(well, long time, no post)

One of the duties of my new job involves keeping our servers and software up-to-date. And today, I get to do just that. After spending way too much time trying to get MySQL to build properly under Solaris 9 the last couple of days, I now get to put the new server app onto the production machines.

Which means…waiting for an outage. An understandable inconvenience, although made more annoying by the fact that our database servers really aren’t used all that much. So it’s not like a huge problem if they’re not available for half-an-hour. But oh well.

In our case, outages occur every Tuesday and Thursday. From 0300 to 0600. (ie, fucking early).

So I figure, I’ve got the following choices:

1. Go to sleep early, wake up at 5AM, remote in to work, and install the upgraded software
2. Go to sleep early, wake up around 4:30AM, drive in to work, and install the upgraded software
3. Say fuck it, pull an all-nighter, drive in to work hella early, install the upgraded software, and then leave early

Now, choices 1 & 2 invovle going to sleep early, which just isn’t going to happen. (Plus, I really don’t feel like dealing with any strange fuckery that might happen by having only one hour to do an upgrade.) So here I am, enjoying the wonders of the data center since a little before 3AM. Some observations:

• The Harris Teeter on Harrison would, naturally, pick tonight to be closed for floor maintenance. Meaning I had to backtrack to the HT on Glebe to pick up my coffee beans, cream, etc
• Not much traffic getting up to Maryland, although still a fair amount at 2:30AM
• My car decides that it is the perfect time to do some new fuckery. For today, it involves the engine revving super-high when the transmission is in neutral. (I made it to work, and after parking the car, it eventually calmed down to normal RPMs. I guess I will see how it is doing when I leave later this morning, and determine if I’ll be driving straight to the Saturn dealer and bugging someone for a ride to my place so I can sleep.)
• The datacenter is amazingly quiet and peaceful this early in the morning. Also, plenty of free parking spots.

At least I got the upgrade done in about 30 minutes, with no major shenanigans. Of course, I still have another *looks at clock* 6 hours and 15 minutes to go. I guess shall occupy myself with reinstalling Solaris 10 on my personal Sun box, and getting the PHP binaries that I (FINALLY!) compiled ready for upgrades on the production machines next week. Whoo! I suspect I shall be having more outage fun both days. Yay, me.

And I thought things were bad at my job

• Rebooted the Unix machine that hasn’t had a power-cycle problem in more than a year (which makes me think that someone was screwing around with it last night after I went home)
• Recycled 15 bottles of various forms of refreshment
• Tossed one, 4″-high stack of papers
• Shredded about two years worth of time sheets from several years ago
• Bagged up the last six to eight months worth of empty breakfast bar boxes (to be taken home and recycled)
• Burned eight DVDs worth of pornfiles accumulated over the last seven years
• Wrote out procedures for a few more of my activities
• Turned in paperwork for new job
• Had exit interview with contracting company
• Listened to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture on the ride home

And that was my last day at work.

Has anyone else tried this Full Throttle energy drink that Coke is selling?

One of my co-workers came back from lunch yesterday and gave me a can of it. Being a fan of caffeine, I decided to give it a try. All I can say is: It was like a sugar and caffeine party in my mouth, and everyone was invited! And then everyone threw up. And then someone peed on my molars.

Ugh. What the hell is wrong with the people who actually enjoy this crap?

So in case you hadn’t heard from me, or via the grapevine: I have a new job!

I’ll still be with the same organization, but I’m moving to a new contracting company to do system administration (ie, keep the web servers, routers and DNS boxes running, along with whatever other things that fall under our purview). So much more in line with the kind of stuff I want and like to do. Plus the added bonus that I know most of the people in my new group, and actually like them.

So, huzzah! I need to give my two weeks notice (and boy, those will be a fun two weeks), and then I’m going to take a week off between the jobs (hopefully going to California).

It feels good to…feel good again.

ugh, i think i’m sick.

i’ve spent most of the day napping. and my throat is a bit raw. and i could barely concentrate on the episode of arrested development that was on earlier in the afternoon.

if you don’t see me for a few days, you’ll know why.

Part of an e-mail message that I sent out earlier today:

Have you been receiving form submissions to something@foo.com over the last couple of days?

The response:

Quick question – have you seen other tips being submitted to the new addresses or were you talking about the old something@foo.com account?

Way to read for comprehension.

YOU LOSE!

GOOD DAY, SIR!

I said “GOOD DAY!”

Jenny and I wandered around Rosslyn today. Pictures can be found here.

Seriously, this is just as retarded as freedom fries

Iranians wishing to buy Danish pastries will now have to ask for “Roses of the Prophet Muhammad”.

Bakeries across the capital, Tehran, are covering up signs advertising the pastries and replacing them with ones bearing the dessert’s new name.

The confectioners’ union ordered the name change in retaliation for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.

…with better dialogue than Lucas can write.