roman_a_clef
8.17.2006
David Hewlett blog about A Dog's Breakfast. Haven't a hope of seeing it here in the hinterlands, but hope springs eternal!
7.14.2004
dossier's smart ass web pageHave made some minor updates to the site!
Well, it's been a while since I updated here. All of May was a total disaster. The generator chose to fail the same week as that UPS, and would start up at any change in voltage, not just when the city power stopped. Not a problem? Sheeeeyaah. When it starts, it cuts off city power and supplies its own power, which means there’s a momentary, total power loss. We went about 20 rounds with Entergy, the Master Electrician that installed the power for it, and the generator company, until the problem was determined to be a bad motherboard in the power transfer switch itself. And, since the accounting database had no UPS, it died, along with every other PC in the building (not just WWTS). We lost a drive in the array on it twice, while the accounting company we contract with futzed around with the new batteries.
The batteries were really interesting, there are 40 lead-acid batteries inside there, about 4x6x3, all arranged very carefully. Turns out it’s a Powerware UPS, the DataGeneral tag on the front is a franchise thing. There were two batteries that actually had started to melt, and 4 more that scorched.
Then right on the heels of that, Navigant moved ahead with the conversion of our office to their network. They wanted a fiber backbone in the building, and they were going to replace about 20 switches with 3 fiber switches. The fiber installation was interesting, and the switchover was a really long day-I was there about 18 hours recabling and assisting Eric and John with resetting the internet on all the PC’s. The next day was spent tracking down a few problems, but things didn’t settle down for a week or so, until I got the rest of the bugs worked out.
During this time, Navigant had decided that they *did* need a network person, but I only heard about it from a third person. I called about it, and had a 2 hour conversation with M, my boss in that regard, and at no time did I get the impression that they were interested in *me* fro the job. I waited until after the conversion to see what it would be like to work with the network engineers, and at no time did I feel like I was anything but a lackey. So, I called and declined the position, taking instead the programmers job K had offered me. Damn it, M was upset; he had apparently thought I was a sure thing. But of course, I had to hear this from another third party! An agreement was made that I would stay on in my current position until the company-wide conversion was complete, and then they would replace me and I’ll go onto scripting. The network part of my job as it was has all been taken over by the Navigant engineers, and the part that’s left is the boring part. Scripting will great at first, but it’s possible that it will devolve into redoing the same thing over and over again, but that’s the chance I’ll take to work with someone that really wants me there, and isn’t afraid to say so—being needed and part of a team is #1 on my job satisfaction list, and the lack of communication from the Navigant side pretty much sealed the decision.
I went back to Houston in May for the USA Team Handball Championships. Partyman’s team made the cut, and they were all there. We had a great time watching them play, getting caught up with old friends and just relaxing. I took a few pictures, http://www.zonezine.net/~dossier/HNTHB04/hnthb04.html and of course the official team picture is there as well.
June and July have been pretty quiet. We did get the backyard finally cut and cleared, and that was a job and a half! Boy Unit is in Florida now (called me from Key West yesterday) and the A/C went out—just in time for record-breaking heat. It’s been 100-110 with the heat index, and the dogs and I are living with fans and cold showers. They really appreciated that; they stood quite still and were very happy to get cooled off.
Borrowed an ungodly amount of money from my 401K yesterday in an effort to get into a debt reduction program. I can hope to be out from underneath the crushing load in about 60 months—it’s not going to be east, and my credit rating will be in the trash, but I swear it’ll be worth it. Also going to consolidate my Student Loans, and save some money there, too. I took a reduction in benefits on my cancer insurance, and I’m still looking for ways to cut back.
I heard an interesting thing on NPR this week on “The Infinite Mind”, about the reward system of the brain in regard to dopamine levels and how they relate to addiction, or the expectation of reward. It brought to mind something N said about the self-medication that depressed people attempt, and I can see how that operates. Wellbutrin targets the dopamine levels, as does Zyban, by regulating the peaks and valleys of an unstable dopamine level. I’m thinking I really need to start doing something about this for me.
Being alone in the house is strange. I’m reminded of the months I lived here in AR alone just after I moved. Of course then I had to struggle with the cancer, and so it freed me to deal with it in my own way without anyone else’s expectations or fear—but all things considered, I’d rather not be alone.
4.28.2004
Had some excitement at work today. (please note the ironic tone). I got a call around 10:30, saying that the second floor was smelling smoke, and could I please go check? (Like I'm the one wearing the fire-retardant bunny suit. Not.) I trot down there, and unlock the cold room door, only to find the room indeed is filled with acrid, bitter smoke, but can't see any flames shooting out from anything. At this moment, a very loud alarm starts to go off. I trot back upstairs for reinforcements, and to get a breath of fresh air, and my boss literally RUNS downstairs wth me.
