Episode 71
I can’t feel my legs. But Lieutenant Dan, you aint got no legs.
So I’m back from my Guerilla .Net training. Actually I have been back for 2 weeks. I just wrote this paragraph two weeks ago. My brain is almost up to 70% functionality. The class lasted from 9AM to 9 or 10PM depending on the instructors’ ability to read a 24 hour clock. 21:30? What time is that, 8:30? No, 9:30 and my brain is on the verge of hemorrhaging if you add one more bullet-point to that list. Even with the exhausting schedule I think it was one of the best classes I’ve ever taken. They managed to crowbar more content then a three hour college level course into 5 days and make some of it stick. They even added the drinking aspect of the educational experience. I’m not against having a beer but I when we would wrap up somewhere around 10:00 and everybody headed straight to the bar for a couple of hours I was just amazed. I on the other hand crawled to my room, watched some crappy British TV until I passed out. No alcohol necessary this time. The class was like drinking from a fire hydrant but I really did enjoy it. I even won the programming contest they put on. Actually I got 3rd place … out of 5 people. It was still fun so back off. There were 35 other people in the class who didn’t have the two brain cells left to enter or were to intoxicated to try. Either way my adaptation of rock, paper, scissors to the .NET 2.0 framework got some applause.
Iraqi Airspace
Just another reminder I live where I do and people still find it funny. As we were flying back and I saw a number of Iraqi cities associated with insurgencies and road side bombs I thought how peaceful they looked from the sky. We flew over at night and they were these hazily lit cities with four or 5 highway roads shooting out from each side. Our pilot was kind enough to let everybody know that we have just left Iraqi Airspace. I think even with their professional uniforms and funny Brit accents, they still got a kick out of flying 300 hundred civilians over a war zone even if it was 30,000 feet in the air.
Going back to London
So now that I’m back to my normal routine, I will be leaving for the UK one more time for unrelated training. I will actually be 90 minutes west of London but its close enough. I’m doing a 3 day course to learn a piece of software that will virtualize all of our documents so we don’t have to have any messy human interaction. It should be fun and a whole lot more efficient then the usual process. It will at least be another cool system that makes use of this budget they give us. Here’s a lot of money make something happen. Hmmm … OK. I am glad that we use our budget on functional stuff as apposed to gaudy crap that I see in a lot of other places though. I still wonder what it will be like when this rodeo is over and I have to go back to the real world. I hope I still have my anal frugal ways when cost is a much bigger factor in making a decision then it is now. That won’t be for a while anyways so I’m not going to worry. I think I’ll stop talking on this subject now.
Watching Kids – They scare me
So a friend and colleague is on his way to the states for a conference. He is from Germany and his wife has never been to the states. They also have two kids so they asked if we wouldn’t mind holding the fort down while she got to take advantage of seeing a country she has never been to. No problem it will good to help out a friend and spend some time with some young types. They are really good kids and shouldn’t be a problem but I just realized that I don’t know anything about kids. How do you really interact with them? No wonder adults seemed so awkward when I was a kid. They didn’t know what to say to me. Uhhh, so how’s your retirement strategy shaping up? Well I have a week to try to warm up to them and see if I can get to know them a little better. It honestly scared the crap out of me that I was going to have to hold a conversation with them for about 30 minutes before they went to bed last night. Kara on the other hand does a great job of talking and relating to them. This will just have to be something I work on. I always thought it was strange / pathetic when adults would get so caught up in their kids lives as if they were their kids age as well. I guess they were just trying in some way to relate to their kids. This is something I’ll have to remember when Felix becomes old enough to have his / her own life. Blah.
Speaking of little ones
My sister Jenny and husband Jason are going to be a having a baby around the same time Kara and I are. This will be number three for her and she has definitely been able to share her experience with us. It will be nice for Felix to have a cousin his age growing up. I hope he / she will be close with all of the cousins no matter where we live. I think it would be good for them to be pen pals. Know your family and learn how to write all at the same time. That’s me, always striving for efficiency. Well by the sound of the cracking of my wrists I think that’s all I’ve got to say for right now.
