Migration is done

Spent the weekend working the migration. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but not as good as it could have been. Anxiety levels were stupid high the entire time. Worked with audiobooks, mostly HPL and MR James stories, with a few podcasts on the side. Clocked 26 hours over the last two days, on top of the work week. Technically I'm still on the clock, but when it clocks after 2000 I'm heading to bed and meds. Maybe a little book time. Very little.

So what's next? Monday and possibly Tuesday will be kind of crazy with support requests and reminding people to read their darn email. I'm hoping to take a day or two off as comp time. I put off a bunch of stuff because I knew the weekend was going to be hard. Computer stuff, work around the apartment. Convincing the neighborhood crows that I'm their friend. Maybe even making myself disconnect for a few hours and read.

So the stressor is done, for now. (Beyond the rest of the stressors). Dear Cthulhu and Tsathoggua, please grant me some restful sleep.

Merry Shortest Night of the Year (Northern Hemisphere edition)

It's finally going to start to get darker again. Thank Cthulhu. Sadly, it won't get any cooler for 3 months. Darn it. Been a mixed week. Some good stuff at work, some soso stuff. After a lot of thinking, and a discussion with my fellow admin, I decided that I'll be in the office 3 out of 5 days most weeks, vs the single day. I'm pretty non-social as it is, and not leaving the house on that regular a basis would probably be a bit much. Of course I regret it every night coming home, between the heat and the traffic it runs me over.

On a happier note, I have a plan for a 2020 trip. Thinking about visiting LA for a long weekend. The HP Lovecraft Historical Society (which I'm a card carrying member of) is based in LA, and I'd like to see the HQ building and see the gang in their native habitat. Plus there are a few bookstores I'm told I need to visit, some Jack Parsons related places to visit (JPL tops the list, I know Dad would have wanted to go as well). I'm also thinking of staying a night onboard The Queen Mary not to be a wannabe ghost hunter, but for the history (ok, a little for the ghosts). Plus there's plenty of historical foo out there. I'm not going to do the big tourist things, no Empire of the Mouse or Hollywood blvd or such for me, even if I want a lightsaber on occasion *wink*. No real plans for when the trip will happen. I was thinking after the new year at some point, but with moving around that time we'll see, with PTO and fundage. But should be fun.

So, that's about it for right now. I'll catch you all later.

Carcosa Corp 2.0

Been at the new office a week. And I am of mixed opinions. It's a nice building, nice office space. My cube is fairly big, and while it doesn't have full height walls, it's still fairly private. Sadly, voices carry, so I hear the neighbors (a bunch of devs I don't know) more than I'd like. It's also overly warm IMHO, I guess the powers that be that control the thermostat are lizard people. My fellow IT folks are nearby, fellow admin is across the row, and the desktop guy is one row over and further back. I'm at the front of my row, so people walk by me all day, which is distracting as I see movement, and look up. Guess I need to slouch a bit more so I don't see them. There's a bunch of restaurants near by, and a good Half Price Books. I also got to meet one of the execs I've dealt with a lot the last few months, got some chitchat in. The people I know are on the other side of the big office area I'm in, but between walkups and IM clients we're still in constant contact. Which is mostly good. We'll see how it works over time.

Brought my craptop over, and my triple monitor setup on a dock. Network is a little slower, especially if I'm doing things on the datacenter network, a few more hops than there was when I was a few floors overhead. Today I setup a test 'developer machine' in my cube. Our devops guy wanted a system he could test from in the new office, vs his own box back in the datacenter. Dell Optiplex, running Fedora (was 28, but I upgraded to 30 today). In theory it's going to just sit in my cube if anyone needs to see what's up with the developer network, in practice if I end up working in the office a good deal, I'll move it so it's the primary box and just not 'tell anyone'. (32 gigs of RAM and not Windows would make up for a lot of the commute.) We'll see. I did manage to name it 'hyades', our test dev boxes are named after constellations, and well, a star cluster is just a constellation mushed together. The devops guy is a Lovecraft fan (one of my converts), and I think he got the joke. At some point this weekend I'll log in from home, and push some scripts and files over to it. (Via VPN, no we're not insane). Not much in the way of decorations in the new cube, since I'm probably going to work remote more often than not, it's probably for the best.

