Diary of a Network Geek

Okay, so the day started out just fine, then something went wrong.

Well, to be fair, it was only two minor events, but they happened right in sequence immediately after I posted the last entry.
First, I bashed my head on one of the glass doors in the hall on the way to the bathroom. I was talking to someone over my shoulder and leaned on one of the two doors then started to walk out. But, it turns out I opened the other door and ran right into the closed one, forehead first! Kabong!! THe worst part was that I had an audience.
Then, I get done in the bathroom and my zipper is broken! Argh! So, I had to hurry back to my office and figure something out before I accidentally "exposed" myself and looked like an even bigger dork. Well, I couldn't find any safety pins, so I ended up using the smallest binder clips I could find. So, I spent the entire afternoon with binder clips in my pants.

Dignity? Yeah, I remember having that once.

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated my blog!

For one thing, I've been wrestling with my web host/ISP for one of my other domain names. I wanted to get a simple upgrade done and two weeks later, I didn't even have a status report, much less the upgrade. So, I decided to move that domain, which is Fantasist.net, BTW, to a new ISP. So far, so good. They seem to be better than the last folks and they sure are less expensive!

As for other updates, I'm still working at Loomis Fargo. In fact, they've started to make noises about bringing me on board full-time. So, I guess I'm still doing okay. It's been a really easy job for me so far. Nothing more challenging than checking backups and dealing with printer problems, really. Of course, this weekend, I'll be doing an in-place upgrade on a Novell NetWare server. Got to get up to version 5.1, or we won't get Novell support! And, at the same time, I'll update it to the newest NetWare Directory Services revision, too. Two birds with one stone and all that.

Well, that's enough of an update for now. More later this week. Maybe how I survived Thanksgiving at my in-laws.

Well, after putting it off for far, far too long, I got new tires for my wife's car.

A couple of months ago, I rubbed her tire against a concrete post and it's been slowly leaking ever since. I'd stop every couple of days and top it off when I got gas, but this weekend it got worse. I ran out Saturday to pick up some beer from the store to go with our oh, so romantic pizza and the tire was almost flat. So, I stopped and topped it off. Then, Monday morning it was the same thing again! So, finally, I got the message and my wife and I took the car out to get five new tires, which we badly needed. Not only had that one tire been almost flat, but we'd been driving on the spare. Well, in any case, it's done now.

But, last night I was so tired that I didn't make a "backup" lunch for my "lunch meeting" today, and *ka-pow*, no lunch. I don't know what happened but no one seemed to have any lunches at this meeting. So, I ate a couple of PowerBars and the like and begged my wife via e-mail to make something yummy and filling for dinner. I'll let you all know tomorrow if she did.

Leisure time, yeah, I remember that.

Okay, so I've finally gotten a new job and that's great and all, but I miss my reading time! And, yeah, I mean reading time, not nap time. Sure my wife will tell you that I ended up asleep a lot, but I really did get a bunch of reading done. I read fiction and non-fiction. I read computer books and history. I read fantasy and historical murder mysteries. Man, I read everything.
But, now, well, now I spend my days toiling in front of a hot monitor checking backups and security systems. Okay, so it's really more drudge work than anything else, but still. It's time I don't get to spend reading. Add to that the fact that I have to get all my other stuff done, too, and leisure time gets stamped out pretty quick! I mean, we have a giant backyard and two big ponds and two enormous cats. So that pretty well takes some doing to keep it all running along smoothly. Not that it ever really does, but still, you get the idea. So, in any case, my reading time has been cut to a fraction of what it had been.
And, that's not all I do for fun! I try to write fiction, which never seems to turn out well, but that's another story. I like to make maps with Campaign Cartographer. And, I like to mess around with a bunch of other programs and fantasy creation ideas. But, how much do I get to do? No where near enough.
On the other hand, I'm not in danger of losing our house any time soon. And we have enough to eat, even though we're trying to lose weight. And, in general, I can relax about a lot of money issues that had been keeping me up at night.

Having a job is nice.

This weekend I found my new favorite legal "speed": the Starbuck's Double Shot.

I tried it for the first time this weekend and it's just this side of heaven. It comes in an inconspicuous, little can. They "suggest" that you serve the Double Shot chilled, but there's really no other way to have this. One reccomendation, though. Pour it into a glass instead of drinking it right out of the can. That nasty metal after taste I can do without.
What this reminds me of is Thai coffee I had at a little place around the corner from our first apartment. It's creamy and rich and just chock full of caffeine! That, of course, is what matters most. But, it is a nice, smooth drink and a quick, no-preparation way to get my daily dose of the all important stimulant. It's even better than their Frappuccinos, which I'd loved up to this point. The only problem is, it 'aint cheap. It's like $2-3 per hit. I'm usually too cheap for that, but... Well, I really love this stuff. So, while I may not be able to drink it every morning, you can bet I'm going to keep a few around, just in case.

Yesterday I made the most wonderful discovery.... Novell AppNotes in Palm format.

I don't know how long they've had it on their site, but Novell has all kinds of stuff in Palm database format. Don't let that throw you, though, it's just how the Palm Reader wants documents. I've got to tell you, for a Palm geek like me, this is great news! They've got everything here that a Novell CNE with a Palm could want.
I downloaded everything from NDS troubleshooting guides to information about testing LDAP. I grabbed an introduction to MySQL for Novell and ton of stuff about maintaining NetWare and NDS. It gives me something to read while I'm waiting for processes to run. It's really great stuff!
Not everything at the Novell AppNotes site is formatted for the Palm, but a lot of stuff from the past year sure is. I know I'm gushing a little bit, but this really is great for me. I've been formating HTML pages for the Palm from Novell's support database for years, but they never turn out so well. This not only looks good, but someone else did most fo the work!

