Diary of a Network Geek

If you’re a regular reader of the Diary of a Network Geek, you know that I’ve started seeking out a deeper connection with God.

So, when I saw this article on Wired News it really made me think about where we’re taking religion as a society. A digital prayer a day? Hmm, well, why not? I mean, we can get other kinds of reminders to our phones or pagers, so why not a reminder to pray? I’ve seen plenty of free Islamic programs for the Palm, so why not a generalized one? A simple PERL script or two is all it should take to send a random reminder to pray to any Internet-enabled wireless device. Or, a more generalized “spiritual” message could be sent. Or, really, anything that would be regular and in text format.
Personally, I like the idea of getting random reminders to make contact with God. It might be nice to have my cellphone, which I’ve come to think of as a tool of the Devil, remind me that God is watching me and that He does care about me. Why shouldn’t technology remind us of our spiritual selves? Just because the old Catholic church had issues with early scientists doesn’t mean that we should not make use of this kind of tool for spiritual awareness. I’d like to think that the modern Vatican, which is online now, would agree with me.

Of course, I don’t think I’d pay $20 for it (that’s what they charge), so I may just have to figure out my own method. Hey, if I do, I can let other people use it for less money than that other guy is! Dang, I better get off to work on it!

Transmissions are hard things to ignore.

But, I’m trying. My friend worked on my car, but it looks like the transmission is slowing going out. It still stalls out if I get over 45 MPH, then brake. But, I can keep that from happening if I drop it into neutral and rev the engine over 3000 RPMs, then pop it back into drive. It’s a little strange to do, but it does actually work. Of course, I don’t know for how long it will work, but still, it’s getting by for now.
In the meantime, he’s going to see what he can do about getting my other car running again. As bad shape as it’s in, that old Tracker is still better than the Explorer right now.
I have to tell you it’s a little disheartening to have these kinds of problems and not be able to afford getting them corrected. When I got into IT, I thought I’d never have to worry about that kind of thing again. Of course, I never expected to have a glut of Network Engineers in Houston or a lack of people interested in Certified Novell Engineers. And, I never thought I’d take a $13,000 pay cut just to keep my house, either. Things never do seem to work out the way we expect, do they?

Ah, well, I’ll survive somehow.

It’s law and it’s about time!

I read yesterday that President Bush finally approved the National “Do-Not-Call” Registry. Horay! No more damn telemarketers!
According to the FTC’s Website, the registry should be ready to sign consumers up as early as July. It will be available to businesses as soon as September. And, most importantly, enforcement of the $10,000 fine for violation will begin as early as October of this year! Yeah! Finally, some consumer protection with teeth! You rock George!

This weekend I found my new favorite legal “speed”: the Starbuck’s Double Shot.

I tried it for the first time this weekend and it’s just this side of heaven. It comes in an inconspicuous, little can. They “suggest” that you serve the Double Shot chilled, but there’s really no other way to have this. One reccomendation, though. Pour it into a glass instead of drinking it right out of the can. That nasty metal after taste I can do without.
What this reminds me of is Thai coffee I had at a little place around the corner from our first apartment. It’s creamy and rich and just chock full of caffeine! That, of course, is what matters most. But, it is a nice, smooth drink and a quick, no-preparation way to get my daily dose of the all important stimulant. It’s even better than their Frappuccinos, which I’d loved up to this point. The only problem is, it ‘aint cheap. It’s like $2-3 per hit. I’m usually too cheap for that, but… Well, I really love this stuff. So, while I may not be able to drink it every morning, you can bet I’m going to keep a few around, just in case.

I got the call last night that I’m geing asked back for a second interview at the Place of No Beards. I suppose, considering the economy and the job market, I should be really, really happy to shave my beard. But, I’m not. I’m okay with it, because it’s their rules and all, but I’m not actually happy about it.
So, last night, I went and found my old Braun electric razor. If I’m going to have to keep my face clean, I might as well try to minimize the pain. I figure my face is going to be pale and tender. I’ll be indulging in some tender-loving care for my skin for a little bit, too. Thank God my wife is an escaped make-up artist. She knows all the tricks. To be honest, I expect to bleed a lot the first time I shave. Probably the first week, too.
In any case, I don’t have the job yet, so I haven’t shaved yet. When they give me a start date, I’ll take it off. And, I had been thinking I could take it down to a goatee during the contract, but they need me to take the whole beard off before I start. So, off it will go. Of course, I think I’ll take it down to a goatee along the way, just to see what I look like. And, if I can convince my wife to help me, I’ll make an animated GIF of the beard going, going, gone. That would make it at least a little fun!

I talked to my Mom and Dad last night. Dad, who has a full beard, was telling me how grateful I should be to have a job at all. I reminded him that I didn’t have it yet, but I got his point. He said that he’d been to the barber shop and got an earful from my old barber about how tough things are. Apparently, things are tough enough that regular customers are a lot less regular. Guys, like me, are going longer between haircuts, because they just can’t afford it. That’s when you know times are tough. When regular guys can’t afford to get haircuts. Suddenly, that theoretical $13,000 drop in pay doesn’t seem like so much. After all, I’ll be able to pay the bills. We won’t be able to live extravagantly, but we won’t have to worry about buying steak that costs too much. But, I have to admit, it was nice getting that positive reinforcement from my Dad. I’m glad he thinks of me as a man doing what he has to do for his family. Thanks, Dad.

