Sunday, March 18, 2007
Saturday And Ulcers, no blood whoring |12:59 AM| I'd stayed out a little late the previous evening, and though I was awake in time, I didn't go and sell blood plasma like I intended. I didn't feel like falling down dead later in the day when I'd be pushing myself. I also knew if I was on my game later, I'd earn a lot more with an independent contracting gig I had scheduled. Losing a shit load of my body water mass to the Vampires would not be great for my cognitive powers.
As a side note, Wonderlust says that when I get tired or depressed or really driven, my message style changes distinctly. Each sentence has one subject. The next sentence has another subject. I express few ideas. I become focused on a single project. I become like a telegram. I hadn't noticed. When I went back and read old email exchanges, the difference was easy to see.
2pm rolled around, I went to the client's house, and found no way to get in. I didn't want to jump his fence (thought that'd be rude, and I'd land about 8 feet down in mud. Great.), he wasn't picking up his cellphone.
I managed to get in touch with him later, and came back. The fence that I couldn't jump, and was locked, was defeated if you reached through the bars. Great work, learned helplessness through courtesy! This is the second time in a week and a half that courtesy has handcuffed me. Next time I have a situation like that, I'm breaking more rules.
The gig seemed pretty straightforward. Update a couple of blackberries, update a server for DST 2007, fix a few things around the office. More and more IT issues sprung up as I was there, and I defeated them all. The first blackberry was updated without a problem, the server was updated with only a little hiccup. (I did my reading, did the homework, researched the problem, applied the patch, bounced the server....and it stopped responding to remote desktop. I projected confidence. "No problem!" I squeezed myself in behind the rack, hooked up a borrowed monitor, keyboard, etc, and found a single error state. Cleared it, the whole system came back up. My heart resumed beating. Relief should have been sublime)
I fixed the printer, tracked down some passwords, verified the importing of precious contacts into Outlook, and even changed the default address book list.
When I fixed the calender issues, my client declared I'd just proven myself, and there was an odd/awkward high five. I was riding high. We'd already tested the Blackberry fix, I'd patched now 5 of the things, now it was time for the primary one. The one upon which his business hinged, the one task I had been specifically brought out to fix.
Of course, the patch failed on this one. Of course.
I'll save most of the details, but it took 2 and a half more hours of research, fighting the system, reading forums, downloading patches, and finally a harrowing 25 minute install process, but I fixed it. FIXED IT.
When that little SOB Blackberry popped up properly, I was on cloud goddamn nine.
Looks like I picked up a regular client, and he wants my help once a weekend or once every other weekend. Screw blood plasma, this is my supplementary income.
Once again, I ride out as a independent IT contractor. This time it shouldn't ruin me.
Saturday And Ulcers, no blood whoring |12:59 AM| I'd stayed out a little late the previous evening, and though I was awake in time, I didn't go and sell blood plasma like I intended. I didn't feel like falling down dead later in the day when I'd be pushing myself. I also knew if I was on my game later, I'd earn a lot more with an independent contracting gig I had scheduled. Losing a shit load of my body water mass to the Vampires would not be great for my cognitive powers.
As a side note, Wonderlust says that when I get tired or depressed or really driven, my message style changes distinctly. Each sentence has one subject. The next sentence has another subject. I express few ideas. I become focused on a single project. I become like a telegram. I hadn't noticed. When I went back and read old email exchanges, the difference was easy to see.
2pm rolled around, I went to the client's house, and found no way to get in. I didn't want to jump his fence (thought that'd be rude, and I'd land about 8 feet down in mud. Great.), he wasn't picking up his cellphone.
I managed to get in touch with him later, and came back. The fence that I couldn't jump, and was locked, was defeated if you reached through the bars. Great work, learned helplessness through courtesy! This is the second time in a week and a half that courtesy has handcuffed me. Next time I have a situation like that, I'm breaking more rules.
The gig seemed pretty straightforward. Update a couple of blackberries, update a server for DST 2007, fix a few things around the office. More and more IT issues sprung up as I was there, and I defeated them all. The first blackberry was updated without a problem, the server was updated with only a little hiccup. (I did my reading, did the homework, researched the problem, applied the patch, bounced the server....and it stopped responding to remote desktop. I projected confidence. "No problem!" I squeezed myself in behind the rack, hooked up a borrowed monitor, keyboard, etc, and found a single error state. Cleared it, the whole system came back up. My heart resumed beating. Relief should have been sublime)
I fixed the printer, tracked down some passwords, verified the importing of precious contacts into Outlook, and even changed the default address book list.
When I fixed the calender issues, my client declared I'd just proven myself, and there was an odd/awkward high five. I was riding high. We'd already tested the Blackberry fix, I'd patched now 5 of the things, now it was time for the primary one. The one upon which his business hinged, the one task I had been specifically brought out to fix.
Of course, the patch failed on this one. Of course.
I'll save most of the details, but it took 2 and a half more hours of research, fighting the system, reading forums, downloading patches, and finally a harrowing 25 minute install process, but I fixed it. FIXED IT.
When that little SOB Blackberry popped up properly, I was on cloud goddamn nine.
Looks like I picked up a regular client, and he wants my help once a weekend or once every other weekend. Screw blood plasma, this is my supplementary income.
Once again, I ride out as a independent IT contractor. This time it shouldn't ruin me.
Labels: IT Magic
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