Back to Work

Armed with a cabin bag and 6 boxes of Apple Strudel, I made a dash to my boarding gate with 5 minutes to spare. Earlier on, I had pleaded with the lady at the check-in counter to let me pass. (The Qantas Auto check-in terminals had already rejected my attempt to print out my boarding pass - it said 'flight was closed').

Closed ?!? I still had 20 mins to spare ~!!!

Its a domestic flight ! I once got on with only 10 mins to spare. Once - Although thats another story for another day.

After pleading with her for 5 minutes, she said that if I didn't have any luggage to check-in then she can let me go up. I told her I only had my small cabin bag. She took a look at it, took a look at me, then waved her hand as if to signal she will let me through. I thanked her for the next 2 minutes (while the word 'bitch' kept on going through my mind) as she proceeded through the usual questions ... 'Any sharp objects in bag...danagerous...blah blah blah'

I grab my boarding pass, ran to the security check point.... waited patiently in-line.... put my shoes back on (must make mental note NOT to wear high heel shoes for flights... apparently high heel shoes sets off metal detectors).... then made a quick dash to the gate.. dragging my bag and the box of apple strudel with me.

And I had just made it.

hoorah !

Oh...and by this time I had almost wanted to leave the apple strudel behind. My hand was starting to hurt. 6 boxes of apple strudel... 1 box was a treat for my colleagues..but the other 5 were a request from Pete. Apparently the pig at home wanted to eat all 5 boxes of strudel by himself. Each strudel is atleast a foot long. And since I've managed to drag it all the way back from Perth to Sydney..Dammit.. I'm going to make sure he is going to finish every last bite of it !

My trip back home this time.... Well..it was nice catching up with old friends and family again. If work permitted, I would have liked to be able to stay longer. This time back, I actually thought about settling back in Perth. When I told one of my old friends that, he asked if I had finally decided to "Stop running away". Running away... I never really thought of it like that. That might had been one of the original reasons why I left, but definitely not the reason why I am in Sydney right now. Sometimes I wonder if I can actually let go of my career right now and go back to Perth to start again.

Another thought to ponder on a rainy day I guess..

For now, thanks to those who sent me emails regarding my last post. I'm good and well. Afterall, life must go on. :)

life is short

Second day back at home, and I realised one of my old drinking buddies passed away.

Suicide.

Seems kind of ironic, especially since that during my last trip back home, he was the one that took me back home when I was drunk, and left a sms on my phone saying 'Life is short, live it to the fullest, don't waste it away getting drunk'.

And I had replied... 'Getting drunk was my way to get away... my way to live'.

How stupid that sounds now.

I am at a lost of words. I uncontrollably cried my eyes out when I heard the news. So sudden. So young.

To my dear friend in heaven,

If only you could see my tears now. If only you knew all the friends you would leave behind. If only you knew how much we will miss you. If only,...

I only wish that now you have found peace.

*hugs

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines to you all !~!!

To my dear girlfriends.... May you all get showered with flowers, chocolates, prezzies and lots of love ~~ ! :)

-------------------

We've never really celebrated Valentines Day. (Although, secretly I know that I wouldn't mind if my other half suddenly decides to turn into a romantic). But I know he just isn't the type. Last year was our 1st year Valentines Day together, so I did receive flowers. Not that I could do much with them though - I'm allergic. So I had to put them in the furtherest corner of the apartment to keep me from having sneezing attacks and my eyes from becoming red and swollen.

So this year I told him no flowers.

Not sure if he took it as a sign that meant he was 'let off the hook'. So long I'm not the one cooking dinner tonight.. I'll be happy... :)

South Park

One of my friends sent me a link which lets you create your own South Park character. Its pretty cool... These were mine..

Just wouldn't seem right without a bottle of beer... :P

10 secs later... a few guns, ciggie, splash of blood and some wings..
(Right... getting a little bit carried away here...)

Final product...Ta-daaa... Feeling a bit d-e-s-t-r-u-c-t-i-v-e ~~!?

Feeling a bit destructive is probably an understatement... For the benefit of my mental health, I really should go get a punching bag.

Click here to create your own character.

Don't Wish 2

-----Original Message-----
From: Console Svc Account
Sent: Saturday, 10 February 2007 8:07 AM
Subject: EventLog Error

Event Type: error
Computer Name: **********005
Event Code: 4111
Source Name: cpqasm2
Time Written: 2/10/2007 8:06:24 AM
Category: 0
Message: Environment Abnormality Auto Shutdown (EAAS) initiated due to thermal reasons, either resulting from the system overheating, or from the loss of cooling.

