Hi, My name is Chuck, this is my site - I think, it’s been so long…. I need a nap, but for a little bit of an update, I am alive, I am busy busy busy, been working like crazy in my wonderful 8-to-5 world, with a mix of FH/TN in-between - so far so good.
Tomorrow, 1 day from now, is my birthday. 28. Yowza. I have NO idea what I am doing to celebrate, there was talk of RollerRama, there was talk of bowling, but I imagine after my day tomorrow, the only thing I am going to want to do, is sleep - lol. But I do want to get together with friends, have a meal, hang out, eat some cake, etc. or such is my thought/plan - but as usual, down to the wire with me, I have no idea, nor have I had the time to honestly even think about it - work, sleep, work, sleep, hang out away from the PC, work, sleep. etc. that seems to be the “standard” as of late.
So tomorrow we’ll see - heck I am going to try to come up with something tonight, but then again I am going to start coding at 7, and probably not stop till 11 - soooo we’ll see what happens. For now though, I’ll say “farewell!” and head off to find something to drink.
I have a amazing core group of friends, they are more like family to me, they are supportive, good company, and always a open ear, tonight we tried to get as many of us together, granted I know some folks Monday is not a good night, but the Foster’s were in town but leaving at 5, the Poon’s had a due date for baby, and yet somehow from a lunch with Matt we got ourselves together at Cindy’s for some grub, good company, and Uncle Chuck the Human Jungle Gym.
It was a good day overall, got some more stuff cleaned up in the office, organized a bit, got a laptop finalized and ready to go, all in all it was pretty nice - throw in the lunch and the dinner - a great time, and while I am exhausted and then some I would do it again in a heart beat - we sat, we ate, we talked, I played with Ethan, Evan and Carlie - even Jake had some fun with Evan, it was a good day that just had some really great high points to it, I hope the rest of the week has good stuff in it like this! If only everyone could of made it, Scott had plans already, and some folks have class on Monday’s so just not possible, but were going to setup something big and fun soon.
Anywhoo - busy week, got a copy of EE on the laptop, so I can work on it on the mac during the dead time, also have a few assorted things I am working on with FH/TN, and of course MLS has the Google Apps migration this week, I need to get the corp. card and get it paid for, as well as a few other purchases I need to make for building a small server to test a backup system, so lots to do! But for now I am going to zone a little to some TV, and then probably try to crash out early. Sleep will soon become my friend… I hope. Night folks! Thanks for the continued prayers!
So it’s Friday finally, another week down, my first full week of the 9 to 5 job (okay so it’s 8 to 5, but there’s a hour lunch) - Thursday I went and snagged lunch and ate at the park, it was gorgeous outside - it was a great way to spend lunch and get a breath of fresh air plus eat some tasty food.
I got home at 5:25 after a long day, first meeting, good progress on Google Apps, and a growing To-Do of mainly “not a top priority” things to do - but so far so good, plus on the TN/FH side, things are going smoothly too - tickets have been low, and billing ran today with no issue, so things are sticking it pretty smooth.
So why am I awake at 1:30ish in the morning? I dunno! I crashed out earlier, was just dead tired, looked for food, found nothing, my mom brought me a thing of chocolates for V-Day, then I just remember turning off the TV, and waking up wondering if I beat my alarm to the punch, and boy did I, only 5+ hours early, so I am going to try and wrap up my email, the one ticket, and then find my pillow again and get some sleep before the alarm goes - but I’ll post something more complete as to all the fun I am having probably Saturday, but thus far I do appreciate all the prayers, folks checking in on me during the day via IM - it’s much appreciated.
Anywhoo - I am off, part of me is hungry, but part of me is more tired, so I am going to let the tired part win and get some more sleep under the ol belt. Happy Friday folks.
So far so good on the job front, on my 3rd day solo, 2nd day on the payroll, I’ll get paid the 1st it looks like, or a very small check on the 16th, but so far so good, I finished the last leg of the HR hoops today (well the core stuff) by peeing into a cup, first time for doing it, even when I worked for KHSD I didn’t have to do a drug screen, I think it’s random in that case, but here I got to pee in the cup, it was a tad awkward with a wall-length mirror, but I survived!
Last night was fun, had Scott, Sara, Sarah, Beth, Michael, Ron, Karan and ME! we went to El Pueblo for dinner to celebrate the excitement that is my employment, it was awesome food, dad got mine, I got his (Chicken vs. Beef) - but still lots of fun, good laughs - I was going to hit Denny’s with Scott later, but I just got super sleepy - and backed out, still not 100% on this new schedule, and my body isn’t yet fully used to the concept that I can’t sleep whenever I want anymore - but it’ll level out in time, probably after the first check direct deposits into the bank I am sure that’ll give me peace of mind, but it is seeming like more and more I’ll be getting the apartment in March I am guessing, not a huge deal but it works.
Worlds are colliding with Work and Work, as it stands MLS is migrating from it’s current email offering with the local guys (who’s name I dare not speak, in fear I’ll go on a rampage) - but the replacement is the big question, I think Google Apps is the route I am going to take, it’s a nice solution for outside sales folk, 25GB of storage, etc. etc. but it’ll run the company about 3k a year in costs, as it’s $50/account - so we either need to slim down the email -or- one of these other options, currently Fusemail has my attention some, fair pricing, takes the cost for 25GB TOTAL storage down to under 1k a year, so a big savings in comparison. Granted I could always just setup something in-house, there’d still be some cost, but not sure. Already have the OK on Google, but I know there is resistance to it, so I want to have alternatives in the wings just in case, plus some of these offer anti-spam solutions so more for FH/TN to consider.
