The Treo 600 is out for Sprint. My dad still say’s he is happy with his choice of the older Treo 300. I await the 600 being availible for T-Mobile. Rumor has it that will be on the 13’th or sometime next week. Not sure if that is rumor or if it is true. Either way I will get it as soon as it comes out.
I Survived My First Day Back
Well, I am tired and things were hectic for a while but I survived my first day back after being out for what felt like a long time. Keith was out sick today. Whatever I had is going around. Justin left early because he felt like crap also. I was left catching up on everything I missed since monday.
I fixed some call center issues. Did some sysadmin work that I don’t normally do. AKA tapes, and updating software versions for some applications we use. I don’t like having to do that all the time. Others are supposed to, but I do like doing it so I keep up on what is happening on my network. I learned that updating IPL’s (software we use to search for stuff) is still not hard, but you need to verify that it works before everyone can use it. I also learned that our new SDLT tape drive is still very cool, but very slow in loading and spitting out tapes.
I also configured Office 2003 Pro to autoinstall with paramiters I set. It is nice. Now if we upgrade (we can thanks to software assurance from Microsoft) I can easliy deploy it to my desktops. The real reason I was playing with the configuration was to get outlook 2003 to work with Exchange 2003 over HTTPS. Not there yet, but I am getting familure with the tools I need to do it correctly.
A bunch of people went out to No Idea for drinks after work. I went and had a coke. I was not ready to resume drinking after being so sick. I saw David P, and Jeff from my Y&R days. We were all pissed at each other since we work around the corner from one and other and I never see either of them. I really do want to see them, so I am trying to setup lunch with Jeff next week.
I am tired and going home. I caught the 7:29PM train out of Penn and hope to get lucky and catch a cab without waiting too long at the train station. It is hit or miss with the car service company, so we shall see.
My plan is to rest this weekend and be normal for next week.
Feeling Human Again
After 3 days of what felt like agony I am feeling just about human again. I have been sick since Monday night. What started off as a really bad migraine headache now most likely was the flu and a migraine. I left work early tuesday because I felt like crap. Feeling like crap for me is unable to keep my head up due to intense pain and or the feeling that I will puke at any given moment. Tuesday was both. I won’t go into graphic details of how bad it was, but use your imagination.
I made it home tuesday only to realize my cleaning lady was there vacuuming and stuff. I went down to my parents place and slept there till late Monday. By then I had enough strength to get back to my place. I figured I would sleep what I figured was just a bad migraine off and be fine in the morning. That is what normally happens. Well my body didn’t agree to those terms. I woke up Wednesday feeling just as bad as I did tuesday. The entire day was that intense discomfort I get when I have a migraine. So I took all the migraine medication I could. There are maximum amounts of these drugs you can take in any given day / week / month and I don’t want to find out what happens if I don’t follow the directions. By mid Wednesday my dad and my doctor both thought that it was more than the migraine. My inability to keep food down was one sign. Stomach issues are common in migraines, but not common for me. I get it sometimes, the really bad ones. But 2 days in a row was weird. So I switched drugs to Tylenol and some migraine stuff just in case. I was finally able to sleep sometime late Wednesday. I cannot remember when.
I felt a bit better thursday, but in the morning I was still a bit out of it so decided to stay home from work and get it out of my system. I was sitting up watching tv by the afternoon, but still felt sick. By thursday night I felt allot better, but tired. I tried to sleep and here I am friday morning going into work.
My dad didn’t want me to go in today. He felt I should rest through the weekend and be 100% for monday. I promised I would stay in this weekend and take it easy at work today. I hate being home sick. Usually I am bored, but this time I was in too much pain to care most of the time. I just don’t like being cooped up inside that long. Hopefully everything works out ok today.
An Attempt At Poker
So I still feel crappy from yesterday. I am still attempting to do poker with Dan and his friends tonight at his place. I missed the last poker session so I don’t want to be left out of this one. Missing too many may mean not being invited in the future. And I don’t want that. I will get some breakfast and see if I can turn this day around and feel a bit better.
Gus is away with Glenn in San FranCisco for 2 days. He sent a whole big email to everyone regarding attendance and then took off for work. He was not to happy about the lateness and people working from home. I cannot blame him. it is sort of out of control. People just email the group that they will be out sick. That is just not the way it is done. Changes are in the works, or so it seems.
The Holy Day
Yesterday was the Jewish high holy day. I worked. I probably didn’t have to work, but Keith was out and Justin was in Kingston so I went to work. I never really felt guilty or cared about working on that day, but yesterday I did a little. I am not religious. I never goto temple, not even on major holidays. That does not mean I don’t believe. I have friends who just don’t believe in religion or what not. I believe, but I just don’t think I have to go somewhere every week to prove I believe.
I decided yesterday on the way home from work that I will take off next year on that day. I probably won’t goto temple. I am not deluding myself to think I will do that, but at least I will stay home and reflect.
I didn’t fast either. But I didn’t eat very much. I tried not to eat, but got hungry and had a candy bar. Now this is where I am stupid. I know when I don’t eat allot of the time I get a MIGRAINE. Well I didn’t eat much and got a migraine yesterday. It was a particularly bad one too. I took two butabital’s, and tried to rest. I after about forty minutes I was able to get up long enough to make some dinner. Going to the break fast with my family was out by then so I cooked some food. I ate, and still felt like crap. I ended up lying down around 7:30PM. I know the migraine was a bad one because the drugs didn’t really work that well. I felt the affects of them but they didn’t stop the migraine. Also I almost threw up. Not pleasant I know, but it is what happened. Puking is a sign of a rather nasty migraine for me. I ended up sleeping till 1AM and then got some water and tried to sleep again. I couldn’t and probably fell asleep again around 2:30-3AM.
