Expanding my horizons

Lately my time at work has been devoted to less-than-computerie pursuits. While my new responsibilities are important the the company I'm beginning to feel detached from the type of work that I am passionate about. I'm thinking about learning a new skill that will assist me in my IT duties at work and hopefully bring me back to a place where I'm really interested in what I'm doing. I haven't decided what I want to learn but here are some ideas I'm floating around:

- Programming. I haven't done much since high school and its always in the back of my mind. My problem is always finding a project that gives me focus.

- Certifications. I could start studying for a CompTIA certification or MCSE. I have never taken one of these tests and I think it would be good to start collecting certs, but studying isn't really the same thing as learning a new skill.

By the end of the week I will make a decision. Whatever I choose to do will probably end up as a regular post on here.

Read-Only Friday

Read-Only Friday is a wonderful tradition. It is the day of the week where one avoids making any changes to his or her production environment at all costs. The goal is to prevent having a terrible weekend when a change is made that has unintended (and potentially dire) consequences.

If there are problems, of course they need to be resolved but Read-Only Friday is not a day to roll out updates or bring machines or services down for maintenance. This is all especially true for small businesses like the one I work for that don't budget for redundancy.

It is also a good day to enjoy cheese steaks and non-diet colas.