Oracle BI 11g R1 Introduction to System Administration
Oracle University
Course D69842GC10
Self Study
Between 20 years in university, a college diploma and over 30 computer certifications I have done a lot of courses in a lot of different formats. And in all that time I must say this was the most disappointing course I have taken to date. It is basically a timed PowerPoint. The timing is not good. I read pretty fast and found that I either had to go back and often skip ahead. There is no sound. In fact I would have preferred a PowerPoint so I could turn the timing off and on and just read through it at my own pace.
The pros of the course are that it does show you the basics of Oracle Business Intelligence, it walks you through all the interfaces and the different tools you will need to start administering this system. The cons are the delivery style and static nature of the content. A PDF could have the same information and been easier to use.
This is the third Oracle University course I have completed. The other two were both much better. In all honesty I would not really recommend this course for anyone.
The Circle Maker
dream big, pray hard, think long
Student Edition
Mark Batterson and
Parker Batterson
Zondervan
eISBN 9780310725145
ISBN 9780310725138
This is the second book by Mark Batterson that I have read in under a month. It was such an amazing read that when I finished it I flipped back to the first page and started reading it again, this time taking more time to digest and process the material. Though this student edition is co-written with his son Parker Batterson, it was also a great read as an adult. Now I must admit I have not read The Circle Maker (yet!) but this book was done in an amazing way and I highly recommend it. The sections in the book are:
1. The Legend of the Circle Maker
2. Circle makers
3. The Jericho Miracle
4. Praying Through
The First Circle - Dream Big
5. Cloudy with a Chance of Quail
6. You Can't Never Always Sometimes Tell
7. The Solution to Ten Thousand Problems
The Second Circle - Pray Hard
8. Persistence Quotient
9. The Favor of Him Who Dwells in the Burning Bush
Game of Chicken
10. No Answer
The Third Circle - Think Long
11. Long and Boring
12. The Greatest of them All
13. The Speed prayer
14. Life Goal List
Keep Circling
15. Now There Was One
Appendix
Notes
Almost every chapter has a personal example that starts with an ideal, goal or prompting from God. Then there is a comparison to a biblical case or story. Then it ends with circling back and Mark and Parker telling us how it came to pass. Each chapter also has three questions that can be used for group discussion, or personal reflection. These questions will help you to go deeper with the material being presented and help you examine your life and practices. This book will confront how you see prayer, what you pray for, how you pray.
Mark states: "Prayer was never meant to be a one-sided conversation; it was meant to be a dialogue! Think of Scripture as God's part of the script; and prayer our part." p. 86 Like many of the biblical stories we have a part to play, we need to call out from the side of the road, we need to lower our friends through the hole in the roof, we need to pick up our mat and walk. All depending on what God shows us and our obedience in following him. "The common denominator in each of these stories is holy desperation. People took desperate measures to get to God, and God honored them for it. Nothing has changed. God is still honoring spiritual desperadoes who crash parties and climb trees. God is still honoring those who defy the way things should be with their bold prayers. God is still honoring those who pray with bravery and stubbornness." So pick up the book, read and pray and become a prayer warrior pursuing God and his will, and his solutions to what life throws at you.
Books by Mark Batterson:
The Circle Maker
The Circle Maker Enhanced eBook Edition
Praying Circles Around Your Children
Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
The Circle Maker Student Edition: dream big, pray hard, think long
The Circle Maker for Kids
Be A Circle Maker
All In
All In Student Edition
Going All In
Praying Circles Around The Lives of Your Children
Jack Staples and the Ring of Time (With Joel Clark)
Primal
Soul Print
ID: The True You
In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day
Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God
Chase the Lion Stepping Confidently Into the Unknown
Magnificat, Year of Faith Companion
Magnificat
ASIN B00A6CYPQM
ISBN 9781936260508
This book will be an amazing devotional read during this Year of Faith. It has a new reading for each day of the year. The readings are a mix of profiles of characters from the bible, prayers, meditations and excerpts from the catechism. Everyday gives you something new to reflect upon and ponder. This book will enrich your prayer life, and challenge you to acts of kindness. It will remind you of heroes of the faith who have gone before us, and use them as examples for your own life.
