9. November 2010 by [JP].

Early one for you today.

Maybe I should actually write them on the correct days, instead of the night before.
Eh. Whatever.

In Albuquerque. Got my early AM site done, got other things accomplished as well. Fixed the payroll issue. Got some other work done. Stood by for a possible emergency trip to Phoenix, that, thank God, never had to happen. Slept a bit, then woke up and got more work done.

Then, i had dinner with a friend, bought a 6 pack, and just as I got home, dropped off the beer, and rolled to a missing kid callout. Got cancelled (kid found, ok, about to get his ass kicked by his parents) right before i arrived at staging, came back, watched a movie, had a beer. Now, i’m probably going to go to Dennys for a bite.

Pretty much a typical day for me up here… Cold front is rolling in, however, its pretty dang cold now, i forgot to turn the heater back up from 68 to 74 during the day, so after my movie, i took my blanket off and realized how cold it got in my apartment.

Now that i have my paycheck, i’ll deposit it tomorrow, and  order that watch from Amazon, since the local Sam’s doesnt seem to have it. Also, got to look into replacing this phone tomorrow as well… Lets see what I can find used, maybe i’ll get a G2 instead of that Defy… Eh, No, I think I better stick with the rugged one.

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8. November 2010 by [JP].

Quick post, as I’ve got to go to bed, i have a 7am job to handle up here in Abq.

Drove home around 6pm, and got here pretty quickly. I only stopped in Cruces for fuel, and Hatch for food.

Quick dinner at Dennys, did some work on the tablet, and now i’m back home.

I’ve missed my apartment, but i’m going to be here for a while… theres no out of town on my schedule at all, so i can do all the things i need to do in town, including rearrainging my apartment finally, getting my new TV, and other stuff.

Thats it for now.

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6. November 2010 by [JP].

Actually had to stay up a bit to write this.

However, i’ll probably be up a few more hours, as I’m trying to get ahold of someone as she drives across the southern US.

I got the hoodie i wanted, the orange with fuzzy insides. I wore it tonight to the desert, but dont anticipate needing it at all in El Paso… it’ll get packed and taken home with me tomorrow, and mostly worn up there.

Also, i think i found the watch i want:

I didnt know if I wanted a resin band after this metal one i’ve had, but it looked good in person. About $160 at Sams. Probably seriously also considering getting the black metal version with the reverse face, and wearing it when i need a “fancy” watch… but its in the $300 range, so that can wait for a bit.

Hung out with  Ramon most of the day tonight. He shares my great taste in food, and today was no exception.

Toro burger for lunch, Avila’s dinner, then ended up having a bonfire in the desert at night.

Tomorrow, I drive up to Abq for Monday’s job… i may possibly have to take an emergency side trip to Az though after that.

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6. November 2010 by [JP].

Um. Remember when I said i wouldnt ever buy an iPad?

Well, i wont.

However, if I get handed an evaluation unit for a month so I can do a project…

Well, I wont complain too much.

I had a quick bite to eat with the regional manager of a company i’ve worked with in the past. They just got a major contract for content delivery in a national coffee shop chain, and they want me to handle the initial site surveys for the New Mexico locations. So, I agreed to do it over the next month, getting to do it on my own time (except i have some limitations on when i can and cannot actually go to a location) Next thing I know, i’m signing my life away, and getting handed a used iPad (16gb, 3G version) with a rubber case, and some test account information… So yeah. I have an iPad now. For about a month or so, or however long it takes me to get this done.

And yes. Angry Birds was purchased and installed pretty quickly. Its kinda nice on this big screen.

I dont hate it too much. its heavier then I thought it would be, and a little bulkier. I think 7 inches would be better.

Its like my iPod touch, just much bigger. its like my hot girlfriend got fat, ugly, and bitchier. And fat.
I’m still planning on buying a samsung galaxy tab on t-mobile next month when its released… now THAT is a tablet i can look forward to.

I did my paperwork from this week today, got it all in, and i’ll be headed back to Abq either saturday night or sunday AM.

I cant wait to get home.

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5. November 2010 by [JP].

NMSU’s bookstore was, as of yet, the LARGEST store to get the conversion system.

And we had the contract.

And geeze. It was A LOT of work.

Well worth it though.

I think.

I just have to remind myself, that we did a great job, no matter how long we were on site.

Oh, and I think i pretty much, in one night, made most of my rent for next month.

Plus the other three days i worked, i can pay all my Dec bills, as well as what i needed in Nov.

Which is kinda nice. I can take it sorta easy for the rest of Nov.

I got to play with an iPad.

No. Not spending $600 on something that’ll just be for playing Angry Birds.

I’m getting (via my corporate credit account) a Samsung Galaxy Tab for that.

Android > iOS.

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4. November 2010 by [JP].

Yeah, this is very quickly getting annoying. Wondering if i’ll last all month.

I had site three yesterday. Also, figured that i left both my multitool and my phone charger at site 2. Oops.

I always forget stuff places. So, the manager from site 2 is going to mail me my stuff back to the office in Abq.

Speaking of the office, i got authorized a third person, an intern, for tomorrow’s site. So i’m pulling one from Abq…

I duno why shes willing to come down 200 miles for $50-60 plus travel pay, but whatever.

I’m glad, i have 17 registers that are going to generate A LOT of busy work, and that frees me and Ramon up to get the important stuff done.

Still no word on the paycheck issues. I guess i’m just going to have to physically deal with that monday.

And, my finger that i smashed is rather purple. And it still hurts.

