Month: March 2013

A lot of what I’m seeing in IT right now is people not doing just that.
Am I guilty?  You bet.  Do I like having certain things, and find myself hesitant when those things are gone?  Yep.  But fighting those changes doesn’t make any sense when what I have isn’t working anymore.  Or will almost certainly fail soon.
Yes, I’m slightly disconcerted that there’s no optical drive on the new Apple stuff.  Is it really that big a deal?  I don’t know.
Pffft.
This is the kind of BS I think about on Sundays.

A lot of what I’m seeing in IT right now is people not doing just that.

Am I guilty?  You bet.  Do I like having certain things, and find myself hesitant when those things are gone?  Yep.  But fighting those changes doesn’t make any sense when what I have isn’t working anymore.  Or will almost certainly fail soon.

Yes, I’m slightly disconcerted that there’s no optical drive on the new Apple stuff.  Is it really that big a deal?  I don’t know.

Pffft.

This is the kind of BS I think about on Sundays.

Or something.  I accomplished a lot both personally and professionally this week.

Major takeaway (for you executive summary-types)?  I’m not dead yet.  I still can do a lot of things.  I do have to operate differently than a lot of people, but whatever.

So, major accomplishments…

1.  Figuring out this thing I was working on at work.  It might well get spiked, but it does work. Check HR Geeks if you want some of my leftovers.  First fifteen bucks takes it.  Otherwise, it goes on Craigslist at some point…..

2.  Dealing wiht health BS.  Being an asshole pays off sometimes.  I checked i with Foursquare at the hospital yesterday afternoon after mistreatment from a nurse at my doctor’s office.  Having it go out over Twitter, plus a mention of the place, got results.  I really am not comfortable doing that sort of thing.  I know some people enjoy being professional malcontents, but I am not one of them.

3.  Users.  It’s up.  The database works.  PHP works.  It’s somewhat sekured.  There’s more work to do, but it’s well on its way.  Now if we could get Ethan off PINE……

4.  Discontinued one of my meds.  Not one of my MS meds, but I hope my quality of life will improve some now that I’ve been off for a bit.  We shall see.

Much as I’d like to have a relaxing weekend, that’s probably not going to happen.  *yawn*  Why come no three-day anytime soon?

I’m really getting involved at work.  The stuff I’m doing isn’t exactly what I’d done in the past, but I do understand why it’s important.  I also understand why people who have been set in their ways wouldn’t fit in with what’s going on.

That brings me to LinkedIn.  For some of the people there, connections and endorsements serve as a substitute for real ability.  That goes, too, for some the the people I see in “people you may know.”

Yes, I know that dude.  No, I don’t want to be connected to him.  In fact, if I was to see him in person, it’d be everything I could do to keep from kicking his ass.  (We’ll set aside for a moment the fact that me actually seeing him isn’t much within the realm of possibility, given my eyesight.  Kicking his ass would be tougher, still, but…..)

So, what’s on tap for this weekend?

1.  Shopping for some computer stuff.  Time for a new laptop.  Leaning towards a MBP 13″.  That may well happen today.  Desktop will be something I address down the road.  I really can’t game anymore, so building something nice seems pointless.  Anything I buy probably has enough oomph to play the few games that I still do fire up from time to time….

2.  Actually filing my income tax returns.  I think I did most of the work filling them out back in early February, but the job search was taking precedence.  I also planned it right, so I’m not getting much of a return.

3.  More fiddling with users.  I’d like to do some promotion to get people back in to using it.  I actually stuck my head into #757 the other day.  Whether or not I’m better for doing that is a matter of debate.  Some of the usual cast of characters is still around.  Others are off in the ether, which brings me to #4…

4.  Go see Mr. 804 who’s no longer around.  I would have headed down to WWC in Chesapeake, yesterday, but this whole not driving thing, plus a long week at work made the bus ride down there particularly unappetizing.  (I could have made this one, “drink,” but I really don’t have the constitution to do that, anymore.)

5.  Finish watching House of Cards.  This is just another step that’s gotta have broadcast TV execs, ad execs, Whitney Cummings, worried.  First, it was worthwhile programming on A&E, TNT.  Now, it’s places like iTunes and Netflix.  (And, maybe, I shouldn’t pick on Whitney.  While Whitney is, in fact, awful, and 2 Broke Girls looks that way, the latter might be fun to watch with the sound off…)

6.  NCAA Basketball.  My bracket was doing well until Harvard.  Duke hasn’t sucked its way out, yet, unfortunately.  Duke sucks.  I think I had Louisville over Indiana in the championship game.

