The first time I went to Riverwind Casino, I lost $100. However, Riverwind Casino offers free soft drinks. As I was sipping on my free Diet Coke, I thought to myself, “well, this is worth a dollar.” So in my mind, I decided I had only really lost $99, figuring in the value of my free drink.

The class I am attending this week also offers free drinks in the classroom. As I popped open my first one I leaned over to Johnny and asked him how much this class cost. “About $3,000,” he said. As the cold can touched my lips I smugly thought to myself, “$2,999, baby.”

Throughout the day I managed to drink six cans of Diet Coke, bringing the actual cost of the class down to $2,994. That’s the good news. The bad news is, over the next three days, I have to average 998 cans of soda. My bladder just cringed a little. I’m way behind the curve. I have not figured in the value of the free lunch or the snacks that the training facily offers.

All kidding aside, the class so far has been great. I kind of surprised myself with how much I have understood and been able to keep up. One thing that always seems to happen is I get really excited about technology while attending these classes, but unless I have a way to apply the information when I get back to the office, the training seems to fade away quickly. This class is all about VMWare and virtual machines, which is something we work with at work. I am looking forward to applying the information from this class to our work.