Darkavich's Daily Ramblings

This week, I have heard a cliche spoken several times by people. I am not sure why, but it’s the 5th time I have heard it. Well, my issue is not that I heard it, but all five people GOT IT WRONG.

The phrase I heard was “It’s a difficult road to hoe”. The phrase is not road, but row. If you would stop and think about the phrase and not mindlessly repeat something you don’t understand you would realize what it means.

Farmers do not take hoes to a local road and cut trenches in them. They use a hoe to prepare for planting, in rows.

As some of you know I had started my Masters Program in Educational Instructional technology at National University. I had many reservations about taking an online program. Unfortunately, my reservations were justified. After two months, I have decided to withdraw from this program. Many factors influenced this decision, but the primary factor (many others can be discussed over a beer) was that after 8 weeks, there was not a single moment of real instruction. The program was designed like a correspondence course. The online/live lectures only served as a high-tech office hours. Nothing was actually taught in these classes.

I generally feel that if I am spending over $1500 a month for an education,  I should get instruction that is more than what books to read and what assignments to turn in.

I am sure there is a lot of quality online education out there, but National University is definitely not one of those schools. I am going to reset and follow up on the Masters program at SDSU. I just need to get past the GRE component of entrance requirements. I plan to check with them after the new year.

I am sad and frustrated that this didn’t work out, but better to decide now than after I had spent even more money.

Well big changes are afoot. After almost six years I have decided on a career change. There are many reasons for this change, but the most important reason is to reclaim back some of my free time. For the last year, I have been unable to do much.

My current position was not going to give me the opportunity to pursue some of the stuff I need to accomplish in the next five years. SO, I have decided to change jobs. I am looking for a position that will allow me to go back to school and get my masters degree as well as work on my book.

I had two possible opportunities I was evaluating. They both are great opportunities and I wish I could take them both. I had to weigh the pros and cons between the two positions and hoped to make the best choice I could. I hate having to turn down one of the offers because I know I will be disappointing one of them.

In the end, I choose the job that offered me the most flexibility to do my job, but also go back to school for my Masters Degree. I start my new position on Tuesday. I am looking forward to the new challenge. The position I have taken is a Systems IT Architect. I am really excited about this position and look forward to this new chapter of my career.

For those of you wondering, I have stepped down as team captain for the MS Bike Tour for Team Qualcomm. I am staying on as co-captain and will still be on the planning committee again this year (Curse you Julie for showing me how much fun this is!) . Lots more about the ride in the future.