Oops I Did It Again…

I always say I’m going to write more often and then I do the bad thing. This time I really mean it though, my work Facebook has been “infiltrated” by people I currently work with (I usually stay one facility behind) and my personal Facebook had my family all over it and they think I’m normal, lol.

My company has partnered with Guild Education to offer debt-free college to the employees. They’ve been doing it for about a year, but they’ve only just now started sponsoring a degree I was interested in; previously they were only sponsoring degrees that would be useful to the company. I’m using the benefit to attend Southern New Hampshire University for a Bachelor’s in Information Technology, probably focusing on Cybersecurity, but possibly Database Management, or maybe both. the cost to me is still the same, about $400/year. It will do me good to get credentialed in an area that has always interested me, and it will help me get a better job (to the tune of a $15k to $20k increase in pay), but I’ll probably have to leave the company I’m with. As much as I like it where I am it does get old after a while, and I’ve been there for fifteen years now. I’m only taking one class per term right now, just to get back into the swing of things, but when January gets here I’ll probably step it up to two classed per term, which is the max, to get done faster. I’ll be done with my few remaining general education classes by then (who knew a twenty year old Associate’s Degree would do me so much good?) and will be taking classes for my major so I’ll be more focused and more interested and willing to set aside the extra time.

I raised a batch of chickens this summer, and that was interesting. Even more interesting was getting them from the yard into the freezer. I’m definitely buying a chicken plucker next season. I kind of want to add some egg layers next year, but I don’t know if I’ll have the time to build a proper coop for them. I’d also like to add bees, which require less attention, but almost as much money to get started. Of course I’ll have more meat birds, I’d be silly not to as easy as it is. I might have missed them already but I’m also going to start paying attention to the local FFA auctions/sales and see if I can pick up some pork and beef that way.

It probably seems strange to see a guy talking about getting a degree in IT and changing careers talking about raising his own meat, but welcome to my eclectic life.