Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Adventure 15: 13th March 2005
"Ok..I’ll go to cashbase…" Afternoon all, yup it’s Sunday and that can mean only one thing, DIY, the downstairs loo, is up to it’s old tricks again, requiring screwdrivers and hammers and any other tool I can lay my hands on. Ah well it’ll be over soon and we’ll laugh, then again, p’raps not.
Friday:
09:00: Been at work for far too long today (well 20 minutes is a long time). It’s a bit like the Mary Celeste, tumble weeds are rolling along the now empty other side of the office, there’s the faint but constant tappetty tap of keys on keyboards and the Grand Wizards, mobile phone, PDA thing, with it’s oh so sickly sweet ring tone….I will I’ll bring my hammer in on Monday…
09:30: “Soooo how are we doing…”, he’s back, being nice to me again, I can’t take it much longer, we’ll just have to fall out about something really technical.
10:30: Brentboy is back from wherever he was and quiet Rob is accompanying him. Odd that, just had a call from Tom Plumthedepths to say that the web proxy’s he’s using as part of the trial to replace the other boxes of garbage, have stopped working. Then the phone rings, it’s the “help” desk, now you were thinking that these were the guys that fix everyone’s computery problems weren’t you, nup not a chance, the so called “Help” desk are called that because they always need “help”.
“It’s Crispin here, we seem to have a bit of a problem with Sumpoxyapp..”, Crispin, is like the lead second line guy, desktop side, Crispin Spider is the name, he’s the one who likes nothing more than talking about his obviously long, film / tv career, given that he’s younger than me and went to university, so I would make that about 6 months work experience but hey who am I to judge. He’s a good guy really (well his heart is in the right place), that’s how we know he’s human (there’s little other evidence).
He does have a lot of stories to tell (anyone who’ll stay awake long enough), but his passion these days is fencing, so imagine my surprise one day (prior to my restructure), working on the helpdesk, and this giant toblerone shaped box turns up, I think soooo he’s getting fence posts delivered to work, but no, it’s a bloody sword !!!
Crisping works with Ady, Ady Suarvey, the only guy I know who has only two facial expressions, smiling and not smiling, it’s bizarre, but anyway I digress….
“Sumpoxyapp, is down and the users are screaming”, “jolly good”, I say wondering why a. I’m getting the phone call and b. what I should do with this piece of information…”Invisible Dave and the guys have been doing stuff with servers and I figured this could be the reason they’re now down”, hmm I like his thinking, I mention it to ID who’s now appeared from Portsmouth, and he goes a shade of, well, off white, “It’ll be the err, hmmm I’ll go and have a look” he stutters, “Ok I’ll come with you”.
11:30 Back from the data centre, always helpful if when you move servers around that you make sure the switch they’re plugged into has power, I know it’s a bind but these are the way things are unfortunately.All is well with my ISA servers too so that undoubtedly was the problem, and Tom is happy that he can now do trivial things like work again.
12:30: Lunch
13:30: Back from lunch now, it’s gone quiet again, so just for a change I figure I’ll do some work, it’s a shock I can tell you. 12 email messages later, I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself, I am to be honest prolific when it comes to emails, I sent one asking, “any ideas when my change request will be approved…” all fairly simple that, but since I hadn’t had an answer in 8 days and the approval process states that requests will be approved within 7, I’m feeling a bit let down.
14:30: The Grand Wizard asks me to send my project plan for the No’Sense project to Nunob, or Cowboy Nunob to give him his full title. There’s only two problems with Nunob, 1. He’s now in charge of the network, after they let Hagrid Jackson (no relation to Michael) go, and 2. He’s Portuguese.
Not that I have anything against the Portuguese, well that’s not strictly true now is it. The guy is a complete twit when it comes to anything really. Figures if he has a port down on a switch that’s reason enough to power cycle it!! Taking 30 critical servers with it…I’m beginning to rant so I’ll stop that there. So I quickly load up my project plan, modify the title so it says “Nonsense” rather than “Generic Project” and send it on to him. Why he needs it to approve my change request to a DNS I don’t know but soon it’ll become apparent.
15:30: “Can you send Nunob, a few lines, telling him why we want to do it this way, and the other options we’ve investigated and why you were unable to do it that way”, the Grand Wizard says. Notice where the “we”’s and the “you”’s appeared there, any failures it’s “you” and successes and it’s “We”, which is then doubtless translated into “I” during management meetings. This I duly do, by breaking open my “Generic Email to Tossers who don’t approve my change requests” and modify the “Dear Tosser” bit at the start.
