Phillbo’s Blog Site

It is amazing how time can fly, and what things can really change your life.

Three months ago, I was waiting for that holiday, and it finally arrived. Too bad I had an ear infection for most of those two weeks, but at least my mind got to relax a bit.

Three months ago, I was single, keeping myself ultra busy as I had too much time to think. Now I have a most beautiful girlfriend, and she is simply amazing. I think my priorities in life have changed for the better, however I am now working on striking a good balance between work life and home life.

Three months ago, I shared my unit with my housemate Rob. In about a week to two weeks time, I get to share his prestige house in Carum. The house is very prestige indeed. I am thankful that Rob must have liked me as a housemate too.

I do however get annoyed that I haven’t blogged in such a long time. So much has happened in the past three months.

I think it must take a weird bout of gastro like symptoms to keep me at home, but today my stomach isn’t very good at all. I do hope that all gets well soon. As far as I am concerned, sickness is the only cause of boredom.

Today was not even worth mentioning, but I do have this urge to vent some steam.

I get aggravated when people break stuff, and then blatantly deny all knowledge of doing anything. The good thing about being an old school BOFH, a logged history doesn’t generally lie. If they simply told the truth, a virtual slap on the wrist would be administered, but all would be forgiven, and the problem would fixed be fixed sooner than later. When they deny it, it makes your job ten times harder, as you have to determine exactly what they have done, and then attempt to fix the initial problem.

I also hate it when someone doesn’t follow your instructions as instructed. I know my methods may not be the best method, but they are proven and work. I am happy for people in my team to take inititive, in fact I encourage it, but it gives me the shits when they say one thing, do another, and still don’t get me the required solution.

In contrast to another staff member who actually resolved an issue at home, in his own time, just to prove his method works well. That gave me a big buzz. So that was the highlight of the day.

I suppose this is the challenge you face when leading a team, but I just hope that any decision I make will be respected, and not vetoed, otherwise my team will never reach their full potential, and my team has some serious talent.

On a more personal agenda, my nephew Joshua is participating in the MS-Read-A-Thon. A fund raiser to help beat the crippling disease of Multiple sclerosis. Feel free to give a donation for this worthy cause. Just a word of caution, if the link doesn’t work, try again later. Their SQL server isn’t the best, and it often times out.

Well I’ve had adhere to my advice, and I am now trying to focus on looking after me. Then something else comes along and turns my life upside down. But I am positive that I am in getting in the right frame of mind - and I am finally seeing some positive results too.

On David and Leanne’s wedding, I came to the realization that I am too fat to wear anything respectable, so it was embarrassing for me dress wise. I assumed everything would fit as planned, but it didn’t. I have never had a “wardrobe incident” before. So over the past two weeks, I have steadily lost 8kg through moderate exercise and good dietary habits. I think I will fit into my suit nicely now, but I am on the mission to keep going, and I am going with the flow.

I have Shane and Heather’s wedding in two weeks, so this time I will be able to dress for the occasion. I’ve never been to a wedding with a greek family involved, so this could be a day to remember - and not for just the bride and groom. I hope all goes well. Which reminds me, I must deliver David and Leanne’s wedding present. They’re still in my house! Doh!

I think I will have an early night.

Today I’ve had my ups and downs, and sometimes reality can smack you in the face head on. Work has been challenging, and I am not sure how to cope with what’s going around me. On the brighter side of things, my friend Esther announced her engagement, so I was very pleased to congratulate her.

My mind has also been distracted on other things, but I’d say they’re mostly positive. I saw Iron Man at the cinema yesterday (in a hung over state) after a Dave and Leanne’s wedding at the winery on Saturday. I think that was the first time I’ve been to a Gold Class cinema without ordering a beer.

I actually quite liked the movie. I also got to celebrate with my mate Ross being released from home detention. It was a momentous day.

But reflecting on today, I know that some tough decisions have to be made very soon, and I hope I have the wisdom to make the right choice.  I am physically and emotionally drained, but I will soldier on.

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.

My plans on Saturday to work at the Catholic Church, and then to head down to Geelong were overshadowed by the fact that my car was still being fixed under warranty. By about 1pm, I finally had my car. The body alignment looks very flush and nice now, so finally I have all issues relating to my car resolved. Well almost. Jeff Wignall Ford have on sold my lock nuts on two previous occasions. It is apparent to me that they cannot be trusted. Next time I will pick them up on the day they arrive. But once I got my car back, I felt that sudden rush of freedom, that I haven’t had since Tuesday. That feeling reminded me back to the day I got my license.

Not all was lost. I pruned all the annoying trees on my driveway, and one of the trees I have pruned two thirds of it away. I am sure it will survive, but it looks a bit bare now. But hopefully I will finally get some peace and soon.

Today - Craig, Adrian, and myself did our OH&S Induction for a data centre in Melbourne City. This induction was targeted towards trade people, but everyone requiring access to the building had to attend, including us, the geeks.

After watching the 18 minute DVD on building safety issues, and then hearing the 20 minute lecture from the security staff, I am pleased to announce that we have now been awarded an induction certificate. So now I am on the train back to work, using the oncall laptop and the wireless card. I am pretty excited by the wireless internet concept, it has worked flawlessly from South Yarra to Seaford. So now it is time to sign off. We have to depart the train. I have no time to proof read either