Phillbo’s Blog Site

Well it is almost 3am in the morning, and I wake up and I am wide awake. I went to sleep way too early. This is not a great way to start a week, but at least this week is shorter. I suppose this is the price you pay for behaving badly yesterday. I had too much scotch whisky! I should be grateful that I didn’t drink so much to make me sick.

I saw the movie Street Kings today (or should I say yesterday) with my friend Stu. He came down for an afternoon visit. It is always a pleasure to hear from Stu, although he has this uncanny ability to talk more than me, which is a challenge in itself. But hey, I still love him for who he is - and he’s definitely down to earth.

Next weekend involves a housewarming and bucks night, so I better get my RSVPs back. I am usually either ultra quick to respond to invites, or forget completely, which isn’t a good habit.

The other news hasn’t quite sunk in yet - but there is a 95% chance that I am going to Africa soon. Time to organize extra immunizations.

I would say that my skill set is unique. I have the ability to work effectively in any role (now I sound like I’m bragging too much - but its mostly true), but working in many roles at the same time is a much harder challenge. That is an introduction to my working world, but one thing is certain, I never have a dull moment.

Every day I have to juggle tasks, and then re-prioritize them, respond to a short term crisis or escalated matters, and try and find quick solutions to longer term issues. I also like to keep an eye on the geeks to ensure everything is going smoothly, but to date, everything has been running on schedule despite a few minor hiccups. Rob has demonstrated exceptional leadership with the team of geeks, and this also reflected in his cooking skills too! Sir Rob as I call him is almost Mr Universal, and a freak of nature. I better not give my house mate too much credit though - he may get a big head!

But today was one of those days I’d almost rather forget. For most of the day, I am documenting a quiz for potential BOFHs, and also planning to develop a performance review system for this area. Tonight I am head first into examining firewall rules due to a deliberate attack on our system, organizing new servers in data centres overseas, bulk transferring hundreds of domain names, following up issues relating to a few of our foreign companies - which are still at this time unresolved, and now looking at extending the life cycle of our current servers due to unforeseen circumstances. The challenge of the geek in charge is to decide when to move over to a new system - as the current system is currently the lifeblood of the business. This decision is most critical, and careful planning is an absolute requirement, but at the same time it is also painful too. I am fortunate that the team of geeks I work with are good, and if we dot every I, and cross every T, all should be OK.

Today has gone on too long for me (as it is now 3.30am), but I also look forward to waking up. John (our project manager) and I are visiting RMIT to see their progress in the Australian Infrastructure ENUM trial. I am very interested to see the latest developments. I have this soul kind of feeling that we could be jumping into this project too. If this happens, our team will need to increase.

When it comes to leading a team, I think my focus will have to change considerably. Maybe I should consider becoming a wisdom hunter?

I am impressed, I just had 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I  have to visit a friend this evening, but I have a whole day to myself. So right now, I better get my clothes washed.

The weather looks good, so I may even go for a bike ride too. Anyway, enough writing and more action.

With one of our core geeks aways with glandular fever, I’ve had to commit myself to full time BOFH duties, and a cranky bastard I have been on some days. But I’ve had the opportunity to flex my brain, and I have been wrapped with some of the progress I have been making.

It is not every day you take over a 2nd level ccTLD name space, so that has been a big buzz for me being involved in that, but I am not extremely tired.  Maybe the DNS and I will become good friends, but who knows what the future holds. At this present moment, I am living outside of the matrix, but I am not sure for how long.

Last weekend was splendid. I caught up with aunties, uncle, cousins, more cousins, sister, brother in law, and nephews, and my folks. A true family affair. I had a good time. I still made a promise to look at a computer problem for a friend, and I will endeavor to make another visit to Geelong very soon.  This past week in contrast has been a roller coaster ride, but mainly lacking sleep. I had to crash out today - and catch up on sleep. Working odd hours, and early mornings is now taking its toll.