Dan’s View

So due to my shift lasting 7 days last week I have taken Monday and yesterday off. I did virtually nothing, lazed around at home. Well I did go to the local shop twice. And I installed my work laptop with Linux, just how ‘geek’ does that make me….

Due to my laziness over the weekend I haven’t updated Twitter/Facebook Status in a few days, this caused a semi-joke SMS from a friend asking if I had been banned for over usage, and checking I was alright. I had to laugh out loud when I read it, cause I know that people can and do find my frequent updates annoying, but then this is an example of someone who likes them. The answer is, you can never please everyone, and you know what; I really don’t care. For me it actually is therapeutic reasons, it helps me to vent as do these blog posts, well the ones that are not technical.

So currently on the long non-stop stretch of the Piccadilly in between Acton Town and Hammersmith, back on the Soul Tech mix. Boh!

Cheers,

DanB.

So today has been a hung over, slept on the sofa by accident day. Worked my shift which was mainly calm nothing as chaotic as yesterday! Chatted to a few friends which was nice, even my mum for once! At the moment I’ve taken myself for a jaunt around town. Needed to get out of the flat and do something! Still I have no real aim brought the camera along with me in case of any decent views or things. We’ll seen, this train is about to terminate, so up to ground level for me.

Got to ground level and someone called who I was trying to meet, so heading north now. I’m annoyed someone else who lives around where I’m heading appears to have lost their phone and I have no way of contacting them. Been wanting to chat to them as we always have good conversation.

Stuck listening to that Soul Tech mix, it’s great.

So hopefully an old work friend will call in a bit and we’ll have drinks in my local,  not seen them in quite a while.

So that was a nice visit to see a friend. We had a good chat, tea and gaming. Heading back home. Currently listening to Spinns show from the end of last month.

So bus section completed. Joy! Currently sitting on the tube, pondering life the universe and games. Gonna play some when I’m home.

On shift again tomorrow so up at before 7am tomorrow, going to go out with a friend afterwords; well I’m in a state of indecision as to whom I go and meet, but I think I have made up my mind partially and then I’ll take Monday off.. A Monday off is great, laziness at home. Time to walk off the train.

All home testing out new firefox beta, so far so good. Seems quicker in handling the JS side of things.

Time for some games me thinks.

What has the last couple of days been like? Interesting, to say the least.

Work has been chaos busy, especially today; maintenance at the start of my shift, therefore cleanup after and then massive egress drops in the realm of 8GB. NOT my fault, but still chaos.

Yesterday I met with an old friend whom I havn’t seen in over 2 years, wow. We met and we fell back into chatting, I find it so easy to discuss things with them. It really was nice. So we ended up eating, drinking and chatting till 2am. It was a little weird at the start but I cannot impress upon you that it was so easy. We just kinda gel.

I paused writing this post last night as I was interrupted by a person, whom with I had a good chat. Then eventually I was met by two friends from my old work. We had fun. I now wake and warm myself to working, I’m on shift today 08:00 till 16:00. Still I will have a lazy monday who knows about sunday
evening…

I havn’t checked my work email yet, but I really hope it’s in a better state than yesterday. At the moment I have no more to say; I’m sure I did at the beginning of writing this, but it’s either been vented or forgotten.

Time for toast.

Today was definatly a day of more crunching, the shift in the USA I took over from at 8am didn’t seem to have actually focused on the alerts. We started of with about 90! I find it exceedingly irritating as when I am primary, my sole goal is to get that page empty; not that that occurs often! So over the day we battled with this, as well as code deployment, yet still managed to get the number of alerts to under 10 by 4pm! I was hoping to get to zero, but that is neigh on impossible when there are something like 20,000 servers being monitored.

Our office is different this week, we have visitors from the USA, they are over here in preparation for the new Dublin office; doing interviews, etc. So our normal population of 5 men in the office is offset by 4 women chatting to possible employees on the phone. Makes the office different, including limiting the amount of swearing we can do; the HR manger for the satallite offices is in the room

Ahh, my bottle of Westons Organic Cider is now being consumed as I sit on the train from Paddington to Ealing Broadway, am actually heading onto Hayes/My old work local to meet with friends. I couldn’t be arsed to wait for the next direct train so will wait on the platform in Ealing for a bit. I was surprised how easy it was for me to get an extension ticket to goto Hayes, I was expecting the ticket sales guy to be all confused. I guess more people do it than I imagine.

Time from a break from writing and drinking instead

So I am back drinking, but now outside the old work local waiting for peeps to finish.

