Without Motive

Time To Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:12:00 +0000

Well, let's just see what this looks like, shall we?
I'm sat at work; Blogger.com is blocked so there's no chance of posting something through the website or by using Windows Live Writer so I've resorted to blogging by email. It sometimes works but sometimes looks
funny so I have to edit it later on. Am I rambling?

It's been a steady couple of days so far. All servers have been working normally. Nothing has appeared to be out of the ordinary. Work has plodded on as it should be. Unfortunately, the "not well"-ness of the servers last week has past on to me - I am not well.
I started with a sore throat on Friday evening and I knew something was coming. On Saturday morning, I woke up to not being able to say a word and razor blades in my throat. The sore throat continued on Sunday and started turning into the ridiculous cold I currently have. I'm stocked up with tissues laced with Olbas oil, several packets of Halls Soothers and plenty of hot drinks. I'm one of these people who only take
medication when it's absolutely necessary so, when it comes to colds and the like, I ride it out until it's gone. I can be a moany git during that time but people have learned to live with that when I'm not suffering anyway.

16:08 - Ten minutes or so but I might leave early. Feeling very stuffed. I'd considered tidying my office because it's not possible to see my desk at the moment. However, the sophisticated filing system that, to the untrained eye, looks like piles of paper will do me for now. Friday can be a tidy day.

I think I'll go home, have meatloaf for tea (if there's any left) along with a few hot drinks before going to meet my girlfriend from work. I'm good like that. I'm especially looking forward to meeting
her tonight because she's had her hair done and looks amazing.

I think now may be the time to give up and pack up. Nothing more for me to do here until tomorrow.

Problem Solved?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:34:00 +0000

It’s Saturday morning and I’m up writing a blog post because I couldn’t sleep anymore. I’m suffering today. A combination of a ridiculous sore throat (as mentioned on Twitter and Facebook, if anyone needs any film trailer voiceover work done, I’m your man) and one of the more horrendous weeks in work I’ve had for a long time. The lack of sleep was mainly due to the sore throat. Hate having sore throats. It’s one of those where it feels you have something wedged at the back and it won’t come out. I’m not necessarily coughing all the time. It’s just there and I’m just going to sit it out until it’s gone.

“Hell” is not a word I would describe this week but, since there can’t really be anything worse than hell, that word will have to do. “Really bad” is an understatement.
I don’t think I’ve blogged about it before but we’ve had an ongoing problem at work with our servers. It’s something that has completely stumped us and our maintenance company for a few months now.
It’s a very long story so, to prevent you all from being bored by technical rubbish, I’m going to try and keep it short.

Every few weeks over the last 5 or 6 months, I’ve been walking into work after a weekend and seeing a fast array of red lights in our server. This always puts the fear of God in me as I’m supposed to be greeted by green lights. Red lights always means something’s wrong. Corrupt hard drives is usually the answer. The cause can be varied but, in our case, the cause wasn’t as clear-cut as I wanted it to be.
Server hard drives were breaking at exactly the same time as each other on different servers, even on different networks. It was a bizarre situation and much testing was done with different theories in mind. We’d ruled out the obvious causes – virus outbreak; software problems. We’d even replaced almost every server with a brand new one and they started displaying the same symptoms. It seemed (to some people) that it was maybe coming back to some sort of power problem and we stayed with that theory for a few weeks until the beginning of this last week when the worst crash happened.

I walked into work on Wednesday after not being able to check my work email on the way. I knew something was wrong but I didn’t realise how wrong until I opened the server room door and found almost every server showing every red light it had. One of the more important server was telling me “Operating System Not Found” which was quite worrying.
This one was so bad, it had completely wiped out the data on a 3TB storage array… which wasn’t pleasant. This meant a complete rebuild and restoration from backups which should have completed by this morning (I’ll find out on Monday).

As we were looking into getting everything back up and running, a call to my radio by reception told me that the burglar alarm had set off during the night and wondered if that had anything to do with our problem. As ridiculous as it may seem, we weren’t ruling anything out and investigating any coincidences. Bizarrely, the time of the alarm going off coincided with the time our servers started their downward spiral to destruction. However, aside from this one comparison, there were no other relationships between the alarm and the servers… until another weird but plausible cause.

In the server room, for some reason, is a massive siren. It’s an intruder alarm and it’s incredibly loud. I’ve been in there when there’s been a fault and it makes your ears bleed. There’s really no need for it to be there but it’s there, anyway.
The weird theory was that, as this alarm is so loud, the vibrations of the sound were affecting the hard drives in the servers, making them vibrate and, therefore, corrupting the data on them. It sounded outlandish but it was all we had. My next job was to call the alarm company and request the recent alarms over the last few months. As hoped, the last seven times the alarm has sounded coincided almost perfectly with the times our servers had broken down. We’d almost cracked it. The next step was to disconnect the siren which was done on Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday (Friday), I went to work to check the progress of the rebuilding. As I passed the caretaker’s office, I was told there was a report on his desk from the alarm company. Knowing what was happening when the alarm went off, I wasn’t looking forward to this.
The alarm had gone off at 3 o’clock in the morning.
Sweating and shaking, I opened the server room door to find… green. No red lights. The servers were carrying on as though nothing had happened.

