Friday, April 8, Day 5

It's 2 AM and I just finished making a hundred freakin flashcards to study over the weekend, and that was just for the Directory Core Concepts. On Saturday evening and on Sunday, our "day off", I will finish up the rest. On Monday morning, right after the test, I plan on pulling a Mr. Creosote from Monte Python's "The Meaning of Life" and upchucking all the miscellaneous AD trivia swirling around my head. It had better be a big bucket.

On second thought maybe that's not a good idea - I'll probably need it for the hands-on cert lab next week.

So what happened in class today? Well, what I can I say - it was another outrageously exciting day of not seeing the sunlight while glaring at an overhead projector for ten hours. I did find the content a little more interesting today - RODCs and Trust Relationships. Sorry Steve, it's not that I dislike Authentication but it is a little too abstract for me. Now an RODC, that's a real server that I can touch, feel and love on even if it doesn't want to replicate that love back.

Glenn was back at the podium doing his thing. I scanned the room to see what everyone else was up to. Fatigue was obviously setting in as evidenced by the fact that the right side of the room was not asking as many questions as they normally would. The top talkers, Manny and Tyson, were well just a little less talkative today.

Ryan came in to remind us that there was a pizza/beer party and HALO match that evening right after class - AD Master's class against the Lync Master's class that was just down the hall from us. Master against Master.

"Class won't start till 9AM tomorrow," Glenn informed us after the Pizza had arrived. Cool, I thought, that means I can go to bed at 3AM instead of 2 tonight.

The HALO game began, but no one in the classroom was playing. Some students were still doing labs or flipping through their Power Points, while others were hanging out drinking beer and swapping IT war stories. It was obvious that a battle was raging in the game anyway so I guess it was Lync Masters killing Lync Masters. "We have better things to do with our time," joked a fellow student, "Those Lync guys must have an easier class." Slowly the fatigued looks gave way to relaxation and beer smiles.

Finally, Ryan, Matt and Manny jumped into the game. Meanwhile, Tyson was still working on a lab and asked Manny if he knew the syntax for a command. Manny didn't miss a beat, blurting out the answer while gutting a Lync Master at the same time. Multitasking is not a gift, it is a virtue.