16:30: Down in DC1 with Brenty and Quiet, moving some servers. In order to get the servers out we have to undo the screws that are holding them in place. Unfortunately the only tools that Don’t Be Daft International will allow us to have in our Super Deluxe toolkit is a kind of ratchet bit holder which is completely useless for undoing screws. Luckily I’m only assisting.
17:30: Back at my desk, just about to shut down my laptop, and I check my mail, there’s one from the Wizard, to me and Dunk the Skunk, it’s a forwarded email from Nunob to his boss Bill Z’unpronoucable saying that he can’t approve the change I wanted to make as it was an all or nothing change and would affect all the users…duh, yeah, that’s the whole point!!! So now I’m pissed of, just in time for the weekend, triffic.
Saturday:
09:45: Up with the lark this morning ! (well ok that’s a complete lie), I’m up in any case, making the by now customary cup of tea’s and a coffee for me. I’m stood at the kitchen door watching the world go by as I inject my nicotine (through my mouth). Just then I see a twig move, it’s Cyril. Cyril is our solitary gay Squirrel who makes an appearance every now and then. He must come from the same gene pool as Invisible Dave as he has this tendency to be invisible. As with most squirrels, once they detect the presence of a human they do the “freeze” position which as far as they know, means they’re of course invisible. I remember driving somewhere and a squirrel trying that in the middle of the road, but duh I was in a car travelling towards it, I remember feeling a slight bump and looking in my rear view mirror just seeing this tail wafting about as it’s owner was now completely stuck to the road….
No sign of Donald (our mouse) but then the wife’s been particularly good at putting the rubbish out so the pickings aren’t so rich these days.
09:50: I’m screaming up the stairs to Ryan, to get a move on as he has to be at stage school for 10:00. Apparently it’s really inconvenient of me as he’s right at a good bit in his “kill them all with slashy swords” game, fathers eh who’d have em.
10:30: Back at home, on the computer checking my stuff, tidying some other bits up and doing some good old fashioned house keeping. “Are you going to be getting on in a minute?”, the wife drops in gently, I know this is code for “you are going to be getting on in a minute” resistance is futile I know. So I finish up then make my weary way downstairs.
11:00: Right now I’m organised, what’s left to do ?;
1. Affix, right-angled strip of beading to window ledge
2. Affix new baton to wall – pipe side for skirting
3. Affix skirting boards
4. Affix door closers on doors
5. Affix door handles (that the wife’s “Not Sure about”)
Hmmm, not bad should be able to manage that, lot’s of affixing mind but still we’ve got loads of “No More Plaster” so we should be good.
Nup, thought as much we have No More, “No More Plaster”, try as I might I can’t find even the remnants of a half empty tube anywhere.”There’s some in the draw”, Mandy tells me, “which draw?” I ask, I know what’s coming, “the draw in the kitchen”, ok now we have 8 drawers in the kitchen and it could be any one of those, she knows this so before I can even ask “the one under the glass cupboard by the back door”, aha! I have one tube left. This not going to Cashbase business could be a winner today !!So I cut my length of 2b2 to the right size, cut out the holes for the radiator and other various pipes and test it out, yup sure enough it fits and it’s the right size, I’m getting too good at this DIY lark. I figure that the nails that were holding the old bit of battening on the wall must be good enough to hold the new bit on so, I liberally apply my no more plaster to it and position it on the wall…Now of course No More Plaster is really good stuff….when it’s dry, but there’s just going to be no way I can hold it on the wall in the right position and hammer the nails in, so I call Mandy to come and hold it while I bash the living daylights out of it with my biggest hammer. Easier said than done that as my downstairs loo is about 6ft by 3ft and fitting one person in there is a struggle, so I’m stood astride Mandy as she holds the batten on the wall, large hammer in hand and wack! (that should be wack! Wack wa wa wack ! thump, ouch!, wack wack wack! In truth). Alrighty then that’s one side done and so like a fool I say “s’Ok love I think I can manage from here”. So I begin hammering in the other side. Now then this only works if a. the batten is straight and has no bumps or bends in it and b. if the wall is perfectly straight, otherwise you end up with a lever action which actually pulls the other nail out of the wall, dropping the batten to the floor covering your nicely newly laid floor tiles with glue, your new jeans which were for “best” and anything else within the vicinity. I must admit I did swear rather vociferously at this point !
