More fun...

I am a Help Desk IT Tech. My job description includes Desktop computer support of all types - Operating System, Application/Program Support, Network issues, Hardware issues - you name it and if it happens to a computer, I resolve it. I have been at this job for a year and have been providing technical level customer support for almost ten years.

As a side note, no, I do not have a degree or certifications (yet.) But in every office job I have held, I have ALWAYS become the "go-to" person for the computer. How do I print this, how do I use my e-mail, how do I change this setting, how do I make this program do this random thing. I help my friends and family with their computers (except my dad and brothers, who are also tech geek folks.)

Next week we are migrating our Exchange e-mail server to the Main I.T. Dept e-mail server. So we have to help our users clean out their e-mail boxes and archive stuff so the mailboxes are as small as possible for the migration.

So, I get an e-mail today from boss guy saying that the e-mail "guru" from the Main I.T. Department "has graciously agreed to review the email archiving features of Outlook with us (the IT staff) so we will be prepared for our information sessions next week."

I nearly fell off my chair. I was so insulted that my boss actually thought I needed a refresher course, in E-mail management and archiving. And I was offended for my co-worker because he is quite knowledgeable as well. I sat with my head in my hands for several minutes and then decided I needed to try and say something about it.

So I wrote back, "Do you really think this is necessary? I mean, this is something (my co-worker) and I do every day with people. I have a thorough understanding of using archiving and personal folder files (.pst files). Just asking." Mind you, I ACCEPTED the meeting request, even though I did not agree it was even necessary.

So I get back, "I believe there are multiple ways to achieve the same results, so Id like to use this session to understand each method and to collectively select one method that we can all use. In addition, he will review the utility that copies archives from the local drive to the network so we can decide if we want to implement this feature."

The utility review was actually going to be helpful, but he didn't bother to mention that the first time around.

So, in essence, this is what he was saying to me:
"I don't care if you think you know about archiving. I don't and since I have never asked you to provide me with a full explanation of archiving, I don't believe you know what you think you know about it. The Main I.T. Dept is god, so we should learn from them. Plus I don't know anything about it, so I am hiding behind you guys to learn from someone professional instead of asking my underlings to teach me something. Plus we will actually learn something that we need to know (archive copy to network for backing up), which I failed to mention in the meeting request. Thanks for remaining the peon that you are, Boss Guy."

Yeah, banner week for me here at work.

Are we there yet?

Weeks like this make me want to a) curl up in a ball and just cry; b) get in my car and drive far, far away from everything and everyone and find a small town somewhere that I can just work in the local hardware store; c) go all clocktower on everyone's asses.

Yet another day of the fun game of "fix other people's mistakes", also known as "I have no foresight, do you?" And I got to also include the bonus side game of "please the unpleaseable control freak." If these were REAL games, they would have PRIZES, or at least cool parting gifts. Those fuckers.

I wish I had more positive things to write about today. But it just isn't there. The weekend has to happen SOON!!!

Sounds like fun...

Let's have a network, where people log in using applications over the DNS servers, and connect to other applications through the main campus firewall. Then....lets reconfigure the DNS server settings and where they point to and redirect to. But let's do that during the day, when everyone is in the office and we can immediately know that no one can get into these applications and they can call us and get angry and complain. But let's not tell the IT Tech what we're doing, let's let her find out when 10 people all call and e-mail her within a 3 minute span of time and she comes over asking what we did.

That sounds like a truckload of fun. Don't you think?

Catching up

It's been a couple of days, I know. I totally did NOT make NaBloPoMo. I missed 4 days now. Not in a row, but still. But let's not count our chicks yet.

Turkey day was yummy and good times. Spent with sister-in-law's family, my brother, my parents and my sweetie. Friday was the annual trek by my sweetie and my sis-in-law out into the Black Friday ridiculously early morning madness. They had a good time, as usual. There was talk of someone among us going and waiting outside Best Buy at midnight to try and get a good spot in line for a $200 computer or a $400 laptop, but that never happened.

My nephew is getting bigger by the minute it seems. He is a cutie for sure though. Very smiley and responsive for 3 months old!

