BeerDiablo
Tales of Beer-Fueled Mayhem
[User Info] [Recent Entries] [Friends] [View Subjects] [Archive] [Beer-fueled Thought Crime]

Monday, October 12th, 2009

101209 Release from Captivity

Sunday yielded a couple early evening calls but most important that there were none disrupting the circadian rhythm.
I kind of slept normal but once you’re deep into being on-call, it’s kind of a light combat sleep, where little things
can wake you immediately.

Tonight, covers will be pulled up, pillows embraced and the dead dreamt with.

Now the machines call someone else to say they’re broken…

mood: tired
music: Steve Roach - Spiral Triptych
(Leave a comment)

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

101109 Day 7 of Captivity

Sniper shot phone calls. That’s the emergent theme for this tour of duty. Almost every night I’ve gotten one call at a bad point
in the sleep cycle and they tend to keep me engaged for about 45-80 minutes. My slumber is off but I’ve had worse.

Early this morning, at 04:17 Ops called and that lasted nearly an hour with me unable to resolve a couple of boxed
virtual drives due to HMC’s not being able to log on into service mode remotely– not so for other locations. That will be remedied this week.

Sunday's House Call
After lunch, I made a quick trip to the datacenter and fixed it. It’s been years since I used a master console [not bringing in
laptop for 15 min of work] – funky and fast. I still prefer a TSO session.

One more night to go and my shadow, Butch, didn’t get hit too hard this weekend. I’m sure once he’s in the rotation that
living hell doses will be nicely administered.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: calm
music: Bathory - Blooded Shore
(Leave a comment)

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

101009 Day 6 of Captivity

One easily dealt with call but sleep is still a bit off, certainly not normal.

It’s a nice break to stay in place on Saturday and not be in the datacenter. I continue reading on investing due to my frustration on not putting more money into opportunities I’ve seen. I blame work for taking the focus away.

My penchant for mindless free time is also to blame but one must clear central storage as a matter of maintenance.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: thoughtful
music: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
(Leave a comment)

Friday, October 9th, 2009

100909 Day 5 of Captivity

Two calls but I slept like a normal person due to cool, rainy weather.
Very mellow day to work from home and by work from home, I mean I did the bare minimum.

I’ll be “offline” for the next two weeks, meaning no weekend work and I’m looking forward to finishing things
that have been sitting too long, both personal and work related.

But I’ve got seventy-two hours to get through first.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: indifferent
music: King Diamond - The Candle
(Leave a comment)

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

100809 Day 4 of Captivity

One call at 02:00 that kept me up until 03:00. I put in best effort to continue my sleep like normal people get to but it was patchy.

Ops is falling behind and should’ve called earlier on some issues. In order to stem that off, I’ll be calling them every night at 20:00
to see if there’s anything looming that they’ve forgotten. It’s ridiculous but that’s what happens when a group’s ranks are thinned, poor performance
by even the good people that were spared.

Drown My Sorrows in Sauerkraut
My beer-spies report Hacker-Pschorr’s Oktoberfest beer [my fave Oktofest bier] didn’t make it to Dallas this year due to a reduced
shipment from Germany and those wanks in Houston kept what little came over, all to themselves.

Someone will pay for this, mark my words…

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: devious
music: Holon - Binary Star
(2 comments | Leave a comment)

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

100709 Day 3 of Captivity

One call but it hit at the right time [between cycles] and I continued my sleep like normal people get to.

This was a down tempo day with busy work; nothing project heavy. This pace will pick up by the week’s end car-wrecking into
Saturday in which I expect to get pulled into the evening after the day crew says “¡No más!”.

Broke Data and Touch-Your-Crotchie both found they have microcode issues and that it will be next week when it’s ready.
This is really pushing against the deadline, which still could be made but there’s always something else InfiddleVestCorp’s
systems hit up against.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: contemplative
music: Bizarre X - Traeumer
(Leave a comment)

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

100609 Day 2 of Captivity

No calls. I slept like normal people get to.

The issues with the new data replication method still go on with more testing and conjecturing. The problems center on a group of 5+ year-old boxes that should have been replaced three years ago. Anybody got a home for 28 terabytes of data?

Maybe it’s microcode. The obvious thing would be to replace the old boxes with newer ones –to match the rest of our boxes- that don’t have these problems. Touch-Your-Crotchie probably couldn’t build us new DASD with existing inventory. Maybe we’ll go Big Blue.

Anyway you look at it; changes are going to get slammed in. Glad I’m going to be “offline” for two weeks starting next week.

Overheard During Lunch at The Taj Mahal
“If you take five, it’s equal to a prescription dose.”

