Trying to move 2 blogs plus take care of the normal bullshit at the SBC, plus put together a semi-coherent podcast for Shitty Blog Radio is an awful lot of work. Especially when you consider the results. I guess it wouldn’t be too bad if I didn’t have that annoying day job to worry about.

Speaking of the day job, it is going well. (Since I know you were wondering.)

In case you missed it, I work in a large IT Department that supports thousands of users. My duties fall in to two categories. Most of the time, I do duty tech work. If something is not functioning and the helpdesk cannot resolve it; I go onsite and resolve it. This leaves me spending a fair amount time swapping out hard drives and re-imaging machines. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s not bad. And at least I get out and am not stuck in desk all day.

The other part of my job is to take on some responsibilities as a Network Engineer. Since I haven’t been at this job a year yet, the amount of engineering stuff I’ve done has been small. And always in a supporting role. This is cool with me. I wouldn’t want to work for a company that put people in charge of projects just to make them feel important.

Some of my co-workers, especially the younger guys, get all worked up about whether or not they get involved in ‘cool’ projects. Or if they get asked to contribute to a bigger project in small way, they feel slighted. I never let these things bother me. In a lot of things in life I lack confidence, but not about this stuff. I know that I know as much or more about Networking and Windows Servers than anyone I work with. (And I can hold my own on everything else.) Even the top engineers. So if they need me to research some issue they are having on their project or help troubleshoot a bump in the road they have encountered, I am happy to help. And if I have to go back to swapping hard drives, after they get the issue resolved, that’s cool. I know that they can see what I know. And just as importantly, I know my boss sees it.

All of my patience paid of this week. My boss told I was going to be one of the Lead Engineers on a very big project. I won’t bother you with the geeky and boring details of it, but it is a Big Deal.

Of course, I’ll still have to do the Duty Tech work, but at least I’ll get to spend more of my time doing something a little more challenging.

Yep, my wife left me.

Of course, she’ll be back Wednesday. I guess I better not let the place turn in to too much of a bachelor pad. She’s just off to visit a friend for a few days.

And its just us guys hanging out. Which isn’t too bad really.

It has left me busier than usual, so getting these new sites together has been a challenge. I will move all of my archives over here, sooner or later. In all likelihood, no one cares… but I do. So I’ll move them.

My podcast/radio show thingy won the popular vote for the BoB awards. Now the rest of it is up to the judges. I wonder what I get if I win. (I’m sure that it says somewhere on the site, but I’m too lazy go look it up.)

Given the way that the playoffs have been going, I could learn to hate football. I can’t believe the Steelers are going to the SuperBowl. There is only one thing that I can really say about it.

GO SEAHAWKS!!!!

Is it just me or are there a lot of bad podcasts out there?

Remember that you can hear my really bad podcast, LIVE, on Mango Radio Thursdays at 9 PM EST.

I guess I’ll just pack up my shit and leave…

Or something like that.

Blogcafe was down again this weekend. What a huge pain. So I moved. To here. (This is home #3, to those of you keeping score.)

I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding the place.

I’ll work on moving the archives over during the course of the week. I’ll also working on moving the Shitty Blogs Club to its new home.

At least this gives me a chance to clean up the look of my blog and since no one knows where it is now… we can talk about them.

Most of the time, I’m a slacker.  I’m not proud of this, but it just seems to work out that way.  I’d like to more.  I’d like to be better.

But Somehow, I’m always too tired, too busy, too something.

Take dinner.  I want to eat healthy.  I want to give my family good meals.  But most nights Mrs. Geek and I just look at each other and end up eating pizza or hot dogs in front of the TV.

What a great way to spend time as a family.  But it’s easy and we’re tired parents.

What’s the point, you may ask.  
What makes you think that there is a point, I retort.

But there is a point.

Last night, it was time for dinner and I decided that I was sick of not having real meals.  I looked in the freezer and saw that there was some frozen shrimp and scallops.  Over the summer, I’d gotten inspired and made shrimp and scallop kabobs.  It was great but there was a little leftover.  I knew that it wouldn’t be nearly as good as a leftover do I froze it, thinking that it might be good in a soup or something.

It was raining out.  Soup sounded good.  I’ll make soup, I thought.  Seafood Chowder, like Clam Chowder but with shrimp and scallops.  Heck I’ll throw in some catfish for good measure.

I got Mrs. Geek to peel some potatoes for me, and I proceeded to make Seafood Chowder from scatch.

Not too bad for a slacker.

Oh and do me a favor and go vote for my stupid little podcast, over at the BoB Awards.

I won’t even bother you with how bad my week has been.

I think getting kicked out Blog Explosion might have been one of the high points.

For a lot of the week I was unable to update any of my blogs, due to some technical problems over at blogcafe.

If had been able to update, I might have insisted that you de-lurk. (Or maybe I wouldn’t have.)

My silly little podcast has made it as a finalist over at the Best of Blogs Awards. Go vote for it, you’ll have to scroll down the page a bit. (And do me a favor; listen to it before you vote. I’d rather gain listeners, than votes.)

At least I have a three day weekend to try to get myself together. And playoff football to drown my sorrows on.

Hey Man.  It’s been a while.  I’m not the kind of person who tell people how I feel or any of that shit…  But for you.  For you I’ll give it a shot.

I don’t know if you are out there somewhere or if all that is left of you is the hearts and memories of those you touched.  And if it is the latter, you are safely with us, because you certainly touched a lot of hearts.

It is natural that I thought of you this time of year.  I met you on New Year’s Eve.  I was 12 years old.  My oldest son is 12 now, you’d like him.  I know he’d like you.  Kids like him, like me, need a guy like you to talk to.  

It was a New Years Party, with the families of a couple of guys my dad worked with.  Who would have believed that we would still be getting together two decades later?  

I looked forward to talking with you.  You were the only adult I’d ever met that understood me, without judgment, without prejudice.  As I was a teenager, and then a young adult I valued your opinion.  Pretty amazing, considering I only saw you once a year.

You gave me a great piece of advice once.  ”Try everything and anything, but be careful.  Make sure that you don’t do something you can’t fix.”

I’m proud to say that I was able to fix everything.  It wasn’t easy.  But I did.

The last time I saw you, you couldn’t speak above a whisper.  The cancer had spread to your throat.  I should have said goodbye, but I’m no good at that kind of shit.  I don’t remember what meaningless words left my mouth.  But I could tell that you heard my good bye anyway.  That was our last New Year together.

I was amazed at your memorial service how many people were there.  How many kids.  You were a teacher.  And I discovered that I wasn’t the only kid who could turn to you.  It seems I had a lot of company in that department.  Yet, somehow, you made each of us feel as though we had a special relationship with you.

I saw your son.  He’s a man now.  I guess it’s funny that a man nearly old enough to be my grandfather had a son that much younger than me.  He misses you.  But he’s doing ok, I think.

There’s no point to this I guess.  Or maybe there is.  It doesn’t matter.  I’m not worried about finding the right words.  You’d understand what I’m trying to say.

Thanks.  And Happy New Year.