Tuesday, September 20, 2005
no photos from the dolphins i'm afraid. my crappy little digital camera doesn't do low light that well.
last weekend was fun. the over 35's had their end of year trip away. to the rosehill racecourse. we stayed at rydges in paramatta on friday night, went out to an irish pub and drank some beers and watched cute chicks in green dresses do some kind of tap dancing.
the next morning we went to the track. the best i did was won $8 on one race, unfortunately i bet $5 each way, so i still lost $2. so pretty much it was a good reminder to me why i shouldn't bet on horses. after a day of drinking at the track, then some drinking at a pub, rsl and nightclub and i was feeling a little worn out.
then it was up at sparrow's fart on sunday to drive home and get the kids for a birthday party at mum's. i wasn't exactly the life of the party, and the kids had a late nite as well, one of them went and had a nap as soon as we got there.
i won't bother going into the crap that's been happening at work. it's too depressing
last weekend was fun. the over 35's had their end of year trip away. to the rosehill racecourse. we stayed at rydges in paramatta on friday night, went out to an irish pub and drank some beers and watched cute chicks in green dresses do some kind of tap dancing.
the next morning we went to the track. the best i did was won $8 on one race, unfortunately i bet $5 each way, so i still lost $2. so pretty much it was a good reminder to me why i shouldn't bet on horses. after a day of drinking at the track, then some drinking at a pub, rsl and nightclub and i was feeling a little worn out.
then it was up at sparrow's fart on sunday to drive home and get the kids for a birthday party at mum's. i wasn't exactly the life of the party, and the kids had a late nite as well, one of them went and had a nap as soon as we got there.
i won't bother going into the crap that's been happening at work. it's too depressing
Thursday, September 15, 2005
well last weekend was pretty cool.
unfortunately i had a bit of a cold so i couldn't go diving. the other deckie made up for it by jumping in the water at every damned opportunity.
we had dolphins surfing the bow wave, and then on saturday night, they were swimming around the boat under the floodlights teaching the baby dolphins how to catch fish. so i was pretty impressed with that. they were the common dolphins as well, instead of the bottlenose dolphins we usually get in the bay. usually they are a lot shier, but this lot were having a great time.
on sunday we went and dived with the seals. the customers all had a lot of fun, i just tried to avoid being seesick as i wasn't feeling the best.
the week since then has been fairly shithouse, and i went out with friends for dinner last night to find out that another friend of mine has been in hospital since last weekend. he had a hole in his lower intestine. the hole has since closed, but the complications from that mean that he's getting operated on this afternoon and will be off work for 6 weeks.
bummer...
unfortunately i had a bit of a cold so i couldn't go diving. the other deckie made up for it by jumping in the water at every damned opportunity.
we had dolphins surfing the bow wave, and then on saturday night, they were swimming around the boat under the floodlights teaching the baby dolphins how to catch fish. so i was pretty impressed with that. they were the common dolphins as well, instead of the bottlenose dolphins we usually get in the bay. usually they are a lot shier, but this lot were having a great time.
on sunday we went and dived with the seals. the customers all had a lot of fun, i just tried to avoid being seesick as i wasn't feeling the best.
the week since then has been fairly shithouse, and i went out with friends for dinner last night to find out that another friend of mine has been in hospital since last weekend. he had a hole in his lower intestine. the hole has since closed, but the complications from that mean that he's getting operated on this afternoon and will be off work for 6 weeks.
bummer...
Friday, September 09, 2005
finally friday
whinge whinge, whine whine. i'm sure you've heard it all before.
i've finally arrived at friday. not in too fantastic shape though. after a week of shit, i'm feeling run down and i think i'm getting a cold.
fortunately i don't have to work with computers on the weekend, as i couldn't get out of being on the boat. i'm feeling fairly relaxed about that though. i need a break. on tuesday or wednesday i was quite ready to tell the boss to shove it and follow my predeccessor. unfortunately i don't like leaving my team in the lurch, so i'm hanging on for the greater good. as they have been doing. they've been working hard to hold up their respective ends. they all look stuffed.
maybe after a weekend of physical activity filling tanks and manhandling divers, instead of brain bashing, i'll feel better. it's worked in the past so i'm counting on it.
the weather forecast isn't too flash, but i don't care. my thermal t-shirts are all in the wash and will be dry by boarding time...
Sunday, September 04, 2005
the granny factor
the team got the new box up and running. fucking awesome.
at this conference i went to, i attended a security seminar. this dude, Steve Riley who was giving the seminar is easily the best speaker there.
digress
the next best speakers...