So, off to get it all underway.  Big thanks to the choadsmoker who woke me up with his shitty music outside this morning.  Your music is awesome, bro, but not as awesome as you;  don’t forget that.

Or something.  I’m feeling all social-madia-y lately with work, etc..

So, what’s what?

Users is coming along.  There’s still lots of packages to build, but it’s going.  When it’s done, I may try to resurrect some of the hot blog action there.  Maybe.  Those of you who’ve got accounts, please see the MOTD for the status.  (And, if you forgot your password, hit me up via E-Mail….)

I’m trying to do good work again.  I really did feel constrained previously.  But, you know what?  I am who I am.  Am I what I was?  Not by a long shot. Do I still have a lot to offer?  Absolutely.  Am I willing to work harder than others?  Yep.  Would I prefer to be contributing from home while I’m in comfortable clothes?  Yes.

I took down a lot of the MS stuff while I was looking for a new job;  the Drupal nonsense was part of that, too.  I guess I could bring some of it back, but I really don’t care to.  I’ve got problems.  They may not be immediately visible.

But the social media stuff is important to my future work.  A lot of the older people don’t care to try to use it.  The people who do don’t pick up bar tabs after vendor demos.  But those tools are natural to a younger person.

Is it a problem that Sendmail is gone on users?  No.  Does anyone really miss editing Sendmail.cf, and recompiling, mail spools, etc.?

I’m rambling, but at least I’m still sorta going, and it’s only Wednesday.

I got users upgraded to a viable version of NetBSD, which is a good thing.  I really have no idea who’s really still using it for things other than E-Mail, but….

If there’s anyone out there who knows a clean way to import account shits from the passwd file into LDAP, that might be a good project.

I feel somewhat as if I’m getting back into the swing of things, geek-wise.  Maybe.  Do I have the boundless energy I did a few years ago?  No.  Do I fuck up?  Yes.  Have my skills deteriorated?  Some.  Is it a lot more difficult with my vision being as bad as it is?  Certainly.  But what can I do?

Sarah’s off doing something or the other with her mom.  I’m supposed to meet up with Drew for a burrito any minute now.  Maybe Ethan tags along.

Do I feel rested after this weekend of not going anywhere? Not in the least.  Am I okay with that?  Yeah.

Though I could go for a beer.  Not today, though.  Stupid medication.

…and I’m still not 100% sure I like what I’m doing.  And I feel like I’m the only one doing whatever it is I’m doing.

Instead of doing it in the spare bedroom, patiently awaiting feedback I never get, now I’m in a cubicle listening to idle chatter from coworkers.

Do they really count as coworkers if they’re not really focused on the same task?  *ponders for a moment*

This next week should be different.  Headed back to EVMS to see if I can get this health stuff figured out again.  I should not feel this bad all the damn time.  Just before Sarah and I went to New Orleans for our honeymoon, I felt like I’d gotten things pretty well figured out.

So much for that.  And what I’ve tried isn’t working.  So that doesn’t mean do it faster!  (If only management people would understand that…..)

Professionally, the slate is somewhat clean, but I’m already seeing the sort of nonsense I saw before.  I just don’t have the capacity to work through issues like I used to be able to.  Am I getting lazy, or am I just that bad off with my health?  *ponders more*

Interesting conversation on Twitter this morning with one of my favorite bloggers who’s trying to get a book published.  I don’t know if my perspective was much help, but I can hope.

It’s not a question that the work is quality;  it’s a question of whether there’s an audience for it.  The people who make the decisions on that sort of thing are often not the people who’d consume it.  My dilemma — whether quality is forever confined to niche status…..

I don’t know.

Something I’ve been pondering the past few days as I adjust to my new job title, “Quality Management System Analyst.”

I’ve been thinking of how to objectively determine something’s quality.  I mean, I know my blog sucks, but why does it suck?

Started bouncing this around in this scarred brain of mine, after seeing this headline on Fark.

Still trying to work through this, but I think you do have to establish objective grading criteria prior to beginning an evaluation.  Otherwise, is everything simply subjective?

Hmmm.

Maybe my new customer might be open to discussing this sometime soon.

Going through old stuff various places to clear out clutter.

It’s kind of incredible how much stale data I have around.  I can only imagine the sorts of nonsense at Iron Mountain.

Regardless, I’m moving along at the new job.  I’m not quite to the comfortable place yet, but it’ll get there.

As I suspected, I’m practically the only person on the team at this point.  That will change soon.  I just hope I know some of them.