Now, the big problem of the moment. The commute sucks. Morning isn't so bad, if I leave at 8:30, I'll be there at 9:00, assuming traffic doesn't snarl. But coming home is pretty crappy from 4pm til after 6pm. And it's the drive home that I really appreciated the 10 minute commute. But in 6 months or so, in theory we'll be done with the datacenter. And I'll be ready to move, so the pseudo-plan is to move north, assuming working from home 4 days out of 5 works for me. Which it should, unless I end up feeling too hermited. I really don't know, as is often I can see both sides. Next week I'll be about half and half, and we'll see what works from there.

So, it's more or less alright. Some things are better, some things are not. I'm just going to keep on going, adjust things and see how it goes. On that note though, it's time for this fox to head to book and bed. Night all.

State of the Fox

October hasn't been what I'd call a great month. Work is lots of stress, lots of change and not a lot of concrete stuff. I'm officially a Subject Matter Expert for something I really do not to be involved in, but I am the guy with the most knowledge ATM. At least the project is a complete new build out, so hopefully I can do it right from the start.

I turned 46. I still don't feel 46. What the hell happened? I'll buy my 30's, since I can at least keep my checkbook balanced. Oh well. On my spawning day I went and saw a screening of 'Prince of Darkness' at the Alamo Drafthouse. Good way to spend the end of my spawning day.

Last night I went to the wake of a friend of mine from college. Saw a lot of people I haven't seen in too many years. Lots of stories, laughs, tears. I have a lot of stuff in my head that I have to process. Don't worry, nothing bad, just stuff in my life and how I view my life I think I need to change. I'm also sorry it took a friend dying for me to reach out and see those friends from my past. *sad*

Health wise, things are mixed. When I'm mindful of my eating, and my stress isn't super high, my bloodsugars are hovering a smidge above normal. When the stress kicks in, or I do something stupid like eat too much pizza (aka today), they're all over the place. My dealings with CareNow have sunk to a new low, I need to find a GP so I don't have to deal with unprofessional medical staff. I have a couple of leads from people I trust, so that's good. Depression/anxiety and stress is making the brainmeats tricky to manage, along with constant focusing on my blood sugar and how my eyes are acting. *yawn* I also am having issues sleeping solid, stress is for the feckin birds.

So what's coming up ? A follow up eye-doctor visit on Wednesday, then after that I hope to have stable enough vision to get my normal bifocal glasses. Various work projects, next weekend is more social time, and going to see some classic horror flicks next Sunday. Mostly though, I'm just going to be trying to keep the anxiety/stress levels from hitting peak levels again. *crosses tentacles*

63 Hours of Hermitage

Well, this weekend has been near maximum hermitage. Came home Friday evening, and I've only opened the door for food delivery. I reorganized the Starry Wisdom library, I've watched a lot of horror movies, read. Caught up (kind of) on sleep. Yesterday was little to no anxiety, today isn't quite as nice. Tomorrow is back to the job, with patching and probably a number of meetings about the migration. I really don't have updates from my last post on the subject. I've got a plan, and a schedule as a framework. So we'll see how it goes.

Non-work related stuff, less than 2 months til HPLFF in Portland. Looking forward to visiting Innsmouth West. This week I need to drop my car off at the dealer for general maintenance, plus the usual allergy shots. Next weekend 'Meg' gets released, giant sharks and giant squid. I'm so there. Not much of anything else in the works. Or really to talk about. So I'll call this a post.

Well I thought last week was bad

The current state of the Fox in regards to work. It's copied from Facebook, so it might not be completely coherent, or grammatically correct.

