Nothing more to say, really…  I just have thoughts from the continual trail that is my stream of consciousness.

Brought Donna to the hospital this evening to have the staples removed from where she fell and hit her head.  The doctor wings in, yanks them out like a pull-tab game, and then runs out muttering “thanks” or something like that.  It took longer to be admitted and discharged each  than the time it took for him to play Slingerland with the staple removal.

Been at the new job at CNN for a whole two days, and love it.  Specialization is something I’ve always wanted to do, and now I get the chance.  Hopefully I’ll excel at this and have a nice, long career at CNN.

Donna continues to worsen, so we’ve submitted  a request for disability once again.  This time, though, I’ve retained a lawyer to help navigate me through the process.  Hopefully the dismissal of the appeal last time hasn’t ruined our chances in this avenue.

Pray for us.

I’ve been thinking a lot about where life finds me at 41. I’m a Dad, husband, teacher, sysadmin, friend, lover, confidant…

Lots going on there, but a deep-seeded need to be relevant still trickles along. I *so* wanted my degree. I *so* wanted an active lifestyle, exciting and energetic.

Sometimes the mundanity of a “schedule” or a series of life-events can pale in your mind to what you so built life up to be in your head, that you can fall prey to the idea that everything is boring, then you move forward to try and make things happen rather than relaxing in the comfort and familiarity you’ve found.

Some people refer to it as a “drag”. Perhaps that’s just the time to rest.

Man…  people are funny.  You tell them things many, many times and for some reason, you’re a moron.  They come to you for help, you give them an answer and because it’s either not convenient enough or the answer they wish to hear, you become a moron.

AND THEY CAME TO YOU!  Better yet, They will KEEP coming to you because deep down they know you have the right answer even though they don’t necessarily want to hear it.

I learned a long time ago that System Administration is better than 70% politics.

That brings up a conundrum.

As a sysadmin, my highest priority is my machines.  If they don’t stay up, reliable, and serving, we don’t serve ads, and then we don’t get paid.  As a coworker, the users are my customer.  They deserve the highest priority.  Balancing the needs of the machines (who don’t have feelings, but have very real needs nonetheless) against the needs & desires of the user community can be quite the chore sometimes.

We’re at a new server out on the ‘net. I’ve moved all the websites I host out onto a data-center based server, and am removing all the extra hardware out of my home.

Why, you might ask?

Well, we’re selling our home and moving into town. As such, I might be able to find the home I want. If not, I will wind up in an apartment for a time. Usually, an apartment doesn’t have the room for the scale of server I have here at the house.

So, I’ve got a few things for sale.

My house is a 3 Bedroom ranch home in suburban Atlanta, GA. You can see the pictures of my home from before I bought it in 4/04 here: Our House We’re asking $159k. If you have any questions, contact me at jerald.sheets@gmail.com.

Also, I’ve got some servers hanging around. Since I’ve really gotten into the whole Dave Ramsey thing, I’, selling them to apply toward my debt. My hope is to pay off nearly half of my remaining debt balance with the sale of my home and these servers.

I have :

VA Linux Full On Dual Pentium3 800MHz, 80G HDD, 1GB Ram
VA Linux Full On Dual Pentium3 500MHz, 80G HDD, 1GB Ram
VA Linux Full On Single Pentium3 500MHz, 40G HDD, 1GB Ram
VA Linux Full On Chassis to use for parts. Has extra fans, power supplies, mobo.
Linksys WAP54G Wireless Access Point
SMC 24 Port 10/100 EZ Hub 5616DS
(See pictures at end of article)

In addition, I have about 6 white boxes from varying generations, including P2, P3, and some earlier stuff. There’s a few 3D Graphics cards in there, and a ton of disk space among them all. Mix & Match whatever you like.

I’ve got one crappy old monitor, and a bunch of cables, computer supplies, some CAT-5 and just ods and ends I’ve collected over a 15-year IT career.

I hope to sell it all together for $2000.00US. Buyer pays shipping. If I can’t sell it all together for 2K, I’ll have to ask more for each individual part.

