I've been away a long time. I was never the most prolific poster to begin with, so I'm not sure if anyone would remember me, but as Macherry would say, "they always come back." (tm) And now, for one of the weirder reasons that anyone has ever proven that correct:

I have a chance to go to space (on a sub-orbital flight, but still...). Really and truly. There was a contest open to database administrators. I'm a dba, so on a whim, I entered. I found out a few days ago that I'm 1 of 15 finalists. In order to be selected from this group, I have to convince more people to vote for me than the others. This brings me to my point: I'd be oh-so-happy if you'd vote for me so that I could go. The link to vote for me is:

https://www.dbainspace.com/finalists/jay-miner

They allow one vote per person/per day, and the voting is open through 12:00 GMT on 12/13. While this all sounds odd, it really is legit: feel free to google "DBA in Space."

And yeah, I know it's a little dodgy to have my first post back be to ask you all for something, but I'd be damned appreciative. I'd also be happy to answer any questions you have about it. I should probably spend more time back on here anyway - I was getting entirely too much work done.

Thanks!

Jay

(And mods, I hope that this isn't against the rules. It's not an ad, per se, even if it is self promotion. If you feel differently, I apologize, and will obviously understand if you feel the need to trash it.)

Thanks, all. It's much appreciated.

So, did I miss anything in the last year and a half or so?

J

Nope. Same as it ever was.

This thread was pretty good. Lot's of dramaz after I submitted Misty and she found out about it. Starts to get pretty entertaining around page 5.

http://www.rockclimbing.com/...8;page=unread#unread

Good luck man. So, I'm curious, do tell more. Who sponsors it, what's all about, any kind of special training, etc?

Oh yeah and I voted.

I did it with the rockclimbing.com e-mail and haven't gotten the confirmation e-mail. So I just did it with my gmail account. Confirmed!

the idea that a trip to space is based on an internet popularity contest rather than legitimate qualifications is abhorrent.

the idea that a trip to space is based on an internet popularity contest rather than legitimate qualifications is abhorrent.

At the core of the matter, yes. And if the winner of this contest was taking a position that would otherwise be filled by someone who could go in a scientific capacity, it would be absolutely terrible. In this case though, it's more of a space-tourism trip, and the winner will be filling the seat of some wealthy individual who would otherwise have purchased a ticket. The only "qualifications" involved would have been quite a lot of disposable income.

My position - selfish, I'll admit - is that I'd like to go, and will likely never have the opportunity if not through means such as this.

J

Aw, I missed voting. Did you win?

I won't find out until December 20th. Thanks for trying though, Sylvia. I'll post up here and let you all know more when I do.

J

I won't find out until December 20th. I'll post up here and let you all know more when I do.

J

That's right. I just quoted myself.

Just posting a last update to thank you all again for any votes. I found out on the 20th that I didn't win the trip to space, but I appreciate the support all the same.

Now back to our regularly scheduled rc.com inanity.

J