The long view.
So I've come to a point in my life where I really need to shit or get off the pot, so to speak.
As my life stands right now, I see 3 viable options for my long term career and future. All of which are going to require me to invest in my self and acquire a true formal education.
Option 1
Become an IT manager. This option was my real goal for a very long time, nearly a decade. However the closer I get to the top of the pool, the more it seems like the best of the worst options. It would mean a lifetime of stress until I retire, finding a real dedication to work that I just don't have in me for corporate America. (I actually like to be off when I'm not at work, which lately has become tantamount to being a heretic.) This may be the path I choose simply because I know the monetary rewards and it truly builds on my existing career. I don't think it would make me the happiest of all of my choices however, and it also means that I work for someone else, for the rest of my career.
Option 2
Become a real database administrator. I can poke my way through SQL with a fair amount of competence. I'm not a dba though, I don't even pretend to be. I think if i sought formal education along this line, along with being very expensive to get the quality of education I'd want, since it would require technical school, it would also require me to really fix my math weakness, which almost feels settled into my bones. The stress of this type of job is a lot lower, because for the most part as you rise in experience as a DBA everything is cumulative, so you pretty much keep doing the same sorts of things, just at more and more complex levels. They get paid really well, and as jobs go, it's probably one of the most portable IT jobs out there.
Option 3
Become a restaurateur. Wild change? Yes. This would take me years of careful planning and capital building, in addition to getting the requisite schooling and certifications to meet whatever lender's requirements i would need to meet. It also would indelibly lock me into whatever location I started in for at least 5 years or longer depending on the growth rate of the business and the repayment of the loans needed to see it born. This has always been my 'inner' dream. The 'oh if i won the lottery and could do what I wanted' dream. Serving folks good food is simply one of the most rewarding experiences there is. Even the most angry snarling ranting lunatic tends to be happier when you feed him good food. I want to be a person who brings that kind of happiness to others again. I want to feel like doing good work with my hands sees my fortunes rise.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nicole is truly becoming a wife, and one of the more amusing habits she's developed, is her hint dropping method. I've already lost track of her discrete mentions of living in Texas. It's funny because there are times when I look at where I live and I feel like an exile. I live in a place that while I can thrive here, and could live a long life here, I don't know that I'll ever BELONG here. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. The midwest attitude about many things is to let those in charge figure it out, then gripe about the decisions they (the voter) refused to make. You see it at every level here. Yes you could say this is endemic to the human condition, but, and I do mean but, it is rife here. You have to come from a place where sink or swim is really the norm to realize what an alien thought it is to expect the government to take care of you all the time. While that layer of insulation is nice from a getting started perspective, it begins to lose it's appeal when you realize that you aren't truly free. I think i deviated from my original reason for bringing this up, in short I don't plan to bury my bones here, though should that happen I won't be disgruntled. Texas will always be where I came from.
This is also the first time in almost 5 months I've had time to really sit down and write out what I'm thinking that wasn't at home. When I'm at home I really don't want to approach writing like this, mainly because I'd rather be enjoying the fruit of working my ass off all the time than writing down some elaborate self critique that largely goes ignored.
As my life stands right now, I see 3 viable options for my long term career and future. All of which are going to require me to invest in my self and acquire a true formal education.
Option 1
Become an IT manager. This option was my real goal for a very long time, nearly a decade. However the closer I get to the top of the pool, the more it seems like the best of the worst options. It would mean a lifetime of stress until I retire, finding a real dedication to work that I just don't have in me for corporate America. (I actually like to be off when I'm not at work, which lately has become tantamount to being a heretic.) This may be the path I choose simply because I know the monetary rewards and it truly builds on my existing career. I don't think it would make me the happiest of all of my choices however, and it also means that I work for someone else, for the rest of my career.
Option 2
Become a real database administrator. I can poke my way through SQL with a fair amount of competence. I'm not a dba though, I don't even pretend to be. I think if i sought formal education along this line, along with being very expensive to get the quality of education I'd want, since it would require technical school, it would also require me to really fix my math weakness, which almost feels settled into my bones. The stress of this type of job is a lot lower, because for the most part as you rise in experience as a DBA everything is cumulative, so you pretty much keep doing the same sorts of things, just at more and more complex levels. They get paid really well, and as jobs go, it's probably one of the most portable IT jobs out there.
Option 3
Become a restaurateur. Wild change? Yes. This would take me years of careful planning and capital building, in addition to getting the requisite schooling and certifications to meet whatever lender's requirements i would need to meet. It also would indelibly lock me into whatever location I started in for at least 5 years or longer depending on the growth rate of the business and the repayment of the loans needed to see it born. This has always been my 'inner' dream. The 'oh if i won the lottery and could do what I wanted' dream. Serving folks good food is simply one of the most rewarding experiences there is. Even the most angry snarling ranting lunatic tends to be happier when you feed him good food. I want to be a person who brings that kind of happiness to others again. I want to feel like doing good work with my hands sees my fortunes rise.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nicole is truly becoming a wife, and one of the more amusing habits she's developed, is her hint dropping method. I've already lost track of her discrete mentions of living in Texas. It's funny because there are times when I look at where I live and I feel like an exile. I live in a place that while I can thrive here, and could live a long life here, I don't know that I'll ever BELONG here. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. The midwest attitude about many things is to let those in charge figure it out, then gripe about the decisions they (the voter) refused to make. You see it at every level here. Yes you could say this is endemic to the human condition, but, and I do mean but, it is rife here. You have to come from a place where sink or swim is really the norm to realize what an alien thought it is to expect the government to take care of you all the time. While that layer of insulation is nice from a getting started perspective, it begins to lose it's appeal when you realize that you aren't truly free. I think i deviated from my original reason for bringing this up, in short I don't plan to bury my bones here, though should that happen I won't be disgruntled. Texas will always be where I came from.
This is also the first time in almost 5 months I've had time to really sit down and write out what I'm thinking that wasn't at home. When I'm at home I really don't want to approach writing like this, mainly because I'd rather be enjoying the fruit of working my ass off all the time than writing down some elaborate self critique that largely goes ignored.