And on the way home we stopped in CT for a special girl's birthday party at Molly Darcy's in Danbury. It was great fun, as usual. Part of the funny was that homestarwannab just turned 21, and made the HUGE mistake of challenging a friend of ours that just cannot be matched for alcohol consumption. We headed home at about 18 shots. We actually haven't heard from him yet, so we are wondering how he fared the rest of the night. I am betting he had THE hangover of his life the next day. Or maybe today, that's how much he was drinking!

Sunday was quiet. Today was back to work - yuk. I hope the week flies by. I am already tired of work!

Good Times

I am having a great weekend, and it's not even over. I am having good family time with my brother and sister-in-law and my niece and nephews.

My sweetie and sister-in-law got up at 4:30am and did their annual Black Friday shopping excursion. Many bargains were gotten and many purchases were made. The employees at Toys'r'us were the most organized, the employees at Best Buy were the nicest and Staples was a nightmare with pushing shoving and rudeness.

I stayed home and slept until they pulled into the garage at 10:30 am. Woo!! And tonight we girls went to the movies and saw Enchanted. A very good choice, I must say. Cute, romantic, FUNNY and good music. Worth seeing.

Today was sort of a musical kind of day actually. We watched Legally Blonde, the musical. They had it on their DVR from an MTV performance of it. VERY funny and catchy. I think I need the soundtrack now. (oh. my. god. ohmygod you guys!) Sounds like a Christmas gift to me....

Anyway, tomorrow I see friends for a birthday night out and then head home at some ungodly late hour (because the ride is 3 hours from Danbury, so any way we do it, we will get home after midnight.) Should be fun!!

Thankful

I am thankful for:
-being alive
-my sweetie, 'nuff said
-my family, even with all their problems
-my bestest friends who stick by me even when I am bitchy to them and ignore them and push back when they try to help and don't spend enough time with them, etc., etc.
-my pups
-advancements in pharmaceuticals
-having health insurance
-living in a free society
-the internets and computers
-my mother's chocolate mousse pie

I am not thankful for:
-this sinus headache

That's my list at this time. The sinus headache really needs to hit the road and go. This is the third day I have had it. It sucks.

FOUR DAYS OFF!!

Woo to the motherfucking hoo!

Me and my guy so need this long weekend. And - earth shattering - he gets the whole weekend off!

Thanksgiving in New Jersey at my brother's and his in-laws house. Lots of people, lots of food, and Hershey the dog. Woo!

Another day and a half of family hanging out and then a birthday party with friends on the way home. Then Sunday to chill out at home.

More on the final season tomorrow or Friday.

Happy Thankgiving all!

Seasons - cont'd

Everything is green at last. Days are longer, warmer. The spring bulbs have all but faded, some of the late tulips are still out. The storm windows go up. The sound of lawnmowers can be heard any given day at any given time. You almost always smell freshly cut grass. I get out my sandals and they become my only pair of shoes. Then the real hot days come. The lilacs bloom. Even if you can't see them, you can smell them as you drive around. The sun is incredible. How does the same sun allow it to be so cold just a few months ago, yet now it's so hot. The windows in my house are opened and stay open until autumn. Summer is: the beach, warm winds swishing green trees around, sunglasses, pedicures, trips to the dog park, 4-65 Air Conditioning (4 windows open at 65MPH), Tevas or Birkenstocks, dog days of summer, tiger lilies, August thundershowers. Everything comes alive, people are out and active, it's hard not to be happy during summer. Days start to grow shorter just minutes at a time. Subtle changes start happening. Nights are cooler instead of so hot you can't sleep. Even the latest blooming lilies are dropping their petals. Back-to-school talk is unavoidable; grade school, high school or college. If you're not going back to school, you know someone who is or who has a child who is going back. The days are cooler - it's sweatshirt and shorts time. I wear my sandals as long as I possibly can. As the shorter, cooler days fall to darker, chilly nights you know Summer fades.

STOOOOOOPID!

