Monday, June 30, 2008

Drinking from the Firehose (TM)



Interesting how little you tend to follow American News when you are drinking from the "tech firehose"...

I enjoy my time at Rackspace.

Yes, I know that few people can honestly say they like working at work, but I have a personality that craves intensity (and sometimes praise), and Rack fills that need. Today was no exception - considering how many people out there expect to make a buck off a fairly generic Dell rackmount server and a few customized Linux apps.

What is the crux of Linux Support at The Rack?

Easy.

You take 1 part detective work and 1 part "people skills" (aka, talking on the phone) and you have a recipe for figuring out what ails your customers. This is simpler than it sounds - most folks running a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) can get stuck in some interesting quandaries. And it is up to YOU to figure out how to pull them out of the muck.

One might relegate this form of fanatical support to a thing of the past, perhaps the 90's Venture Capital Startups, but I beg to differ. If you remember back then, EVERYONE had a million-dollar idea that could be webified. The difference between you and the bike-tech-turned-net-security-consultant was that you KNEW how to get a business off the ground with tried-and-true concepts. Not brick and mortar business smarts, but the basics of what made America great - Sweat and Tears and Hard Work..

With so few Gen X'ers around in tech nowdays, at least those who slog the front lines, one often wonders if they will ultimately figure out that "hard work" will not pay off for them like it did for their parents.

And they will leave in droves. Or already did.

Nevertheless, I am happy to be in the minority of techs who trudge onward, hoping to make a difference in a few people's lives before I grow too jaded about life and its just rewards...

True hard work never hurt anyone. It just seems to hurt at first.

The rewards are infinite.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A penny a day - redux.




In the pseudo-science of Numerology, one could say we are in The Year of a New Beginning.

That is to say, the year 2008 adds up to 2+0+0+8=10=1+0=1.

1 - a new beginning.

Some of my friends remember when I first made this numerological observation in the year 2006. That year happened to have added up to an "8", which signified (among other things) the "return of wealth" or return to wealth, or money. As it just so happens, that year saw one of my biggest windfalls in the US Stock Market. An experience that all-at-once awed me and humbled me. I learned quite a few things about financial markets that year, but also of a most curious side effect.

I began noticing, at odd times of the day or night, a penny.

Usually laying on the ground. At entirely random locations. And this was usually at the rate of about a penny-a-day.

At first, I was somewhat amused, and the thought of the "8" year was fresh in my mind, so I chalked it up to just being more observant.

But over time, I began to notice pennies at an increasing rate - something that made me question whether I was losing my sanity or not. A thought began to form in the back of my mind - "What if this goes on for a whole YEAR?!" And guess what? With the exception of maybe four weeks or so, it DID.

Around February of 2007, the pennies stopped showing up in my daily soujourns. Even though in some cases, I was actively searching for/waiting for a penny to show up in the periphery of my vision. In fact, one of the weirder episodes of "penny spotting" ocurred late one night as I was leaving work - in near pitch black darkness. If it wasn't for the glint of moonlight off the shiny penny laying about 30 feet from where I was walking, I would never have known.

Talk about your paranormal experience.

So flash-forward to the year 2008. The "new beginning".

Not much of a believer in established religion, but I was vaguely aware of what had happened with the pennies in 2006 (don't ask me about 2007). Obviously, it takes a bit of faith to believe that something other than blind luck was causing me to notice the pennies... But I'll leave that up to individual judgement, should a reader happen to stumble into the same karma one day.

So...

Here I am in 2008, experiencing an amazing change in my life (for the better - thank you!) and despite the overwhelming urge to accept the idea that Numerology somehow predicted this, it wasn't until I started noticing NICKELS and DIMES in the streets that I began to question my sanity once again!

I have just returned from a weekly run, during which I ran across not only a shiny silver nickel, but a copper (clad at least) penny!

This on the heels of finding a dime in the parking lot of a local merchant the other day.

I have no idea what, if anything, this all means.

My firm belief is that, like the pursuit of happiness, if you make it your obsessive goal in life - you will have NONE.

Better to leave serendipity alone and move forward.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

It might be time to start working on Oil Rigs again...



Has anyone noticed the news feeds off to the right of this blog?

If the United States Legislature has anything to say about our immediate future and economy, we might just need some roughnecks to run the power tongs on offshore drilling platforms in 2009.

And guess who has experience on those tools?

Air Hoist, anyone?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Faster than a speeding bullet

One of life's ironies is that despite man's ability to process thought in picoseconds, we still have to endure the pitfalls of groupthink.

Case in point: Traffic jams.

While the average driver in my lane at 5 o' clock can probably understand that they need to maintain a safe distance from the car ahead of them, as well as the one behind them, we all generally fall into a "hurry up and wait" queue when lanes glom into one large, undulating snake of traffic...

I used to stress about the driving habits of the folks around me during rush hour, but now enjoy a kind of disconnected bliss while driving home - similar to the bliss of running after work, which gives me time to sort out my plans for the week as well as review what I've done during the course of the day. Brain Flush. Not even worried about being on the phone while steering. Especially at 5mph.

Still, I wonder about people like the lady behind me in the slow lane this afternoon. She essentially threw up her hands in disgust when she realized that I was not going any faster than about 40mph. IN THE SLOW LANE. With a fast lane wide-open and waiting.

What did she do?

She crossed over in a huff to the fast lane and proceeded to merge into standstill traffic on the congested interstate. While I motored along and thunk happy thoughts about the afternoon.