It's not the fire alarm, the silence button doesn't work, there'e no smoke in the ceiling,and it takes 5 of us crammed into the room to figure out that it's th UPS that's making the noise, and is the cause of the toxic fumes (heh, I kid you not). The UPS powers the Avion database which runs the entire accounting department, and we can't just turn the thing off. I get them organized to turn everything off, one last back up and all the sets turned off (because just flipping the switch on a Unix O/S array is just stupid), meanwhile nasty smell is choking the crap out of me. Ok, we get the thing shut down, and I hit the emergency shutoff.
And I kill all the switches, the phone system AND the two T1 circuits--they are all on the UPS! No one had any *idea* that all of these things were connected to it! Everyone swore that the only thing that it provided inline power for was the database! Fuck me! Major scramble to re-power the other stuff from other sources; meanwhile the company that we contracted service for the accounting system is grumbling because they don't think the UPS is covered in the contract. More scrambling. I call my hardware guys at the accounting service providers, they make sure there's a Purchase order number for repair costs and do stuff at their end to get the model # etc to the Data General guy.
Then, there's some network issues. the accounting provider support folks can't get back in through their back door, the network is screwed. Jesus. What next? I get their router rebooted and re-power the apppropriate switch, and they can get in. Another 20 minutes, more fallout. two of the accounting PC's won't boot--there is no bad keyboard/mouse beeps at POST, but the O/S freezes one loading the mouse drivers, and dies. I call back again, for advise on how to restage nondestructively. Never got a call back. Then, no one can get to the database anyway, there's no connectivity--move the ethernet to the other switch, still can't get in. The Avion has a bad gateway entry that won't go away--I had forgotten that the bad routing entry points to a nonexistent gateway and network. I call AGAIN, and get them to delete the entries, because UNIX and I are not on speaking terms.
Meanwhile, I'm having an asthma attack from the battery fumes, and struggling to help two users to get their PC's out in the branch offices working because their connectivity to a couple of programs has been eaten by fucking malware/spyware/trojans. Which annoys me to no end. I mean you wouldn't walk into a bar and have unprotected sex with every disease ridden whore, what makes you think you can go out on a P2P network and not catch some fucking crap? People. Are. Stupid. Including hackers. They should all be hung up, have their skin ripped off Ala Willow, and then be covered in honey and ants, while their eys and genitals are being gouged out with red hot pokers.
And that would be getting off light, in my opinion.
My cell phone was dying, I'd forgotten to charge it up, people are calling me and getting disconnected when it dies because the forwarding from my office phone I had canceled got uncanceled when the phone switches went down; one of those was the little bike company I moonlight at as their network consultant called and they were complaining about SPYWARE. Fuck me again. I leave one hellmouth of a job, and go over to the other, and spend another 90 minutes killing syware and resolving network issues. I made it home about 5 minutes before Smallville, find out that Boy Unit had REWOUND THE TAPE to the begining nof the tape! I nearly had a spazz attack-no more spare tapes queued up! I get it to the right spot just as the show starts, turn the tape on and run to the store for those emergency supplies, and miss the first 15 minutes. Thank god for tape! Must go back and watch it again.
I know that the Fates and Destiny are fucking with me--just this morning I told A that my stupid Shingles will be fine, as long as I don't get stressed out. I should be drinking. Heavily. Can I go back to answering the telephone, and stapling paper together, please? I look great in a hair net--would you like fries with that sir? They'll clog your arteries, and are the moral equivalent to Fried Sugar, but they're only a dollar more!
4.09.2004
dossier's smart ass webpage
Heh. discovered the blogger tool on the google toolbar--this makes it much easier to post & publish. I guess I'm more likely to spam the blog this way.
This week marked my jumping into the shark tank that is QA programming. I loaded all the tools and discovered that my PC didn't wan't to run the programs, and further more, I couldn't log into the Citrix server in Denver anymore. *sigh* That meant today was wipe the hard drive and re-load. I got all the way through getting mail to run, so I could get my employee ID to run so I could fill out my online time sheet. I'll be working tomorrow to get it all finished, and sunday to start my Qworker program that the othr programmers are already waiting for. Sheesh.Ovetime!
They have a position open for a leisure assistant, and I sent the notice to Chris. He thought about it, probably talked to his Dad, and decided that changing jobs so soon wouldn't look good. He's going to apply for a supervisory position, but I can't help but think he's going to miss out ona stellar opporunity. At least he considered it.
