So I’m writing from a room at the Hilton, somewhere in the northwestern part of the DC metro area. I’m here for a 5-day training course on the most exciting topic in this corner of the alpha quadrant: Oracle Database backup, recovery, and tuning. I mean, I can’t begin to describe to you the joy I am feeling right now.
Seriously, I’m not a huge fan of traveling or sitting in a classroom for 8 hours straight. Here are some things I don’t like about traveling:
- Eating like crap for 5 straight days
- Paying for Internet access
- Not being at home in my cave
However, there are some good qualities:
- A fancy hotel stay that is paid for, including a king-sized bed
- Spending only some of the money my company gives me for mileage and food, and keeping the rest
- Not having to go to work for a whole week (hence, not having to pay for gas)
I’m sure a lot of the people I’m in class with feel the same way, except they’re all middle-aged and have families. And that’s the thing about these IT training courses. They’re filled with middle-aged people who are getting in late in the game. They are the career switchers, the people who finally realized that there’s money in IT. And that only means one thing: they’re not nerds. Nerds like to learn about many different technologies, and they do it in their spare time. Most of these people are only there to learn what they need for their job. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s hard to find someone to relate to.
Alas, I am learning things that will help me at my job, and that is the point. Also, I like MySQL more and more every day.
That is all.