Well, if anyone can help I’d appreciate it. If you need a server class machine, let me know!

(image grabbed from Ebay)

We had a great, productive camp this weekend. Despite rain and cold winds all day Saturday, we were able to get outside today and catch up with everything that was supposed to be done yesterday. I’m VERY proud to be in this particular year’s CorpsVets. I think this year is TRULY a turning point for our corps. Wildwood is just 6 weeks away (the opening show of the year) and I cannot wait. My brothers, sisters and I will certainly have a few things to “say” on the field up North this year.

Work continues to suck greatly. I’m a glorified phone boy with root access… >shrug<. I clear logfiles and respond to monitoring alerts on filesystem expansion.

As a career sysadmin, this position was DEFINITELY a step down. A step down in responsibility, expertise required, knowledge needed, etc. Add to that the fact it’s 3rd shift, my neighborhood is expanding (and one of the next empty lots to develop on is about 50-60ft from my head) and that all spells “suckage” in the worst way.

I’ve started the jobsearch process, and will be seriously looking from here on out until I find the *right* job on the *right* shift in the *right* location.

Wish me luck.

Ever notice how people suck? And then the same people that suck come from nowhere and do something WAY cool. (you know who you are…..thank you). I appreciate personal growth from people (even if it may just be me growing to the point that I see the good somewhere that I thought only “sucking” existed just minutes before.

Well, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve gotten over here to say much, but I haven’t had much to say.

Things are going so well for our corps this year, there’s no way I can express it. The staff, management, direction, focus, theme…all amazing. We got out to the Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend to work concessions, and had a great return for our efforts. I hope we can do more of those in the future…it was great family time for the corps as well as a great money-maker.

Dan’s school band went to festival, and they brought home all “1’s”. Great stuff. Good reward for hard work.

Starting drill in two weeks. Looking forward to it.

more later…

I decided to have a look at some new themes and play around with the look and feel of the site… I hope you like it.

I’ve been *VERY* busy of late, as I work 3rd shift, and the season is starting to heat up wiith the CorpsVets.

More to come, I promise!

Update: To their credit, Matrix found this letter, and acted on it nearly immediately. I spoke with them, they were very contrite, and I found them serious about righting the situation. Kudos to a company that can admit when they’re wrong, and try to make things right.

Folks: Pardon this exercise in catharsis…I absolutely have to get this off my chest…

Greetings Gentlemen,

As a job seeker in the 21st century, many tasks and challenges present themselves to us each and every day. A continuing search in the field of information technology is fraught with frustration: Ignored telephone calls, emails, resume submittals, and a serious lack of qualified recruiting talent in the IT field add to the stress of the job search to a great degree.

I am sure that in 1983, you gentlemen understood this and took steps to found a company that was “not like the rest”. It is in the text of your charter that I have chosen to communicate with you.

Your charter promises several items I would like to consider with you.

INTEGRITY
“We pledge to do the right thing in all circumstances”

I live in the Atlanta area, and as such fall under the purveyance of the Perimeter Center Place office. I have contacted this office via email, your website, and response to posted job advertisements for over THREE YEARS with never a reply from your organization.

In society, a bsuiness contact from an unemployed or an employed individual looking for a change deserves respect and consideration from a personal contact… A human being who cares and is there to help an individual seek their new position…a contact of INTEGRITY.

There is *NO WAY* your personnel can possibly know the suitability of a candidate without SPEAKING to them personally. You are in the PEOPLE business. You owe it to yourselves and your clients to contact candidates. You are selling yourselves and your clients short and treating the candidates like objects…a distinct lack of INTEGRITY.

EXCELLENCE
“We exceed expectations by providing superior service and unsurpassed quality and value.”

Again, having been one to try and contact Matrix resources over the last several years, and having never been contacted, excellence (and your adherence to it) is not being served. Furthermore, the efforts of your personnel deserve discussion.