So, we appear to have cracked it. This is only once but it’s the first time in the last seven that nothing has happened when the alarm has sounded so here’s hoping.

Now all I have to do is hope everything has finished rebuilding and restoring on Monday. Please, God, let everything be ok. I can’t deal with another week like last week.

RINGTONE!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:58:00 +0000

A pointless post but this always makes me laugh.
Something silly, stupid, pointless and I’m even sad enough to have the chorus as my mobile ringtone. Unfortunately, YouTube doesn’t like me embedding the video so you’ll have to click the link. Enjoy…

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Ringtone

Raise money for B-eat

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Read this:

“Hello! My name is Lucy Taylor and I have suffered from anorexia for nearly 5 years now. I have been in and out of hospitals, and seen several psychiatrists, psychologists and other therapists, none of which have helped.

Since finding Twitter (and all the great people that it reaches) I have decided to grab the bull by the horns and just go for it, and get better!!

I am now on a weight gain menu plan, and although it will be slow, I have decided to aim for a starting weight of 7 stone by December 2010 (right now I am 6 stone/38kg and am 5ft 11inches tall which gives me a BMI of 11.6 ). My next weigh in is on the 17th March so stay tuned. I can't believe I'm about to write this but I can't wait! Haha!

All I'm asking for is £1 for every 1lb 1 gain, or more if you can! Lets B-eat it by helping me beat it!

If you want to wait until I have revealed what my weight gain is (which will be every month) then you don't have to sponsor me now, but can wait to see how much I have gained and then sponsor. It is entirely up to you! SO, if you want to sponsor me, that would be amazing and would raise much needed money for the Eating Disorder charity B-eat! Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

P.S My profile picture is my motivational picture - that is how I look when I am well, and it is what I am aiming for :-D The reason I have posted a picture of myself looking healthy, rather than how I look now, is because 1) its give me motivation to see myself look healthy and happy 2) I dont want it to be triggering for other eating disorder sufferers, and 3) frankly, it is not a very pretty sight!! LOL.Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to read this!

Love Lucy xxx xxx”

Lucy (@littlemunchkin) is a very good friend of a lot of people, not just me. She’s funny, kind and, just in 140 characters on Twitter, can make your day through one simple sentence despite all she’s been through above.
She’s on a mission now to get through everything and, with the help of everyone she can reach out to, she can do it as well as raise lots of money for a really good charity.

Instead of me babbling on about it, get in touch with her through Twitter (@littlemunchkin) or, better still, donate some money to B-eat through her page on JustGiving.com.

Go for it, Lucy.
You’re an amazing person and you give a lot of love through Twitter and Digital Spy. Let’s pay you back by raising lots of money and giving you a boost to get you better.

All the very best :-)

Hating Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:04:00 +0000

Today hasn’t exactly been the Monday I’d been hoping for towards the end of last week.

After a slow but marginally successful half term, I left the network in a reasonable state and was quietly confident that when everyone returned this morning they would be impressed, pleased and possibly complimentary at the improvements that had been made.

Unfortunately, the compliments and praise would have to wait because there would be no way they could experience the improvements as the entire network was down… again… for the millionth time!

I had suspected something was amiss when I went to check my work email from home on Saturday morning and noticed that nothing was happening. No web page, no email, no nothing – even the school website was down. Considering our recent problems, I was surprised I hadn’t thought the worst straight away. However, I was aware the local authority had a few problems with our website during half term week and so assumed it was something to do with that – I couldn’t really have been more wrong.

Walking into work this morning, I didn’t know what to expect. I still assumed (or hoped) a simple Internet problem easily solved. Why I had even come up with these ridiculous assumptions, I don’t know. I usually think the worst and then at least when it’s not that bad, I can feel better. Unfortunately, today was that bad.

Walking Into Red

It’s always a good sign when I open the server room door to be greeted with a sea of green lights blinking at me from the servers. I breathe a sigh of relief knowing everything is ok and I can continue with my job. They’ll take care of themselves.
It’s a different story on days such as today when, instead of green, the servers look like they’ve just turned into Satan’s Servers, staring at me through blood red eyes. It wasn’t a pretty sight and I knew I’d have something hefty to deal with.

Red lights indicate just one thing on server hard drives – corruption. And a total of 8 red lights means that something is very, very wrong. Without even thinking, I called our maintenance company and logged a problem then settled down in front of the angry machines to check logs and work out what went wrong this time (I still don’t know).

… and now it’s Tuesday

… and I’m not looking forward to walking into work again.