Ok plan B. I’m going to wipe all the No More Plaster off the wood and walls and then I’m going to drill some holes in the batten and screw the sucker on. Bearing in mind I’m drilling into about 12ft of pure plaster, a bit the plasterer obviously had left so thought he’d just bung it all in down the bottom where no one would notice, so unsurprisingly rawl plugs whilst looking like they go in really easily actually just take up the space. Screwing a screw in to it through a bit of 2b2 only gives a modicum of grip, but hell I’ve been through enough today and I’m not about to try and get really technical with it now. It seems to be holding and we have to go to my Mandy’s sister, so I can look at her husbands computer and fix the antivirus / email bit.
Sunday:09:00: yeah right who am I trying to kid eh ?10:00: ahem!10:30: Ok I’m up and raring to go (naat!), but the skirting’s won’t affix themselves. This is “Don’t go to Cashbase” weekend as I think in linear feet I have enough skirting to do the requisite walls. Trouble with linear feet is that it takes no account of how many pieces and whilst if all the pieces were joined together I’d have enough, fact is they aren’t all joined together so this is going to be a tinsy winsy little bit of a bugger. The main wall is fine, the piece I have for that is long enough, in fact too long so I have to use the compound bit of my mitre saw (coz the skirting board is too high) and we all know how good my mitres are using that ! Still it’s not come out too bad and Mandy is a real wiz with filler !!!
11:30: I’ve got all the skirting cut to the correct lengths, ok there’s a 4 inch gap behind the toilet, but hey it’s behind the toilet and only the spiders care about that, if they want skirting they can bloody well go to home base and get some ! It’s all going too well, I know this, ahaaa I don’t have to go to Cashbase for a whole weekend it’s unbelievable, right now to glue the skirtings to the wall / battens etc, out with the glue, oh it’s empty, but no matter we have loads more tubes of it, I pull the handle back on the glue gun, and crack, click, ptwoing, It falls to pieces in my hands, looks like I’m going to Cashbase then ;-(
12:00: Arrived at Cashbase, now it’s really quite a funny place to go (if you know you’re not going to spend £80 that is)
I park about a mile away in the only space that has any space either side of it, to be honest I bought my car because I liked the shape of it, so I don’t feel the need to let anyone else make my doors a slightly dimpled shape…just me in my mad little world…What’s particularly noticeable as I hike in to the shop through the car park, is that every car seems to be tiny. Every other car seems to have a man and woman trying to defy the laws of physics and trying to fit 8ft lengths of 2b2 into a Vauxhall corsa. Then the biscuit is taken, by the guy who’s wheeling out 8 (counte ‘em) full length interior doors, he must have a transit or something like that, but no, much better than that, he has a Mini cooper !!! with a roof rack !!!! This car will look like a mini aircraft carrier driving along, still it brings a smile to my face which has to be a good thing.12:15: Now then I’m in…. I only need a glue gun, nothing else, no scart leads, no wizzy new tool that doesn’t actually do anything at all useful, just a glue gun, but oh those tool boxes look really good…and look that one has wheels!!!, “stopit” I tell myself, I have a list, it says glue gun…now then where might that be. The consensus is that glue gun’s are kept near the “really nice power tools” so I spend at least 5 minutes drooling over them, but no, no glue gun’s to be found here. What about by the glue, look at that they have 3 “budget” glue guns, dunno what the deluxe one does maybe it’s powered, but this one will do I think.12:25: So I go and pay and try not to look at the woman who’s trying to get eye contact with me so she can say “are you interested in new double glazing or conservatories “, she says it anyway now, and I just shake my head, not necessarily because I don’t want double glazing or a conservatory, but it’s such an oh so depressing job that she must have. The only people who want to talk to her are the elderly, who only came in for a box of pansies because they were on offer, and they’re far too polite to say get stuffed.
12:30: Back at home and heh the glue gun works !!! Bonus.
17:00: The skirtings are on ! The doors are fixed, and I’m done….except for the shelves, ok so I affix the Ikea shelves above the toilet, and they’re even level !...At least I didn’t have to go to cashbase though ….!!!
Monday (grrrr)08:40: Yup it’s bloody Monday again.
