The Raging Tech

The Tech Wishes He Had a Place to Rage

I’m not really angry about anything. My brain just hurts. Today is one of those days where I just didn’t get started out on the right foot, and every step after that seems slightly off.

This morning I woke up at 7:18 to get ready for work at 8am like I always do on Monday mornings. After I got out of the shower Kylara called to ask me to bring her some files she left on my computer at home. I wasn’t able to, and I felt bad not being able to help her.

When I got to work, I set down my stuff and called her to let her know I was downstairs in the call center, and she said she’d come down later. Then my coworker reminded me I didn’t have to be there until 10:30am, because I was staying late until 7:30pm. Great, grand, wonderful.

I went up to take her the files at that point, and the door was locked. I had to call her to come back towards the stairs to let me in. I told her what was going on. I felt sick to my stomach and head. She then let me know her project in GarageBand was broken because a nightly script wipes the drives on the iMac she was using. I went and got the Digital Media Director to come over and help her. I stayed for about an hour trying to help anyway I could. I finally just had to leave, my stomach hurt so bad.

I went home, let my stomach settle, ate some breakfast, and then came back at 10:30am. I got to go update the director’s iMac with the latest VMWare Fusion and fix another couple of issues on it while I was there. That’s always neat when you get to fix things for the big bosses, so not everything was so bad this morning.

There are more issues with the DNS servers at work again today. We have a small percentage of users whose DNS settings aren’t automatic, and so when the first server fails, they don’t automatically fall back to the secondary and tertiary servers. In layman’s terms, about 30-40 calls for each technician where someone can’t access some websites, but can still get to others.

In house news - Country Classic real estate, one of my past landlords, are holding up my closing on the house because the one guy authorized to return the rental history form to the bank is out of town on vacation until Wednesday.

Apparently they “lost” the first one sent to them three weeks ago, so when my banker sent them the form again last Friday they said it’d be Monday or Tuesday. But now it’s going to be Wednesday before they can fax it in. Which means we can’t order the appraisal until at least Wednesday, which means we probably won’t be able to sign the contracts until another week out.

Then it all has to go off to the headquarters at the state capital, where they’ll either finalize the approval or reject it, and then I can close. So I won’t officially own the house for probably another two-three weeks from now.

I’ve got to pack things up pretty much every night this week, and then I move out of my rental on Saturday and into my new home - since I know the owners they’re letting me move in and rent the house on a weekly basis until I can close, so that I don’t have to keep paying my current landlord rent. I’ve got DSL and Satellite scheduled and all that’s left to do there is to switch the power and water once our closing date is firm.

My life, it is crazy. It’s good, but it’s hectic, and I think I’m stressed out a pretty good bit today. Thankfully, all the callers while I’ve been on duty this morning have been pretty nice people, and I think God’s giving me patience with them.

Oh, and official GMAT scores came back: I got 590 (out of 800, 65% ranking) on the Verbal/Quantitative sections, and 5.5 out of 6 on the Analytical Writing (83% ranking), so - not too shabby, statistically doing better than the average GMAT test-taker. Waiting now to hear back from the Grad School about whether or not I’m in the program.

That’s all for now. At least today’s pay day.

Officially Registered for the GMAT

I am officially signed up for the GMAT, which I need good scores on to get into Grad school. I have applied, and they contacted me and said they needed my scores, so I’m taking it. I didn’t realize this was a $250 test until the other week. That’s a huge chunk out of my not-well-filled-wallet.

Thankfully, my mom was able to give me a loan for the money, so huge thanks go to her for helping me continue my education! Love you Mom!

If all goes well, I’ll be taking the test on June 21st, Saturday, at 8:00am in a nearby city. I’m not looking forward to waking up and taking it, but hopefully the studying I do between now and then will pay off.

Oh, and Mom, I have a test prep book, and I am going to study my butt off so that you will know you’ve made a worthwhile investment in my future.

New Help at Work

Those of you who have read previously about my trepidation at work over our short-handedness, can now rest at ease much as I have. We hired on three hourly employees to fill the gap, at least for the summer, while we fill positions.

My friend who was already on hourly, is about to step into one of the full-time positions, which will be great since he’s having a kid in a few months.

In related news, I’m working on my appearance, my attitudes, and my involvement levels so that I’ll be a more hireable employee, and also to improve the overall morale of the Help Desk team.

I still need to pick up my GMAT book and get cracking. The sooner I study, the sooner I can sign up for and take the test. Then I’ll have my scores, and then I’ll be able to finish my grad school enrollment. Leave me motivating comments.

Getting My Ducks in a Row

Today I applied for grad school at the university I work for, and called some people to provide letters of recommendation. I also had to update my resume to submit alongside my application. It’s going to cost $40 to apply to this school. I’m applying to the Project Management program for distance learners (read: online courses).

I am very seriously considering purchasing a house that is currently on the market from some friends of mine that live about 20 minutes from here. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a deck, porch, and spacious parking. The yard isn’t that big, but wouldn’t be too hard to get a dog or cat eventually. I have a meeting on Wednesday with the bank to talk about whether or not I can afford that kind of a mortgage.

I stole a book called Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality from my boss’ bookshelf in her office. I’m going to try and read it tonight and maybe the next couple of days.

My coworker just accepted a job in another area of our department at work. With one position recently vacated already, that means that in two weeks the help desk team will consist entirely of myself and the hourly employee. I will try to have a good attitude at work and keep my spirits high, because I know that will reflect on me in the future. Also, since the coworker who is leaving was the team lead, that pretty much gives me a field promotion for the time being.

The future looks interesting, to say the least. My life the way I know it now may not look the same at all in just a few months. Life certainly has it’s twists and turns, that’s what makes it all worthwhile.