If I was superstitious (which I am sometimes) I would say that this was the big guy’s way of saying “he you did bad today”, but it really was just me being stupid and not eating. According to my dad (whose only religious claim to fame is understanding this day and the such) if I need to eat for medical reasons or am sick I am allowed to do so. Who knew? Next year I will stay home and eat.
The family Technology Consultant
So since I work with computers for a living I am the familys technology consultant. No one remembers my sister works with computers also, but I guess programing doesn’t count! I mentioned last week that I got my dad a new Treo 300 for Sprint PCS. I finally got it to sync to his computer at home. He had problems for months with his home computer and his old Palm 505. After trying 3 versions of the palm desktop, deleting the USB drivers (and killing his mouse in the process) I finally got the Treo to sync to his computer. He was very happy to get rid of his Palm 505. The screen was very dim. he also has to carry 1 PDA/Phone instead of a phone and a PDA. I tried to convince him to wait 2 weeks and get the Treo 600, but he said that it was too small. As long as he is happy, I won’t force him to buy the latest and greatest. The Treo fits into his scrubs pocket easily so he was very pleased.
While I was sick this week I spent some time taking some old videos and converting them to MPEG-1 files to be put on Video CD’s (VCD). I use Elgato systems EyeTV. It is a USB device that makes your mac into a Tivo like DVR. You can export the files to MPEG-1 format to burn onto a VCD. I also played around with exporting the files to imovie, but it was time consuming and the files were huge. I didn’t need to edit the files so I just burned the MPEG-1’s to VCD. The quality wasn’t so bad. What you would expect from a VCR. The better the source, the better the results.
Doing the video extraction made me realize that I need more hard drive space on my mac. The Powerbook I have only has 40 Gigs on the hard drive. 10 of which are taken up by my music. I need to get a Firewire external drive. I am pricing them out now.
My Hybernation Is Over
Well I did what I always do when I get sick. I take lots of cold meds that make me tired and sleep the entire thing off. It works for me most of the time. It is the “24 hours of Nyquil” regiment that my friend sean came up with in college. Well this time I went a bit longer than 24 hours, but the theory is the same. I zoned out most of friday. I did the same yesterday, but I was up at night. All that sleeping makes you not tired. I got up at like 11-am today and feel somewhat human. My throat is still a bit soar and my noise is still a little stuffed up, but I feel much better. After a shower and a shave I am wide awake. I need to be. I am off to my parents house for the first night of the holidays.
Before I go out I am expecting a delivery from Freshdirect. They still rock so I buy food from them. There arrive is perfectly timed since I have absolutely no food left in my apartment. I have been putting off the order for a week and then I got sick.
I Don’t Feel So Well
I woke up early this morning not feeling very well. I have a cold and feel like crap. My noise has been running all day. My ears hurt, and my throat feels like crap. The bad part is that I know it will only get worse before it gets better. I am heading home to Nyquil or Tylonol PM. Hopefully I can sleep using that stuff because I didn’t sleep well at all last night. Hopefully the drugs will kick this thing, or make me not feel anything while my body deals with the problem.
I left Kingston early since I don’t feel to hot. I left right when our CEO was showing up. Perfect timing on my part.
UPDATE, my jaw now hurts from the sinus pressure. I am on the train and the elevation changes are hurting like hell. I need some coco and a nap:)
My Treo Is Dead, Say Hello To Treo # 4
My Treo 270 died from unknown causes friday night. It just wouldn’t get a network signal every again. I called T-Mobile and after 90 minutes speaking to 7 different people I finally got a new on shipping to me. I love those Treo’s, but this problem reminds me that my original one worked for not even 2 days before it died on me. I got a replacement after a week that time. This time it should take 2 – 3 days. So counting me selling my second one, I will be on my 4th Treo when the new one arrives. It should last about 1 – 2 months and then I will get the new Treo 600’s when they come out.
Also DOA this week is my blackberry pager. It finally stopped working completely. It went from bad lcd screen, to rebooting when sending messages, to rebooting every 5 minutes. Skytel claims that they can fix the reboot problem, but not the lcd issue. if I cannot read the email, I have no reason for the pager. The problem is that blackberry or RIM the makers of blackberry’s just stopped selling the 850’s, the little pager size units everyone has. they are focusing on the bigger PDA style devices. I am not happy because I want a pager like device. My hardware rep has a lead on something for me, if not I am hitting ebay for a used skytel blackberry.
2 Days At Kingston
I did my 2 days in Kingston this week. I am on the train (Amtrak) heading home. Got allot done, and still more to do. We just brought up 10 computers from our NYC call center and are setting them up in Kingston. We now have over 32 stations setup with 10 more for training. We are well on our way to 48, the target for phase 1 of our build out. Then we move up to 85 stations soon after that.
I also just got a new help-desk person in Kingston. Kai started monday for us. He was originally hired as a call center supervisor but he had IT background and we liked him so we transfered him over. Sorry dave. the call center’s loss is our gain.
I will be in NYC the rest of the week, and Keith will be in Kingston Wed, & Thursday. I want all the building out to be done so we don’t have to spend so much time up there. It takes time to transfer the knowledge we have to the new people at the same time as we are deploying so much gear.
We just got 30 new phones. We need to program them. We also had 8 new people start Monday. It is busy, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course a break now and then would be nice!