Life this week

I was on course this week at Global Knowledge from Tuesday to Friday. The course, which runs through the basics of networking technologies and how things work, is a first step in my plan to make a move within our company. A lot of people that know me and know what I can do asked why I took this course and if it was not a waste of time since I know it all already. This is where perception is not reality.

A lot of computing has to do with theories, standards, processes and models; little of which may actually enter your network, but in others, they could not function without being properly laid according to those rules laid out from the beginning. Where my knowledge is concerned, I have a good base of theory and practical but I was lacking in some key fundamentals: OSI Network Model and TCP/IP Addressing and Subnetting. Now, I know a bunch of you are glazing your eyes over as you read this (LB, stay awake), but I will keep it non-technical. To summarize, you could not be reading this post without the standards, practices and technologies that the two aforementioned topics cover; the Internet would cease to function without them. Suffice it to say, they are important stuff and I had serious holes in my knowledge of them.

I learn a lot this week and my instructor, Dana S., not only helped fill the gaps and made things clearer for me (Famine, Death and a few others tried but I was roadblocked in certain areas), she rekindled my love of teaching and made me miss instructing once again. To the uninformed, I used to teach a variety of courses at the school that taught me; the Institute for Computer Studies, and then CDI. I used to teach Intro to DOS/Windows, UNIX, Linux, Korn Shell Programming, Hardware (A+ initiative) and Novell (CNA initiative). Believe it or not, these were all lower end courses, mostly introductions for the little or zero experienced. I could not teach the higher courses because I needed to be certified. I could not get certified because the damn roadblocks in my head did not allow retention of the information vital for that to happen. Or, some could rightfully argue, I did not want it badly enough yet.

I do now.

I am a little tired of the politics and the BS that one must wade through in my position. After four years there, it should have improved by now; it has gotten worse in my huble opinion. I love the company so I do not want to leave but I need a chance of pace, of scenery, of responsibility. So, I am on track to gain the knowledge and experience I need in order to shift sideways within my team and start to learn how to run a data centre. One day, I may even try to go for learning how to design and build one. It all starts with this course.

Wish me luck. :)