Servers are supposed to be reliable and something you can, more or less, leave to it while you get on with the rest of the day. When they don’t get on with what they’re supposed to be doing and become unreliable then you lose trust in them.
Walking into work after a complete failure is always a worry, especially when there are still things that still aren’t working properly which means I can’t check on the condition of the servers until I open the dreaded server room door and see which colour I’m going to be flooded with. My hope is green; my fear is red. I also won’t be impressed with orange.

We shall see.

Brief Break

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:45:00 +0000

14:37 and I have just under an hour left before I'm headed home after another day's productive work.
With the help of our maintenance company, we've managed to sort out the joining of our two networks in school. This now means all resources will be available from all computers in school (well, once I've sorted that bit out).
I've even thought ahead at teachers' reactions when they a see a new thing and it doesn't work as they expected. I've created a program to display various messages talking them through every stage of a particular application. I think I have all bases covered so that panic won't ensue.

Tonight will be the second night my girlfriend has been away. Last night wasn't too bad because it was just like she had a late shift in work. This morning was a bit rubbish, though, when I woke up and she wasn't there. Still, she's home again tomorrow. Really looking forward it.
To entertain me tonight, I have The Brits on at 8 and then Shameless straight after if I can stay awake.

That'll do for now.

Short, Sharp Blog Post

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:50:00 +0000

06:41 on a Thursday morning and I’m starting a new blog post. This is guaranteed to be completely uninteresting and contain much waffle…

So, it’s Thursday.
Only two more days to get through before the school is on Half Term. I refer to it as “the school” as opposed to “we” because “we” are not on Half Term. Not all of us. I have a busy five days ahead of me next week so time without teachers and children will be very beneficial, if not nice and quiet.

Unfortunately, because of work “stuff”, I can’t have my little girl stay through the week but I’m a good Dad and will certainly make up for it. We’ll have her for a weekend sometime after when I’m totally free and will take her up to my parents when they’re all there themselves. As usual, I’ll be off to Liverpool on Sunday to spend the day with her. It’s “cinema week” this week so she has a choice of film to go and see – Percy Jackson; AstroBoy; The Princess and the Frog. Entirely her choice, of course, but I wouldn’t mind seeing AstroBoy. I can’t see me doing this for much longer being as she’s growing up fast. Kiddy movies will become a thing of the past.

06:49 – Time to shower and get this show on’t road.
Short, sharp blog posts may well be the way forward.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Social Icons - Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:50:00 +0000

Today could be the start of knowing someone potentially famous.

A friend of mine (@DaveCostello83) has this band (@Social_Icons) who have been working themselves silly to make a name for themselves and, despite not seeing them live… yet (sorry, Dave), I can guaranteed that their self-penned track list is nothing short of amazing.

And it shows how hard they’ve worked because today sees the release of their debut single on iTunes and Amazon – Lately. Priced at under £1, it’s well worth grabbing and having a listen. “Lately” is a fantastic track (one of my favourites, I’m happy to say) and shows off the talent that’s in the band.

If you want to buy the track and make these guys big, click on the links below. They also have MySpace and Twitter pages if you want to get in touch and, of course, nothing is better than a live gig so, if you’re ever in the North West, make sure you look them up.

“Lately” on iTunes

“Lately” on Amazon (MP3)

Social Icons on MySpace

Social Icons on Twitter

Blog Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:03:00 +0000

Apologies for yet another change in blog theme. I just can’t decide which one looks best and which one feels right when I post a blog.

I need a new theme.

Cinema, Pizza Hut & Nintendo Wii

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:54:00 +0000

Synchronising an iPhone is an ideal time to write a blog post, considering it takes so damn long. So, here goes…

… and it’s Monday again. The past couple of weeks since we got back to work after Christmas seem to have flown by. Already we’re into the third week back (well, four if you count “snow week”) and we’re looking forward to half term in a few more. I’m hoping the weeks stay as positive as last week but I have a feeling things may turn bad as we go through the term. We’ll soon see. I’m still happy after a really nice weekend.

My daughter came to stay with us and we had a weekend of cinema, pizza and Nintendo Wii.
The film we saw was Planet 51. Another brilliant computer-animated film following astronaut, Chuck Baker, as he tries to get back to Earth following a landing on an alien planet. Funny for most of the film and recommended to people of all ages. However, try and choose a cinema with some heating that works. The Empire cinema in Wigan failed to do this and we felt like we were watching Planet 51 on the set of Ice Age.

Next was Pizza Hut and our usual trick of taking some sort of voucher for some money off. It did the job and we were able to get a 3-course meal for 3 of us for under £30. I was very chuffed and also very stuffed :-).
After stuffing ourselves with pasta and all sorts of other Pizza Hut goodies, we headed home and started on the Nintendo Wii. Game of the day was MarioKart playing with my parents and sister over the Internet. For a girl of eight years, my daughter is quite good at this game. I expect she’ll be beating Dad fairly soon, no doubt.
To top off a great weekend, we found out that my girlfriend has become an Auntie. Happiness ensued.