This place is so stupid. Stupid stupid stupid.
We have a help desk e-mail account. It is shared. We do not get that e-mail on our handy little blackberries. New SysAdmin says, when asked about Thanksgiving coverage, that he would rather that users send in an e-mail and then call him if he does not respond within 15 minutes. FUCKING DUH YOU ASS HEAD. We wouldn't SEE the e-mail since it doesn't COME to our BLACKBERRIES, unless you plan on sitting in front of your computer for 4 days monitoring the Help Desk e-mail, because I ain't unless I get PAID! It's called coverage for a reason, because there's someone to CALL in case of emergencies.

I am a quick learner. Show me something once, maybe twice, especially with computers, and I get it. Done, snap, I'm all over it. That's what makes me good at what I do. I have quick comprehension of what's going on, I problem solve through logical process of elimination, and I find a resolution by whatever means I need to. Help Desk, PC, network, application and server support. It's what I do! This fucking guy is like molasses. He stares at event logs that are 2 lines long for like 5 minutes. Like some magical solution is going to pop out at you the longer you stare at it. He looks at the running processes and then looks at them again a different way. What are you DOING?!?!?!

It's sad and frustrating when I know more than my boss and I could do his job better than him.

party time...excellent

Last night I spent some time with my girlies and went to a friend's birthday party. Every year there is a theme and this year was no different. It was Wild West! There were some great costumes there! There was the saloon whore with the shiner that she got from the priest, the miner, the cowgirl in her union suit gun slung low on her hips, the undertaker, the Indian running the craps table, lots of reg'ler cowboys, a burlesque dancer, a bible thumpin' mormon, and lots of others.

There were two contest, the first to figger out some cowboy talk and the second to answer questions about the host. Everything you got right got you more chips for gamblin'. There was craps, blackjack and roulette. There were shootin' duels out on the porch. Later in the night there was dancin' too. And of course there was liquor, and lots of it.

A very fun night with some people I haven't seen for a while! Yee-haw!!

one day break from the seasons

I am sort of wimping out on this post. I will continue my diatribe on the seasons tomorrow.
In the meantime, how cute are these pups?!

Spring

Winter breaks and spring begins peeking its head out. Little by little at first. There is that time at the end of winter, before spring really starts, when it's hard to tell what season it is. It's not really winter, it's not really spring. That time is this great time of anticipation for me. I check the tree branches every day for the reddish buds that precede the green leaf buds. I check out the trees on my drive to work, and anywhere else I might travel during that time. I look at the bare flower beds. I check for tiny little green stuff poking through the dirt. The first time it gets warm, not chilly anymore, but warm, I know that the next few days will bring growing things and that always makes me feel good. One of my all time favorite things to see are the Crocuses and early Tulips coming out. I love the color, I love that they look like they are getting out of bed after sleeping all winter. Brushing the dirt off themselves and standing up tall. Then the leaves bud and all the branches take on a green hue. They leave fully only after some good rain and a few nice sunny days. I love spring rain because I always know that the flowers are going to bloom and the trees are going to blossom and fill out with their leaves. I truly love watching everything grow back after sleeping through the Autumn and Winter. And even though Cardinals are all season birds, for me, they are my harbingers of Spring. I always see a pair just before spring really breaks. Ever since I was living at home. I see them, their bright red feathers standing out against the dark brown tree branches, and they are gathering new nesting supplies so they can make some new Cardinals to come back and greet me next spring. I stop noticing the people when Spring comes, because for me, Spring is all about Nature taking over from us and doing her thing. As Spring progresses, everything is green and grown and full and lush and warm and colorful. It gets warmer and the rains let up. Before you know it, it's too warm for Spring......

Seasons

I love the seasons. Always have. I don't have a favorite season. I love them all for different reasons and for their individual beauty and the unique traits they each have. I have thought about this for a while and wanted to blog about it. I am going to do one season a day so I will hit them all.

I will start with Winter.

