Work

The Swing Of Things

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Jayson is getting the hang of everything, and we are able to bang out allot of work today. Now all I have to do is look through the several hundred resume’s I have for the full time position. I need things to quiet down enough for me to sit down and go over them all. I don’t want to jinx myself but things seemed a bit better today over Sunday through Tuesday’s multiple issues. Murphy’s law was in full effect this week.

More minor problems from today: A disk drive array we bought came with no drives installed even thought the notes said the work was done. We are short 6 drives. Getting an overnight replacement sent to us for tomorrow.

Also a network switch holding about 10 servers or so seemed to wig out and restart. Checking that out also, but all is fine now. Little stuff is fine, it is the downed circuits that freak me out. Those I cannot fix on my own.

Our new release manager is also getting his feet wet quick. They already have him scheduled to do a release later this week. We so needed someone to do that job! I am showing him the data center tomorrow. He should enjoy that.

So Busy, Haven’t Posted

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If you read the next several posts you will see why I haven’t posted in the past few days. It has been crazy! I had all this stuff queueing up on the laptop since Monday. I will hopefully go back and post date these to when i actually wrote them, instead of when i post them. FYI, i do that secretly all the time. I just write this stuff on the train, and it is hard to post right away sometimes.

That is why allot of my posts bitch about amtrak or the LIRR. Just because i write about my current observations:)

Jayson At Work

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Jayson will be in New York Monday night. He is going to do some contract work for my company for a few weeks while we search for a helpdesk person. I have a bunch of projects he is going to help me on. If all goes well we will improve our data center allot!!!

I am a bit nervous about him coming up. Not sure why. He is very professional and works fast. I am a bit rattled by Keith leaving, and Jay is another person I know coming to work. I vouched for him, so I am a bit nervous. I don’t think he will let me down, but I worry anyway. It will be interesting to work with him again. The last time we did was back in 1999 when we were in Baton Rouge.

It will be weird having one of my oldest friends working for me, even temporarily. On the plus side is we get along so well, and he is no nonsense like me. We should get allot done.

On the flip side I have a guy starting monday that will be our Release Manager. He will also work with our production systems providing support. He seems pretty sharp, so I am hoping for the best. Lots of change recently. Change is good, but it can be scary.

This blog entry was written while listening to Wherever You Will Go by The Calling

Projects

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I am now short handed in NYC. Ironically I fill a slot in one location a slot opens up in another locoation. The hunt is on for a new support guy. Until that happens allot of projects are being put on hold. Or at least their completion date is on hold. Yesterday’s workload was not bad, but it was the calm before the storm.

I finally got my server to build the new FTP system. That is on hold until I can find the time to work on it.

Our upgrade to the notification system is on hold since I won’t have time to do the documentation or the work on it for the short term. The list goes on and on.

This blog entry was written while listening to Bed of roses from the album “Keep The Faith” by Bon Jovi

Turnover

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The past few days have been some of the most difficult I can ever remember at work. At an company you always have turnover. People come and go. Some stay for a short time, and others it is hard to remember the office without them.

The other day someone I considered a friend departed. It was not easy for me. It was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my professional career. It is always hard when someone leaves that you like, but this time was especially difficult.

There is so much more I want to say, but due to the public nature of a blog I cannot. Maybe I will write it all down, and post it in a year? I cannot harp on the past. The only thing I can do is move on to the next thing…

Documentation

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I have written about it before (i think) but in a technical job you never can have enough documentation. We take it for granted. In a smaller company you also know everyone who did work, so you just go ask the source of information for help. That is not a good way to do things.

My department has been attempting to write documentation for most day to day issues, and some more routine server / network issues.

The next step is to put that in a database of some kind. Gus likes Wiki’s. Not sure if what we want to do will be perfect for that software or not. There are tons of other forum or idea posting systems that we can use on linux.

For now I am content with just getting everything as a word document and worry about putting a UI on it later. Right now I need content. This process is really two separate ones with the same goal, but different content. What I mean is I am gathering how to’s from the support department at the same time as I am building a FAQ so to speak for the company at large. One will be very technical and for my departments use only. The other will be for everyone’s use and will answer simple questions about where or who to goto for information or how something is done in the company. Both projects are related because it is information gathering. Putting down on paper what has only been in peoples heads for so long.

Documentation is a slow difficult process. Unfortunately most technical documentation is not that good!

Backlog

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When you work in a real support environment you know about a backlog. The art of being so far behind you have a list or several lists to keep track of how old problems are. We use a ticketing system to track all outstanding issues. Each support request is considered a ticket. A ticket goes into a Queue. A queue is like requests such as all helpdesk tickets go in one queue. All production tickets go into one queue. You get the picture.

Yesterday at one point we had over 35+ open tickets between 4 people. Not sure if that is a record for us, but it was busy. Monday’s are like that.