Then work today.
Everything is suddenly brought crashing down when you realise everything you put off on Friday afternoon. OK, so I didn’t put anything off but I had a sneaky feeling I knew what was coming.
Servers were doing nasty things on Friday and I kind of left them to it to repair themselves over the weekend so I was expecting disaster when I walked in this morning. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case and all was well. That set the tone for the day. All was quiet. Hardly a single request so I was able to get on with paperwork and all sorts of other outstanding things.

Without disaster (even finishing on a successful job), the day ended and I headed home ready to be greeted by an apparently blocked toilet. Lovely. Nothing nasty in it, just water up to the brim. Brilliant.

So now, with toilet unblocked, tea eaten, cats fed, I’m sat blogging waiting for my iPhone to synchronise.

Neglecting Forums

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:47:00 +0000

I've noticed, whether it be due to time constraints or simple not being
bothered, that I've been neglecting a few of my regular haunts on various forums around the Internet. There were a few that I would post to regularly. Namely Edugeek for work related things (and a few social) and Digital Spy,primarily focussed on entertainment but a good bunch of people on there, most of which I'm now in contact with through Twitter.

From noticing this neglect, I've decided to start again, so to speak, with these two favourites.
Both sites have brilliant people as members and both sites have offered help either personal or professional over the time I've been a member of each.

I highly recommend both so, if you're not a member, go ahead and visit the links to the side of this blog and take a look. You'll probably make a lot of friends as I have.

So, off we go.
Prepare for an influx of regular posts and interaction.

Thinking (and remaining) positive

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:30:00 +0000

... and so to the end of another day.
This day being Tuesday; this particular Tuesday being the third one of
2010. Already.

I'm writing this while sat in my office at work and sending it to my blog via email because blogger.com is blocked by the Local Authority.
Their reason is that it contravenes their filtering guidelines and, according to the page that appears when you try and access the site, it's on their "web-based Social Networking" list.
It's only recently been blocked. Blogs have appeared on blogger.com since at least 2004 so it's not a new thing. It just seems that now, it contravenes their guidelines when it didn't before.

Facebook received the same fate not too long ago. Facebook, of course, is a little more risky than Blogger which is fair enough. However, it's come back again which means that, in the Local Authority's eyes, Facebook is safer and more acceptable than Blogger. Facebook is also, as it turns out, safer and more acceptable than various Modern Language websites, some software driver websites and some Geography website which are just a big "no no".

Anyway, enough ranting.
So far, this week has gone to plan and has actually been ok. Things have been done on the days I've wanted them to be done and have been completed and fairly successful. It's very strange for me to be feeling positive about the week this close to the middle. Yes, ok, so it's only the second day but I'm usually moaning by the end of Monday.
I think it's because I've had a few tasks that have lasted a while - meetings lasting close to two hours; video conferencing lasting a lunchtime - that have made yesterday and today go so well. There hasn't been room for things to go wrong. Tomorrow may be a different kettle of fish (what does that mean?!).

My diary for Wednesday isn't particularly full. Parents evening which
I'm no way involved with (why it's in my diary, I don't know) and a
software installation. Other than those things, a particularly normal
day with plenty of room for things to go pear-shaped. No, Paul, stop it. Think positive.
Pay Day - it's pay day tomorrow. There we go. Something to look forward to.So thinking positive and much forward planning makes a happy network manager.
I've designated Friday afternoons for reviewing the week that's gone and planning for the week again. I started that last week which I think is the reason this week has gone well so far. Keep going and all will be well.

Just hope teachers don't get in my way.

Snow… and then nothing.

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:29:00 +0000

The intention was to write this blog post some time ago. It’s not necessarily about something specific, I just intended to write a post. Still, with my organisational skills, I’m not surprised I forgot.

The snow has finally disappeared. I’m all for a bit of snow but that was just too much for too long. I just started getting angry at the stuff because it was preventing me from doing things. I got to the stage where I was actually shouting at the ice – verbally punishing it for trying to make me slip over. Idiot.

Then, just as quick as it came, it went… like me… right now… because I’ve suddenly lost all blogging momentum.

Another time.

It’s Getting Tedious

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:04:00 +0000

Day 4 of being off work now because of the weather conditions. I suppose you could also say I’ve had a 3-week Christmas holiday. Whatever it is, it’s now starting to become too long. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the time off with my girlfriend. We’ve been able to spend some time together when she’s not working herself but when she IS working, like today, the day is just a bit tedious.

Towards the end of a holiday period, usually during the last couple of days, you psyche yourself up for the beginning of a new term. You kind of prepare yourself for what’s to come. When something like this happens, you lose that slight bit of momentum.

Still, can’t do much about the weather. It’s happened and it’s being dealt with. When we get the “word”, we’ll head on into work and start from scratch.

I’ll just head over to Facebook for the millionth time this week.

Thank You, Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:52:00 +0000

Snow causes problems depending how you look at it.
Right now, I’m quite happy with the current snow situation. I’m enjoying my second day off work because of the weather conditions and earlier it was confirmed that tomorrow will also be a day off work.