08:50: “So how are we doing?” he’s back I thought sending him on a quest to return a magic ring would have done the trick for a while but no. Back to bother me I guess. “Well things would be great if I could actually deploy NonSense”, I reply, “Well we can do it today, I had a chat with Bill Zunpronoucable on Friday and it all kicked off, but we have tacit agreement”, I’m not entirely sure what the tacit bit of the agreement was but any how. Apparently the suggestion was to not deploy NonSense at all and to wait until the new WAN solution was implemented and outsource the proxy connection (hmm not understanding the outsource the proxy bit there). What a great suggestion I thought, it’d be even better had that been decided about 2 months ago prior to me spending all that time developing the system !!!!!!!09:30: Sent my email to the masses to the “Un”Helpful desk to send out and to Mark Pasty their boss, to “approve”, only to discover that he’s on leave until Thursday. Can’t possibly send an email out unless it’s approved. I tell you if it comes to it I’ll send the bloody message myself if necessary.
10:00: Quiet Rob is here, apparently ID, has told him he needs to have the Pirate systems kit moved into the old data centre as they’re moving. Apparently he and I are the only IA staff in as Brentboy is on his training course this week. Training course ? We do training ? I don’t know who you have to sleep with to get training, maybe I’m so good at what I do, I don’t need any training, note to self, remember to check the job boards for something a million times better than this.
11:00: Moving Pirate systems PC’s (servers) into DC112:30: Lunch13:30: Back from lunch, ½ hour to go until the NonSense cutover the Grand wizard tells me that we’d better do it tomorrow as we’re not going to get the message out to users in time to give them any notice. To be honest I wouldn’t tell them anything anyway but that’s just me.
14:00: Back with Quiet Rob, moving servers this time, they don’t stand a chance as he’s in charge of the trolley and it’s not exactly rally driving but somewhere close I think.
15:00: Most of the servers are in the rack now, just these three 1u servers to go, tiny little one’s so no worries there. We undo the screws on the bottom one, and slide it out, just in time for the two on top of it to come crashing down behind it….ah the missing “these servers aren’t on rails” sign.
16:00: The dropped servers are in a bit of a sorry state, all a bit bent really, still they’re only “VITAL” servers so we shouldn’t worry too much….
17:00: The Wizard announces that he’s on leave for the next two days (interviews, well I can hope can’t I ?) but that the deployment for NonSense must happen tomorrow…(well he can hope can’t he ?)…
Friday:
09:00: Been at work for far too long today (well 20 minutes is a long time). It’s a bit like the Mary Celeste, tumble weeds are rolling along the now empty other side of the office, there’s the faint but constant tappetty tap of keys on keyboards and the Grand Wizards, mobile phone, PDA thing, with it’s oh so sickly sweet ring tone….I will I’ll bring my hammer in on Monday…
09:30: “Soooo how are we doing…”, he’s back, being nice to me again, I can’t take it much longer, we’ll just have to fall out about something really technical.
10:30: Brentboy is back from wherever he was and quiet Rob is accompanying him. Odd that, just had a call from Tom Plumthedepths to say that the web proxy’s he’s using as part of the trial to replace the other boxes of garbage, have stopped working. Then the phone rings, it’s the “help” desk, now you were thinking that these were the guys that fix everyone’s computery problems weren’t you, nup not a chance, the so called “Help” desk are called that because they always need “help”.
“It’s Crispin here, we seem to have a bit of a problem with Sumpoxyapp..”, Crispin, is like the lead second line guy, desktop side, Crispin Spider is the name, he’s the one who likes nothing more than talking about his obviously long, film / tv career, given that he’s younger than me and went to university, so I would make that about 6 months work experience but hey who am I to judge. He’s a good guy really (well his heart is in the right place), that’s how we know he’s human (there’s little other evidence).
He does have a lot of stories to tell (anyone who’ll stay awake long enough), but his passion these days is fencing, so imagine my surprise one day (prior to my restructure), working on the helpdesk, and this giant toblerone shaped box turns up, I think soooo he’s getting fence posts delivered to work, but no, it’s a bloody sword !!!
Crisping works with Ady, Ady Suarvey, the only guy I know who has only two facial expressions, smiling and not smiling, it’s bizarre, but anyway I digress….
