This morning I really do not have much to talk about so you are getting a super non sequitur image. Last night I came home, ate some pizza we ordered in, messed with this image for my twitch profile, played a little boy band simulator, and then finally crashed around 9 pm. This entire week has been odd for me because it has felt like nothing was quite normal. Monday was a super meeting packed day because I knew I would be in training from Tuesday to Thursday and today will also be a super meeting packed day because anything I could not do on Monday I shifted to Friday.
My key focus for the last few days has been trying to cram as much information as I could about the ITIL framework into my brain in preparation for the certification exam that I took yesterday. Originally the plan was to take the exam shortly after lunch at 1:35 pm giving me a little bit of time to chill but also largely be in a very fresh state for the test. The problem is when we first tried to sign me up for the online proctoring the site was having a lot of issues. It turns out that while we got a voucher to pay for the exam… they didn’t actually book it and as we started trying to log in to take the test it turned out I still had yet to lock in a time. The soonest time available was at 4:15 giving me several hours to just kill.
Luckily the training company was a home converted into office space and with it a couple of super comfy couches that I proceeded to chill out on for a few hours. During that time the trainer and I got to talking and found out that he too was mostly an MMO gamer and was also a long time raid tank. So for roughly three house we shot the shit and talked about the things we enjoyed playing, and our experiences in raiding and how they ultimately translate to the business world. Guild leadership and raid leadership were ultimately the things that convinced me that I could in fact handle the fact that work kept pushing me closer and closer to management, so it was a super interesting conversation. I am wondering if maybe it would be something worth talking about on AggroChat.
The mishaps did not end with the timeframe shifting however. When you take one of these online proctored tests they have you download this client that ultimately ceases control of your machine while you are taking the test. Apparently it also monitors like every aspect of your system, and about halfway through the test the proctor warned me that my laptop was about to lose power and that I should pause and plug it in. Thing is… it was plugged in, so I had to scramble and try a bunch of different wall outlets until I found one that was actually working. Thankfully I finished with plenty of time to spare allowing me to go back through all of the questions a second time before finally submitting my answers.
The ITIL certification requires that you get 65% and on a 40 question exam that ends up being that you can ultimately miss 14 questions and still be fine. I ended up missing 5 questions giving me an equivalent percentage grade of 87.5%. However upon finishing the exam… I damned near had a heart attack because the first number I saw was 35… for the number of questions I got right. However my brain immediately assumed that was my percentage and that I had failed completely. The other person going through training at the same time as me apparently missed 4 so that means both of us passed easily. Largely all I cared about was passing because my predecessor failed his first time and I did not want to return from class in that state.
It’s weird when your entire week has been consumed with one activity… and then it is finally over without a whole lot of fanfare. I largely came home and collapsed on the sofa and spent a good chunk of the evening fighting drowsiness. When my wife said she was about ready for bed around 9… I opted to follow her and while I had intended on sitting in bed and playing Monster Hunter 4U on the 2DS XL I was asleep before the news came on at 10. I also slept solidly throughout the night and woke up about 10 minutes before the alarm went off. In theory I needed the rest because it was a crazy ride of a week. Next week however I promise that this will in fact return to being a gaming blog.