Tax time, and bill paying. I'm avoiding it like the plague, but I'm going to have to do something asap. yech. Why can't I have apersonal assistant that does this crap for me? Oh yeah--mostly at my level, you gave to marry someone to get that service, and I'm just not going to go there!
I worked on a story a little bit, but I have no taste for it. It's really difficult to be a canon bitch, and gather up all the details to make it fuller and interesting. I'll keep messing with it, though.
If you came here through the web page above, excellent. go to http://www.zonezine.net/~experiment and tell me what you think of the frames layout. I have one person that has seen it and liked it! Also, both feature the new guest book. I'm pretty pleased with the results myself.
3.23.2004
I had a chest/abdomen/pelvis CAT scan today, and everything is fine, looks good. It's been almost exactly two years since my initial diagnosis, and this was my 18 month check up. Weird how all of that was only 6 months in length, but then again I could be re-compressing it, because it certainly seemed like longer than 6 months!
3.21.2004
hola and welcome! been a while since I posted, but I figured, hey, it's about time. Most of my journal stuff has gone into LJ, but I don't really publicize that. Too many perverts {g} over there.
I did indeed buy a house, then went broke renovating it. We've been here just a year now. The family came and visited for Spring Break last year, then my niece E came to visit a few times. Sister S came to visit for the premiere of LOTR:ROTK and we had a three viewing spree, along with the extended release of FOTR and TTT just to get us in the mood. Truly lovely movies, all.
WWTS was bought by Navigant last fall, and we've been in MadMode ever since. Moving the in-house booking product to a secure facility in Denver, getting New Governement contracts, etc. I held my breath for a while, wondering if I was going to have a job after the user support moved to Denver, but apparently so. I'm going to move into a developer position, which will mean lots of days coding and tweaking, and having many people scream when it doesn't work. Yay!
C is quite recovered from his debacle of October 2002. He's finally employed, though seriously so, and has a new girlfriend P who is taking up much of his brainpower and time. Young love, it's really cute.
We obtained a roommate, H. She's smart, funny and interesting and keeps us all on our toes. I fear we won't have her long; I believe that she's planning on moving home after the school semester is over. Must find new roommate for after that; it's really nice to have things happening in the house.
I've reached my 18 month post-chemo benchmark. Basically that's only notable, as if there were any more re-occurrences, I could go back and receive cisplatin/taxol treatment again, as it takes 18 months for the stuff to wear out of your system and the cancer cells might possibly be resistant to the treatment. The second line of defense is not as effective, so that's why it's really an important benchmark. I have a CAP CAT scan this week, but really, I'm thinking that I'll see the five-year Benchmark as well. After that--I'm just going to play Scarlett O'Hara--tomorrow is another day!
If you didn't get here from the web page (sheeyah, right) I've updated it. New guestbook, etc, all ready and waiting for someone to put their mark in it. http://www.zonezine.net/~dossier
10.21.2002
Subject: Cautiously optimistic
Chris is doing MUCH better today, he's responding rather than being obtuse and rebellious. the folks at the psych ward are making a difference, and have been very open to suggestions I've made about our family history of alcohol abuse and depression, as well as some skills that Chris already exhibits in the way of career counseling.
But, I can't make this another "mommy found this for me", it has to be something that comes from within, you know? It's a really long tunnel, but I think there's a light at the end of it. No, I don't think it's a train.
Chris had also scammed an undisclosed amount of my anti-anxiety drug, Clonazepam, while drinking and slicing, which explains alot about his attitude yesterday. I kept wondering in bewilderment where my charming rational Boy Unit had disappeared to. I saw him at lunch today, and there was even a slight show of his sense of humor. He was the one that made the suggestion that I put the class 3 prescriptions under lock and key. I have a feeling that he doesn't ever want to go through this again.
Something I can heartily recommend.
Date: 2002-10-20 11:28
Subject: what a fucking day
I got up this morning and the house looked like a bloodbath. I'm not kidding- there was blood everywhere. Boy Unit had slit his wrist and thumb, then crashed around before going to bed about 3AM. When I went into his room, there was a puddle of blood next to his bed, but he woke up. The ER put stitches in, about 15 in all, and then promptly put him on a 72 hour hold, and called the psychiatrist.
He really really doesn't want to stay, but I don't think it's going to come down to a 5-point restraint.. I think I've convinced him that it's best that he does stay and things will go quicker if he cooperates. He's in a 6x8 padded room with a bed chair and washbasin, and security guards hovering ouside the door.
I don't care how often you see this, or hear about it, it's more scary than you can possibly imagine.