I am a little sad when it gets so cold, because I am a wimp in the cold. But once I acclimate, around the beginning of January, I am okay with it (given a little leeway to whine just a bit.) I love how you can see so much more because the trees have dropped their leaves. You can see people's houses back in the woods, their yards, their hidden treasures (pile of wood, car on blocks, yard full of dogs, etc.) The landscape changes without leaves on the trees. It's sort of like a big ol' head with thinning hair. You can see lakes you never saw before and the old stone walls that used to deliniate the property lines. I love seeing dogs walking with their owners, puffing steam out of their mouths. I like noticing how different people bundle up, or don't as the case may be. You see people who just wear the same windbreaker all year, even on the coldest days. And then you see people who wear coats over sweaters over shirts with hats and scarves and mittens and warm-looking boots. And I love when it snows. I love being out as it starts snowing. Snow makes a sound when it hits the ground. It makes almost a hissing sound when it's warm enough that the first flakes melt when they hit the ground. It does that for a while and then as it gets colder, it gets quieter. I love when the snow makes EVERYTHING white - ground, trees, telephone poles, wires, houses, grass, cars, streets...everything. Going out after a big snowstorm is one of my favorite things too. Seeing what nature has done to make us all slow down and take a break for a few minutes is amazing. It's quiet like the whole world is covered with down comforters. Trucks don't make the same sounds, the ambient highway noise is all but inaudible, even your speaking voice doesn't carry the same way with all that snow absorbing all the sound. And, of course, I love seeing animal prints in the snow. Dogs, cats, birds, deer....ANY animal prints. Just knowing that they were here and passed by is somehow awe inspiring. I love when the snow stays around for a while on the local streets and neighborhoods. I love noticing the houses that shovel and the ones that have that sharp edge to their driveways - you KNOW they have a snowblower. I love seeing Christmas and holiday decorations covered with snow. The lights and the bushes and the new blow up ones that wave a little with their blowers keeping them up and standing. I love small town squares at the holidays with their small town looking decorations all covered with snow too. The end of winter is always welcome, because I can only take so much cold and ice before I get really whiny. I never like the time late in winter when the snow that lingers gets dirty and dingy looking. But then it all melts, slow or fast. The trees look wet and bare. Everything starts to look like it's waiting for something. The days begin to be chilly rather than cold. Winter breaks.

More tomorrow.

Highlights

So, to hit on some points from today:

* I become very focused at work and forget pretty much anything else - including doctor appointments (not to worry, I went later in the day)

* I like Taco Bell a lot

* I like my doctor, but she is an unfortunate victim of HMO Syndrome, aka. the 3 minute exam

* I suck at asking for help

* I am afraid of letting my friends down

* I have increased my reliance on modern pharmaceuticals

That's about it for today. I am really not in the mood to write more about it at the moment. I had a thought this morning on the way to work for some good blog topics, something about pet peeves. But the thought flew right out of my mind a second later and I could not, for the life of me, remember the great idea I had. Oh well.

Figures...

You gotta love it when you come to work, all worried that you should get there on time, only to find that not only is the Director out on a vacation day, but the new SysAdmin is also out of the office today. Our guess was that SysAdmin thought it was a vacation day and just didn't even think to come in. I really hope that is the case - it would be nice to see him squirm a little. We did not have Veteran's Day off. Apparently a few years ago, the non-union employees made a deal that we get the day after Thanksgiving off and trade off Veteran's day, which the Union shops have off. Nice trade, I like it.

Murphy's Law dictated that since BOTH bosses were out, we would have some huge problem, which we did. A whole block of 5 servers went down over the weekend. Seemingly a power interruption, since they were all on the same UPS. But the Electrical division has denied that so far. We shall see. The UPS was suspect, meaning we were not sure it would support all 5 servers for any length of time. But I don't believe a UPS failing would actually cause those servers to lose power. That is the one variable I have to look into. So anyway, our FTP service, a database server, printing in the whole building and an inventory ordering system were all down due to this outage. Yeah! So we scrambled to get it all up and running and had to also troubleshoot another seemingly unrelated problem. Coincidence? I think not.

So, that was my day. Then when everything was back up and running, it was totally dead the rest of the day. Which was just fine by me. I could screw off a little and there was no boss to breathe down my neck. I looked through the software box and tried to make a software binder that made sense. We shall see if that worked.

That's it for me today. Just more fuel for the work frustration. :-)

Uncasville, baby!

I got up earlier than I do during the week to go meet Buffy and Anya at Mohegan Sun yesterday. A girls day of brunch and gambling (well, WATCHING gambling for me.) I was surprised that Faith was not there, but she was doing something else more important than spending money she didn't have.