Anywhoo - things are good, getting the swing of things pretty well, the MBP is doing nicely (where I am typing now) and the office Dell I use for work, is not to shabby either. So now I am going to sit here and continue reading, lunch is in 2 hours, so tasty food is on the horizon! (I hope) I am thinking maybe of grabbing a slice or a dog from Costco down the street…. time will tell.
And so it begins…. as of today around 2:45pm, I got the official word from the co-owner that I am officially on-board! So needless to say I was pretty excited - this means a lot for my monthly budget, my plans for my life, etc. this weekend I’ll probably even hit up the apartment complex and see what they have open right now - Lord Willing, I Hope they have the 2 bedroom + garage that I can come look at, that would be wonderful!
But a good first day on my own, only had 2 calls to the last guy for help, which meant calling my brother but all in all things went well - just wrapping up the afternoon, I have been on the phone here the last bit calling friends and family inviting them to come eat tomorrow night to celebrate, my sister made the good call and said El Pueblo, so needless to say my belly is excited! So tomorrow we will celebrate it up, and I imagine tomorrow I’ll get things going on my employed status, paperwork, etc.
So big thanks to everyone for their prayers! More news to follow I am sure, but I am just quick blogging this from Textmate here on the Mac - once I get home and settled in, I’ll probably post more thoughts, for now, PTL!
The end of a big part of my life, that’s what it feels like! Tonight I shut down the core servers of TN/FH (the old ones) - I had been with this DC since the early days of TN, migrating from a oversold T1, to a “SDSL” line that boasted LARGER speeds (yet never delivered), faster connections, that was down for nearly a week - but TN made it’s way back, rose from the ashes, a little hurt for cash, but pushing forward.
The move to this DC was mainly because a side project I picked up, started using the company, back then a startup, a simple, but bold company ready to provide great service, insanely competitive pricing, and for me, the second big dive into server management, as a guy who always had a physical rack of servers in front of me, it was quite a change indeed, but you learn, friendly server monkeys from the DC would give pointers, it was a great company, but in the end they changed names, and got a little “bigger” but still the CEO kept things going, and as some past posts note like in the hurricane they bought extra fuel, staff stayed on-hand, network things were figured out ahead of time if line XYZ died, hot cut to ABC - it was awesome, amazing, and comforting.
Then about a year ago, they merged with another company - and if your a server admin and know some of the key players out there, you’ll know the two companies - the merger was rough, and I stuck with it, I re-vamped servers, got newer hardware, invested in some VPS tech, got tons of IP’s, found new contacts - but it was nothing like the first company, it was a money maker, and who can blame them, money has to be made somehow, and they started working towards it, and in some cases loosing that “personal” touch and going more towards the cold corporate penny picking, every little thing was a extra $2, or $10, or suddenly they’d determine they weren’t billing you for XYZ (which was originally free!) and without warning a $25-$50 monthly increase, things got sloppy.
I stayed for a year, exactly what I said I’d give them to straighten up a little, I know what it is like to re-organize, didn’t want to declare them dead just yet, but with horrible pricing, pushy sales folk, and bad communication and billing system, when the recent option came up, I took it, and I’d take it again - I have no true ill feelings for the company, they have to find their footing, and I am sure there are some out there with zero problems, but the move for me was also related to the upcoming position I may get come Friday, so reasons there as well.
But none the less, I feel a big chapter in my life is indeed closing, sort of makes me a little sad - granted I have 1 server there still, it’s a client server and it’ll probably move in the next month, getting my budget even more happy - but it’s been quite a ride, and I hope, that even with a new job, I can continue to manage and operate TN/FH for many years to come until the bargain hosts run me out of business, but I hope that day is a long long ways away.
Anywhoo - that was my trip down memory lane, a fun ride, more fun to come I hope. Thanks for reading, and again, mega thanks for everyone for their prayers over the past few weeks with the migrations, with only 6 tickets in the end across all the moves, I could not be happier, and now with a big chunk of money saved a month, and bigger hardware for the better price, I move forward, as I am trying to do with a lot of things, so here’s to a great 2008!
So far so good! Even the move for some to MySQL5 as well - smooth! No burps I can detect. Monday I have some clean-up to do with things, I am aiming for Tuesday to shut things down, then that leaves me with some minor tweaks and changes, but nothing massive, then the move is 100% complete!
Looking forward to this next week - but for now, one last glance over of things, then sleep, might meet my 2am prediction at this rate! Night again!
I am sure that’ll give me peace of mind, but it is seeming like more and more I’ll be getting the apartment in March I am guessing, not a huge deal but it works.
but all in all things went well - just wrapping up the afternoon, I have been on the phone here the last bit calling friends and family inviting them to come eat tomorrow night to celebrate, my sister made the good call and said El Pueblo, so needless to say my belly is excited! So tomorrow we will celebrate it up, and I imagine tomorrow I’ll get things going on my employed status, paperwork, etc.