Corey Hynes, Jesper Johannsen and Raj Natarajan
/ digress
anyway, he asked us who of us trusted our system administrators. nearly everyone put their hands up. he was impressed. when he did the tech-ed tour in the united states he got a lot of people asking him questions about how to prevent sysadmins doing naughty things. about 85% of them in the united states didn't trust their sysadmins. (his answer, if you don't trust your sysadmins, fire them, i agree totally)
i trust my administrators. they don't all know everything, they all can't do everything. but i trust them not to try anything too stupid that they can't do. and i do trust them to accomplish what they can. this weekend has, i believe, proved and matured my team.
we worked out a few ways forward, were unable to repair or return to our existing machine, and when i talked to the person responsible for going the new server, he reckoned he had it covered. so i let him run with it. nothing like good timing and good people. it's a fucking rush. one that i recommend to no-one though.
anyway, back to the granny factor. my grandmother's (on my mum's side) clock has always had a temperamental personality. you can level it perfectly, and it will fail to run, turn it around so it faces the wall and you can observe the motion throught the rear door, and it will run for months at a time, turn it around again, and it will stuffup and screwup, and stop every 6-12 hours.
push the key under it's right hand side, wind it twice a week, and fuss over it, and it will run forever, but not straight away. the important thing to remember is that my grandma Kathren (i'll never remember her as that, she was grandma Kitty, no idea why) had a sense of humour, and her clock is a fussy shit.
last weekend, before i went away for a week, the stupid thing had stopped, only a day after being wound. i wound it, pushed the key underneath, and fully expected it to stop (as usual) after about 3-4 days. it's meant to be an 8 day motion, but i've never managed more than 5 days. 7 days later, for the first time i ever knew, it is still running. the hands are in the wrong place, but it's still running, and when it's about to stop, it runs slow, it's still running on time.
i know you're watching Kathren (i hope you don't mind, i like that name better) and i know you're just playing with our heads. i'll be winding that clock until the day i die, even if they have to replace everything in it. the most comforting noise i've ever heard is waking up at 4:00am or 3:00am just before it doings (it clicks first, i think i hear that) then hearing it doing the time. it's like i'm a little kid sleeping on your verandah again, all is good, and all is right.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
yesterday i had one of those days that sometimes makes me think that i don't need to give a stuff about timing. everything i did, i got there just in time. i was walking around looking for another pub, i rang one of the people i met up with at the convention, turns out that just as i rang, i was walking past his hotel, he saw me out the window. i didn't even know what hotel they were in.
i didn't think i had very good timing today though. as i left the airport in sydney i started getting messages on my phone. it turned out that our main file server had shit itself. terminally. so much for good fucking timing.
i end up at work, instead of relaxing after a big day travelling (and still hungover from partying late last night). one of my team is talking with dell technical support, in malaysia. she ended up spending over 3 hours on the phone, i had to have a few turns talking to him, i couldn't understand a damned word he was saying.
another of the team turned up later. his project has been building the replacement for this box. now the replacement is a whole lot more urgent. the boss turned up and left. he didn't want to fix the damned thing. he just wanted to go home and have a few beers. i don't blame him in the slightest.
so i'm stressing to the max, trying to work out how to get out of this mess. turns out that what i thought was shitty timing, was actually good timing. the server didn't shit itself during the week, the new replacement box can be probably made ready and finished by tomorrow afternoon, and my team members were very positive about the whole thing as well. pizza at work for dinner, then we continued.
tomorrow is going to be a big day, but i reckon we'll have a successful one. and i'll owe my team another debt of gratitude. they really dug in deep and came through for me. much as no-one wants to be at work on a weekend, the extra dollars in all our pay packets next week won't go astray either.
now for sleep
i didn't think i had very good timing today though. as i left the airport in sydney i started getting messages on my phone. it turned out that our main file server had shit itself. terminally. so much for good fucking timing.
i end up at work, instead of relaxing after a big day travelling (and still hungover from partying late last night). one of my team is talking with dell technical support, in malaysia. she ended up spending over 3 hours on the phone, i had to have a few turns talking to him, i couldn't understand a damned word he was saying.
another of the team turned up later. his project has been building the replacement for this box. now the replacement is a whole lot more urgent. the boss turned up and left. he didn't want to fix the damned thing. he just wanted to go home and have a few beers. i don't blame him in the slightest.
so i'm stressing to the max, trying to work out how to get out of this mess. turns out that what i thought was shitty timing, was actually good timing. the server didn't shit itself during the week, the new replacement box can be probably made ready and finished by tomorrow afternoon, and my team members were very positive about the whole thing as well. pizza at work for dinner, then we continued.
tomorrow is going to be a big day, but i reckon we'll have a successful one. and i'll owe my team another debt of gratitude. they really dug in deep and came through for me. much as no-one wants to be at work on a weekend, the extra dollars in all our pay packets next week won't go astray either.
now for sleep
Friday, September 02, 2005
8:00am on the last day of the conference. it's a lovely, sunny, hot morning. unfortunately i'm displaying my geekiness again as i am at the exhibition centre already, playing on the computers.
in my defense i have only until 4:30 this arvo to try some stuff in the test labs before they close. that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it.
we went to movie world last night. it was heaps of fun, and i don't know if it's normal for movie world, but they had tables of drinks all over the place. ok, it was four-x and it was in plastic cups (kinda reminded me of the cricket) but it was beer and it was cold (kinda).
looking out the window, waiting for the stupid computer to start. there's this really cool little 4-way river junction and a couple of bridges over the water. it'd be a lot more fun on the water.
in my defense i have only until 4:30 this arvo to try some stuff in the test labs before they close. that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it.
we went to movie world last night. it was heaps of fun, and i don't know if it's normal for movie world, but they had tables of drinks all over the place. ok, it was four-x and it was in plastic cups (kinda reminded me of the cricket) but it was beer and it was cold (kinda).
looking out the window, waiting for the stupid computer to start. there's this really cool little 4-way river junction and a couple of bridges over the water. it'd be a lot more fun on the water.