Well, it seems the “sure thing” contract I thought I had lined up is far from it. I’ve been chasing after a contract upgrading a local school district for almost four months now. A little over a week ago, I was told that schools “in the area” were getting their money. Apparently, the person I was talking to thought that New Mexico and Houston, Texas are in the same area, because the government money was flowing there, not here. Behold, the joys of nation-wide recruiting firms!

So, in the meantime, I had told a different recruiting firm that I wouldn’t shave my beautiful beard off for a contract-to-perm position that paid roughly $13K less than my last job. Guess what I did yesterday morning? Yeah, that’s right, I called back telling them I’d changed my mind and if the nice, beard-shaving people with money were still interested, I’d talk to them. Frankly, I think it’s too late, which is a shame because the position might have beefed up my Windows 2000 experience. Not to mention my Exchange exposure. And, I would have still been using Novell, too. Sure, they’re phasing that out in favor of Windows, but there’s a lot more work in the Microsoft arena these days anyway. Shoot, there might even have been the possibility of getting my MCSE! But, despite swallowing what little pride I had left and just about begging for an interview, I don’t think that one’s going to work out.

Hey, buddy, can you spare a dime? Or a job? I’d settle for a job.

Well, I was all scheduled for the 3:00pm flight back to Houston, but the flight got canceled. *sigh* I just can’t win for losing. Oh, well, at least I managed to score some 256mg DRAM chips for $50 a piece, thanks to a co-worked who was in Baton Rouge, too. She asked me to pick her up a 128mg chip, because that was all she could afford, but I got her a 256mg chip anyway. For the great discount, I’ll eat the difference. Here’s to the servers they’re going to help build! ; }

Okay, so I *still* haven’t been all that great about keeping this up to date, but I have an excuse. My wife and I got the house. In fact, we just finished moving in this last week. Now, we’re surrounded by boxes. But, somehow, I don’t mind. After all, we have *all* our stuff, no more storage facility, and we *still* have more room than we did in that stinking little apartment!
Now, let’s see, I still haven’t passed that damn kidney stone, so tomorrow, Saturday, I’ll be going in bright and early to drink a radioactive milkshake and have intestinal pictures taken. Of course, the real fun will be the castor oil that I have to drink the night before. My lovely wife, who’s very knowledgeable about health and medical stuff, says that it’s to clean me out. I guess so that nothing interferes with the pictures. Fun.
Oh, and I bought all my supplies for running my cat 5 network cable this week, too. With any luck at all, I’ll be able to start wiring up the house this weekend. I’ve looked all over the Internet for people who have chronicled their home cabling experience, but I came up pretty empty. There are a few folks that have talked about it, but not too many really. So, of course, that means that I’ll be doing my best to log all the stuff I do. I’m even going to try and give a little technical advice, but I’m afraid that it will mostly be out of date by the time it hits the web. In part because I’m using at least *some* “found” materials. Namely, I saved myself a couple of bucks (roughly $150) by salvaging a category 5 punchdown panel. It only has 24 connections, but how many does a home network need?!? Anyway, I’ll do my best to make a usable reference of everything I learn along the way. Stay tuned!

Well, not much of an update today, but I thought I’d add in some personal stuff. Just for variety.
Last weekend, the girls went out to a Celtic Fest and left me at home. I thought it would be nice for them to get some “girl time” together. Anne has been working really hard and hasn’t been able to see Allie as much as she’d like, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to “bond”. This weekend Anne isn’t feeling too well, so I might just end up taking Allie out shopping for a little while. We need to get a book on telling time for her. I’ve instituted a work-for-allowance program that requires some knowledge of telling time. (Okay, so what I’ve done is tell her that I’ll pay her $2.50 per hour of cleaning up and other chores that she does. She might as well get used to the idea young. It is how the world works, after all.) Besides, I also need to get a book on the current version of Red Hat Linux. After looking around the Internet at stuff, it seems like everything for Linux of any real value assumes that you have a version of Red Hat installed. So, in spite of the fact that I’ve been enjoying Storm Linux, I’ll be learning Red Hat.
Speaking of learning… One of the reasons that I’m focusing more on Linux is that my studying for my CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate, for the uninitiated) has been slow going indeed. I’m still working on it, but with the lack of sleep that house guests create, it’s been hard to slog through the issues relating to sub-networking. It’s especially bad since I’m already familiar with most of the material! I just have to get the Cisco methods down for the test. Shoot! I’ve been doing TCP/IP since Novell used IP tunneling!! (That’s over 8 years, incidentally.)
Anyway, this is going to be a light weekend. At least, it is if I have anything to say about it. I’m in a good mood since I got two calls from headhunters on Friday. They’re looking to fill Network Manager positions, which is what I think I need to have next. I changed my resume on Monster.Com to reflect the fact that I managed people for the past two years. It seems to have made a difference! So, like I said, I’m in a pretty good mood this morning, so, if Anne is feeling up to it, I may just take my two girls out to our favorite little Greek place for lunch, Niko Niko’s.

See you next week!