Skip to main content

MCT Tip: Surviving O'Hare

Part of being an MCT is the constant travel and long hours of preparation. Our clients demand nothing but the best, and we deliver. Don't forget about yourself. A few weekends ago, I was flying home from Chicago O'Hare. I was very early and went to the USO to get some study time. Well, I also needed to get moving so I went for a hike at the airport. Now, I'm sure my fellow outdoor enthusiasts out there just shuttered at the though of hiking at O'Hare airport. Well, let's take a look at the advantages here.

1) We all need exercise. O'Hare provides a lot of climate controlled ground to cover. I mapped out a walk on Google Earth to do one lap through all the concourses. It is 4.75 miles. That is a good hike.
2) Food: Yes, I said food. O'Hare has temptations around every corner. I noticed that many of the vendors also offer fresh fruit and my favorite fruit smoothie, Naked Fruit. Yes, it is expense, but you can eat healthy.
3) Solitude: OK, now you are thinking that I'm crazy. Roaming the concourses during the spring break rush is like trying to shoot a ball through a pin ball machine. You get bumped no matter which direction you go. Try this. Go to the United Airlines terminal. Take their underground walkway to concourse C. United decorated this walkway some years ago. It has a crowded people mover right down the middle, and hardly a sole walking along the sides. One round trip is .3 of a mile and if you are felling bold, there are stairs at each end.

Staying in shape can be a challenge for us, but with a little creativity, you will be looking good in front of your class.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Adding a Comment to a GPO with PowerShell

As I'm writing this article, I'm also writing a customization for a PowerShell course I'm teaching next week in Phoenix.  This customization deals with Group Policy and PowerShell.  For those of you who attend my classes may already know this, but I sit their and try to ask the questions to myself that others may ask as I present the material.  I finished up my customization a few hours ago and then I realized that I did not add in how to put a comment on a GPO.  This is a feature that many Group Policy Administrators may not be aware of. This past summer I attended a presentation at TechEd on Group Policy.  One organization in the crowd had over 5,000 Group Policies.  In an environment like that, the comment section can be priceless.  I always like to write in the comment section why I created the policy so I know its purpose next week after I've completed 50 other tasks and can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago. In the Group Policy module for PowerShell V3, th

Return duplicate values from a collection with PowerShell

If you have a collection of objects and you want to remove any duplicate items, it is fairly simple. # Create a collection with duplicate values $Set1 = 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 1 , 2   # Remove the duplicate values. $Set1 | Select-Object -Unique 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What if you want only the duplicate values and nothing else? # Create a collection with duplicate values $Set1 = 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 1 , 2   #Create a second collection with duplicate values removed. $Set2 = $Set1 | Select-Object -Unique   # Return only the duplicate values. ( Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Set2 -DifferenceObject $Set1 ) . InputObject | Select-Object – Unique 1 2 This works with objects as well as numbers.  The first command creates a collection with 2 duplicates of both 1 and 2.   The second command creates another collection with the duplicates filtered out.  The Compare-Object cmdlet will first find items that are diffe

How to list all the AD LDS instances on a server

AD LDS allows you to provide directory services to applications that are free of the confines of Active Directory.  To list all the AD LDS instances on a server, follow this procedure: Log into the server in question Open a command prompt. Type dsdbutil and press Enter Type List Instances and press Enter . You will receive a list of the instance name, both the LDAP and SSL port numbers, the location of the database, and its status.