Jun 27 2013

This is not a blog post

It’s been nearly 2 years since I’ve written anything here. I find myself deleting attempted spam comments two or three times a month. The regular updates to WordPress (the blog software running this) happen automatically and I dutifully update the database each time. So as long as I’m doing the work to maintain this blog (and a few others for friends & family), I figure it’d be good to use it!

So much has happened over the last couple of years, I don’t know where to start! Dawn & I are doing better than ever. Rece & Kimmie both graduated out of high school this month. Come September, we’ll become empty-nesters when Kimmie goes off to Denver to pursue her dream of becoming a pastry chef. The two of us are looking forward to exploring that next stage of adulthood together.

A year ago I started my own company, I.T. Rogue, LLC. I’m happy to report that it’s growing, albeit slowly. It’s such a great feeling to work for yourself!

Well, let’s see if I can find the time & motivation to start blogging again. I enjoyed doing it before, so I should like doing it again, right?

This entry went off to find itself and finally made it back.


May 19 2011

Late night updating

Here’s a late night … or rather early morning update session. Got started on updating a server for a client a couple of hours later than I had hoped. So here I sit, waiting for a server to finish installing a bunch of updates because the prior IT guy never applied them. Joy.

This entry doesn’t want to talk about yawning.


May 16 2011

Moving right along

Wow, it’s a new everything!

Life has changed considerably for me since 2011 began. I was laid off in January and then moved in with Dawn a couple of months later.

A little over three months along and everybody seems to have adjusted to all the changes. Rece is in a new school, still struggling with staying on the right path, but otherwise doing well. I’m keeping an eye out for business opportunities – making the best of all the free time I have without the 9-to-5.

Short blog post for now. Maybe I’ll try posting more often again.

This entry was originally scribbled in crayon.


Jun 4 2009

I wanna be a writer

One of my friends is a recruiter. She matches people with companies looking to hire someone for a specific role. She forwarded me a funny email exchange she had with somebody who was interested in a medical writer position she had posted.

Applicant:

From: [wannabe medical writer]
Subject: Fw: medical writer

> Hi
>
> Am a health care worker who is also a writer
>
> Have been writing for many years.
>
> Have a post grad degree in pharmacology (Phd)
>
> Have over 700 health related articles
>
Have attached two of my writing samples
>
> Reliable and punctual.
>
>
> [name removed]
>
> below are some medical sites that i have written for.
>
> [links to sites removed]

Her reply:

Dear [wannabe medical writer],

Your message below does not have any complete sentences nor correct punctuation which does not demonstrate to us that you have strong writing abilities.

Best of luck in your search.

Applicant:

u are a first class fool

punctuation, stick it up your arse

This applicant is also quite eloquent, it seems. Needless to say, he’s not going to be considered for the writing position.

This entry wants to stick some punctuation up its arse!


May 20 2009

Nevermind – it’s not important

Updates and ramblings …

Nam, the other tech at my office, is on a much-deserved vacation. The week before he left it was rather slow, but it seems that all hell broke loose the day he hopped on the plane. The first few days were a hectic mess of working on multiple projects/problems for clients concurrently. I’m not begrudging him for taking a vacation, but I have been rather swamped for the last week. He  won’t be back until next Tuesday. I may give him a big hug when he walks through the door.

My 365-day photography project is still coming along rather well. I did sorta mess up and failed to take a picture one day – but I did take one about 30 minutes after midnight of the next day (before going to bed) to make up for it. Christine says that it should still count, since my “day” doesn’t typically end until around 12:30 a.m. anyhow. While I see her point, I’m going to try and not repeat the minor infraction.

I still get occasional calls from creditors looking for Melissa Hayes, the person that previously had my work cell phone number. It’s down to just one, maybe two, calls a week. I finally got a live person to pick up on one of the automated messages so I could tell them that it was no longer her number.

A few weekends back I took off to Big Bear by myself. I needed a break from people and felt like clearing my head. It was a much-needed trip and I came back feeling a lot better.

Christine, Sam, and I enjoyed going to the Renaissance Faire not long ago. Sam was the only one of us who dressed up, but we had a good time. I’ll definitely consider dressing up the next time I go to one.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. With as busy as I’ve been – and another 3 days more of it – it’ll be nice to end it with a 3-day weekend.