So I’m back from my Guerilla .Net training. Actually I have been back for 2 weeks. I just wrote this paragraph two weeks ago. My brain is almost up to 70% functionality. The class lasted from 9AM to 9 or 10PM depending on the instructors’ ability to read a 24 hour clock. 21:30? What time is that, 8:30? No, 9:30 and my brain is on the verge of hemorrhaging if you add one more bullet-point to that list. Even with the exhausting schedule I think it was one of the best classes I’ve ever taken. They managed to crowbar more content then a three hour college level course into 5 days and make some of it stick. They even added the drinking aspect of the educational experience. I’m not against having a beer but I when we would wrap up somewhere around 10:00 and everybody headed straight to the bar for a couple of hours I was just amazed. I on the other hand crawled to my room, watched some crappy British TV until I passed out. No alcohol necessary this time. The class was like drinking from a fire hydrant but I really did enjoy it. I even won the programming contest they put on. Actually I got 3rd place … out of 5 people. It was still fun so back off. There were 35 other people in the class who didn’t have the two brain cells left to enter or were to intoxicated to try. Either way my adaptation of rock, paper, scissors to the .NET 2.0 framework got some applause.
Iraqi Airspace
Just another reminder I live where I do and people still find it funny. As we were flying back and I saw a number of Iraqi cities associated with insurgencies and road side bombs I thought how peaceful they looked from the sky. We flew over at night and they were these hazily lit cities with four or 5 highway roads shooting out from each side. Our pilot was kind enough to let everybody know that we have just left Iraqi Airspace. I think even with their professional uniforms and funny Brit accents, they still got a kick out of flying 300 hundred civilians over a war zone even if it was 30,000 feet in the air.
Going back to London
So now that I’m back to my normal routine, I will be leaving for the UK one more time for unrelated training. I will actually be 90 minutes west of London but its close enough. I’m doing a 3 day course to learn a piece of software that will virtualize all of our documents so we don’t have to have any messy human interaction. It should be fun and a whole lot more efficient then the usual process. It will at least be another cool system that makes use of this budget they give us. Here’s a lot of money make something happen. Hmmm … OK. I am glad that we use our budget on functional stuff as apposed to gaudy crap that I see in a lot of other places though. I still wonder what it will be like when this rodeo is over and I have to go back to the real world. I hope I still have my anal frugal ways when cost is a much bigger factor in making a decision then it is now. That won’t be for a while anyways so I’m not going to worry. I think I’ll stop talking on this subject now.
Watching Kids – They scare me
So a friend and colleague is on his way to the states for a conference. He is from Germany and his wife has never been to the states. They also have two kids so they asked if we wouldn’t mind holding the fort down while she got to take advantage of seeing a country she has never been to. No problem it will good to help out a friend and spend some time with some young types. They are really good kids and shouldn’t be a problem but I just realized that I don’t know anything about kids. How do you really interact with them? No wonder adults seemed so awkward when I was a kid. They didn’t know what to say to me. Uhhh, so how’s your retirement strategy shaping up? Well I have a week to try to warm up to them and see if I can get to know them a little better. It honestly scared the crap out of me that I was going to have to hold a conversation with them for about 30 minutes before they went to bed last night. Kara on the other hand does a great job of talking and relating to them. This will just have to be something I work on. I always thought it was strange / pathetic when adults would get so caught up in their kids lives as if they were their kids age as well. I guess they were just trying in some way to relate to their kids. This is something I’ll have to remember when Felix becomes old enough to have his / her own life. Blah.
Speaking of little ones
My sister Jenny and husband Jason are going to be a having a baby around the same time Kara and I are. This will be number three for her and she has definitely been able to share her experience with us. It will be nice for Felix to have a cousin his age growing up. I hope he / she will be close with all of the cousins no matter where we live. I think it would be good for them to be pen pals. Know your family and learn how to write all at the same time. That’s me, always striving for efficiency. Well by the sound of the cracking of my wrists I think that’s all I’ve got to say for right now.
posted by Russell at
9:15 AM
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