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: beer & pizza
music: Uncelestial - Born With Lucifer's Mark
(Leave a comment)

Monday, October 5th, 2009

100509 Day 1 of Captivity

The high six-figure people are now engaged from Broke-data, Big Blue, Touch-Your-Crotchie and InfiddleVestCorp. Best brains being sent to one of the companies’ HQ in California in order to figure out what’s going on with project Paul-Tango-Raunchy.

The project has been going on for about six months now and with about three weeks until go-live do any of the vendors get serious about the problems. Then again, the project hasn’t been managed too well on the InfiddleVestCorp end.

The Devil’s Helper
Butch, the temp that’s shadowing me also gets to be on-call. He’s the one that didn’t know what the “windows key” was. Nice guy but he’s not going to be a heavy contributor and that’s ok, we need cannon-fodder as well. He’s only here for three months –barely time to learn the room numbers.

Miscellaneous - Non-work
Satannabis – one of the better band names I’ve heard in a while. Too bad they aren't as good as their name.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: sleepy
music: Nile - Iskander D'hul Karnon
(Leave a comment)

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

100409 Pre-Captivity Statement

I do not recommend a slice of cocoanut crème pie an hour before a workout but today’s blah gym session was due to running around a datacenter for nearly twelve hours the day before. Aside from weekend changes, project Paul-Tango-Raunchy hit fail mode –AGAIN. I had a sandwich with one beer for dinner and went to bed a little after 10pm -on a Saturday night. Low quality of life.

Tonight, I’ve got one more opportunity to have a good night’s sleep.

BeerDiablo is On-call Again, Starting Monday
I’m getting more aggressive in managing our Ops staff so I don’t get woken up for B.S. I have found discussing issues and setting expectations before bedtime makes life easier. No telling as I’m not sure if we’ve hit the bottom of the maelstrom just yet. Guaranteed hell any way you look at it, plus I’m being shadowed by a new hire that I probably won’t make suffer too bad.

The data replication part of Paul-Tango-Raunchy is hitting epic fail due to using 6+ year-old DASD boxes from Touch-Your-Crotchie-Corporation, who really isn’t on the ball. Hint: If you’re a hard, pipe-hitting mainframe shop, swap out the gear every 3-4 years as the boxes will be tired and probably not up to the new technical features despite microcode/feature development.

Let’s not even mention being on the cutting edge of extension/emulation between sites using Broke-data’s new switches. I think we’re on the third set of firmware developed due to problems we’ve had in which their product wasn’t ready for market.
mood: pessimistic
music: Haunted George - Hit you with a Hammer
(Leave a comment)

Monday, September 14th, 2009

091409 Release from Captivity

Sunday wasn’t Total Hell but I grew tired of the calls and took today as a sick day. Sick of work.

I’m going to catch up on some things and get organized for the short week as I’m off on Friday due to working last weekend.

Now the machines call someone else to say they’re broken…
mood: aggravated
music: Demilich - The Sixteenth Six-Tooth Son of Fourteen Four-Regional Dimensions
(Leave a comment)

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

091309 Day 7 of Captivity

No calls. Well…none while I was sleeping anyway.

The temps start tomorrow. This will be interesting to see how much we can utilize them.

Also –and of more interest, Oktoberfest is next week. Working on the plans for getting the crew together. It's local but pretty big with a 30,000 square-foot tent and outdoor stages.

Now to bide my time for one more day until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: OktoFest Planning
music: LFO - Tied Up
(Leave a comment)

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

091209 Day 6 of Captivity

TioDiablo [un Padre Baptisto] and I were in a car, going through a swamp. He driving, I loading guns; enroute to pickup a load of cocaine on a clandestine landing strip. Then came a chainsaw…

When I actually get some real sleep, I dream rather than just “reboot”.

No calls. I went to bed early and got more than just five and a half hours of solid sleep. Hell, I even napped this afternoon to keep the party going.

Now to bide my time and drink beer until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: well rested
music: Napalm Death - Think For A Minute
(Leave a comment)

Friday, September 11th, 2009

091109 Day 5 of Captivity

This Hell-Night began within fifteen minutes of going to sleep a little after midnight [Witching Hour!]. I revisited the idea of “sleep” at 04:40. Then kicked out a report at 06:30 and passed back out until 09:30, where I officially began the day. Ms.Ed got to suffer as well, so that made things easier.

Bad documentation and implementation plagues my group again. If a manager doesn’t review a staff member’s implementation and documentation, odds are things won’t be up to standards. Though we got through the issues things didn’t need to take that long. Then again, when you’re trying to think and the brain is usually sleeping, everyone moves slower.

Now to screw off and bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: numb
music: Rigor Mortis - Cattle Mutilation
(Leave a comment)

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

091009 Day 4 of Captivity

No calls. I slept as normal people get to.

Weekend change prep ensues with me pushing it on those in the rotation. I’m on-call but will only pitch-in if they need help. There should be three of them, so I intend to enjoy the weekend as best as I can and not see the inside of the wretched data center.

