like naming a dog. when i had my lhasa apso, we had trouble finding a name for it. then it suddenly dawned on me: kinney. perfect! even my family enjoyed the name. i was also able to find a name for my other dog: gus. gus is a toy poodle, with the coolest apricot-coloured coat. i miss gus! unfortunately, when the time came for me to part ways with gus, i never had the chance to see him again. last thing i heard about him was that he was given to another family who could take better care of him. i hope he's doing fine. gus, if you could read this: your brother kinney misses you heaps! he is doing very well - very healthy, in fact.


i have finished making the written assessment for shell card. now that was grueling. the end result was a two part, 135 items total assessment. of course, if i were to answer the test myself, i would find it easy. i know the process very well - i lived and breathed it for almost two years. but for someone who has only heard of the business for the first time, and trained for just a little over a week, to take the test which i made - well, that's a different story. i administered the assessment to the three trainees (as one was on sick leave). at the end of the day, only one passed my assessment. one. and the one who passed barely made it. in fairness to the other two, they did not fail miserably. in fact, one didnt make the cut by just two percentage points. but bottom line, they didnt pass. so i had to make ANOTHER assessment, this time for their retake. the retake was not as different from the original i have made. the important thing is that they understand the process. we made sure we covered areas with which they were having difficulty before letting them do the retake.

fast forward to this week, i am happy to announce that the other two have already passed, and they were officially certified yesterday. the one who was on leave, well she's on her way to becoming certified herself. it all happens today.