I recently went on a quick two-day trip to southern Georgia to attend my brother's graduation ceremony at FLETC. I don't know if I'm really supposed to be announcing this (but I will anyway because I'm a proud brother and wanted to let people know): my brother is now a deputy U.S. Marshal assigned to the state of Texas. It's a pretty cool job if you're into the law enforcement thing; the U.S. Marshals Service is a very proud organization and they take good care of their agents. My brother is really excited about it, as he will be involved with a lot more "action" as a U.S. Marshal than he was with his previous agency (OIG), where he investigated mostly white-collar crime. It's odd for me to imagine that someone would voluntarily seek out and actively pursue a more dangerous job, but people are wired differently. I would've been content with getting to carry a gun everywhere but still working with spreadsheets and computers all day as an OIG Agent, but I guess that's why I'm a DBA for a bank and not out chasing fugitives.
A couple of random things that came across my mind while on the trip:
1) A bad day for me typically entails that a SQL Server is having issues or something is not going well with a project I'm working on. As I looked at the graduating class of deputy U.S. Marshals during the ceremony, I realized that a bad day for these graduates could involve shooting someone and/or being shot at. That is crazy to me.
2) As an older sibling, I wondered at what point in my life was my little brother able to kick my @$$ if he chose to do so. Maybe this is something only older brothers think about, I don't know. I guess it would've been when he was late in his college career as he was training to meet the physical requirements for his federal agency/law enforcement exams. I'm sure if you asked him it would've been much earlier than this, but realistically I think I could have at least held my own up until then. Now it's quite obvious that I can't mouth off to him like I used to.
3) It's weird to see my little brother as an adult who has an adult job and is getting married this summer. I've always seen him as someone I needed to look after and take care of, but those days are long past. He's doing a good job of taking care of himself, and has actually helped me out with a couple of things.
Song of the day: "On To The Next One" by Jay-Z, from the Blueprint 3 album. It seems appropriate, as my brother is moving on to the next one.