I got pulled over today on the way to the site. 68 in a 55, in a construction zone, in a safety corridor. Oops. It was a LCPD LT, out of his juristiction, but still with the authority to write me the ticket. Good thing it was both someone i knew from when i worked out there, even better, he’s Amy’s uncle. Needless to say, i didnt get the ticket.

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3. November 2010 by [JP].

3am. Just got home. My Carlsbad site actually went pretty well. Especially since they have a snack bar. Mmm. Sites with snacks rock. Especially ones with soda fountains.

It was a LONG drive back, and I nearly ran out of gas (oops)

Hell, it was a long drive there.

Ugh. Susana Martinez won the governor race. There goes this state.

Yes, really. It CAN get worse.

I’m going to start looking for jobs in Colorado, Arizona, and central Texas. Very likely, when my lease is up, i’m leaving New Mexico. And no. I’m NOT going to move back to El Paso. Thats almost as bad.

Ok, I get to sleep in for a bit, as my Las Cruces site isnt until 3pm, and its only a 45 minute drive at the most.

I’m off to bed now.

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2. November 2010 by [JP].

Well, its just after 1am, and i barely made it back from Alamogordo.

My 3-7 site ran 3-10:30.

Ugh. Issues.

Not so ugh, extra money.

Drive home went fast, faster then usual i think.

I think I have the pay thing resolved. The mail chick is going to forward me the checks to wherever i am, i’m going to endorse the albuquerque tech’s check back to the company, cash it, and either wire him the money or deposit it directly to his account. I can give the El Paso tech his, since he’s coming with me on thursday.

Um. Not really much else to report here… just going to bed since i’ve got to be up and out early enough tomorrow.

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1. November 2010 by [JP].

-Note: November is journal writin’ month. One post every day.-

Well, its about 4am, and i’m wide awake as usual. Last minute reading over the instruction manual for my job site tomorrow. This week is going to be a week of hell. Working more hours in one week then i normally work in 2… of course, far less then the normal person actually works, but eh.

I’ve got 4 sites this week. Two in Las Cruces, one in Alamogordo, and one way the heck out there in Carlsbad. Alamo is tomorrow, and its scheduled at 3, but I intend on leaving El Paso by 11, so that I can eat lunch right before the site, and be early… not that I anticipate it going over the 4 scheduled hours.

Tuesday, I go to Carlsbad, and the site is scheduled for 4:30, so i’m leaving before 10am for that long drive. This also means i’ll be returning home well after dark over one of the highest mountain ranges in the region, passing by the highest peak in texas. (I’ve climbed that before, it was awesome) But, driving that road is dangerous during clear weather, and is going to downright suck at night, even with perfect weather. So tonight i was checking the truck, making sure all the lights work, especially the fogs and high beams.

Wednesday and Thursday will find me in Cruces, the small bookstore first, then the big one. I’ll have additional techs along Thursday in anticipation of a big job, although i’m not seeing any thing unusual in the paperwork for it.

Thursday night, I think i’m going to go out to the desert, burn some wood, have a drink or two under the stars, probably with Ramon, and anyone else who wants to tag along. I was sorta having the idea last week, but Friday night it was pretty much cemented in my mind, because i ran into some people having a bonfire out there, and it brought back all sorts of good memories of high school and college, and doing just that.

Also, this week should be payday… should have been last week… for some major sites that were done out here in EL Paso last month… There was a snafu with the site paperwork, totally my fault, and pay got delayed a week because of it. I’m rather pissed off about it, especially because this means my guys are getting their pay a week late, and it happened on my watch, but Trish pointed out theres nothing I could have done. Despite the fact that my paperwork was in early in the week, the project management people didnt process it until the following week, and didnt notify me of the error until wednesday AFTER it was due, causing me to scramble to get an audit tech into the site to get the info that was required, so I could forward it up there. This happened the day i was in the ER as well, and 300 miles away, so i’m glad I had an employee on call down in El Paso that i could count on to get the information required.

Speaking of site pay, I may go to t-mobile and pick up that new Motorola Defy with this paycheck.  While I love my HD2 running android, theres a few quirks that are keeping me from loving it as my primary phone. I’ve got a stable as hell build on there, and it’s going to get moved to my secondary line. Plus, as big as it is, its going to be nice to have a phone i can actually fit into a real holster and keep on my belt 24/7.

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25. October 2010 by [JP].

What to do when you go down.
Outages are a fact of life when you have an internet presence. Things can and will go down from time to time.
How you handle it makes the difference to your users.
The most important thing in an outage is COMMUNICATION.
Both initial communication, and ongoing communication are critical during a disruption in service.
Make sure you have other avenues of communicating with your customers, for example, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, wordpress blogs, are all places that you can publicly disseminate information, and they generally are hosted outside of your affected services.
Your initial posting should be short and to the point. Acknowledge that there is an issue, do not speculate on a repair time, only post facts, give suggestions for alternative contact methods if applicable.
After the initial communication, we suggest updates every 12 hours, generally one in the morning, one around close of business. Simply reassure your users that you are in fact working on the solution… not the problem, but the solution.
Updating more then twice a day is probably excessive, you dont want to overload people with redundant updates, and less then twice a day can give the impression that you are not putting forth enough effort to solve the outage.
Finally, one last notification when the system is back up and running, generally AFTER you test everything. Some people will notice that you’re back online, and will start using the system, and that gives you a good test run to check for lingering errors before announcing that you’re back to 100%.
As much as you want to, you should avoid placing blame on anyone, especially third parties. Most people dont care about the WHY, they just want it fixed. It is, however, appropriate to cite and recolonize people who worked hard in fixing the issue, in your final notification.

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