So I’m finally finished with my degree, I’ve paid EMU all the money owed to me (still waiting for my diplom!).
I should have been done with this particular degree about 5 years ago, but when you’re working full time it is much more difficult to get those credit hours finished.
The real point of this is to map out what I wanted to do, what I’m doing now, and what I’d like to get paid to do in the future.
All I really wanted to do was to make video games. Turns out it’s lots more fun to play video games than to make them. I’ll still dabble in video game creation, but it’s way to competitive a market for someone with my meger programming and graphic arts skills to make a career of it.
What I’m doing now is database administration, and almost totatlly focused on Oracle. At the moment, it pays very well, and there’s still a ton to learn. Oracle’s RDBMS is the king of the database world — and I’ve been able to get a feel for most of their other products as well. I’ve done work on Microsoft’s SQL Server in the past, and it’s still not a major player in the database world.
What I’d like to learn more about, focus some time on is MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. They’re open source (free), and both are getting to the point that they contain most of the important features of the proprietary databases. I expect in the next 5 to 10 years that proficiency in administration of Open Source db’s will be a requirement.
So what I need to do is add another web area, and document my learning process. I think I’ll start with Postgres, and compare the install process to Oracle’s. Then start to look at the basics of backup and recovery, compare that with what is available with Oracle.
There’s still a bunch to learn in the oracle world — an example would be my lack of experience with RMAN.
Just need _SOMETHING_ to do while waiting for the leg to heal.