Waking up this morning I was met with the same view as yesterday; a thick, white sheet of snow covering everything. Nothing had moved. I don’t think any more snow had fallen but none had gone.
Someone has attempted to leave the terrace but gave up half way up the street when his car wouldn’t go any further. Most of the street were watching him and he sheepishly reversed back in front of his house. He hasn’t moved since.

The sun is trying to shine but it’s not doing much good. The slight breeze shakes the telephone lines which shed their load of snow but otherwise no snow is shifting.

So, the alarm is being turned off again for tomorrow morning and I’ll have a lie in if my body clock allows it. I’ll spend the day watching mindless daytime TV and waiting for a phone call asking me to update the school website with the latest information.

Secretly, I hope this continues for the rest of the week. Going into work for one day in the week is a little pointless.

Snowed In… But Tech Rules

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:16:00 +0000

So, for, I think, the first time in the 5 and a half years I’ve been in my current job, I have a day off due to snow… and, yes, it’s pretty snowy. I haven’t seen this much in my street for a while so it makes a change.

In situations like this, you realise the power of technology that’s in our lives today, the speed that information is passed from one person to another in a matter of minutes. It was quite strange this morning to see quite a few of my work colleagues jumping onto Facebook to check if work was closed. Texts were flying backwards and forwards from person to person to tell them information. The school website was updated to let parents know what was going on. Without all this technology, no one would be any the wiser without actually turning up and finding out there was no one there.

So, to all those that have snow and can’t get to work, enjoy the day off. To all that haven’t and have to work… well, too bad.

Her Conversational Grasp

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:55:00 +0000

The start of this post is being written on a bus on the way to St Helens Central station. My intention wasn't to blog. It's a means of distraction. A way of preventing something else from happening.

Every Sunday I take this journey to St Helens to catch a train to Liverpool. As I'm waiting for the bus, I never fail to be in the company of some elderly Irish god-fearing lady who insists on trying to start some sort of conversation with me. Most of the time I'm able to avoid it and pass her on to someone else before I get on the bus. Today, however, I wasn't so lucky and today she's on a roll.

I saw her approaching with 4 minutes to go before the bus arrived. Knowing what she was like, I tried to think of something that would make it look like I'm occupied. The obvious answer would be to pretend I'm on the phone but at the time I thought pretending to text would be the answer. How wrong I was. This was an ideal conversation starter and one that would lead to more weird and wonderful subjects.

It started with her asking what make my phone was because her sister had bought her one for Christmas. I have an iPhone and this lady is 71 (I know this because she told me for some reason) so I knew she must be mistaken just by listening to her. The old "that's the same phone my sister bought me" trick was the touch paper that was lit to lead to a detailed outline of her relationship with her sister.
She doesn't like her, apparently, and the supposed gift of the phone had prompted her to sever all ties with her sister. Hence the reason for her journey to church this morning. Every Sunday, she needs someone to pray for and today would be forgiveness for not talking to her sister. So now another subject had come along and sister was left behind to make way for church, religion and God.

During this part of the conversation - conversation being totally the wrong word because I had hardly said anything on purpose. Even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't get a word in - she spent most of the time talking to God himself leaving me out completely. Her sister will be pleased that she's in good company when it comes to blessings. Among the others are poedophiles and people who have sex with dogs (the RSPCA are getting a letter regarding a random news story in the south of England as well as a blessing themselves).

As my own blessing, the bus appeared around the corner and here was my hope of escaping this Sunday morning mini-torture. Even as we got on board, the lady asked me to sit near her which I politely turned down as I "had to make a phonecall". Better late than never, eh?
Then, disaster struck, in her mind, anyway. The bus driver failed to leave the second we were on board and therefore she would late for church! Panic ensued (in her mind only, again) and, with no one else to share her current dilemma with, she decided to tell herself. Words of insult and complaint flew back and forth between her and… well, her and then, to save her from her own torture, some poor unsuspecting soul got on the bus whom she latched on to instantly. I couldn't help but give a slight smile and continue with my imaginary phonecall as the poor young lad was drawn deeper into the conversation I had managed to escape.

There he stayed until the bitter end when she left the bus. The few people who had joined us along the journey were safe because she had hooked her prey and kept him in her grasp. The entire bus seemed to give a sigh of relief.
I, on the other hand, have 7 days of freedom until I risk being drawn in again.

Is that it?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:36:00 +0000

Well, here we are – 2010 (twenty-ten, as it’s pronounced. Makes it sound futuristic and takes less time to say).

New year, new look to the blog. Less dark in quite a significant way.
I don’t know why I considered the change and I don’t know why I’ve made it look plain. I guess I thought it was all about people reading the thing rather than seeing how good it looked. If it’s readable then that’s ok.