Last night:
Tomorrow morning is probably going to be interesting, in the 'may you live in interesting times' way. Cross tentacles and have kittens on standby if it goes pearshaped.

Today:
Well, I got my answers. Branch of the company I've been working at is being sold. The buyer of the branch has elected to not bring me along permanently. I will continue to work here through the migration til it is complete, or 1 year, which ever comes first. There is no guarantee I will have a position with corporate at the end of that period. If one is found, I keep working for parent, otherwise it's a severance package and a good luck in my future endeavors. .

Not doing good at all. Not one little bit. I know it's life in a big corporation, but I still feel like shit scraped off a shoe. Please no advice right now, or 'you know you're a good employee' or other well meant platitudes. The sudden reality check I just is going to be louder than anything else right now. Caring and kitten/critter pictures much more welcome.

Later today:
Working from home the rest of the day. Did figure out that these changes mean that two of my PITA projects are either going to halt or drop in scope. Also, various local people have pointed out that they're pulling for newcorp to bring me over because I'm a valuable resource (and I fit in well). So that helps. Still going to update the resume, and spend part of the new few weeks documenting out the weird stuff that only I do. In case of being run over by bus, or being thrown under the bus. *is a professional*

As for me care. Working from home for one. Ordered a cheesesteak for two. Weekend plans are probably going to be near/all hermiting because well, *gestures wildly at the last few weeks* I have shelves to put together, and the reorg of the library should be worked on, especially since I have a fancy respirator now to filter out the dust. Plus books, and movies, and probably some plotting and planning. Also, this will not affect my plans for the HPLFF. There's a mighty need for time with a large number of my tentacled tribe.

So, surviving, but frazzled.

Addendum. The powers that be at the local office are trying to convince newcorp that I'm a valuable member of the team, and to also bring me along. Which is appreciated. I'm not holding out a ton of hope, but when do I ever ? I guess we see what happens, and what I get done during the transition.

State of the Fox: Brainmeats and melting.

Well, I finally finished my epic series about my trip to Innsmouth. Well, such that can be spoken without violating my oaths to Dagon *wink* Outside of my trip, there hasn't been a lot of news worthy stuff going on. My emotional foo is as it usually is, variable. I've visited the pshrink recently, and nothing much has changed from last visit. I know things aren't perfect in my brain, but I'm able to function, hold down a job, and most all the other 'normal' activities.

Work is kind of stressful. There is debate on what my role is, between local and corporate. And I'm stuck in the middle, not really knowing where I fit. Uncertainty is not my friend. It could be worse, I'm 98% sure I'll have a job either way. I just wish I knew what I'd be doing by the end of the year.

That stress, plus the way reality seems to be going, has been making my brainmeats wig out. I'm anxious, a lot. My depression is more or less the same, a little higher. I spend a lot of time at night trying to run imaginary scenarios to relax. Focus is spotty at best, even with books. I was able to focus some on playing chess, but my game has dropped rather. Luckily I can go from computer: beginner to computer: clueless, so I don't have to feel bad about being owned by a computer as much. So what am I going to do ? Well I took today off as a mental health day, got a bunch of chores done first thing this morning, and I've been watching horror flicks. Tomorrow is much the same, with an eye doctor visit in the afternoon. And Sunday is also kind of the same idea, with a viewing of 'Equalizer 2'. I'm also going to work on VM updates, low level geek stuff, remind myself that computers can be fun. Then hopefully on Monday I'm somewhere back to 'normal'.

Otherwise, life is mostly trying to survive the summer. We're in a crazy heatwave (even for Texas in July). 110 temps until next Tuesday, when it drops to a more normal 100. *eyeroll* I really wish I didn't live in crazy heat land. Though it seems that most of the US is also in crazy hot weather. I'm wondering if I could get a good internet connection in Greenland.

