Brett Favre ...

Obama Care

Change of Profession? Not quite yet.

Im feeling pretty good about my mechanics skills these days. OK, Ill admit some would say that I dont have any mechanics skills but I'm trying to prove them wrong (and save some money while Im at it). Here is my latest adventure in trying to keep my 2003 Chevy Impala with 141,599 miles running.

So, it was a beautiful afternoon and I was on my way home from work and stopped off at hackenmuellers butcher shop (which by the way is probably the best butcher shop in the twin cities) to pick up some steaks to grill. About 100 ft after leaving my parking spot my power steering failed and my tempature gauge was slowly starting to climb. I was only 2 miles from home so I didnt have to panic, although if youve ever had to steer your car without power steering you know you get quite the workout. After I got home and popped the hood I could clearly see that the serpentine belt was mangled amongst the wheels and pulleys of the engine. Not good. So, my first call was to my mechanic friend Mike, from work. He said that it should be something I can handle on my own and that the an auto shop would not be neccesary. So, armed with my Christmas present from mom and dad (a very nice mechanics socket set) I ventured back out to my car to further assess the damage. After removing a 4 foot cross bar support and the coolant overflow tank to gain better access to work I found that the bearings in the tensioner pulley were also shredded to bits (thats the picture to the left). I was able to pick up the new belt and pulley for $40. Not bad. Installation was A LOT easier than expected. The hardest part was trying to get all the shredded pieces of the old serpentine belt out of the wheels and pulleys on the engine. About 30 minutes later I was finished. Finally, I bravely started the car half expecting it to blow up the second I turned the ignition. Much to my shagrin it started and the belt was running just fine. Im told that had I taken the car to a shop they would have charged somewhere between $150-$200. Now thats a nice savings! And trust me, I have reminded my wife of that at least 3 times a day since.

So, now I can add serpentine belt replacement to the list of things I can fix on a car: full break job, fuel pressure regulator, and self oil changes. I keep telling Sue that the trade off for doing work on the car myself should be that I get to purchase more tools but she's not quite there yet. Im still working on her though.

My iPhone

The iphone is perhaps the most wonderful piece of tech gadgetry that has yet to exist. Simply put, its just so very versatile. I often like to think of it in terms of having a laptop with phone capabilites that fits into my pants pocket that has a full days battery charge. The possibilities with this device really are endless and because of the ability to use a wifi connect or cellular data connect I am always in contact with the "internet cloud".

Here are just a few ways I use my iPhone:

• I check email (both work and personal)
• I browse the internet
• I watch Live TV
• I watch movies
• I listen to music (ipod and local radio stations)
  
• I take Photos
• I check Facebook
• I Twitter
• I check Weather
• I record Video (live to the internet)
• I play games
• I use it as a GPS device in my car
• I tune my guitar with it and use it as a chord and scale reference
  
• I chat on gtalk or use SKYPE
  
• I check the news
• I read the bible
• I use it as a dictionary
  
• I use it as an encyclopedia (wikipedia)
• I use it in the line of my work for network monitoring and troubleshooting
• I use it for access to my files (docs, xls, pdfs, etc.)
• And yes I even use it to make and receive phone calls

First Post!

Hello to anyone that wants to listen! This is my first blog post and I'm going to talk about what I do for a living. My business card says that I am an IT Network Administrator, but really I do much more than just network administration. My company, Physical Electronics USA (http://www.phi.com) is pretty small with only about 100 employees. As such we have a pretty small IT staff: myself and one other individual, Jay. So really we are a one stop shop for anything technology related for the company. So, my day to day duties span across our email system, doing web work (intranet and public), file and print server administration, workstation troubleshooting, backup administration, antivirus administration, firewall security, VPN link monitoring, network maintenance and monitoring, database administration and design, and of course dealing with dumb questions from clueless users. Ive got stories upon stories related to that last one, but I digress.

For the most part I am my own manager. I report directly to the CFO but she doesnt really have a clue of what I do. Nothing against her by any means, its just that she doesnt understand my technical mumbo jumbo just as I dont understand her financial/accounting mumbo jumbo. IT people and accounting people really do speak differnt languages.

I love my job! I am SO lucky to be in this position with this company. I started as a contract helpdesk person 7 years ago and have worked my way up to the position I am in now. I love that I get to work with and learn all sorts of differnt technologies and Im not stuck with the monotony of dealing with only one specific piece. My job does require constant monitoring of the network so if I get an automated page that a server is down I do have to ensure that it comes back up in a timely fashion in order to minimize the impact on the rest of the employees. So, if Im woken up at 3am with a message that states "critical_server" I best not ignore it.

As you can see to the left, my workspace kind of looks like the bridge of the starship enterprise. Surprisingly, I do make good use out of all the monitors that you see. In fact I have a workbench directly behind me that has even more monitors on it. I am kind of messy but belive it or not I know where most everything is that need. I once heavily cleaned and organized my workspace about a year ago and for the next month I couldnt find anything. I work much better with what I like to call "organized clutter".

Anyway, thats my job in a nutshell.