This entry does that … it just keeps talking …


May 4 2009

Melissa Hayes, the deadbeat

The owner of our shop finally got around to getting us (his technicians) some mobile phones. This is a good thing, as I am hesitant to give a client my personal number. This proved to be the correct way to go after giving out my number to just 2 clients that ended up calling me on evenings and weekends a few times.

On the very first day I got the phone I received 4 calls. All of them from different collection agencies looking for somebody named Melissa Hayes. I let each one know that this was no longer her number and they said that they’d take the number off their contacts list. Lather, rinse, repeat … It’s been a couple of weeks now and I’ll still get at least one call a day from some new collection company trying to reach Melissa.

The worst of these calls are the robo-callers that just leave a number to call back between certain days/hours. It’s too much of a pain to try to call them while I’m at work so I can tell them that this is no longer her number. I have a few times, but this is just getting ridiculous.

Thankfully, the calls have subsided. If they had continued at their original pace, I would have insisted on getting a new number.

This entry doesn’t owe money to anybody!


Mar 3 2009

I think I found it *click*

I was helping a client today troubleshoot their Internet connection. Their office is over 600 miles away, so on-site support was out of the question. I had to work with one of the 2 people that works in their office and walk them through checking cables, indicator lights, resetting things, etc. This is part of our conversation:

Client: OK, so what am I looking for again?

Me: A network cable.

Client: Oh, OK. They’re the fat phone cord looking ones, right?

Me: Yes. The ends look like large phone cord connectors.

Client: All right … (sounds of her moving things around for about 30 seconds) .. Oh! Here’s one.

Me: Great, now let’s follow it to one end and see where it’s connected.

Client: This is a long sucker, must be almost a hundred feet.

Me: Are you sure it’s a network cable? It should be just like the ones we were connecting to the router, but longer.

Client: Yeah, this looks just like those.

Me: Good. Are you able to trace it back to where it’s connected?

Client: Yeah, I think so … it’s pretty tangled up, though.

Me: All right. When you find where it plugs in, unplug it and plug it back in until you hear or feel it click to make sure it’s connected properly.

Client: Ah! I think I found it *click*

Me: Hello?

Just another day in tech support.

This entry still can’t stop shaking its head.


Dec 15 2008

Nam

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t take many photos of people. So today I decided to try a natural photo of my buddy, Nam.

December 15, 2008 - Nam

Nam is the other tech at the company I work for. Like me, he’s almost entirely self-taught. He grew up in Vietnam and moved to the U.S.A. as an adult. His accent is pretty thick, but he works hard to correctly pronounce words so he’s clearly understood. He’s a great guy to work with and smart as hell – not to mention having a sharp sense of humor.

He was a bit reluctant to allow me to take his picture; knowing that I’d be posting it here. But he relented after I promised that I’d delete the photo if he didn’t like it. Apparently he did.

This entry thinks people photography isn’t as scary anymore.


Jul 29 2008

Shaken, not stirred

I’m writing this while working for a client. Right now I’m at a repetitive part of the project, which is the imaging of their computers from a snapshot of the first computer that I configured this morning.

The most exciting thing to happen today was the 5.4 magnitude earthquake, centered just 5-6 miles from where I’m working. The people working here have just now calmed down enough to not talk about it over and over again.

Today would have been quite frustrating had I not discovered an open wireless connection available from somewhere nearby. I’ve caught up on all the reading I missed lately, checked out some pictures from friends, and read some interesting articles.

The fun part about all of this is that I’ve been using the George Costanza method of looking busy: appear annoyed. So here I sit, typing away on my computer with a slightly furrowed brow and trying my best to appear focused on something important and a little irritating. Nobody has bugged me for 2 hours so far, which helps me get the project done without hassle and also get some personal enjoyment while I’m at it. 🙂

This entry likes to whistle while he works.


Apr 18 2008

Google ranking

My coworker, Rachel, has a blog. She’s been getting into site stats and how well her site ranks on various search engines and social bookmarking sites. She just ran up to me, excited as all get out, exclaiming:

“I’m ranked 4th for ‘I hate dog shit!'”

I, on the other hand, seem to have a rather different view of the metrics that indicate the success of a website. Not that I’m saying my site is any indication of success.

This entry wears underwear.