Well, I'm off to read documentation!

You know, I didn't think I could really enjoy going into work again. After a year of being at home, I thought I'd hate going into an office and putting in a full day's work. But, I really sort of enjoy it.

My wife told me that I seemed happier when I got home from work these days than I ever did at ThatDamnBoatPlace. And, I guess it's true. It's a good work envrionment. I enjoy my supervisors, both directly above me and one step removed. I get along well with my coworkers. There's not much pressure yet. I'm doing my regular maintenance-type stuff and they seem to think it's great. And, I'm not a manager, which is more of a relief than I realized it could be.
I don't think I ever really noticed how much I hated having to worry about what my employees were doing and if they were performing well enough. Not to mention all the paperwork and hassle that goes with being an IT supervisor type of person. It's not bad when I have a good team, but if they're too inexperienced or have too many personal problems, it gets to be a real hassle. For instance, I had an employee tell me all about their horrible childhood and want to talk to me about it all the time. Basically, she wanted to use me as a therapist because her therapist couldn't help her. Now, I'm pretty good at helpng people with their problems and all, but c'mon, I'm supposed to be maintaining servers, not employees!

Anyway, I don't have that here. Things are rolling along, and I should be too. More tomorrow or the next day. But, today, I'm off to work!

So far, so good. I'm almost at the end of the week and I like it just fine. My new boss is pretty cool and is so new as a supervisor that he hardly seems like a boss at all. He's into anime, just like I am, too. So, it's been pretty good so far.
And, today, both the guys I work with, my supervisor and the other guy at my level, made a point of telling me how well I was working out. My supervisor said that I'd done as much work this week as the last guy had done in six months. Of course, he was exaggerating, but still, it was nice to hear.

One interesting thing, though. It seems one person in my new company and general department worked with someone I worked with at ThatDamnBoatPlace. I won't mention that person's name, because I didn't really like her very well when I was there. And, I think her complaints about me not doing her job for her are one of the reasons they used to let me go. So, it'll be interesting to see how these two people, from old and new companies, effect my future, if at all. I bet that it won't really come up at all again, but one never knows. After all, I never expected to run into a friend of someone I used to work with at ThatDamnBoatPlace.

In any case, it's been a long week and I'm tired, so I'm going to bed now.
See you around the 'net.

Well, I survived my first day of the new job.
I got to work about 45 minutes too early because I misjudged how long it would take to get there. I've heard such horror stories about Beltway-8 that I was sure it would take an hour. But, it took, at most, 40 minutes. Ah, well, at least the boss has a good impression of me! I got squared away in short order and started getting used to being in an office again. It was a little strange after almost a year.
Their Novell network is in fairly good condition, though there is some work to be done. For starters, the last guy didn't get all the patches done on all the servers. And, apparently he wasn't too keen on listening to his boss, because he installed several versions of NDS (Netware Directory Services) on the network, in spite of being told not to do so. That will be an issue eventually. So, that's my first job. And, because he upgraded two of them to a whole other version, not just a subversion, I have to install patches before I can even get them up to date. It's not hard work, but it is tedious.
Also, I have a server to build ASAP. So I'll have to get specs tomorrow and get that banged out. It shouldn't be too hard, because I've done tons of servers, and I can do that while I do patches. I like to multitask!
And, there's some other things, too, but I'm still too new to really get which one's matter. I'll get that figured out by the end of the week.

The one thing I didn't like was that I felt a little under dressed. Mind, I was wearing the nice polo shirt that Momentum Information gave me as part of their "welcome aboard" package and Dockers. Now, to me, that's business casual, but most of these guys were in button-down, long-sleeve shirts. No one said anything about me being underdressed though, so I'll have to see what's going on this week. Maybe it was just that they wanted to make a good impression. Who knows? But, my feeling is I'llneed to go get some more button-down collar shirts. Which is okay by me. Now I just have to find some that are "cool"!

More later in the week, as the "new" wears off!

Well, I signed my papers and took my drug test today. My contract is for six months, but that doesn't mean much considering that either of us could terminate the contract at any time for any reason. Also, since it's contract-to-hire, they could convert me to permanent at any time, too.
In any case, my start date ended up being Monday, so updates about the new job will start next week. Of course, before then, I'm sure there will be at least one update about the pre-new-job jitters. After having been out of work for almost a full year, I'm both eager to start and terrifed that I won't do well. I'm sure my Dad would tell me that if I'm scared I won't do well, that means I'm thinking enough about it to get things done right.
At least these folks seem to be in fairly good shape on their Novell network from what I've seen so far. For starters, they have their timesync setup right. That's more than a lot of people I've worked for can say. Certainly, it wasn't right at ThatDamnBoatCompany, as I've come to think of my former employers. I wonder how they're doing now?

Well, I'll have to send e-mail to my family and friends now, letting them know the joyous news. Oh, by the way, the company that I'll be working at is Loomis, Fargo & Co. and the people that placed me their are Momentum Information Technology. They're good folks. Ask for Gary and tell him Jim sent you!