So that's about all I have right now. I wanted to write less brainmeats and more geek stuff, but that's what came out. I am going to try to write more often, I've even rearranged my desktop layout and vim settings to make it easier. We'll see. Via con Cthulhu everyone.

First Post of the Year

Well it's the new year. First week of the new year has been kind of nuts. New Years Day was friend time and book hunting. Have had a lot of trouble getting up in the mornings to go to work. But each day was a little easier. Work itself has been a kind of mixed bag, spent most of Friday troubleshooting a Linux issue with one of the other groups at Carcosa Corp. Lots of 'why do you do $x, and $y and...huh that's odd'. Think I figured out the issue for the client, but waiting on their testing which isn't quick.

WEekend has pretty much just been movies, books and sleep. Got the chores done too, well most of them. Need to put together stuff for the work week, have to deal with my car's registration, and I should probably pack up the work laptop...because given how fuzzy I am on Monday mornings, I probably would show up sans laptop. Work week will be busy, first patches of the new year...and boy do I have some big things to deal with. (see computer news in the last week for details). No plans for next weekend as of yet, probably will need some more hermit time post patching/general work week. But I also want to see people, possibly people with cats. I miss cats.

Forgot I'd planned on work foo tonight. Got reminded a while ago when one of the tester's pinged me about it. The brain needs an upgrade, or I need a keeper. I'm going to go ahead and finish this post, since I've been working on it since Saturday.

Day Three at #newjob

Day three was alright. Got some stuff setup, did 90% of an exchange foo change, we were unable to test it due to bigger issues coming up at the end of the day. First real experience with Powershell, I'm pretty sure it will make more sense than the Windows GUI to me. Also started reading up on Ansible, which they use. No cables, which is a plus.

Came home after a quick store run, had to deal with Aetna insurance, which has upped my stress level. I feel like yelling at people, but I was good and didn't scream at the CS person. It should be fixed, well for January. Then I have to call back in Feb, then maybe in March will the autobilling be fixed. *facetentacle*

Oh well, it's done. Tomorrow is Friday, Friday good. No real plans for the weekend, I think I'll mostly be at home and vegging. It's not been a bad week, just so much change. And on that, I'm going to change into a pumpkin. Night gang.

Day Two at #newjob

Day two was alright. A little harder to wake up, work itself was mostly ok. Two meetings, more tinkering with Outlook/Exchange, and a case of the flashbacks. One of the other admins asked me if I could help him with something...

Can I help run some cable?

*facetentacle*

As most of you will recall, I hate running cable. Least favorite task by far. But, Admin#2 is a nice guy, and it's day 2, so I put on my positive face and we got to work. First time I've run cable under a raised floor. Had flashbacks to 'Aliens' when I had to stick my head under the floor to hand off cable. Neither of us were having fun, so we snarked about it, something I couldn't do with exboss #1 at the Pit. I did have a few ouchies, once was I was further under the floor than I thought, and I felt stuck and claustrophobia said hi. I also leaned wrong on my rib cage, and one of my ribs shifted. Owowow. Not a break, not even a bruise, just...shift = ow. Oh well, we got them done. And while it wasn't what I wanted to do, it was good to be helpful, and to have tricks up my sleeve that made things easier. Oh yeah, and duct tape is great to block where cable was hanging up. I have mad improv skills.

I left closer to 5, was chatting with coworkers. Got a little turned around trying to get to the road home, tried to find a new route. Oh well, I'm home now. Package waiting at the apartment office, and a note from some of my favorite Cthulhu folks. Going to watch some brain candy tv, eat some dinner and probably go to bookland early.

Weekend plans are to pretty much be a bum around Château Innsmouth. I need to probably do a major store run...I keep wanting to do it after work, but again I'm drained (and sore). Not that I'm _needing_ anything emergency wise, I'm just running low on stuff. Maybe tomorrow or Friday, or this weekend. We'll see. Ok, going to call this a post. Catch you all later.