“Sumpoxyapp, is down and the users are screaming”, “jolly good”, I say wondering why a. I’m getting the phone call and b. what I should do with this piece of information…”Invisible Dave and the guys have been doing stuff with servers and I figured this could be the reason they’re now down”, hmm I like his thinking, I mention it to ID who’s now appeared from Portsmouth, and he goes a shade of, well, off white, “It’ll be the err, hmmm I’ll go and have a look” he stutters, “Ok I’ll come with you”.
11:30 Back from the data centre, always helpful if when you move servers around that you make sure the switch they’re plugged into has power, I know it’s a bind but these are the way things are unfortunately.All is well with my ISA servers too so that undoubtedly was the problem, and Tom is happy that he can now do trivial things like work again.
12:30: Lunch
13:30: Back from lunch now, it’s gone quiet again, so just for a change I figure I’ll do some work, it’s a shock I can tell you. 12 email messages later, I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself, I am to be honest prolific when it comes to emails, I sent one asking, “any ideas when my change request will be approved…” all fairly simple that, but since I hadn’t had an answer in 8 days and the approval process states that requests will be approved within 7, I’m feeling a bit let down.
14:30: The Grand Wizard asks me to send my project plan for the No’Sense project to Nunob, or Cowboy Nunob to give him his full title. There’s only two problems with Nunob, 1. He’s now in charge of the network, after they let Hagrid Jackson (no relation to Michael) go, and 2. He’s Portuguese.
Not that I have anything against the Portuguese, well that’s not strictly true now is it. The guy is a complete twit when it comes to anything really. Figures if he has a port down on a switch that’s reason enough to power cycle it!! Taking 30 critical servers with it…I’m beginning to rant so I’ll stop that there. So I quickly load up my project plan, modify the title so it says “Nonsense” rather than “Generic Project” and send it on to him. Why he needs it to approve my change request to a DNS I don’t know but soon it’ll become apparent.
15:30: “Can you send Nunob, a few lines, telling him why we want to do it this way, and the other options we’ve investigated and why you were unable to do it that way”, the Grand Wizard says. Notice where the “we”’s and the “you”’s appeared there, any failures it’s “you” and successes and it’s “We”, which is then doubtless translated into “I” during management meetings. This I duly do, by breaking open my “Generic Email to Tossers who don’t approve my change requests” and modify the “Dear Tosser” bit at the start.
16:30: Down in DC1 with Brenty and Quiet, moving some servers. In order to get the servers out we have to undo the screws that are holding them in place. Unfortunately the only tools that Don’t Be Daft International will allow us to have in our Super Deluxe toolkit is a kind of ratchet bit holder which is completely useless for undoing screws. Luckily I’m only assisting.
17:30: Back at my desk, just about to shut down my laptop, and I check my mail, there’s one from the Wizard, to me and Dunk the Skunk, it’s a forwarded email from Nunob to his boss Bill Z’unpronoucable saying that he can’t approve the change I wanted to make as it was an all or nothing change and would affect all the users…duh, yeah, that’s the whole point!!! So now I’m pissed of, just in time for the weekend, triffic.
Saturday:
09:45: Up with the lark this morning ! (well ok that’s a complete lie), I’m up in any case, making the by now customary cup of tea’s and a coffee for me. I’m stood at the kitchen door watching the world go by as I inject my nicotine (through my mouth). Just then I see a twig move, it’s Cyril. Cyril is our solitary gay Squirrel who makes an appearance every now and then. He must come from the same gene pool as Invisible Dave as he has this tendency to be invisible. As with most squirrels, once they detect the presence of a human they do the “freeze” position which as far as they know, means they’re of course invisible. I remember driving somewhere and a squirrel trying that in the middle of the road, but duh I was in a car travelling towards it, I remember feeling a slight bump and looking in my rear view mirror just seeing this tail wafting about as it’s owner was now completely stuck to the road….
No sign of Donald (our mouse) but then the wife’s been particularly good at putting the rubbish out so the pickings aren’t so rich these days.
09:50: I’m screaming up the stairs to Ryan, to get a move on as he has to be at stage school for 10:00. Apparently it’s really inconvenient of me as he’s right at a good bit in his “kill them all with slashy swords” game, fathers eh who’d have em.
10:30: Back at home, on the computer checking my stuff, tidying some other bits up and doing some good old fashioned house keeping. “Are you going to be getting on in a minute?”, the wife drops in gently, I know this is code for “you are going to be getting on in a minute” resistance is futile I know. So I finish up then make my weary way downstairs.