So I got there, the place is huge! I walked through two casinos to get to the Casino of the Sky, which was where the ladies were playing some Spanish 21. We went to get some yummy brunch and then headed back to the floor. They played some more and then we hit the craps tables for a little while. Then the most fun part of the day started. We went to a different Spanish 21 table with a female dealer and a little oriental lady. Shortly after Buffy and Anya joined the action, two black ladies also joined. One of them was Bonnie. Loud and lively Bonnie. Things definitely became more exciting after she came. At one point she got two pink chips on a hand and proceeded to place them strategically on each of her...attributes, and celebrate that she got them. She got to cut the deck at one point and rubbed the cut card all over herself first to give it good mojo. The poor dealer, now Mike, just stood there waiting for her to be done and cut the deck. She was a hoot though, throwing a bunch of $5 chips Buffy's way to match the dealer's up card. Between her and the little oriental lady getting a suited dealer match at least 5 times, it was a whole lot of fun to watch.

All in all, a nice day out with the girls!!! Thanks Anya!!

Crap crap crap!!!!! Forgot to post yesterday!

I even predicted I might forget in my head Thursday because of the day I knew I would have Friday.

I had a doctor apppontment at 9:30 am (which ended up getting cancelled) and then went to work. I left the office for the work event with my dogs at about 11:15 am. I stayed there until 1:00 pm and then my honey and I ate lunch and I went over to where I was to take a one hour seminar on Information Security. I was meeting my boss and co-worker there, which I did. My co-worker and I went back to the office, got there around 2:45. So that was when my work day actually started. I was having dinner with my honey and two friends that night, and I didn't know whether we would be meeting in Providence or if I would be going home first. Being that my day was shortened, I was pretty busy. It turned out that I was meeting everyone for dinner rather than going home. Which offered me extra time to reboot two servers, which I needed to do. We went to Fire & Ice in Providence and ate dinner, and then we wandered around the mall for probably a little over an hour. Then we all went back to our house and hung out upstairs talking for a while. I got kind of tired and headed to bed because I had to get up early again today to go meet my girlys at Mohegan Sun for some brunch and Blackjack.

The kicker is that I went to bed around 11:15 pm. So I still had PLENTY of time to write an entry about my day - THIS entry. But I totally spaced on it and went to sleep. D'oh!!!!

Crap. So if I get picked for any prizes from NaBloPoMo I will sadly not win anything. Crud!

Whoops! Wednesday's post!!

Proof that this was really posted Wednesday is on my LiveJournal.

Titled: Why I hate blood work

This is from Tuesday. I didn't even know I had bruised this badly until that night when I went to put on my jammies and scared myself with this beaut.

anticipation......

Tomorrow promises to be quite a day. Doc appointment to possibly change meds first thing. Then to work. Then probably less than an hour later, my other half comes up to my work with the puppies and we go to "Heavy Petting", an event by the psychology department at Brown to encourage relaxation and stress free living. The other offering during the school year is they offer free chair massages every other Wednesday. For this event, they ask staff and faculty to offer to bring in their friendly dogs and bring them to the college green for an hour and a half so that anyone who wants to can get a "dog break" as Charlie Brown so wisely put it for many years in 'Peanuts'. So that should be tons of fun as there will be like 20 dogs there and who knows how many students will come! After that, I have a one hour security seminar on campus to talk about sensitive information handling procedures, specifically geared towards the IT end of things.

So I should be working for approximately 97 minutes total tomorrow. Woot!

christmas music hell

I am in hell. Christmas music hell.

My co-worker, who every day states the number of days until Christmas (all year!) began yesterday playing Christmas music in his cubicle through a radio station on his computer. He sits RIGHT NEXT TO ME and we have low cube walls and he is old and deaf so it is loud enough for me to hear clearly.

Come on. It's not even past Thanksgiving yet! I love Christmas and Christmas music too, but two months is TOO MUCH!!!!!

operation blood work: Complete!

Finally! I went on Saturday to try and get this done, even in the shitty weather, and the damn place was closed! When the website said they would be open!