It’s surprising how well my mind/thoughts changed as I walked through Stockley Park. I guess that I do really have fond memories of this wierd business park place. It’s not got much to offer, but I remember things in a good light. Anyone from my old company understands that I didn’t leave for negative reasons, but I am surprised at myself! Then again I had a message from someone in the Accounting department today asking how I know one of his friends, well it is because I work with him in the new job and he didn’t know that I had left!
Time check… 5 to the hour, I guess they are nearly ready to walk the 3 minute journey to the pub! I cannot see them though. Oh and I’m still listening to lots of Carl Matthas’ shows from Bassdrive. I really cannot say how much they put me in a good mood.

Well my mood today was annoyed as per the alerts, but I am still feeling in very good spirits. I think it goes hand in hand with me being more carefree. Now that I have made this change of being single again I cannot see me in a relationship for a while, I am really liking the aspect of being random, and
not the random you have with anyone else, the purely selfish randomness. I choose, I want, I know I know, that it is selfish, but I cannot avoid how that thought enters my mind. And I am sure that I am not alone in that feeling.

Ok I think I have exhausted my typing for the moment, plus I need to roll a ciggy. I’m not sure if this blog post is finished, we’ll see…

I have had an interesting evening with my old peers; we chatted about almost anything. And in fact I was the rant vent for one friend for an hour and a half. He needed to discuss his concerns, we used todo this all the time. We were the ranting pair. I guess he misses that to a degree. (If that is my own ego; humpf. At least I can admit I have ego!) (( Don’t know where that was directed, probably to myself. )) Back on tack I think that he is half correct with his concerns; but to a degree it’s an impossible game, because it is all a political game.

That last paragraph took me a few hours to finish typing, I’ll post it in the morning. Sorry you have to wait!

Cheers,
Dan.

Well not espically flavoursome alerts, nothing critical. The day kinda just passed without too many fires. I think we even managed to keep the number of active alerts under 30! Which is a huge improvment upon a few weeks ago. I can see that we will eventually reach a point we the number is so low that we can trust each alert and start to SMS alert, and therefore not have to watch a web
interface to the alert system.

In talking with one of my collueages a while back about what they used at his company they actually reached the point where there is no manual deployment of servers. The system knows the load/peaks/demand for the services and if a node falls over it automagially re-images it, well if the hardware is borked it would re-purpouse another machine to take it’s role. I have been thinking
about this for a while and it would be an extreamly efficent way of handling the whole kaboodle that is the chain that has to occur in the case of new hardware being provisioned or the re-purposing of existing. It can cause headaches, espcially if someone accidently makes a typo in the Bind
configuration; that has been know to take the site offline before… It is something that I would like to possibly start working towards; although is a massive project, at least if feels massive. If I start to break the task down into chunks I am sure I could manage it. Let’s see.

Too tired to join colluages on a meal tonight; it’s a shame as some of the folk from the US offices are over at the moment. So the evening looks like Mario Kart; I am turning into a bad bad Sys. Admin who plays games in the evening. Still they are fun.

Acton Town stop, I think I have written enough now. Have a good evening. Oh and Happy Birthday Jens!

Cheers,
DanB

So as I start this week I am still processing things but definatly see light at the end of the “tunnel of self”. If that makes sense I don’t know.

I didn’t do anything yesterday, I had made 3 appointments with friends but all of them fell through. 2 have been re-arranged, but I was kinda looking forwards to it.

I start my day with a light oversleep (sorry work!) but still managed to cover my duties until my secondary got to the office so nothing bad happened. As I type on the tube I can see the two old geezas commenting on the fact I am a “Hat wearing, laptop using, electronic loud music listening young person.”. Admittadly I do find it fun causing people to question, make them think, etc. But at the same time they have to realise that I am aware of my surroundings I timed a perfect look up and down the carrage so they both are aware; fakkers. Maybe I should get business cards that have my blog address and a comment, “Read my blog at then end of today, I will comment about you.”

I am really stuck on Carl Matthas’ shows at the moment, the have an elating aspect that cannot be beaten. He really knows how to order the mix effectivly.

Direction; it is something I aways find difficut. I tend to have interests in lots of different geeky things and flip and change between my focus all the time. I need to start to form some personal goals. The problem I always have with goals is that all I really want is to be happy, what makes me happy is learning. So as long as I constantly learn new things, apply things to new situations I am happy. You know I think I am acutally lucky to have such a simple view on things; I don’t crave money, as long as I have enough to live I am content. I wonder how many other people take life so simply?