So, it’s all over. Christmas and New Year done with until just under 12 months from now. Better get all that cheap wrapping paper and Christmas trees bought in the sales, make profit from your unwanted Christmas presents on eBay and then forget about it all until at least December 1st.
Once again, it’s all gone very quickly. It doesn’t seem that long ago that people were, ironically, stressing over a time to enjoy yourself (I WILL get that, someday) and now people are nursing hangovers which, apparently, means you’ve enjoyed yourself the night before. More irony. Hence why Christmas and New Year tends to be peaceful and quiet for me. I don’t do the pointless stressing and I don’t drink. Perfect.

We’ve also had the, now traditional, family illness that some or all of us suffer every year. This year it’s sickness and diarrhoea which, I think, every member of my family has had now since Christmas Day, including myself and my girlfriend. It’s not the best thing to have. Going to the bathroom every 15 minutes not knowing which end something is going to come out of (apologies for the detail).

Now it’s all over, things can return to normal. People are returning to work (myself on Monday), Christmas decorations are coming down (ours on Sunday) and we don’t have to think about anything more traditional until Valentine’s Day.

Has it really been Christmas?

Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

What a nightmare few weeks this has been...
Networks being fried;
Job evaluation results being pants;
Christmas!
Roll on the New Year. Let's start everything again.

If it's not one thing, it's another.
If it's not the other thing, it's something else.
This past few weeks have been fraught with problems so I'm especially
glad that this is the last week of the term. After this, I can relax,
forget about the job and have a nice two weeks rest.
Over these few weeks I've lost a little tiny bit of respect for
teachers, authority and computer networks but, as always, this will come
bouncing back in time and the circle will start all over again. However,
I've noticed a difference in me. Some time ago, people would have seen
me giving up at this point thinking that everything was going wrong,
nothing is going to be able to right so what's the point in carrying on
battling through it. Now, I've stuck with it. I'm ignoring the comments
from various colleagues, whether they be in jest, critical or general,
and getting on with trying to get things sorted and it's working.
Progress is slow in repairing the network and things keep going
unexpectedly wrong but these things happen and I have to deal with them.
People can complain if they like but it's not going make the situation
correct itself any faster. Patience is a virtue and I don't have very
much at the best of times but in these situations, what can you do?

So, I'm going to get through this week continuing to repair and order
and deal with people coming to complain and wait for Friday when I can
say goodbye to this place and the people and computer networks therein
for two whole weeks. After Friday, I'll deal with everything with a
fresh head when we come back in January.

Attitudes

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:20:00 +0000

Yesterday couldn’t have been more stereotypical of a Monday.

It started at home before I even got to work when I thought I’d be ahead of myself and check my work email… which I couldn’t. Instantly, this sent alarm bells ringing in my head that something was wrong at work.
Indeed, it was.

At work, I was faced with lights of the red variety in the server room instead of the green variety and servers half on and half off. This was certainly a disaster and a slight emergency and therefore I declared the Curriculum network unusable for the day until I (and our trusty maintenance company) had fixed it.

As a rule, teachers spend their working day inside a little bubble. Within this bubble is what they need to do during the day – their classes; their reports; their lunch, coffee break, etc. Anything outside of this bubble is irrelevant and so, if exterior forces affect what’s in their bubble, then all hell breaks loose. Of course, their bubble is the only thing that exists and is the only thing that’s important so whatever has disrupted the flow of the day in their bubble needs to be sorted NOW so that their bubble can function correctly.
Now when you have 40+ bubbles with the impression that they’re the only ones who matter asking to be put right immediately, it does get very frustrating. Sometimes, the asking can turn into demands which is usually responded by silence.

Yesterday was no exception. I had locked everyone's account to prevent them from logging on to the network which it did, although it prompted a flurry of questions which weren't really thought about properly before they were asked.
Examples being: I try to log on and it says, “Your account has been disabled”? (Yes, that was me. The server has no reason to disable your account itself); When will it be fixed? (Unfortunately, I failed the "seeing into the future" exam); Can I not log on and check my email? (if that were possible, I would have LET you log on).

By the end of the day, the responses above were typical to those sorts of questions. I had wandered into the world of sarcasm.

Throughout the day, I was becoming more and more annoyed with the damn servers and why they weren’t working and why people weren’t coming to sort them out and people asking me daft questions. However, a couple of comments shone out as an example of the typical teacher thinking only of what THEY need and want.

The first was in the morning when one of the questions above was put to me - “Can you unlock my account so I can play a DVD?” I answered no in a polite way and explained why. I’d rather not have anyone use the network until I know it’s properly fixed. This immediately prompted comments, meant in a joking way but, obviously designed to try and make me feel guilty and had no effect whatsoever - “Oh, that’s my planned lesson out of the window. Well, when the kids ask why, I’ll be pointing the finger at you” – yes, you do that and see if it makes your situation any better.