I have no problem that your staff chooses not to contact me. However, on a daily basis I have to sift through *HUNDREDS* of Matrix entries on the large Internet Job boards such as Monster, Dice, Computerjobs, Careerbuilder, etc. Recently, your firm has even begun placing their ads in our local paper, only to drive visitors to your website, and then be summarily ignored.

EXCELLENT personnel service organizations contact their candidates, interview them, obtain quality characteristics of the candidate, and pitch them to your clients. You can never be sure that you have found the best candidates. You have not performed your job with EXCELLENCE.

RESPECT
“We show care and compassion for all individuals because of our inherent trust and belief in people.”

How can you show compassion when you don’t even contact A) those who are out of work and B) those who are looking for a change. If you *believed* in people, you would spend time contacting each and every candidate that showed promise for a potential position. You Atlanta office *REFUSES* telephone calls, and will not speak to you. Not only does this not show RESPECT for the individual, it shows disdain for them and their person. It could be nothing further from RESPECT.

INNOVATION
“We promote creativity and possess the courage to embrace change.”

While I cannot speak for your internal processes (as I have never even SPOKEN to a Matrix employee) I can speak from your activities as an organization on the web. It is not INNOVATIVE, CREATIVE, or COURAGEOUS.

A Simple search reveals the following:

Computerjobs.com has 260 jobs with Matrix Resources listed. You have reposted the same 22 jobs in the Atlanta area for 17 days consecutively, yet refuse telephone calls.

Dice.com has 182 Matrix Resources entries for Atlanta. You have reposted the same 24 jobs for 26 days consecurively, yet refuse telephone calls.

I could continue…

As you can see, There is not only a public visage of LACK of INNOVATION, but the statistics seem to support that fact strongly. You have on staff a large group of website surfers that know how to post jobs.

FUN
“We strive to make MATRIX an irresistible place to work,where fun and professionalism coexist.”

Since I can neither confirm nor deny that there are actual living, breathing human beings working at the Atlanta MATRIX office, I cannot speak to the validity of this goal’s execution.

RESULTS-DRIVEN
“We believe that our success is ultimately measured by the results we deliver to our customers.”

I am one potential customer that has not been served. I have not been spoken to, called, asked in for an interview, or given a rejection. I have been accosted by auto-responders, denials of contact attempts by phone (The receptionist actually said “I am sorry, but we do not take telephone calls unless we have contacted you already…correct me if I’m wrong…you *are* in a people business, right?) and offers of visits to seminars to teach me how to look for a job. (we could start with you contacting me so I can sell myself to you for RESPECTful consideration in INTEGRITY by an EXCELLENT team member that uses INNOVATIVE methods of RESULTS-DRIVEN recruiting practice to obtain *ME* a job, and *YOU* an income.)

In regards to your Vision, you should actually speak with your candidates. When a candidate contacts you by phone, is it really impossible to take 15 minutes with this person to treat them with integrity? To respect their position, and to try and help them find that next position? I don’t think so.

Do yourselves and the technical community a favor: Operate by your foundational values and vision.

Just got up and getting ready for work.

Another bleary wall-staring evening. For all my newbieness in HP/UX, I hope to see some action tonight.

Here I sit, bleary-eyed at 3:30 in the morning.

the calls come in far too seldom to keep any semblance of rational thought, so I have to bring occupying pursuits with me to keep me awake. Sure, the occasional alert comes in, and I investigate, but not much here. To be truthful, I could script most of what’s being done here, and be getting a good night’s sleep.

I got a combination of XP + Solaris 10 + Fedora Core 3 on the laptop now…enjoying the geekery. Solaris is just so incredibly primitive in comparison to Linux…I don’t see what McNealy thinks he’s talking about.

Hear this, and hear it good: Solaris, Sun, and the Sparc platform will all succumb to the Linux juggernaut in the next 5 years. Unless Sun seriously revamps and becomes a Linux company, they’re sunk.

HP/UX falls into the same category. While I’m sure Carly Florina is doing everything in her power to make it seem as though she’s in complete control, I think that most everyone in the UNIX business that is *not* a UNIX contender is scared to death of what Linux might bring their way.