The NERVE of some people to actually think the slow lane is for slow traffic!

Now if we could just drive at the speed of thought...

Monday, June 16, 2008

A sudden influx of outsiders...

Ok. So I am a keen observer.

Over the past few years, and perhaps as a byproduct of the tumultuous change of 2006 in my life, I have begun noticing how many non-Texas license plates populate the highways before/during/after a workday.

Of course, I had a MUCH CLOSER view of them in 2006 when I was on my bike (yes, bicycle) just about every day - including on weekends when I rode to the grocery store...

But it wasn't until about two weeks ago that the license plates became a bit more personal. I have now met several folks who have relocated from such exotic places as Hawaii and Pittsburgh (yeah, PA) to the tiny little cultureless town I know as San Antonio. In fact, I prefer to call San Antonio "San Antonio" and not "SA" or "San Anto". Live here a year and you will understand why.

So all these people I've met suddenly become the personification of their outlying states - almost surprising me by their cool reception of what, in their eyes, appears to be another town just popping with excitement and opportunity...

Oh how wrong they are...

I have lived the vast chunk of my life in the southern half of Texas, and can honestly say that we don't differ much from any given border-town in Mexico. Well, unless Mexico had Air Force bases and 100,000 cars with base stickers on their windshields.

Nay, I say this having traveled to Monterrey, Mexico and all points inbetween. You see, there is this misconception that we all ride horses to work in Texas - that's not entirely true. SOME of us ride horses to work, but the rest drive these really huge Ford F950 pickups, with random powertools and ladders sticking out of the back.

A small percentage actually rely on Chevy Corsicas or GMC Sonomas with 1980's-style IROC Camaro alloy wheels to get to work during the day. With random ladders and tools sticking out the windows.

So it amazes me how people like Brian, from Pittsburgh, can't understand why traffic backs up on Interstate 35 all day due to lack of a Cloverleaf intersection at two of the major highways in San Antonio. Or why Don, from California, feels compelled to buy one of those brown painted metal stars from HEB to hang over his garage as soon as he moves here. Or even why some folks feel they have to post a picture of themselves in a George Strait straw hat on myspace to assure their kin that they REALLY TRULY HAVE ARRIVED IN TEXAS...

Meanwhile, the rest of us shrug with indifference, and make a mental note to avoid these people when they start hanging GO SPURS GO banners outside their home/cubicle/car.

Quick Factoid: Guess which city didn't burn itself to the ground celebrating the winning of the NBA Championship recently?

Yes - San Antonio.

We all got in our cars, and proceeded in an orderly fashion to drive in circles downtown while honking our horns and yelling random Spurs-isms out the opened windows. Of course, about 98% of the drivers were drunk, but don't tell that to newcomers. We don't want to scare the people driving home after 2am on the interstate about to plow into a wrong-way DWI driver just over the hill...

Still, I play it cool when Mr. or Mrs. Outlander makes observations about the town affectionately known as "The DWI Capital of Texas".

You think I'm joking?

The other day, at a local fast food eatery, I almost laughed chunks of chicken sandwich out my nose when one of the local stories in the newspaper was about a DWI driver rear-ending another DWI driver on Interstate 10 during the wee hours of the morning...

Sad?

You tell me.

How many people do you know that in the past 3 decades can remember driving down a dirt road in a metropolitan area of the state only to witness a donkey pissing furiously in the middle of the street while n+8 kids played with sticks and tires around it?

Now go ahead and tell me I'm jaded.

Welcome to SA, outlanders.

Be sure to check out my large, 5-pointed metal stars that are for sale on craigslist...

Sunday, June 15, 2008

A Trivium Weekend



I think this video caps off a good weekend.

Don't panic - they actually SING at one point...

Enjoy the yelling...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Go ahead... Drink the Kool Aid





For my one or two fans out there (not counting perverted lurkers), I must finally admit what I'm up to.

I'm at Rackspace, San Antonio.

Yes, I finally "drank the Kool Aid" and decided to work for a company that gave a crap about their employees. This despite having pulled off 12 years with the State of Texas doing IT systems administration in VERY unfriendly environments.

I'm not going to get sappy, but it is alot like waking from a bad dream. Yes, it is still work, and yes at the end of the day we still have to remain profitable and make a buck, but the culture was what drew me in. And boy, is there culture.

Culture like you wouldn't believe. Almost analogous to being back in high school.

I think I creep most of my teammates out due to my neutral and slightly unfazed personality (this is a byproduct of having worked for over a decade in IT). I am having fun though, just keeping in mind that there are many discoveries yet to be made. Can't tell who all the good guys and bad guys (and gals) are yet, but that's not too important to me as long as I can pull off an awesome job at the end of each day.

Let me say this though: I have absolutely no pity for anyone who whines about their current job, health-issues notwithstanding. Having now experienced the extreme lows that life can dole out, including riding a bicycle to a particularly demeaning part time job for 3 months while making mortgage and car payments has steeled my resolve to get the job done and draw upon myself to pull through anything... NO compassion for whiners that think their job is "hard". You have a long road to travel before you discover yourself.

No, I'm doing well right now and have the wisdom of 37 years on this planet to back up my resolve. Hopefully, I will pull things off in a stellar manner and manage to actually live my life in the margins...

For now, consider me content.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Made it past my First Day (tm)


You begin to act in strange ways when your body is naturally tired...