The Cattle Drive forum , is where the drivers get together to complain, uh rather, discuss their assignments and encourage each other. Thanks to the enthusiastic initiative of Johannes de Jong , you can keep track of your progress on the drive with the Assignment Log . If you're tough enough to get through the nitpicking, you'll see your name on the Graduation Log .

And a shiny spur goes to...
In December 2001, congratulations went out to a few persistent drivers who made it through the various "schools" of the drive: Joel Cochran and Ronald Schindler collected their first silver spurs after completing the first batch of assignments, Java Fundamentals. A second silver spur goes to Pauline McNamara , who finished the second module, Classes and Objects. Lance Finney collected a golden spur for getting through Servlets, the third stage of the Cattle Drive. You can be sure they're hard workers (with maybe just a touch of masochism?)!

Back from being out on the range...
There are a couple Cattle Drivers worthy of mention, just for dusting off the dirt and saddling up again after being "out on the range". A hearty welcome back to Joel Cochran , Josue Cedeno , Joseph Russell and Christie Xu . Welcome also to Sam Tilley , the newest Driver on the Assignment Log.

Saddle sore...
Keep an eye out for these Cattle Drivers, who are hard at work on the last assignment of a series, so are expected to celebrate a graduation soon: Rajan Chhibber , Terrence Doyle , Christie Xu , Daniel Olsen and Jason Adam . Hang in there, y'all, those saddle sores will soon seem worth it!

Nitpicking is hard work too...
A roundup of Cattle Drive activities wouldn't be complete without mentioning the hard work of the nitpicker, Marilyn deQueiroz , who has guided many a Cattle Driver onto the right trail to clean code. Many thanks Marilyn for the abuse, uh rather, all the help!

Written by Pauline McNamara