11:00: Right now I’m organised, what’s left to do ?;
1. Affix, right-angled strip of beading to window ledge
2. Affix new baton to wall – pipe side for skirting
3. Affix skirting boards
4. Affix door closers on doors
5. Affix door handles (that the wife’s “Not Sure about”)
Hmmm, not bad should be able to manage that, lot’s of affixing mind but still we’ve got loads of “No More Plaster” so we should be good.
Nup, thought as much we have No More, “No More Plaster”, try as I might I can’t find even the remnants of a half empty tube anywhere.”There’s some in the draw”, Mandy tells me, “which draw?” I ask, I know what’s coming, “the draw in the kitchen”, ok now we have 8 drawers in the kitchen and it could be any one of those, she knows this so before I can even ask “the one under the glass cupboard by the back door”, aha! I have one tube left. This not going to Cashbase business could be a winner today !!So I cut my length of 2b2 to the right size, cut out the holes for the radiator and other various pipes and test it out, yup sure enough it fits and it’s the right size, I’m getting too good at this DIY lark. I figure that the nails that were holding the old bit of battening on the wall must be good enough to hold the new bit on so, I liberally apply my no more plaster to it and position it on the wall…Now of course No More Plaster is really good stuff….when it’s dry, but there’s just going to be no way I can hold it on the wall in the right position and hammer the nails in, so I call Mandy to come and hold it while I bash the living daylights out of it with my biggest hammer. Easier said than done that as my downstairs loo is about 6ft by 3ft and fitting one person in there is a struggle, so I’m stood astride Mandy as she holds the batten on the wall, large hammer in hand and wack! (that should be wack! Wack wa wa wack ! thump, ouch!, wack wack wack! In truth). Alrighty then that’s one side done and so like a fool I say “s’Ok love I think I can manage from here”. So I begin hammering in the other side. Now then this only works if a. the batten is straight and has no bumps or bends in it and b. if the wall is perfectly straight, otherwise you end up with a lever action which actually pulls the other nail out of the wall, dropping the batten to the floor covering your nicely newly laid floor tiles with glue, your new jeans which were for “best” and anything else within the vicinity. I must admit I did swear rather vociferously at this point !
Ok plan B. I’m going to wipe all the No More Plaster off the wood and walls and then I’m going to drill some holes in the batten and screw the sucker on. Bearing in mind I’m drilling into about 12ft of pure plaster, a bit the plasterer obviously had left so thought he’d just bung it all in down the bottom where no one would notice, so unsurprisingly rawl plugs whilst looking like they go in really easily actually just take up the space. Screwing a screw in to it through a bit of 2b2 only gives a modicum of grip, but hell I’ve been through enough today and I’m not about to try and get really technical with it now. It seems to be holding and we have to go to my Mandy’s sister, so I can look at her husbands computer and fix the antivirus / email bit.
Sunday:09:00: yeah right who am I trying to kid eh ?10:00: ahem!10:30: Ok I’m up and raring to go (naat!), but the skirting’s won’t affix themselves. This is “Don’t go to Cashbase” weekend as I think in linear feet I have enough skirting to do the requisite walls. Trouble with linear feet is that it takes no account of how many pieces and whilst if all the pieces were joined together I’d have enough, fact is they aren’t all joined together so this is going to be a tinsy winsy little bit of a bugger. The main wall is fine, the piece I have for that is long enough, in fact too long so I have to use the compound bit of my mitre saw (coz the skirting board is too high) and we all know how good my mitres are using that ! Still it’s not come out too bad and Mandy is a real wiz with filler !!!
