Well, That Was Interesting

I was sitting in the airport in Gulf Port, Mississippi (they just announced that my flight is overbooked - imagine that!) having just completed mandatory certification training called CompTIA Security +.  It's for IT professionals who either manage computer networks or manage the people who manage the networks.  I'm in the latter category.  This was one of the most intense crash course I have ever attended.  They crammed a three week course into 56.5 classroom hours and then topped it off with an insane test which had a possible score of 900 points with 750 being the minimum.  Now I didn't know diddly about this subject going in, so you can imagine that I burned a multitude of aging brain cells that I would have preferred to have retained.  I could have killed them off with alcohol and had a hoop of fun doing it rather than torturing them to death trying to make them learn and retain concepts and facts regarding data encryption and security policies. I learned about penetration testing (sounds kind of dirty doesn't it?) and  protocol scanning and hashing and all kinds of stuff that will probably vacate my mind within six months; hey - I've got my certificate - it doesn't matter.



A cool thing was this training was held at Keesler Air Force Base, MS which is part and parcel to Biloxi, MS (remember Matthew Broderick in Biloxi Blues?).  Mississippi in early May is quite nice although I think this is the only part of the state that is not flooding right now (the weather really bites this year doesn't it?).  You can tell where Hurricane Katrina hit along the coast, the buildings are all gone!  How long ago was that?  They are still rebuilding and many folks have chosen not to; you just see foundations and really nice wrought iron fences on great lots overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.  Kind of sad but what would you expect when you are two hundred yards from the water (if that).



The folks down here are quite pleasant, at first I thought they must all be transplants because I didn't hear one Deep South accent - not one.  Then one day I was in a restaurant and I thought maybe I was listening to "O Brother Where Art Thou?" or "Smokey And The Bandit."  Damn I had a hard time understanding them.  I tried to get a mint julep but was told I needed to go to Kentucky for that - I was in the wrong state.