The second was at the very end of the day when I was at my most fed up.
I was asked if everything would be back to normal tomorrow (Tues) and, being the truthful bloke that I am, I replied by saying I don't know. Someone was due to come in tomorrow to have a look and we'll take it from there. At the moment, it's no. For some reason, I was then told that the teacher had a class doing some GCSE coursework... so what? That fact isn't going to make the repair any quicker. To be honest, I don't care what anyone needs it for and how urgent. My priority is that I have an entire network down that needs to be up and running as soon as possible. Then I got the guilt - "but this is happening nearly every week and it's not on" - tell me about it. However, as weird as it may seem, I didn't actually cause this problem or do it on purpose and I haven't been sat on my backside all day waiting for it to fix itself.

So, a message to all teachers everywhere who rely on us lovely support staff,

- When something goes wrong, 99.9% of the time, it's not actually our fault so don't go making us feel guilty by pointing the finger.

- Burst that bubble. You aren't the only department/teacher in the school and it's not just you with these problems.

- We, also, have a job to do. Let us do it. We're not just sat doing nothing all day. We're there to support you and when things like servers go down we aim to get things back up and running as soon as possible.

- Whatever you need things for, telling us isn't going to speed things up. If the network is down, the network is down. There is no special button to press if Mr A needs it for a DVD or Mrs B has an important test to do. We don't care. We just work to get things working for everyone as soon as possible.

I think that's all for now. Today hasn't been much better but that's another post.

BYL.

A priceless moment

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:43:00 +0000

I have to post this because it was probably one of the funniest and priceless things I have seen in a long while.

Last night, just before 10pm, I was on my way to meet my girlfriend from work (because I’m nice like that). To get to her workplace, I have to walk through quite a large ASDA car park. This is a 24-hour ASDA and so there were still shoppers pouring out of the store, however the car park was reasonably empty.

(I’m 31 but prepare for me to sound 83) As is usual on these occasions, there are “boy racers” who think it’s a great idea to gather with their friends and show off their souped up motors, revving their engines as much as possible and speeding around the car park, basically putting other people at risk.
I walk through ignoring all of this and having a little giggle to myself thinking how pathetic these peoples lives must be. Last night, however, one of these lovely people thought it would be nice to show off their talents to me.

“’Ere, mate, I bet you haven’t got a car that can do this” came a voice from across the car park. I looked over and found the voice came from a man, no much older than me, sat in a white car bursting with accessories – spoiler, alloy wheels, etc. If I’m honest, it did look good and you could tell he was proud of it. Behind him was a red sports car which had been polished to perfection with people milling around it admiring its paintwork.
When he saw that I was now looking over at it, the man in the white car turned to face front and revved his engine like there was no tomorrow. Pardon me for being old but it sounded like it needed some work on it. Then, in an effort to impress me with it’s performance he slammed it into gear…

… unfortunately, it was reverse and he promptly slammed his lovely white performance car into the front of his friend’s shiny new sports car.

Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:52:00 +0000

It's rubbish.
I'm sat on the second bus on the way to work and I might as well have had my shower this morning fully clothed. I know i'm going to be spending half my morning stood in front of a radiator.

Stupid winter.

BYL.

The Wrong Side of the Bed

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:54:00 +0000

Firstly, to everyone who thinks they are referenced in this post, I apologise in advance. None of what I write here has any meaning today. It's just a big rant.

I don't know what's wrong with me today. I think I may have got out of bed on the wrong side. Not physically, obviously, otherwise I'm sure my girlfriend would have something to say about it. It started literally 100 yards from my doorstep and it's continued throughout the day. So, my dear readers, prepare for some meaningless rants.

Umbrellas - Of late, I haven't really had any luck with them. I had a particular nice one I bought from John Lewis in Liverpool just before summer. It was quite expensive but exceptional quality. That one got left on a bus. I haven't had one since then and have been trying to manage with just a hooded coat. Then, the other day, I saw an offer in Sports Direct - 70% off! - immediately I grabbed one and was happy I was back to owning a decent umbrella... until this morning.

This morning I was shown the full blown quality of this amazing product. Perfect testing conditions - it was windy and pouring down with rain. The damn thing didn't stand a chance. Completely annihilated after a whisper of a breeze hit it. That started my bad mood.

Buses - I use public transport every day and, on the whole, it's a fairly decent journey to and from work. A 30 minute bus journey taking 2 buses. Some people would rant at that very prospect but I really don't mind it... until this morning.

I'm sure a lot of people are used to buses being the odd minute or two late. Although a bit OCD when it comes to time, I'm not that bothered by a couple of minutes as long as it gets me to my destination in plenty of time. Late is fine - not turning up at all is another. This increased my bad mood as I knew I would miss my second bus and be later for work than usual.

However, I had slight compensation by my second bus also being late but in a rush and so I turned up for work at my usual time.

Servers - Servers are lovely things. They're supposed to do exactly that - serve. Ideally they're left to do what they're supposed to do and they tick away nicely without any user interaction... yes, until this morning.

