Okay, so I've gotten a little deeper into the network and I'm finding more "little" things wrong. For one, the servers aren't all on the same version of Directory Services. For those of you who aren't Certified Netware Engineers, that's a bad thing. NDS, or Netware Directory Services, is the distributed database of everything, including security, on the network. If all the servers don't have the same revision of the NDS programs, called NLMs in Netware Land, there can be problems with security and access between servers. Enough of those problems and the network stops running.

Well, so far, so good. I've survived most of the first week of my new job. (For those of you who are joining us a little late, I just started at Kirby Marine Transport Corporation on Monday of this week.) I have a whopping three employees, one of which leaves for vacation next week. The network doesn't quite run itself and there's more than just "proactive maintenance", just like I suspected. For one thing, I've got an e-mail system that looks like it was designed by a drunk monkey.

Okay, so it's been a while since I had an update, but there's a good reason. One of the headhunters finally came through for me and I've got a new job! DÜT, whose real name I'm still not going to reveal, got me an interview at Kirby Marine Transport and I apparently fit their search requirements pretty darn well. When I first went to see them, I didn't think they were going to work out, but I guess I made a pretty good impression on them, because they totally rearranged their department structure to suit me. Go figure!

Well, not much of an update today, but I thought I'd add in some personal stuff. Just for variety.

Not much going on this week, so I might as well have an update! Anne's sister has been with us for a couple of days and I'll be taking her to the airport later this afternoon. In spite of some setbacks, it looks like she'll be doing the move to Pittsburgh just fine. She's a little worried about the whole thing, but so was I when I moved down to Houston. I think she'll be okay, once she starts to adjust to living in a new state. I'm not sure that her parents will adjust, but that's a different story.

Well, it's been a while since I put in an update, so hold on to your hats! A lot has happened in the past two weeks.

Whoo! What a day of interviews yesterday! I started off with S., the Director of Network Engineers at Binder. She was interesting. She surprised me by asking if I was all geared up to do my presentation. Gulp! Presentation? Well, it seems that I missed a voice-mail at home about that, so I was totally unprepared. Luckily, she saw that right away and waved it off until another time. If I made it that far... It was a pretty standard interview otherwise. She mainly went over stuff that R. had already told me. But, she did keep hammering away at me to get me to ask questions.

Well, it's been a busy week! I got a call from Binder and I'm going back to see them this afternoon. This will be a grueling three interview application triathlon. First, I meet with R.'s boss, the Director of Network Engineers (not her real title). Then, I meet with a Regional Director of Sales, and after that, I meet with a guy who already does what they're considering me for, Network Engineer (also, not the real title. Notice a theme here?). We'll see how it goes. If they're all as laid back as R. then I'll have a hard time not liking the position.

I had the Big Interview with Binder yesterday. I thought that I was going to see a Sales Manager of some kind, but ended up seeing a top-level Network Engineer. To tell the truth, I was rather pleased. First of all, I get a little uptight about interviewing with sales-type people. I may have a degree in Marketing, but I *know* people who do sales for a living pay a little more attention to the details of appearance than I do. Shoot, that was one of the many reasons I shied away from sales in the first place! Anyway, R. was a pretty okay guy. I could very easily see myself working for him.

Big, bad news, but probably not a surprise to anyone. I decided to turn down the offer at GeoTech Global. It's not so much that it would have been a bad job, you understand, but that it would have been a step backwards. Yesterday morning, I talked with a former boss of mine up in Dallas, who's contracting now, named Pam. She really reinforced the idea that it would be a step backwards for me. She told me that she thought I was ready to "take the next step" and really break out. (In other words, I'm ready to manage a small network department.)