Well I finally made some progress at work, seemed like lately a lot of things were against me, the drive failure was bad, but I have really pushed forward that things need to change - and for this company as I told the President of the company is like cavemen, the moment something is different/wrong - they run back to the safety of the cave, but thankfully I have had some good luck with making him see the benefits of a few upgrades, the firewall was a great step forward, and now I have gotten him to allow me to move forward on a multi-megabit line!
We have picked up a 10Mbps/1.5Mbps - upstream isn’t what most would call “FAST” but since the bulk of our issue is mainly that of saturating a T1 connection (1.5/1.5) and having no where else to go but down, so with more room, we should handle the daily grind a bit better - or so I hope, if not, then there is a network device somewhere in the drop ceiling, and one weekend I am going to have a router/switch/hub hunt
Things are getting slowly better, less ALWAYS ON STRESS - a odd night of sleep last night which was more or less classic me, sleep early, wake up early, hit that 6:30am hour and the pillow calls again - but I made it thru the day, no worse for wear - and I got my first power bill, pretty much my only other “living” expense attached to the apartment… it was a big $110 - not bad, I had budgeted everything high, it was set at $200, so not bad a $90 extra into the budget, and I have adjusted my fridge/freezer settings, as well as setup a program in my thermostat.
So its all getting there, tonight is a web coding night, taking some casual fixes/work I have been doing in development, and some I haven’t and moving them to production servers to try and mend a customer’s customers - quite a bit of work, so should be a nice addition to the budget long-term, but since it is such a large amount and the customer is without additional help and he has a few people he is comping time for this blip, I am breaking it up, and also cutting a few hours out, more or less combining them into one big set of coding time.
Anywhoo - thanks to folks who have been checking in on me as always, I have a lot more to do this month, and this month is nearly over - so I am going to get to it, right after a bite to eat for dinner! Night folks!
A odd weekend. So odd. What ended on Friday with a nice evening with Friends, Saturday started off with some drama, which ended okay I think, but still, wish that on my “days off” there wasn’t so much hooplah of bunk - Sunday was 100% fine until I read my work email - checking in to see if the boss man back east had replied, but basically it was mixed bits of what really seemed to be knocks at my performance, even at one point said “I’ll come out if I need to and make this right”… blargh.
I dunno what to do honestly, 3 days kicked out of my own office for construction that I literally got 1 day warning of, a server had a drive failure and it wasn’t being backed up because when I asked about the backup map they assured me it was being backed up between the two servers or I would of been backing it up like crazy! So I had a lot of angry people at me Thursday and Friday as I tried to get my office set back up and at the same time work on this problem.
I just sometimes miss the olden days of taking care of the rents, running my business, getting by - simple. easy. my terms, and I realize for me it’s probably a little harder as I am used to doing things on my own time/terms/way - but here if I only knew which way they wanted it, that’d be great, but I put forth an idea and it gets shot down. *sigh*
Anywhoo - just so frustrated right now, my buddy is chatting with me on IM about it, but honestly part of me wants to just go in and put in my 2 weeks notice, but that won’t fix anything at all, and will make more insanity for me here, freshly moved with suddenly no budget, need to cancel a few things - it’d be do-able, but I figure I am at this point for a reason, I just wish I knew what it was. So prayers are appreciated, as I am worried tomorrow might be crazy - or nothing at all. Who knows. So have a good Monday, and hopefully I will too!
So things are leveling out, things are getting better and changes are happening - one happened without much REAL planning, on the matter of “construction” my employers @ my day job are quick to move forward - thus today I did not have a office. They started work on taking out the wall between the old workout room, and my office, thus I had to re-locate. The issue was no one considered the servers - when dealing with Drywall there is a LOT of dust, so with the help of a friend from AR and my weak but workable arms, I relocated hardware to a cubicle down the way from my office.
The good news is this is all going to be DONE tomorrow, they nearly finished it today, but just not all the way, so things are going to wrap up tomorrow, and I’ll get a desk back, and after work I’ll re-locate servers back and in time get them racked up and off the floor and the silly stands.
But that leads to the big question on my heart lately, in a year, do I keep the day job? or do I go back to the joys of keeping my own hours, fighting for work, etc. - or do I stick around, or is there some other balance I can achieve? I just miss the ability to relax, heal up, this was the first time I recall being this sick for this long - granted I have healthcare now in which I can go get poked and prodded… but I think a lot of it is stress/exposure to sick folks on a more regular basis.
Feb 2009 is my big call time, unless something happens sooner than later to the job/position which doesn’t fit - but if nothing else I may see if we can wing a better hour setup come a year, something that gives me a lot more flexibility and reduction of stress from the politics and plain insanity of the office and I know in most jobs/positions that’ll never be gone 100% - but at this point my health, sanity, and budget are big factors in things, but who knows come 2009, I may have a new direction I never considered.
Anywhoo - that’s the random bits on my mind tonight, going to go and take the laptop and toy with a website or two (including FH/TN!) then some upgrades are on the books… so we’ll see what happens! Night all!
Body temp is still high - not feeling as bad, but then again I am on some crazy “RAPID RELEASE” Tylenol, it does indeed work quickly! The nice thing to not taking a lot of meds on a regular basis is that when you do take them - they seem to work a lot better.