The problem with the system is people. People are supposed to input requests into the system and we will prioritize it, and then put it in queue. Well people think they will get faster response if they go over to us and say “i have so and so problem”. It doesn’t work very often, but people still do it. Then we get the people who come over and are like “i put a ticket in 2 seconds ago but want to see when you would work on it, or here is more information than I wrote in my 2 line request.” Come on people, you are not going to get faster help if you bother us.

Long, Crappy Day

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Today was crappy. it was wet. I thought I lost my wallet, and ended up going to the subway and realized I didn’t have it. I went back to the office in the rain to find it on my desk. I never do that, so I was not happy with myself.

That was the end of the day. I am not on the Rail Road home. I am slowly unwinding from the day. Writing the blog actually helps me relax a bit.

I can sum up my problems today with one word. Frustrating. I cannot go into it, but it is something that is ongoing and it is just frustrating. Even more so since I cannot talk about it here. Read whatever you want into that statement. I am just saying sometimes work is frustrating.

I have to build a new FTP server that supports SFTP by friday. I still don’t have the hardware to run it on yet. That should hopefully arrive tomorrow or Wednesday.

The tech guys in Kingston may or may not meet some deadlines for new projects to complete. They are working on new user profile security. A major due date is Friday, and then the following friday.

Keith and I have to figure out how to rebuild the old call center in NYC. that will take some outside help. I need to move the remaining call center people to their new home, and then do some restructuring. That will be fun.

I want to go home and order some food and forget about everything in front of the TV. Not sure if that will happen yet.

Productive Day

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I had a really productive day in Kingston. Kai, Brian, and I met and got some due dates on a few projects done. I got a new project from Gus regarding upgrading our FTP system also. Fixed some issues in both offices, and answered a few trouble tickets.

It was one of those days where I worked and got allot out of the way, but it feels like I didn’t do very much. I know it is that way because I was in meetings and other planning sessions, but I still feel like I got no projects closer to completion.

I took Kai, & Brian out to an early dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s. Not many other places to go up there that will be good for most people. That is why we go there every time. I like the food so I don’t mind. It is no angelo & maxi’s or Outback for that matter, but it is ok. I am on the 5PM train out of Kingston (RHI) but it was an hour late so it left at 6PM. I was supposed to be on the 6PM train but it was also late. I didn’t want to wait so I got on whatever train showed up first going to NYC.

It will be a long day today. I won’t get into my apartment until 8:45PM the earliest if I am luck. Lets hope this train shows up when scheduled (7:40) so I can catch the 7:49 train to my apartment. The jury is still out on that one.

I was active (either physically or mentally) all day, so I was awake. Now sitting on the train I am finally getting tired from the work and allergy medication.

This blog entry was written while listening to Washin’ and Wonderin from the album “Nasty Little Thoughts” by Stroke 9

Friday Drinking

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Work Friday was well work. The mail system upgrade thursday night went off ok, and we had no problems to clean up on Friday. That was good.

I had a meeting with our AT&T representatives. Gus suggested I take them out to lunch to show our appreciation on getting them back as an account team. We were happy to get them back so I suggested lunch. I figured Dukes or Old Town Tavern. Nothing super expensive. They are after all vendors of ours:) They had other ideas. Two of them came down. So it was Keith & I with our voice & our data reps. They weren’t going to let us pay, and then they decided to go across the streak to City Crab and get some lunch. I had never been there even though I have worked on and off in on that block for years. If they were paying, we weren’t going to stop them.

The food was fantastic. I was sort of worried about the price. Both reps were like don’t worry at all. I got the crab cakes as an entrée. So did one of our Rep’s so I didn’t feel so bad. We had calimarie for an appetizer. The food was great. I will go back there again.

I was fighting a head ache all afternoon. Not sure why. It was probably the temp. I get sick (Migraines) allot when the weather turns from Hot to Cold or vice versa. Cari wanted to go out drinking since it was her first weekend living in the city. She got an apartment across the street so her commute would be better during the week. She is our Comptroller so she is staying in the city all the time burring tax season. So she was all pumped to go drink. I went because I figured if 1 drink can’t kill the headache I will go home.

The running joke at work is that when ever cari and I go out drinking together we both get sick. This has happened 2 to 3 times since we started working together. I can safely say that Friday broke the trend. A bunch of us went to No Idea! It is our standard Friday night bar. it is right around the corner from work.

We had AJ, Aaron, Cari, John, Jenn, Matt, Myself, Rajive, & Gus come out. It was a good time. I ended up missing like 3 trains I wanted to catch. By the 4th train I was like I need to catch a train. Rajive was like you need another drink. He almost got me one when I finally convinced him I was really leaving this time. Conclusion of this night: Cari & Gus think I am a loud drunk. They are correct:)

A fun time was had by all…