These meditations are as short as a page and as long as three pages. Each can have a direct impact on your life. It is an amazing book. So dive in and let the spirit use this book to move you!
Contributors:
Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete
Douglas Bushman
Father John Dominic Corbett, O.P.
Father Lawrence Donohoo
Anthony Esolen
Justin Fatica
Angela Franks
J. David Franks
Father Michael Gaudoin-Parker
Father J. Anthony Giambrone, O.P.
John Janaro
Father William M. Joensen
Heather King
Lisa Lickona
Father Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.
Monsignor Gregory E. S. Malovetz
Father Guy Mansini, O.S.B.
Regis Martin
James Monti
Father Vincent Nagle, F.S.C.B.
Father Jacob Restrick, O.P.
Father George William Rutler
Rita A. Simmonds
Father James M. Sullivan, O.P.
Monsignor James Turro
Father Richard Veras
Paul C. Vitz
Stephen P. White
Editing Staff:
Publisher: Pierre-Marie Dumont
Editor-in-Chief: Father Peter John Cameron, O.P.
Senior Editor: Father Romanus Cessario, O.P. Managing
Editor: Catherine Kolpak
Editorial Assistant and Proofreader: Andrew Matt
Administrative Assistant: Nora Macagnone
Senior Managing Editor: Frédérique Chatain
Permissions: Diaga Seck-Rauch
Cover and Inset: Solange Bosdevesy
Iconography: Isabelle Mascaras
Translator: Janet Chevrier
Oracle Data Integrator 11g Integration and Administration ED 2
Oracle University
Course D64974GC20
Instructor: Brent Dayley
Author: Richard Green
Virtual Classroom
This was the third course I have completed from Oracle University in the last few months. It was the first in the Live Virtual Classroom format. It was an interesting experience. The first page of the courseware for this course states the Course Objectives are:
After completing this course, you should be able to:
- Describe the Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) 11g architecture and apply ODI Topology Concepts for data integration
- Describe Oracle Data Integrator model concepts
- Design ODI interfaces, procedures, and packages to perform data transformations
- Explore, audit data, and enforce data quality with ODI
- Administer ODI resources and set up security with ODI
- Implement Changed Data Capture with ODI
- Use ODI Web services and perform integration of ODI with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Over the 5 days of the course you will cover 21 lessons with an accompanying lab for each lesson. When I did the course there were supposed to be 20 of us in the web course, and half of those were Oracle employees. The course covers a lot of material in a short time. The course is also very front heavy. The section on interfaces takes a lot of time and a few of the students really ran into issues. This caused us to end up well behind schedule and the last 2 days really felt rushed.
Pros: Live instructor, group interaction, webex conference and virtual lab computer to do all the exercises. Cons: The whole course can end up running behind because of one person. Almost all the labs are sequential and need to be completed before moving on to the next. If someone does not have them done the instructor needs to stop and get them caught up and this happened a number of times and pretty much every lab with the same person.
Overall a good course that delivers on what it sets out to do. If you need to use the ODI tool or just support, it will give you a good understanding of the utility and how to do what with it.
TRX Force Kit: Tactical
I was very impressed with the original TRX Force Training program. But this program takes it to a whole new level. It is a twelve week boot camp with 4 or 5 workouts per week, with built-in fitness assessments at given intervals to gage your progress. It has a total of 62 different exercises with three to five levels of difficulty or progressions for each. Only one workout is repeated exactly the same in the whole program. 
Each day starts out with a mobility module; either 7 or 9 stretching moves to get you warmed and limbered up. Then three rounds of exercises with between 3 and 5 exercises. Then some days you repeat each round, and some days you do all three then repeat. All of this change-up gives a grand total of 49 different workouts. During the 12 weeks I went from a 1 minute max set of pushups from 45 to 60 in a single set.
Now I will be honest - I love weights, I enjoy the repetition and lifting poundage but after spending 10 weeks just using a TRX across two different programs I am really impressed with the versatility and the quality of this product. You can take it anywhere and use it almost anywhere. With the extender and door mount you can use it indoors and out and it travels really well also. Fitness in a bag.
