Author: Karel Kerezman

  • Neverending Crazy

    It’s time for another round of “Yay! And Boo!,” courtesy of the insanity that makes up my existence…

    Yay! Not only did I enjoy a truly splendid weekend with my secondary girlfriend, but my primary girlfriend is in town again for a few days (to engage in further jobhunting activity, of course).
    Boo! The webserver crashed again, and again, and again. I have no idea anymore what’s causing this. Argh. I need to see if Infinity Internet can put more RAM in the godsforsaken machine…
    Yay! I called the “Unenjoyment” folks this morning and learned that my benefits will (finally!) start coming through, probably this week.
    Boo! My bank double-dinged me for the rent check I wrote last week.
    Yay! I learned this while within a few blocks of the downtown branch, so I was able to quickly start the process of getting that second charge reversed. (I am so very glad that I had the presence of mind to investigate the odd tally on my ATM receipt then and there, instead of adopting a “wait and see” approach.)
    Boo! It may be 72 hours before I get my money back.

    Of course, there’s also the overarching Boo! Hiss! of failing (despite daily efforts) to become employed (or even to land an interview, dammit), but I try not to stress about that more than, oh, six or seven waking hours out of any given day…

  • Still Looking. Still Terrified.

    Today I sent out another batch of resumes, cover letters and email missives. I also posted my resume to Craigslist, something that I should’ve thought of myself but instead needed Mari to remind me about. Ah well.

    Contrast Friday’s phone-call-o-rama (seriously, I’ve never taken so many calls in a single day) to today’s… utter silence. Nothing from the gal who called as we were heading into the coast range foothills (at 4pm on a Friday, no less… “Can you call me back on Monday, please?”), nor from the outfit I’ve been in regular contact with for the last few working days, nor from any of the other people I’ve tried to get attention from in the last two weeks.

    It’s enough to make a guy lose sleep. I don’t have time for this, dammit.

    On a side note, pictures from the coast trip are online. I suspect I’ll be cranking out an entry or two, in the days (or weeks) to come, providing amusing anecdotal detail to Lil’s excellent (and quite comprehensive) write-up of the weekend.

    Happy Monday to you. I hope yours was more productive and rewarding than mine…

  • My final birthday present for the year.

    The twice-delayed coast trip weekend is upon us, and by “us” I mean “Lil’ and I.” We’re heading out this morning and will return… some time Sunday. I’ll make sure to come back with pictures and stories.

    Some of them I’ll even be able to share with my readers. Heh.

    Have a good weekend, friends!

  • Your Bad, Geeky Pun For Today

    A little bit of geek humor to make your day complete:

    “May the 4th be with you.”

    Go on. You know you want to use this yourself at some point today, don’t you? Don’t you?

  • Please. Hire me!

    To Whom It May Concern:

    Perhaps your company or similar organization requires someone of considerable skill with computer technology. I humbly submit that if your needs are either strongly in the area of workgroup server administration, email administration, end-user desktop support, webserver administration or just plain “anything with a keyboard and mouse attached,” and you’re located in the City of Roses or thereabouts, I’m the guy you’re looking for.

    I spent nine solid years learning what it takes to keep servers and workstations running for an office of a couple hundred souls, as well as how to keep those souls in tune with their computers. I also consider myself quite wise to the needs of business, and tend to take the long and wide view of the process of change.

    Here I present just a few of many highlights from my previous work engagement as a one-man IT department for most of a decade:

    • Planned, tested and implemented company-wide in-house audio streaming system that has seen steady use for several years with very little downtime or maintenance.
    • Converted wholesale three entire email systems, one after another as we acquired other companies, to the corporate WAN-based email operation.
    • Served as hostmaster for the company’s banner website, rapidly providing an urgently needed solution followed by many years of solid performance and availability.
    • Implemented security, process and documentation changes bringing systems up to Sarbanes/Oxley compliance.
    • Developed web-based documentation and information dissemination system in cooperation with the General Managers’ staff.
    • Successfully rolled out web browser software changes that led to a near-total elimination of adware, spyware and other malicious bits of code from end-user desktops over the course of a mere few months.
    • Created numerous small quality-of-life features that, while not taking an inordinate amount of time to develop, scratched the itches of several high-profile groups within the company.
    • Provided valuable specialized knowledge (such as in the areas of web development and Linux operating system arcana) to branches outside the local operation as well as to the corporate office itself.

    My specific product experience is with a mixture of Novell’s Netware server and GroupWise email products, several flavors of Linux including Debian, RedHat/Fedora and Ubuntu, Symantec’s Corporate Edition anti-virus products, Windows 2000 Server, the Apache webserver platform including MySQL and PHP, and providing Windows desktop support over the usual variety of versions from 95 through XP. When you get right down to it, there’s very little I can’t learn in a reasonably short time, and I have a knack for “making it work” when things are going strange.

    If you think I might be a good fit for your organization, or if you just want to find out if I’m really as good as I like to think I am, please take a moment to pen a quick email addressed to “greyduck” at “gmail.com” and I’ll answer any questions or place any call or meet any time you like. (I apologize for the lack of clickable or copy-and-paste-able address, but one can’t be too careful about junk email these days, can one?)

    To you, prospective employer, and to all of my readers, I offer thanks for your time and indulgence, and I bid you a good day.

  • Weekend Bits O’ Random

    Here are some tidbits of life, geekery and what-not:

    • I may, in fact, have been able to salvage the images from the old gallery after all. (First I thought I had them, then I figured I’d lost them, now I think I have them again. We’ll see…)
    • On top of being unemployed, rent is going up. Whee. As a side note, I have about a month of money left. Also, whee.
    • The kids came over today, and we took the opportunity to introduce Kylanath to Settlers of Catan. She had herself a fine, fine streak of Beginner’s Luck Skill and won herself the game. Go figure. (Mind you, the kids both were one point away from winning when the end came. Go, kids!)
    • It’s possible that the firewall trick I used to potentially prevent brute-force login attacks on this webserver is responsible for the server’s periodic unavailability this past week. I’m going to try another technique and see what happens.
    • The job opportunity I really had my hopes up for seems to have dried up completely. That’s a damned shame, really, ’cause I wanted that job badly, and not just because, you know, I’m freaking out about finances. Grr.
    • I’m hanging in there. Barely sometimes, though.

    I could really, really stand for something good to happen. You know, just for the variety.