Tomorrow the plan is to get to work early. I am not talking 5-10 minutes early, but see if I can’t wing an hour or so early - the reason being is that they are planning to tear out a wall in my office Monday, I got this in my work email:
“…. Monday morning to start work on the wall. I am going to put in boxes everything on your that book shelf. So……. dont’ be surprised when you come in Monday”
This idea wasn’t really thought out too well, unless this guy knows a trick with Drywall not to make it shoot dust everywhere, and on everything - thus I am either going to have 2-3 lbs of dust (okay that’s an exaggeration) but no real plans have been made other than fixing the cooling concept of the IT office by combining it with a stronger flow from the now Ex-Gym’s AC unit - I like the idea, cooling wise it works, but the prep time to get this going, wasn’t there in the least.
So tomorrow I want to arrive a bit early, see if I can’t get things save and sound, no way to run servers in a “Trash Bag” mode as the President of the company suggested, so I am going to probably be moving key hardware to another location while the work goes forward.
Anywhoo - still not feeling 100% great, but I have gotten some good sleep, a tea pot, and some fancy CFL bulbs for my office here at home Sooo I am going to hit this week running, and maybe setup an appointment with the doc to get checked out - I partially know what they will say about 1 thing, but not about the rest of it So have a great week folks. Night!
So a long day at work, left the office at 7:30, 2 hours later than my normal day, going to probably go in early as well, but the firewall is in place, so that’s a start towards good things - but a long day to say the least, been up over 12 hours, and I think I have a few more to go, but the pizza will be here soon!
But it is still weird coming home to my place. For over 20 years my home was the same place, even when I had my own place, it was the same place and the only difference was I was the only one in a 3bdr house but this is getting there, getting used to the idea of silence again, always one thing I found hard, but thanks to some book suggestions I hope to have some fun reading material soon, even though I have cable, it’d be nice to really unwind my brain into some paper pages.
In other news, security system comes in tomorrow, from there it’s getting the install done, and everything nice and happily secured. Going to hit T-Mobile tomorrow after work or at lunch and see about getting the T-Mobile @ Home, they’ll try to rope me into a 2 yr contract renewal, but I am going to of course manage to wiggle my way into a single year (or else!) - but hopefully it’ll be good.
Anywhoo - pizza should be here shortly, going to go get my glass of Dr. Pepper ready to enjoy the tasty Chicken Alfredo Pizza Have a GREAT night, and wonderful Fake Friday!
Okay okay - odd title, but it’s the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog Soundtrack I just snagged from iTunes - a nice addition to the flick, I hope ol JW decides to make a few more episodes if not make it a regular thing - but a nice thing to listen to as I finish up the day off
A interesting “day-off” which for me included working around here on things - put up a few things, tried out my oven - I need to find the scissors though as I can’t cut the shelf paper without em, probably borrow my pair from work as I don’t use it there that often, but at least it’ll hold me off from going to Target again, and blowing a lot more money lol.
I think I have my security system sorted, probably be in this next Friday or so - but around here the nighborhood has been quiet and mellow, the ocasional group of kids yelling at the pool, but not a big deal, heck even my upstairs neighbors making a racket today didn’t even bother me, as they are moving out but its all coming together to be lovely, maybe week after next have folks over for a house/apartment warming (depending on what they want to call it).
Sent off my current logo to two of my buddies tonight, looking to have the Thrust Networks logo re-done, I made the one in use over 10 years ago, and it could use a fresh touch just like FlockHosting got a while back - but I’d really love to see what my friends can do as they are both insanely gifted artists - and I bet they can come up with something original/fresh/clean - but with that I think I’ll be able to get a fresh site ready for TN and I am going to start working this week on FH’s refresh to include some new packages/functions/features/etc.
Anywhoo - going to finish up my day and get a hearty 6 hours sleep before I start back to work, been a nice 4.5 days off, but sadly things must go back to the lovely grind, but hopefully a night’s rest helps me be fresh and ready for the challenges of day! Night all! Have a GREAT Tuesday!
So today marks the offical “move in date” of my apartment. It won’t be 100% live until I get entirely moved in over the next week and services come on line (cable/security/internet/phone/etc) but this is a big step into a new chapter of things.
A few friends asked me “are you going to sleep tonight?” and honestly I thought I wouldn’t - but I got home after hanging out with Scott @ Denny’s and I crashed out, just woke up a bit ago as I had the home phone in my room and my sister called - so I got some sleep, and here I am once again working on prepping some things to make the move.
For starters I am taking my bed, couch, supplies, going to probably hit Costco or Target later to get the big stuff (supplies like TP) but no use in moving some stuff in, until I can get internet/alarm system - so I’ll still be here at home in the afternoons - I considered getting a internet card from Verizon, but I’d just end up returning it, and internet is getting in quick (Thursday) so I figured, just wait it out.
I am going to try and take off work a half day Thursday and All day Friday this next week so I can schedule appointments in those time frames for installs, Cable is already setup, which means Wed. I’ll bring the TV over, but hopefully work will work with me, and I can get the remainder of things setup for Thursday/Friday afternoon.
Anywhoo - AGAIN many thanks to all of you who have kept me lifted up in your prayers, I appreciate it - Your all invited to the apartment warming here in a week or two - but for now I am going to get back to it, and get some more things sorted and ready to go! Have a WONDERFUL Saturday, pictures will be on Flickr soon.
and moving them to production servers to try and mend a customer’s customers - quite a bit of work, so should be a nice addition to the budget long-term, but since it is such a large amount and the customer is without additional help and he has a few people he is comping time for this blip, I am breaking it up, and also cutting a few hours out, more or less combining them into one big set of coding time.
