There are times in your life when it hits you...

DOH!!

And you realize you havent even been using the brain capacity of your kidneys.

*bang bang bang* of head

Ive been looking in the wrong places for work....

Looking for the wrong type of work....

Wasted all this time.

JPennant: hey mark.. wassup
IO: whatcha up to
JPennant: heh.. im being forced to learn Unix boss. :-)
IO: unix is good stuff to work with
IO: one day i need to learn again more of it
JPennant: yeah, i sorta wish i had some of YOUR experience right now
(He was a Unix admin at a small Texas ISP awhile back)
JPennant: DUH!!!
JPennant: I AM stupid.
IO: not
JPennant: i am
IO: !!
JPennant: i needed to learn unix, right?
IO: linux at least
IO: easy to work between the two
JPennant: Off all the places, where did I NOT apply to work at??
IO: heheh
JPennant: An ISP. DOH!!
(The PERFECT place to learn hands on Unix and admin issues! ANY fool knows that!)
IO: DOHDOHDOH
JPennant: Jeez!!
IO: could be fun tho
JPennant: Yes indeed :-)
JPennant: Doh!!
IO: -)

I couldve been earning and learning a LONG time ago!!! AAAAAAARGH!!

I pop in "ISP" for a local search for work at dice.com - and sure enough..

A...... shitload.....of.....work.

I send out two feelers.. I immediately get two responses.

Oh lord. All this time. Wasted.
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Nancy used to be my boss at Deloitte.....

JPennant: You know my work..
JPennant: I tend to know my shit.
Nancy: definitely... and you learn quickly too

But now, Ive let my skills deteriorate to the point that recruiters were shit-canning my calls and resume.

Wake-up call. It's time to get my skillset back up.

So... Ive started. Solaris/Unix, Perl etc etc...

JPennant: I have to thank ya by the way
JPennant: made me realize ive been wasting my time these last few months
JT: i'm lost...what are you talking
JPennant: when you hepped me to the potential of learning and earning from Unix
JT: ahhhhhhhh
JPennant: i was looking merely at support jobs
JPennant: and hating the idea of it
JT: dude...there are some things that are dead obvious in life, you know? like where Im working...you are the one that told me years ago that content management/data management/etc would ALWAYS be a need...
JPennant: sometimes you dont see the obvious yanno?
JT: 'zactly

JPennant: today i realized i needed to earn and learn
JPennant: and since i needed hands on unix.. where would YOU go?
*pause*
JPennant: the one type of place i wasnt looking
* long pause*
JPennant: ISP's.
JT: *doh!*
JPennant: thats what *i* said :-)

JT: dude, UNIX admin skills are portable EVERYWHERE.
JT: banks, isp's, ASPs, software companies.
JPennant: oh god yes.. and not just admin
JT: feh, i dont want to write real code ever again
JPennant: management
JPennant: analyst
JT: valid point, sales/bus analyst with genuine UNIX skills would be a commodity.
JT: i know - we are hiring 40 of 'em a week
JPennant: oh god yes.
JPennant: I fgure 3 months of daily practice will get me to junior level
JPennant: 1 year and change, senior status.
JT: so....

...... so Im learning

Cris is sending me a crapload of reference material.

Cris: I will be real happy for you when you have skills few have again
JPennant: i think everyubody is waiting for me to get back to guru status :-)
Cris: put you back in *elite* status. hehe
JPennant: heehee :-)

Yep.

In answer to mars' and tish's query as to how Im feelin' now...

I'm feelin' better. With the help of my friends.

It really is true. You cant get anywhere without 'em.
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By the way.. no - Im still going to write, photograph and publish.

All this is still to help pay my ways to my dreams.

I will NEVER leave those behind again.