Work has sucked lately (I know, it does for everybody).

I'm temping as a copy-jockey again to help make ends get withing sight of each other, the meeting is still in the future.

But I stumbled onto ComputerTraining.com and took their "test" based on the radio spot. Needless to say I did pretty good on it but it wasn't all that hard.

I went in for the sales pitch today. It carries a pretty heavy price tag but they offer financing with defrrred payments for 1 year.

What the fee covers:
Tuition, Microsoft Testbooks and Software, Self Test Software, Testing Vouchers to take the MCTS, MCP and MCSA exams, Labs and Manuals and Career services (including lifetime placement assistance)

The class is set up over six months (2 nights a week). The first 8 weeks cover Vista at which point I should be ready to take the MCTS exam (and in theory get an entry-level help desk job)

The next 5 weeks are in prep for the MCP exam.

The rest of the class is devoted towards the MCSA exam.

Looking online the reviews are mostly bad with a few good ones dismissing the bad as whiners who did not work for it.

If this works as they present it, I would take my first exam in about 2 months and get a Entry Level job while I work on the next 2 steps. After about 6 months-1 year I should be ready for a more advanced job.

To those of you who know about these things, is this reasonable? The timing is good considering work and J's work and childcare issues and if it works (and I can get a job) the money and hours would be more compatible to having a semblance of a social life. And considering where the printing industry is going (in the toilet as everyone is downsizing) the time to get out is very soon if not now. With some Microsoft certifications I could shift in the industry slightly to where the jobs still are (they all need IT people whether or not they want to admit it or pay for one is another matter).

But looking at it after the sales pitch has worn off, I don't know.

I'm either on the brink of a new career path that will be satisfying and challenging. Or making a financial blunder.

Need to change but don't know where to go.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Or a really good one depending on your point of view...

From XKCD one of my favorite comics...

When the large orange sign declaring that the lane is closing ahead, believe it. Because the sign declares that this is happening in a mile does not mean you can drive in the soon to be closing lane for 0.999 miles and then swerve into the next lane in front of me without using your blinkers. I do not appreciate the need to slam on my breaks especially in front of a tractor trailer (they need a lot of room to stop).

You already drive as fast as you can get away with. But that also means you are supposed to look further ahead along the road and adjust according to the conditions.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

And another case of what in the good green earth were they thinking??!!

There is a fluorescent light fixture in the living room. She used it as an office for her seamstress business. The case is kind of cool and the glass needs to be changed and softened some more (maybe some painted glass at some point) but I digress.

The ballast on the light gave up the ghost. We were tapping it for a bit and it was slow to start on those cold mornings when the heat was turned down but no more. It had to go. And it was so old the part numbers were completely useless (I'm guessing mid to late 60's) but the guy at Home Depot was very helpful and figured out what I needed so armed with a new ballast, some wire caps and 2 new bulbs I was ready to do battle this morning while it was still light out. Call me crazy but I will not work on lights with the power on and the idea of doing this by flashlight was not appealing.

Step 1 figure out which breaker the light was on and of course turned off the computers and microwave before I found the right one- probably should have labeled those but power was off

Step 2 cut the wires to the old ballast leaving as much wire as possible just in case. Oddity/warning flag number one- there were no caps. The ballast has hard wired into the system.

Step 3 try to take off the nuts holding the ballast up. Key word there being try. I'm guessing this was assembled before being installed and they did NOT use lock washers or anything that would facilitate the removal of these nuts. I got one loose enough to be able to slide it around. The other one... well i more or less ripped it off the nut/bolt and mangled it enough to get the new one in. And of course whil putting the new one up the bolt fell off just to flip me off one last time.

Step 4 drill pilot holes for the sheet metal screws to hold up new ballast. This was of course after putting the box of screws down and then circling the house twice because I could not find them again (or the fairies need to borrow one). After asking them to give them back and finding them, and running the extension cord from the part of the house with power and getting the drill and the bit. Holes drilled and screws screwed. This was securely up and more importantly when it needs to be changed the next time it will be easier to do. Although there's not much left to the cord for the power supply so the next time might be the end of the fixture but that should be sometime after we have downsized into a condo after Piglet moves out.

Step 5 connect all wires after stripping the old ones and their near petrified casings.

Step 6 put the bulbs in and turn the power come back on. It lit up and the house did not burst into flames.

Step 7 take the bulbs back out and button everything back up. And the light still works.

The saving grace to the whole process was that J took the piglet off to the park and shopping while I did the most of m growling and swearing and tool dropping.

When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

Buffy: I told one lie and I had one drink...

Giles: Yes, and you were almost devoured by a giant snake. The words "let that be a lesson" are a tad redundant.

The annual picture with Santa at Emerald Square Mall...

In the picture:
Henry (Age 4)
Pinky Ear the Bunny (Age 1 day)
Santa (Ageless)


( for those who don't have broadbandCollapse )

So there's this fella with a parrot. And this parrot swears like a sailor - I mean he's a pistol. He can swear for 5 minutes straight without repeating himself. Trouble is, the guy who owns him is a quiet, conservative type, and this bird's fowl mouth is driving him crazy.

One day, it gets to be too much, so the guy grabs the bird by the throat, shakes him really hard, and yells, "QUIT IT!". But this just makes the bird mad and he swears more than ever. Then the guy gets mad and says, "OK for you!" and locks the bird in a kitchen cabinet. This really aggravates the bird and he claws and scratches, and when the guy finally lets him out, the bird cuts loose with a stream of invective that would make a veteran sailor blush.

At that point, the guy is so mad that he throws the bird into the freezer. For the first few seconds there is a terrible din. The bird kicks and claws and thrashes. Then it suddenly gets_very_quiet.

At first the guy just waits, but then he starts to think that the bird may be hurt. After a couple of minutes of silence, he's so worried that he opens up the freezer door. The bird calmly climbs onto the man's out-stretched arm and says, "Awfully sorry about the trouble I gave you. I'll do my best to improve my vocabulary from now on.".

The man is astounded. He can't understand the transformation that has come over the parrot. Then the parrot says, "By the way, pardon me for asking, but what did the chicken do?".