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My last day with Dillon Supply

I started off my last day at Dillon Supply by going to get a CT Scan at Wake Radiology Consultants. Crohn’s is beating me up again. The barium suspension they gave me for the test sent my stomach into flips for the rest of the morning. I wasn’t okay until my sister brought me some medicine around 2:00. Then I struggled through a shower and went to get the last of my stuff from Dillon.

When I got there they had already disabled my access badge so I went in through the storefront. I had a long conversation with Mike about some recent technical decisions in my last days and how they were handled. All I can say now is that after all this it sounds like they’re getting straightened out.

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Out with the old…

imageFor anyone who wants to reminisce over the old theme, here’s a screen shot. Every day Connor acts more like Amy so she can’t be left out. He’s not just like me, he’s just like us.
And for the big announcement: Monday, February 13th I will start my new position as the Manager of Information Systems at 1-800-Pack-Rat, Inc. Many thanks to Sean, Matt, and others who provided “impeccable” references. You rock. I get a base salary increase, annual performance bonus that’s 10% of base and a flexible spending account.  Amy and I are going to The Bonefish Grill tomorrow night to celebrate.

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Now I’ve done it.

I went all the way and upgraded to WordPress 2.0. I feel state of the art. Actually I had to because the upgrade from 1.2.1 to 1.5.1 broke my RSS feed. It’s all good now. I’m working on a new theme I found call Framefake. I’ll use this theme’s css as a template and then match the old one with some new frame type features. The cool thing about themes is that I can change back to the old look if I don’t like the new one.

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Back off. I upgraded.

Since WordPress 2.0 has been out for a couple of weeks I decided it was finally time to upgrade to version 1.5.1. Don’t want to be too cutting edge you know. Okay truth be told, I’m just slack. I intended to upgrade all the way to 2.0 tonight but it’s a two step process (1.2 to 1.5, then 1.5 to 2.0) and let’s just say I got halfway done and I’m happy. I even converted my old .css to a “theme” (which is just another way of saying style sheet). And whadda ya know, twerked.

So welcome to WordPress 1.5….see the difference? I didn’t either. Just like most women the best parts are the one’s you don’t get to see. Unless she’s yours.

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Headhunters and Pack Rats

In the past I’ve made it a point not to write about any circumstances surrounding my employment situation. But lately I’ve been getting a lot of calls about new job opportunities. While I’ve only spoken directly to 1-800-Pack-Rat about a hands-on MIS position I’ve also been contacted by Alphanumeric and Matrix resources regarding what I think is the same Network Admin position that sounds interesting. All that I know so far is that it’s with a rapidly expanding company, not unlike Pack Rat, but of course headhunters usually won’t disclose the names of clients they’re recruiting for until an interview’s been scheduled.

So I have some internal reckoning to do. Is it really time to move on from Dillon Supply? I’d certainly like to think it’s worth staying but in reality it seems as though promotional opportunities and foward momentum are not even in the long term future. It’s unfortunate because I was really hoping to stay somewhere more than 2 years for a change.

I’ve always had a habit of thinking about future opportunity. Hard work and good execution should equal advancement in pay and position. Snail’s pace implementations and just getting by from 9 to 5 are not in my persona. There have been a few good technical successes at Dillon and the cleanup effort from the original deployment was monumental. I’ve stopped the bleeding. I will try to keep those points foremost in mind but smart, controlled investment in technology as a future business facilitator does not seem to be of much interest to Dillon right now. Cutting costs does.

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Athlon Demand Squeezes AMD

Athlon Demand Squeezes AMD

Another AMD success story. Apparently AMD can’t make enough Athlon 64 chips. Their recent success leads me to beleive that Intel has spent too much on their new Apple tree. So what if they made Mac laptops faster. I still can’t afford one.

On the other hand AMD continues to align themselves with affordable 64 bit hardware manufacturers. They’ve also aligned themselves with Sun for dual core servers which Intel has yet to approach.

Intel… Mac… I can spell o-v-e-r-h-y-p-e-d. And I can’t afford the hype. For now I’ll just stay computer literate so I don’t have to buy a machine that’s dumbed down to keep me from accidentally breaking any mp3’s.

Apple did do one thing right by using EFI by Intel . The old PC/AT BIOS retirement is way past due. AMD better answer with a compatible equivalent.

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AMD beats Intel in September US retail desktop sales

AMD beats Intel in September US retail desktop sales

For several months now AMD has beaten Intel in the consumer market. This is long overdue. AMD first generation dual cores out perform the newest Intel dual cores which are now known as the Intel D840. Intel dropped the Pentium brand. Probably because AMD made it look bad. Has Intel even begun to address diagonal cache prefetching in dual architecture?

I’ve never owned an Intel machine as a personal PC. I always found AMD superior and more affordable. I once read a quote on a gaming website I’ll never forget. How do you upgrade a Pentium PC? Buy an AMD.

This blog is powered by a 3 year old AMD Athlon 2600.

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Bret’s Chet.

imageThe other night I learned that Bret Hedican ended up getting himself a sunburst Gibson Chet Atkins SST a while back. Good choice dude. It’s the same guitar Sam Hindmarsh played when we were in Lassiter Mill together a few years ago. [I feel] it’s a solid six string for anyone torn between electric and acoustic. Everyone knows I talk a lot about these guitars but I hate to think I ever acted like I knew what I was talking about. Na, not me.

Chet’s are really smooth electric acoustics. Almost all the best players out there have owned one. Sean Aitken can be caught playing his around town on many a weekend. Check him out if you get a chance (Sean’s got another baby comin’ soon too). And check out Sam’s new band Evenfall also. They’re pretty high energy now. Next show is January 14th at the Brewery.

P.S. – I’ll be posting some of the holiday pictures soon. I just haven’t had much time for new entries lately.

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Christmas! – Round One

imageLast weekend Connor opened his first round of presents for the 2005 holiday season. He sugared up at Grandma Johnson’s and tore into brand new firetrucks, Pez dispensers and noisy little ray guns. I’m starting to see the connection between two year olds and the value of a toy: the louder and more obnoxious, the better.

Amy and I bought quiet toys like wooden train sets and basketball goals. I’m leaving the noisy stuff to the grandparents who are determined to punish us for the years of frustration provided by our kazoos and those crazy tubes we spun over our head that whistled. Remember the Whirly Tube? Oh ya, you or someone you knew had one.

Round two is on Christmas day when Connor will spend about 24 hours opening gifts from every relative on the east coast. Thank ye ol’ blessed playroom.

Tonight I’m going to make Amy watch The Devils Rejects by Rob Zombie to get in the mood for the holidays. Heh, heh, ho….

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Office Space

imageI now work in the 21st century again. Dillon Supply finally got an occupancy permit for the new corporate headquarters and I was one of the first five people to move in. Mostly because I have to ensure network connectivity for everyone else and watch over the installation of the new phone system. My new cube has a lot more space than the cramped wooden desk from 1964 I had in the old building.

I’ve decided not to go back to the old downtown location unless I have to pick up something. On Thursday I’m modifying the core router, moving the branch router into the new location and creating two new sub-interfaces on the company DS3. We’ll also be patching in 96 Cat6 ports and moving an AS400 and a company file server into our new telco/data center. I’m keeping busy. This much activity warrents my absence for at least three days after Christmas when I’ll burn up the last of my vacation time for the year. And oh yes, that’s a genuine HermanMiller Mirra chair. Not an Aeron but also not a knockoff.

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