Hammersmith, always the train gets half packed here. I was enjoying my space.

So I think that is enough for now, half way to work. I will see if I am enthused enough to write later on. (Actually have you noticed that its when I am single I find it easier to write. The strange cathartic nature of my blogging style.)

Cheers,

DanBUK.

So it has been a difficult week. I have been dealing with the breakup of my relationship. It’s a hard change; 3 years is not a short amount of time and will not be forgotton. I am not certain of where I am going now, well I know what I am doing but it has changed the future. (NB. That is impossible due to the fact that the future is unwritten; and the past is already written and cannot change.)

I am now re-entering a state of self analysis. Which is a good thing, I find my mind is more free, I feel a sense of freedom. Take today, I woke up at a reasonable time, not feeling ill like the past few days and took a jaunt into the centre to meet with a close friend of mines mother who is visiting him in London today. Enjoyed a chat with them both and have since been wandering and currently find myself on Goodge Street with a pint sitting outside in the unsettled weather. I have taken a few pictures when I deemed it worthy; it’s weird acting like a tourist when actually I am taking pictures for pleasure. I have no plans as to the rest of the day, the carefreeness that was, I don’t know how to put it this is the closest I can get ‘Jailed’, but that is too strong a term.

I think it’s time to finish this Gunniess and wander a litte more. I shall update this post as I journey; who knows where from next?

I have only walked to the next junction, back to an old favourite of mine; ICCo Goodge Street. They do good and cheap pizza.

I do worry about the one which I have just parted from, I hope she is well and want her to be happy. I am quite confident she will be happier in the future. At the moment we are having some quiet time to allow us both to get on with life and move forward.

Food arrived, next update from?

The train from Paddington to Ealing broadway; with a diversion from the Bakerloo to Circle line due to a person under a train, well not my train, the train infront. Shame. Oh and the pizza was nice!

Have taken a few more “Living London” pics, well not of people, buildings actually buildings in a state of repair, demolision and construction. As always with my solo wanderings I am listening to some DnB; a really nice set from Carl Matthas including an exellent mix by Soul Tech, it really fits as a wandering soundtrack.

I think a pint in the North Star before heading home.

Now typing with Westons Scrumpy, at least I think that is the brand. Very tasty; but I am only allowing myself one due to wanting to go for a cycle tomorrow morning.

So I think even though the writing of the blog post and wander I am feeling better. Not feeling too alone, confident of the future. I’m sure that over the coming months I will feel back to my old self. I’m not saying that she was stopping me being myself, but I was. I had changed to fit with her and it wasn’t for the best. I want us to have an amicable friendship in the future, we’ll get there. Time to finish this post, drink this pint and continue listening to the uber-mix by Soul Tech.

Cheers,

DanB.

Ok so anyone I have spoken to f2f knows what I mean. I cannot do the same as I used to, the views of my work env. I have to kinda keep limited to a degree. (I wish I could do more; well you know I would!) I am enjoying this environment, but it’s hard work. The structure is not the same; if it exists..

I can see how this will move forward; things will improve on the orga side; things will get better. It just takes some expirance to affect the change. And that is going to be affected by the new team. We are not in the same environment; we have exp. And we are not scared, infact we make others scared. We don’t mean to but we don’t see the logic. We see the disorganisation and we are scared. We want it to be more efficent.

And on life; well life. It’s a game, tomorrow is today and yesterday was today. (Sh1t that kinda makes sense.) Anyway ramble over, time for a roll-up and a bottle of beer.

So, the beer has been drunk. Today I am a little hungover, not that this will suprise anyone that knows me..

Been getting to know the company and the people that I will be working with. Expirencing some of the alerts and firefighting.

Last night I met a bunch of guys that meet in one of the local bars for Table Football and they even had a little tournement. Some other random people from LA and Palo Alto, I had fun.

Time to start looking at the monitoring and alerts and see what is going on.

Well it wasn’t the day, moreso the evening. After an 11 hour flight I sponged a lift with the woman sitting next to me and her husband drove me to my hotel! Cheeky…

Spent the evening going around some of the bars in Palo Alto, random conversations with various people and had fun. I don’t actually remember the end of the evening. Oh and I got “carded”, “Have you got ID?” first time in years. Still you have to laugh when it happens.

Some nice beer was drunk, need to remember the names so far I cannot remember. But it was from C.A.

I now sit waiting for “Orientation” to start. Lots of people are going to talk, lets see how the day pans out.

Oh and this is where I am staying, Google Street View.