So I went this morning before work. Got there and realized.....I was at the wrong building! All the medical schtuff I had to do in July when I had my gall bladder out got me all confused as to where the lab actually was. Duh. So this time I went to the REAL lab (which was probably actually open Saturday - I tried to save face and didn't ask) and gave them the slip, they had me in and out in less than 10 minutes!

I told the lady I had crappy, uncooperative veins and she asked what arm they usually get. I said it was a crap shoot, which it is. I have never successfully been drawn from the same place twice. So...she tourniquet-ed (?) my dominant right arm, felt around for a juicy vein, found one, grabbed the butterfly (I advised her that was SOP with me) and drew two big ol vials from me. Lickety split! WOOO HOOO! I never thought I would be so happy about getting blood drawn! I complimented her and said I liked her a lot. I told her about the heat packs, the water drinking, the pediatric vials with the butterfly. She nodded and understood. It made me happy that she commiserated with me. Yay!

Anyway, that is done and DONE!!! They should have the results to my doc for my appointment Friday and we shall see what comes from that.

Whew!

Sunday

Today was a nice day. Nice not in the weather sense, but nice in the me sense. I felt okay, I relaxed with my pups, I watched some Miami Ink, went in the hot tub, took a shower. Felt okay. I had minor aspirations to work on my desk area tonight, but no biggie. I have some new ideas in mind for organization and more specifically, purging. I want to make a list of what I save and WHY. And then I want to list what is reasonable to save for how long (like bills or other papers) and what is not reasonable to save or keep for any length of time. I think if I have that information handy, on a nice large print cheat sheet, then I will be better equipped to purge some shit. So this week, next weekend, I would like to do some of that.
Tomorrow morning, its getting up early to get the evil blood work.

Grumble.

Well, off to get this on blogger too before midnight!

not sad to be home

The weather SUCKS!!! We got the ass end of a hurricane up here in New England and the weather has sucked all day. High winds, rainy, and it was really cold earlier. Oddly, it has warmed up some. But then they say that if you don't like the weather here wait an hour and it will change. Alas, it has.

I went out to dinner tonight. Me. Alone. Went to Macaroni Grill and had me some Lobster Ravioli. I brought a book with me to read, which I did. I had a great time! No worries about what to order, or how fast the waitress was coming back. No feeling obligated to finish faster or feeling self-conscious about how much I was eating. I was not totally without some background mind noise. I was having a little dialog in my head wondering if people were thinking about the woman eating along on a Saturday night and why. Did they think I was a spinster (for lack of a better word), a writer taking a break for some inspiration (I wore my very writer-esque black turtleneck), just someone taking a break from her kids? I didn't harp on it, but I did think about it in the back of my mind.

Regardless, I had a nice time. It got me out of the house, for the second time today, the first being my unsuccessful attempt to get my bloodwork done. The damn lab was CLOSED!! They said they were open. Well, maybe they closed because of the weather or no one was showing up, I dunno. But I was annoyed.

That's about it today. Off I go to use my laptop in bed and try to organize my thoughts before trying to organize my desk!

Day 2

I should have done this hours ago when I had more interesting things to write about. At this point, I am just sort of 'stick-a-fork-in-me' done. Crappy commute, long day, flu shot, more repeated stories of the past from my co-worker, cake for someone retiring, setting up a user for the first time solo, politely chatting with a lonely old man, getting home, puppy cuddles, a good movie and bedtime. I am leaving out a glaring part in the middle of the evening which I just don't want to talk about. But other than that, that was my day.

And now I get to wipe that slate clean and start again tomorrow. Mostly clean. At least clean of work. Who am I kidding - there is no clean slate. Well, I get to sleep a lot without being woken up except by puppies. :-)

NaBloPoMo!!!

Good evening everyone!

Here is my official attempt to write a post every day for a month! Because it's National Blog Posting Month!!!!!

Brought to you as an alternative to NaNoWriMo for those of us who really don't have a novel inside quite yet. Thought up by the author of this blog. Last year, she hosted it on her website. But this year she made an official-ish site for it. I am not posting to that site, although I had to sign up there. I am posting to my Blogger blog and my LiveJournal page.

So there it is. I am going to try and write something every day. Not just crap like "Posted. I win." Something of some substance at least. We shall see how I do.

Wish me luck.