I recommend that you go through and try all the different exercises before beginning the program. If you are buying a TRX or suspension trainer, pay the extra money and get this model and the program alone makes it worth the extra money. The carry backpack is convenient for storing or taking it on the go. A few times I took the kids to the park and hooked it up to the playground while they played and did my workout. The DVDs come with an exercise library that has each exercise as a different menu option and each progression is skip- able in the design. A few things that could have been done better are the fold- out posters showing the exercises - they are double sided so they cannot be mounted on the wall for quick reference, and also in the exercise library on the DVD, the menu can go to next group, previous group or full menu, but there are only 4 sections of exercises so why not just have all 4 options at the bottom for quick jumping. But aside from these few items it is worth every penny and will be a great tool in your fitness arsenal.
(Note: when I upgraded to the TRX Force Kit:
Tactical I passed this on to a friend. After 4 weeks he could not
believe the difference, especially in size of his biceps.)
TRX Articles:
TRX an Introduction
TRX Force
TRX Force Tactical
TRX Essential Flexibility
Other Fitness Articles:
Fall 2011 Programs
Workout program March 2012
My Gear February 2012
Fitness My Retrospective
My P90X Series:
Phase I, Phase II, Gear, Phase III,
Fitness Options,
P90X at 120 Days Out
Health & Fitness Book Reviews:
The Primal Blueprint 21 Day Total Body Transformation - Mark Sisson
The Ten Commandments Of Lifting Weights - Jared Zimmerer
Toadally Primal Smoothies - Todd Dosenberry
Caveman Resurection - Jeff Pickett
40 Days to Optimal Health - Dr. Scott Morris
Eat Stop Eat - Brad Pilon
The Primal Blueprint - Mark Sisson
The New Rules of Lifting - Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove
Bench Press by: Sven Lindqvist
Sly Moves by: Sylvester Stallone
Fit
for Eternal Life: A Christian Approach to Working Out, Eating
Right, and Building the Virtues of Fitness in Your Soul by: Dr.
Kevin Vost
Body for Life 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strenght by: Bill Phillips
Lose Fat Not Faith by Jeremy R. Likeness
Living The Good Life: Your Guide to Health and Success by: David Patchell-Evans
Dump your Trainer by: Ashley Marriott and Marc L. Paulsen 
Son
The Worlds Book 4
Lois Lowry
Thomas Allen & Sons
ISBN 9780547887203
I first read the giver in a university Children's literature course in 2001. It was incredible and the ending was open to so many interpretations. I knew high school students, university students, and retirees who all read it and loved it. The book was so different from anything else I had read and the story stayed with me for a long time. As the others in the series came out, each was an amazing read but each also left some questions unanswered. In this book, that the author states is the last in the series, many of those questions get answered and yet it still leaves much to the imagination.
Son begins in the time of Jonah in his original community. But it spans many years and many miles, following a woman on a quest to be reunited with her child, a child she should never have known, but a child she loved and was willing to give all to know and see again. In a world of different communities, that live by different rules and with different levels of technology, this book ties directly to the Giver, and ties it even more closely to Gathering Blue and Messenger.
This is a story of love - the love of a mother for child, of friends who, if situations were different, would be more. It is the story of adoption, and being taken in and welcomed into a community not your own, and it is the story of journey. And also the journey to find what was lost and the journey to find who you are. It was an amazing read and I will be going back and reading the whole quartet again soon. But as a warning, some fans of the Giver will not like it because the openness to interpretation as that book ends gets wrapped up the way Lowry intends.