I noticed a few errors early this morning and email our support company to investigate (we have a contract so might as well get my money's worth by making them earn it). They told me that a disk on one of the servers had become corrupt and needed to be rebuilt (technical term), could I reset it. No problem - into the server room to find little orange lights blinking at me from 3 of our 6 servers. This meant 3 disks were corrupt! A meeting follows tomorrow and this will be discussed greatly.

Am I incapable? - I run this show on my own. Since summer, I've been the only IT Support bod in the place and, therefore, my workload is increased. I receive various jobs throughout the day and they are prioritised, by me, and added to the day's list. This morning, a job came up that I have known about and it was sat on my list for today. A person who shall only be know as "P" thought they'd tell me that "we" should get this sorted sooner rather than later. An innocent enough comment usually but, in the mood I'm in today, not a good start. Can I not prioritise and schedule my own jobs? Do I need reminded which jobs need to be done immediately and which can wait? I'm quite capable of arranging my day and, as a result of that comment, I'm now ignoring the priority that other people put on their jobs. I'm the one doing the jobs, I'm the one who rates their severity, I'll decide how and when they're done.

On the back of this particular subject is the one that riles me most. I get calls and emails and stops in the corridor telling about things that need doing (annoys me but it's fine) and, as usual, I take note and add them to a particular list. This is all fine until my calls me to tell me the SAME job because a member of staff has also gone to him to reiterate it. Do they not know how that makes me feel? I hate it. It's as if they're thinking, "well, if I mention it to his boss, too, he HAS to do it" - grrr.

Last minute - As mentioned before, I have quite a full day most days. Jobs pile up and I work through each one in turn. Sometimes, I'm booked or I book myself into a particular lesson to work on something if a room is free. Today, for example, I have been quite booked up. Little jobs that crop up between those bookings are fine. Absolutely no problem. It's the "can you set this up in this room" literally with minutes to spare that I'm not so keen on. It's expected that I can do a job in seconds when it requires 10/15 minutes. It's perceived that I have nothing else to do so, at a click of the fingers, I can be there doing anything for anyone. This particular job ate away into about 15 minutes of my first booking putting the rest of my day out.

Last but not least... I burnt my toast at break :(

BYL.

Journey Home

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:08:00 +0000

It's Friday evening just before 5pm and I'm stood, in the dark and wet, waiting for a bus... that's late. It should have been here at least 5 minutes ago.
Every so often I'm looking into the sea of headlights coming towards me trying to see if any are bus-shaped. The lack of orange above them says they aren't.

On the bus now. My concentration on looking out for one almost lapsed enough for me to miss it but then, if it had been on time, that wouldn't have happened.
Two minutes into the journey I took a seat. Surprising at this time. A few people still stood because they can't be bothered to move down to the vacant seats at the back of the bus. Either that or those seats that are vacant are next to the larger variety of person or those who believe their shopping deserves a seat. So you're left to stand or sit with one cheek hanging into the isle.

A quiet bunch on the bus today.
A random schoolchild. Students. All with their variety of mobile ringtones recognisable as default Nokia or Samsung. No crazy dance tune today.

Halfway home. The mood hasn't changed. At work or with friends Friday is a happy day especially when it's over. When you're travelling on public transport and looking at the array of faces, it feels like a never ending Monday.
A few have left the bus. A few more have joined us. They could have been anyone. I haven't been paying attention. They can't have been elderly or pregnant otherwise I wouldn't have been sat here anymore.

It's the same view out of the windows as when I got on. A distorted black world viewed through a changing transparent raindrop window. Every now and again, distorted lights fly past. My orientation must be up to scratch because I have a vague idea where I am even though I recognise nothing.

Time has come to leave this constant Monday morning and return to Friday. These people could still be here next week.

BYL.

Of all the times...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:12:00 +0000

A good many people will have observed the two minutes of silence today at 11:00 as a mark of respect to the many that have fallen during war. I, myself, have a great respect for these men and women and observed the silence along with the whole of the school. The second lesson was extended to 11:00 and the two minutes silence took place.

There are also a few people who do not observe this silence. Although I think this a little disrespectful, I do respect their opinion as long as they realise that there are many who do fall silent every year just for a couple of minutes.

I was left pretty damn angry after this year's two minutes.
I returned to my office at 10:55 to make sure my music was off and that I was prepared.
At 10:59 my office phone rang.
I ignored it.
The two minutes came and went and I felt I had "done my bit" and, as always, felt humbled at the thought of those brave people giving their lives. One person, however, didn't share my feelings.

I checked my voicemail.
One message.
Three minutes long.
Left at 10:59 by some salesman!

Of all the times to make a sales call, he chooses the one time in the year where most of the country is paying it's respects. A snotty and very angry email was to follow.
In it, I wrote how disappointed and angry I was at the lack of respect he showed. Not necessarily for the occasion itself but for other people who observe the occasion and because of the lack of respect he showed, I was going to show him the same and politely asked him not to contact the school again.

Phew! That's that rant over. Evil salesperson.

BYL

(posted from my phone because Wigan LA blocked Blogger!)