WB/PC Guy (who is now sorta-manager-WB guy) found out that his position is only a title today. Gotta hand it to him, he took it in stride. He is currently in his Mgmt-cube writing his *fifth* memo of the day. I suppose that if enough people think he is a real manager, he will get the respect he wants.

Spoke to WB PHP about the fan in the server room. Gave home $3000 quote. He balked. Told him there was $27,000 in equipment in there. He said we'd replace it if it failed.

Sent him email about the same issue with warning. CC:d his boss. Email back - "We'll look into it."

He has been warned.

WB / PC guy got his promotion today. I celebrated by reminding him that his isn't my boss and that he now has much more important things to do than bother me. He wasn't amused.

Did I say he wasn't my boss?

He, he, he.

The fibre is here! The fibre is here! After 6 weeks the fibre guys are installing the six-strand. They promise it will be terminated this afternoon. That means I get my network back. Yay!

Had a very bad day at work, but this was because of the management, and the lack there of. I am about 400 miles away from my manager, which is usually a good thing. My manager doesn't hassle me much. There is no micro-management from two states away. On the other hand there is no was to fend off the dump-truck-effect from all of the local managers piling work onto me. That's what happened today, and I am so far behind that I may just not catch up again. I even wound upsheparding a job - a PRODUCTION job through the shop because it had programming in it.

Let me be very clear on something right now. I program. I am not a PROGRAMMER. I know how to use a computer for more than coding. I can FIX THINGS, not just use them. I limit my programming to useful tasks like eliminating pesky files from WB pcs, or checking manager's email. I do NOT write programs that are of monetary benefit to my VLC. I don't want that kind of attention. I was assigned this task because i work in IT and no one at this location has ANY IDEA WHAT IT DOES. Its a little like being an epidemiologist in 12th century France. What you do is of immense benefit, but people just assume you're a rat-catcher and keep handing your bags and sticks.

Just about everything works well now, except the VLC IT provided firewall and switch. For some reason one of these devices is not allowing packets through. Seems obvious to me, but I will let the beanie-heads at IT earn their brownie points by following procedure to arrive at the same conclusion.

Had to go head-to-head with a Worker Bee manager. Seems his people want better PCs and printers and have decided the best way to get these is by shoving the devices off the desk. I am always one for getting new gear by disabling the old stuff, but I don't want anyone calling me up and expecting me to fix the stuff after its broken. We have an effective gear request system in place and the WB manager knows how to use it.

The phone room cabling upgrade is done. All of the fle-bite problems are taken care of. I had a dead switch but a spare switch is covering for it. Three cables are dead, and the Fibre guys won't be in until NEXT Monday, throwing my whole schedule off.

But the room looks better and I havean entire rack to use, so that's good. I guess it is.

Had to stay home again. Nicely notified workerbee/PC guy via email that I wouldn't be there so he wouldn't get worried about das blinken lights on the server. He wrote back to "thank" me for monitoring my email, and he made sure to cc: his boss. Sigh. Some people need to learn the hard way.

Thursday is meeting day, and that means interruptions. Made a sign that read "In Meeting. Please do not disturb". That reduced the disruptions to 10, which is about normal. Next Thursday I will be co-opting a meeting room, and if that doesn't work I will lock myself into the phone room.

Phone guy just left. Wanted to sell us a new system. I had to give him the bad new that our VLC IT/Telecom group want to install their own system. If only that were true. Instead we have to put up with a phone system from the typewriter era.

Back to work today. Wrenched knee and so of course I had to spend the entire day running from one end of the building to the other doing all sorts of hands-on work. Blah.

Stayed home.. My Real Boss - the one who signs my reviews, was cool with it. so i monitored email and hell desk and had my cell on while I took care of my daughter and cleaned the house.

Worker Bee/PC guy from yesterday put in his hell desk tickets again. I tried to get a hold of him but he was out. Fulfilled the letter of the ticket and closed those.

i can't wait to get back so I can relax.

Came in today despite fever and pink eye from friends' kids. Care-ful-ly explained network upgrade to workerbee/PC guy who had his two cents worth. Care-ful-ly re-explained network. Lightbulb moment happened. WB is happy. WB put in five helldesk tickets that I need to take care of. Care-ful-ly re-re-explained network upgrade AND all the work I need to do to get it done. Nothin' but attitude. Cancled WB's tickets.

I love mondays

Main file server acting up. Logged in and saw close to 5000 files being copied. Logged out and explained to user about cause and effect.

Copier/printer down. A PHB was all hot and bothered. "You need to fix that right away." Called local printer support place and had them fulfill contract.

And so it goes.

In the middle of updating the network at The EP site. I swear if I ever find the vendor(s) that installed half of the cat5 here, I will ban them from the building. Wires everywhere and no strain relief in sight. One vendor actually zip-tied the cat5 ONTO the flourescent lights.

The original installers put D-rings in the network room, but failed to ancher the rings to anything more substantial than the drywall. Note: 75+ cat5 cables in a bundle with no strain relief held only by D-rings screwed into draywall will destroy drywall.

Retrofitting sucks!