Kansas City??

I am currently sitting in the Kansas City Int. airport and decided that I needed to kill some time. For those of you that don’t know, I came to KC for a job interview on Friday and decided to spend the rest of the weekend checking out the area. The interview went well and I will have to see what they are going to offer before I make the decision to move shop.
My wife and I enjoyed KC. We went to a Royals game, which happened to be the best major league baseball game I have ever been to. The “Royals” suck so bad that the crowd just sits around and has fun while cheering for every hit the Royals get like they just won the world series. The funniest part of the whole night revolved around a young kid named “Kyle”. Kyle was trying to start a Stadium wide Wave and it just wasn’t happening. Clayton had a brief talk with Kyle and told him that the only way to do it was to go down to the front corner of right field and pump up the first row crowd into doing it with him. I didn’t think he would do it, but he ran down there with great enthusiasm to start the wave. It started small and finished big. We had had a stadium wide wave including the upper decks that made a total of 10 complete stadium revolutions before it died out. I was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of my eyes. Kyle was probably the happiest kid in the whole word at that time. We had to give him high fives as he returned to his seat.

I also realized that saying “Ice Cream” is blasphemy in KC. One of Andy’s first introductions to KC was that we had to eat a frozen custard. These people eat frozen custard like it is going out of style. It’s basically the same as ice cream with the addition of 1000 calories. I have to admit that it is pretty dang tasty.

We spent most of Saturday looking for places to live. We have determined that appartments suck and houses are the way to go. Selling our house and buying a new one in KC is definitely going to be a pain. However, the houses are not much more expensive in KC. We found several houses within our price range that were nice. We did not find any appartments that we liked and most of the monthly payments were much higher than a payment for a house would be.

At this point we just sit and wait. I like Murray and I don’t plan on moving unless it is worth it. I should know soon.

A Glimpse of the Past

So today Craig and I had the oppurtunity to fill out a governemnt carbon copy document with an IBM Selectric II Typewriter. This typewriter had a broken delete and backspace. Needless to say it took us 5 minutes to figure it out. You have two highly technical people struggling over how to use a typewriter wondering why the document could not have been a PDF or Web form online. I found the whole situation hysterical and ironic.

At a crossroad

Lately, I have realized that I am at a crossroad in my life. Many of my friends are moving off and getting jobs and I wonder if I should do the same. I was born in Murray KY. I went to school at Murray State University. I got a good job at Murray State University. And now I am teaching Information Security classes at Murray State University in my spare time. Murray, Murray, and more Murray. For those of you that that know me well you would probably agree that I am motivated individual. When I was young I said I would get a college degree and land a good job in Murray so that I could live out the rest of my life here. And it seems that the childhood goal has been achieved. The problem is that I think my goals as an adult are quite different. I have had the opportunity to do a fair bit of traveling and I have realized that there is a world out there that is not yet explored. Would I be cutting myself short if I stayed here in Murray for the rest of my life living out the first good job that I got?

To see things from my perspective we should do a quick breakdown. I am currently working as a Sys Admin for MSU making good money for the area. I am teaching classes for the TSM department which brings in more money. My wife is a Kindergarten teacher here and she makes decent money. We are living pretty well for the town of Murray and we could definitely live here comfortably for the rest of our lives. We would both be fully vested in our mid-forties. She loves her job and my job is great as long as I figure out new ways to challenge myself. I currently have a BS in TSM and MSU would gladly pay for my Masters and my wife’s.

Here is where the crossroad begins. I feel like I have the opportunity to be a professor. If I choose the education route for a career goal then I need to get a Masters in TSM. If I choose the corporate ladder then it would be in my best interest to do an MBA. However, if I get my MBA and decide I want to be a TSM professor I am basically out of luck. I was told that my highest level of education had to be technical in order to be a professor in a technical college. The SPLIT begins.

So here are my paths…..

• Go back to school, while working full-time and teaching school to get my Masters

• Get my masters in Business
• Get Certifications since they are needed for the Corporate world
• Start Looking for Jobs outside of Murray
• Know that my wife would have to quit here job so that I could pursue a new one
• Sell our house and move shop
• See a New town and new people
• Risk being married to my job and less time with family

• Get my masters in TSM
• Continue to teach TSM classes and possibly land a professor position here at MSU
• Work 9 months a year with summers off
• May have to pursue doctorate
• My wife keeps her job and has summers off with me
• We stay in Murray to the bitter end

• Or….. Don’t worry about my masters and apply for a job right now outside of Murray (The Crazy Route)

I know, I know! It all depends on what my wife and I want for our lives. The problem is that we see the benefits of both moves. I am sitting about 50/50.