-----Original Message-----
From: Console Svc Account
Sent: Saturday, 10 February 2007 8:10 AM
Subject: Cluster Alert from **********004

SHELF_FAULT on **********004 at Sat Feb 10 08:09:41 EST 2007

-------------------------------


Dear God.... I promise I will never complain I'm bored at work anymore.. I promise I will never wish for systems to crash & die (in this case crash, die & burn - just because I am bored)... I promise I will never complain I am bored at work again ...


NB. I came into work this morning to find 3 clustered systems drop off the network (with the above error msg alerts sent before they died) ... *sob

Don't Wish

I had a typical Monday morning, breakfast, coffee, clearing up my escalation queue, lunch, work on new cases, coffee, follow-up existing cases, 5pm - Go home.

Tuesday, same kind of thing except I cleared up everything by 10am (I got into work around 9.15am) and so was left staring at my screen twiddling my thumbs by 10.15am. By 11am, I had finish reading through all the stories I could click on from news.com.au and smh.com.au.

The queue was still empty. All my project work was either finished, or waiting on other people. I was bored. So bored in fact, I sent an email to a friend who happened to work in the same company (but different department) to asked him to 'break' something. Anything.

I needed something to break in order to have something for me to work on.

I know. Its sad.

On Wednesday morning, I got what I wished for. Server offline - unable to boot up -- busted.

Cool. (I thought) .... Got the HDD for that server replaced, re-imaged server remotely (server was in Melbourne), took me a day given that the current documentation on the process is practically non-existent. The same idiot also changed the administrator login & password on the image. No one in the office has any idea what that username or password might be. So I spent a bit of time cracking the local admin password as well. (See.. http://www.listsoft.com/?id=12378) -- amazing stuff! **Salutes person who wrote that proggy.

I even re-did the documentation, so that the next person who comes along wont have to go through what I did to get the re-imaging software to work remotely.

Left after 6pm. It had been a super productive day. Happy.

Thursday morning, today. Get into office, open MS Outlook, notice that mailbox has been bombarded by mail alerts saying same server crashed overnight and still not responding. Fook. Case queue also starting to pile up. Foook.

Never wish for something you don't want.

You must be dreaming..

Another Friday morning meeting. Another morning wasted.

I felt like ripping up the requirements in front of the client and telling him that he is out of his mind.

This is what happens when you let a technically competent client design his own solution.

It never works.

Let me explain. The client who is technically competent. Is also a person who only knows an overview of the technology employed by this particular project. Believe it or not, no I.T. professional knows everything there is to know in the Information Technology field (Yes, I actually said that). Most of us just specialise in one area (e.g. systems, networking, database.. etc) and know bits and pieces about everything else in the field. I have yet to see an I.T. Guru in all areas of I.T.

So, we have let a person who only knows what he has read in a whitepaper of the technology, modify the proposed solution into his 'requirements' for the new system.

And he wonders why things are not working the way he expects it to work.

The usual problem when working with Techos who think they have the answer to everything.

Except this time, we have gone so far away from the proposed solution it is no longer funny.

I've told him that what he wants isn't going to be possible. He is dreaming. The technology just cannot handle what he is expecting it to do. I've left the Project Manager to do the 'damage-control' business talks. Meanwhile, I've got to go think of a new solution which can hopefully encompass some of his requirements. Or I could just recommend we go back to the original solution and tell him to go stuff himself.

If only I didn't need to pay for rent and food...

Start at 9 ?

For the past two weeks my manager and me have both been trying to out-do each other by seeing who would be the later one to come into the office.

It is all unintentional.

Really depends on what time I end up getting out of my bed and at what time I decide to get out of the apartment to go catch my train to work. And then after that, if I decide to go get some breakfast before showing up in the office.

Call it lazy. Unmotivated. Whatever you want... But it is totally unintentional.

If it was intentional, I think my manager would have had some private words with me already. But then I guess he should also be the one to set a good example. Can't exactly preach one thing and do something totally opposite. I mean, wouldn't that be just having double standards ?!

Then again, maybe he did hint something before I left yesterday. 'Lets both try to come in at 9am yeh ?'. He said in his thick scottish accent. 'Sure.. Your on'. Came my confident reply.

So I decided against watching an extra episode of Boston Legal or House on my laptop before getting out to the train station this morning. Thus arriving in the office at exactly 9.03am.

Except when I got here, my manager's desk was empty. 10 minutes later now, and it is still empty.

I think I've been had.