Books by Lois Lowry:
The Worlds:
The Giver (1993)
Gathering Blue (2000)
Messenger (2004)
Son (2012)
The Anastasia series:
Anastasia Krupnik (1979)
Anastasia Again! (1981)
Anastasia at Your Service (1982)
Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst (1984)
Anastasia on Her Own (1985)
Anastasia Has the Answers (1986)
Anastasia's Chosen Career (1987)
Anastasia at This Address (1991)
Anastasia Absolutely (1995)
The Sam series:
All About Sam (1988)
Attaboy Sam! (1992)
See You Around, Sam! (1996)
Zooman Sam (1999)
The Tates series:
The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline (1983)
Switcharound (1985)
Your Move, J.P.! (1990)
The Gooney Bird series:
Gooney Bird Greene (2002)
Gooney Bird and the Room Mother (2006)
Gooney the Fabulous (2007)
Gooney Bird Is So Absurd (2009)
Gooney Bird on the Map (2011)
Autobiographical:
Looking Back (1998)
Crow Call (2009)
Others:
A Summer to Die (1977)
Here in Kennebunkport (1978)
Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye (1978)
Autumn Street (1980)
Taking Care of Terrific (1983)
Us and Uncle Fraud (1984)
Rabble Starkey (1987)
Number the Stars (1989)
Stay! Keeper's Story (1997)
The Silent Boy (2003)
Gossamer (2006)
The Willoughbys (2008)
The Birthday Ball (2010)
Bless This Mouse (2011)
Like the Willow Tree (2011)
Praying Circles Around Your Children
Mark Batterson
Zondervan
eISBN 9780310320517
ISBN 978-0310325505
It has been a long time since I have read a book so immediately applicable, a book that literally drove me to my knees. It is a book that instilled a greater desire and conviction of the need for prayer and ways to pray specifically. But this book is much more than just a guide book. It is amazing that a book of just over 100 pages can have so much power and an incredibly lasting impact. This book was so powerful I did not trust myself to write a review at first; I waited until after a second reading and a month had passed to have some more perspective. All I can say is that it truly is an amazing book. I honestly believe that every Christian parent should read this book to be better equipped to pray for their children.
My first time reading this book I highlighted 20 passages. I have pulled out some of the best to highlight for you in small glimpses, some of the knowledge and wisdom that this book will impart.
Mark starts off by acknowledging that becoming a praying parent is hard work. To be disciplined to pray for our children is work and many in family life start to let things slide. "You don't become a praying parent by default. You do it by design, by desire, by discipline. Spiritual disciplines take sheer determination, but if you determine to circle your children in prayer, you will shape their destinies, just like Susanna Wesley shaped the destinies of her children. Your prayers will live on in their lives long after you die. Your prayers for your children are the greatest legacy you can leave." p. 18. From there he moved on to remind us that all our prayers must pass two tests: "It's imperative to distinguish between your will and God's will. Every prayer, including your prayers for your children, must pass a twofold litmus test: your prayers must be in the will of God and for the glory of God. … Prayer is the way we take our hands off and place our children in the hands of God." p. 20-21. We need to pray God's will and God's glory or else we are just not doing it right.
Mark's earlier book, The Circle Maker, has been immensely popular. This book is an off-shoot but can easily be read without reading the first one. Mark States: "Drawing prayer circles is a metaphor that simply means "to pray without ceasing." It's praying until God answers. It's praying with more intensity, more tenacity. It's not just praying for; it's praying through. … We need to start praying ALAT prayers - as long as it takes. That's what praying circles is all about. It's resolving in your heart of hearts that you will pray until the day you die." p. 29 And that is what God is after for us as parents, to be Prayer Warriors in our children's corner, interceding for them, to stand between them and the enemy and them and the world, to raise them up in the ways of God. "Parenting is the hardest thing you'll ever do. And the more you love your kids, the harder it is." p. 31. The more we love, the more we can be hurt.
Finally, he reminds us this will be a life-long journey. "Does this mean the final battle has been fought? We know better; we're parents! The challenges never end, but we need to celebrate our victories along the way. And for the record, prayer is the way we fight our battles. Prayer is the difference between you fighting for God and God fighting for you. Secret prayer is our secret weapon." p. 33, 34. We will be praying until we go home to God or until Christ comes again.
This was an incredible little book. I cannot say how beneficial it was to my prayer life and know I will be reading many more of Batterson's books in the months to come. Give it a try - it is more than worth the low price tag!
Books by Mark Batterson:
The Circle Maker
The Circle Maker Enhanced eBook Edition
Praying Circles Around Your Children
Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
The Circle Maker Student Edition: dream big, pray hard, think long
The Circle Maker for Kids
Be A Circle Maker
All In
All In Student Edition
Going All In
Praying Circles Around The Lives of Your Children
Jack Staples and the Ring of Time (With Joel Clark)
Primal
Soul Print
ID: The True You
In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day
Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God
Chase the Lion Stepping Confidently Into the Unknown
