Some days, getting out of bed is a chore. That chore is complicated when you fall out of your routine, get a hangup call at 5:25 AM (yes I was up...), are running just a few minutes behind schedule and your morning coffee just won't kick in. That is how Tuesday started.
About halfway to work, my dotted line manager (DLM) calls me and asks me to help out on an issue (I normally do not have to be part of global issues until 10 AM). It was nothing formal...more of a favor. The only issue was that the tech I needed to call was not officially on call and on the west coast. That meant waking him up at 5 AM...not something I wanted to do, but would if he was needed. My feeling was that he would be needed because the guys who normally support it were stumped...and a high severity issue was opened on it.
I got to work and logged on to the company network, sending an IM to the Inc Mgr in South America. After chatting with him for a minute or so, he informed me the issue had been resolved. I thought that odd considering what I was told, but I did not question it. I IM'ed my DLM and told her the issue had been resolved and the Inc Mgr was dealing with the paperwork.
With that little scare taken care of, I moved on to my normal task list. Upon completing that, my BiC called to talk about some issues he was facing. While I was glad to talk, I feel like I keep repeating myself. I tell him the same things day in and day out and he appears not to be grasping it. I talked to the last remaining Elder at our church regarding this and he told me that I needed to keep praying for my BiC and let him know that I have no new info to offer, but I can listen.
After speaking to the Elder, my wife an I watch the Law and Order (LaO) episodes we recorded. As usual my lovely wife fell asleep, so she has to go back and watch them again...This is pretty normal for her, so it is no big deal.
After LaO, we went to bed...I guess it was 11:30. I slept well, but my back was a bit sore. It may have been from laying on the floor watching TV for 2 hours, but I am not sure. I took a couple of Aleve with my breakfast and after finalizing my routine, drove in to work...this time without a frantic phone call from my DLM in Sweden.
When I got in, the PC log on script was running slow, but after a few minutes the PC logged on the network normally. I took care of my normal issues and answered a few e-mails. I took an older laptop from storage and booted newer Linux distro that I downloaded called Dream Linux. It is geared towards multimedia and seemed to run well from the live CD. I want to give it a good test drive and hopefully start using it on a secondary box.
After testing that for a while, I gave the CD (I will burn another) to a colleague who is an Apple and Linux fan so he could give it a test drive. He prefers Windows for mulitmedia, but he still thinks it is a weak OS. The only thing it can do that has been troublesome for many Linux users is playing proprietary file formats. I think that Linux is catching up, but I believe Windows still has the edge...but not by much.
My BiC called after I returned to my office and we chatted. He told me he followed my advice and things are mostly calm. He has begun repeating things verbatim that he has told me a day or two before, only he is saying it happened the night before. I am not sure why he is doing this...maybe he is just losing track of when things happen.
Oh, I almost forgot...Microsoft sent me a confirmation e-mail informing me that because I finished my online seminars in time, I will be receiving a free licensed copy of Vista Business. Now am not becoming a die hard MS fan, but it would be nice to have more than one license in the house for a Windows OS. The hand-me-down had a copy of Win2k, the main PC has a copy of XP, and now a copy of Vista Business would be kinda nice...I could put XP on the laptop and save that license for an emergency...
Well we have care group tonight...the first we have officially had in a few weeks. I am itching to get back to them even if we get less sleep. I enjoy the engaging and enlightening discussions and as well as our hosts. Besides, the food is usually pretty darn good!
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