Working from home again tomorrow and it’s nice to be working, yet not see my co-workers. I might even shake off the apathy if things continue to be mellow.

Those Rays of Sunshine Smell Like Beer
St.Arnold Divine Reserve #8 came out today. This limited, Texas only special release rarely gets stocked -it's practically pre-sold. I happened to be at Central Market and reluctantly left my contact info with a vendor but I got the call at 3pm that a sixer awaited me. I was #27 out of 28. Lucky mofo, am I. Not a bad Scotch Ale, let’s see how it ages.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: Drinking St.A's DR#8
music: Asphyx - Diabolical Existence
(Leave a comment)

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

090909 Day 3 of Captivity

No calls –I set up Tuesday night’s repair with the usual, “email when done, call if it gets weird” caveat. And so, I slept as normal people get to.

Changes have been rescheduled for remote tape change and testing but the DASD replication dates were described as “soft”.

Blame Canada and Ireland
Harp Lager is my “go-to” lager. Greatness that was re-packaged months ago and I was slow to purchase with fear. Tonight, I picked up a sixer –adding another hole in my heart. Gone is the golden, robust wheat bubble tickle on my palette. Charcoal. I might as well have bought a four-pack of Bitburg Pils talls. It’s almost that bad. [Bottled Harp and Guinness is brewed in Canada for the U.S.]

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: enraged
music: Violator - Atomic Nightmare [Gammacide influenced Brazillian band?]
(6 comments | Leave a comment)

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

090809 Day 2 of Captivity

No calls. I slept as normal people get to.

Quiet fallout continues with gentle spin meetings but later this week the claws should come out. Not sure of how far changes will be pushed –they need to give us a break but this series of events might buy a month to space things out.

Ms.Ed took most of the day off and worked from home – I’m sure between the hours she worked and the stress of being in the cross-hairs left her exhausted.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: sleepy
music: Merrimack - Melancholia Balneum Diaboli
(Leave a comment)

Monday, September 7th, 2009

090709 Day 1 of Captivity

The fallout from Saturday continued both Sunday and today with a conference call each day. My participation lasted about 90 minutes each time with me doing nothing but spinning my wheels.

Not sure how things are going to unfold this week due to the problems encountered. This weekend was chosen due to it being a three-day span. Now I think the holidays might be targeted. Hopefully, things will be frozen for a moment so everyone can catch up.

I think the temps start this week and we still have more interviews for Katerina’s position. Hopefully, Breckenbrew – a former SlAveCS co-worker, will get that position. He’s working a temp position, so hopefully that will help him get hired.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken.
mood: drained
music: Sun Of The Blind - Cursed Universe
(Leave a comment)

Monday, August 24th, 2009

082409 Release from Captivity

Total Hell continued on Sunday. I did not sleep due to the phone going off every forty-five to ninety minutes. And for stupid shit too.

Everyone kept death marching as I could hear conference calls in the background while on the phone with operations. Ms.Ed was still on the conference call I dropped off at 19:30 –it was over two hours later.

I rarely take Monday as my comp day but this necessitated it, I finished up the hanging threads around 07:10 and then slept to 11:00.

A waste of a day, I’m blowing off the gym this week to –probably futilely- get things back on track. I’ve got a feeling this is going into September but we’ll have some temps in soon to help shoulder the load.

Fuck the machines, they can call others to say they’re broken…
mood: 30 bbl of hate
music: Diamatregon - Crossroad
(Leave a comment)

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

082309 Day 4 of Captivity

After one hour of sleep, I’m jolted into a three-hour conference call dealing with a all problems due to a network move for data replication. The majority was due to AT&T and Verizon doing maintenance causing nothing to work right. This thing is way screwed.

Hellnight to Hellday to Hellnight to…
Knocking out a morning report –easy as it’s just the above mentioned item and after that five-minute chore, I was about to go to bed and my manager, Ms.Ed calls to get me on another conference call. Her briefing and the call take up about forty minutes – and it’s decided that nothing will be done. Total waste of time.

Another conference call at 16:30CT. This will probably be an hour at least. This on-call ends tomorrow. I’m going to try to avoid working late next weekend to go to Austin and see Hirax. Given the current climate, it’s a 50-50 shot.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken…
mood: Apathetic
music: Hirax - Broken Neck
(Leave a comment)

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

082209 Day 3 of Captivity

No disturbing calls, I slept like normal people that go to bed at 4am after drinking beer.

It was about a ten-hour day at the datacenter re-working sixteen fiber paths into new ports and LchipIDs. Bottom line: pain in the ass.

Now to bide my time until the machines call me to say they’re broken…
mood: tired
music: Deadsea - Northwitch
(Leave a comment)
Previous 20