11:30: I’ve got all the skirting cut to the correct lengths, ok there’s a 4 inch gap behind the toilet, but hey it’s behind the toilet and only the spiders care about that, if they want skirting they can bloody well go to home base and get some ! It’s all going too well, I know this, ahaaa I don’t have to go to Cashbase for a whole weekend it’s unbelievable, right now to glue the skirtings to the wall / battens etc, out with the glue, oh it’s empty, but no matter we have loads more tubes of it, I pull the handle back on the glue gun, and crack, click, ptwoing, It falls to pieces in my hands, looks like I’m going to Cashbase then ;-(
12:00: Arrived at Cashbase, now it’s really quite a funny place to go (if you know you’re not going to spend £80 that is)
I park about a mile away in the only space that has any space either side of it, to be honest I bought my car because I liked the shape of it, so I don’t feel the need to let anyone else make my doors a slightly dimpled shape…just me in my mad little world…What’s particularly noticeable as I hike in to the shop through the car park, is that every car seems to be tiny. Every other car seems to have a man and woman trying to defy the laws of physics and trying to fit 8ft lengths of 2b2 into a Vauxhall corsa. Then the biscuit is taken, by the guy who’s wheeling out 8 (counte ‘em) full length interior doors, he must have a transit or something like that, but no, much better than that, he has a Mini cooper !!! with a roof rack !!!! This car will look like a mini aircraft carrier driving along, still it brings a smile to my face which has to be a good thing.12:15: Now then I’m in…. I only need a glue gun, nothing else, no scart leads, no wizzy new tool that doesn’t actually do anything at all useful, just a glue gun, but oh those tool boxes look really good…and look that one has wheels!!!, “stopit” I tell myself, I have a list, it says glue gun…now then where might that be. The consensus is that glue gun’s are kept near the “really nice power tools” so I spend at least 5 minutes drooling over them, but no, no glue gun’s to be found here. What about by the glue, look at that they have 3 “budget” glue guns, dunno what the deluxe one does maybe it’s powered, but this one will do I think.12:25: So I go and pay and try not to look at the woman who’s trying to get eye contact with me so she can say “are you interested in new double glazing or conservatories “, she says it anyway now, and I just shake my head, not necessarily because I don’t want double glazing or a conservatory, but it’s such an oh so depressing job that she must have. The only people who want to talk to her are the elderly, who only came in for a box of pansies because they were on offer, and they’re far too polite to say get stuffed.
12:30: Back at home and heh the glue gun works !!! Bonus.
17:00: The skirtings are on ! The doors are fixed, and I’m done….except for the shelves, ok so I affix the Ikea shelves above the toilet, and they’re even level !...At least I didn’t have to go to cashbase though ….!!!
Monday (grrrr)08:40: Yup it’s bloody Monday again.
08:50: “So how are we doing?” he’s back I thought sending him on a quest to return a magic ring would have done the trick for a while but no. Back to bother me I guess. “Well things would be great if I could actually deploy NonSense”, I reply, “Well we can do it today, I had a chat with Bill Zunpronoucable on Friday and it all kicked off, but we have tacit agreement”, I’m not entirely sure what the tacit bit of the agreement was but any how. Apparently the suggestion was to not deploy NonSense at all and to wait until the new WAN solution was implemented and outsource the proxy connection (hmm not understanding the outsource the proxy bit there). What a great suggestion I thought, it’d be even better had that been decided about 2 months ago prior to me spending all that time developing the system !!!!!!!09:30: Sent my email to the masses to the “Un”Helpful desk to send out and to Mark Pasty their boss, to “approve”, only to discover that he’s on leave until Thursday. Can’t possibly send an email out unless it’s approved. I tell you if it comes to it I’ll send the bloody message myself if necessary.
10:00: Quiet Rob is here, apparently ID, has told him he needs to have the Pirate systems kit moved into the old data centre as they’re moving. Apparently he and I are the only IA staff in as Brentboy is on his training course this week. Training course ? We do training ? I don’t know who you have to sleep with to get training, maybe I’m so good at what I do, I don’t need any training, note to self, remember to check the job boards for something a million times better than this.
11:00: Moving Pirate systems PC’s (servers) into DC112:30: Lunch13:30: Back from lunch, ½ hour to go until the NonSense cutover the Grand wizard tells me that we’d better do it tomorrow as we’re not going to get the message out to users in time to give them any notice. To be honest I wouldn’t tell them anything anyway but that’s just me.
14:00: Back with Quiet Rob, moving servers this time, they don’t stand a chance as he’s in charge of the trolley and it’s not exactly rally driving but somewhere close I think.
15:00: Most of the servers are in the rack now, just these three 1u servers to go, tiny little one’s so no worries there. We undo the screws on the bottom one, and slide it out, just in time for the two on top of it to come crashing down behind it….ah the missing “these servers aren’t on rails” sign.
16:00: The dropped servers are in a bit of a sorry state, all a bit bent really, still they’re only “VITAL” servers so we shouldn’t worry too much….
17:00: The Wizard announces that he’s on leave for the next two days (interviews, well I can hope can’t I ?) but that the deployment for NonSense must happen tomorrow…(well he can hope can’t he ?)…
# posted by cre8 @ 1:46 AM 
