A podcast, Small Time SysAdmin. An interview series with people who wear multiple hats, like Marco Arment of Instapaper, who are responsible for systems administration on top of their primary job. Questions would include: What do you do / how do you describe what you do? Windows, Mac or Linux shop? What is th most [...]
A co-workers car in the parking lot has the vanity plate “FLYIN AMA”. For years, I thought that it stood for “Flying Against Medical Advice”, but during a retreat, the co-worker explained that “AMA” was not an acronym, but the outrigger on an outrigger canoe. “A skilled crew can balance the [canoe body] so that [...]
I have an amazing wife. I’ll tell you why, because on Mother’s Day weekend, she let me hang out at the Crossfit gym and go through the Level 1 Certification process. The reason why she let me do it, apart from how awesome she is, is because I am going to a Crossfit Kids coach [...]
At work, my manager has to come up with a new paragraph to describe what his section of IT, Systems Administration and Database Operations, does for the website. Below is my contribution. Sung to the tune of Ice Ice Baby Systems and Database Operations will stop Collaborate and listen Work with you on your brand [...]
Keep your phone turned on at all times of the day. Allow the rings, beeps, and buzzes to interrupt your child midsentence; always let the caller take priority. Carry your phone around so much that when you happen to leave it in one room your child will come running with it proudly in hand—treating it [...]
Increasingly I am finding myself powering the phone down when I get home from work. Not “silent mode.” Not “airplane mode.” Off. Disconnected. It reminds me of “taking the phone off the hook,” like they did in those good ‘ol landline days… except now it’s like taking the whole world off the hook.
I was in the doctor’s office with zero cell signal, so I was forced to read some dead-tree media. I picked up Entertainment Weekly issue 1203, the Summer Movie preview edition, not my normal reading fair and started thumbing through it. I found some summer blockbuster movies that I wanted to see, but the article [...]
In getting ready for the GORUCK Challenge, a great cause came along. Below is the email I sent: You may have heard that I am going to try and complete the GORUCK Challenge in Virginia Beach on April 28th at 10PM. If I haven’t told you about the GORUCK, let me give you the elevator [...]
It was 10 PM and I was cold standing in front of the Neptune Statue in Virginia Beach. I wasn’t as cold as Esther, who forgot to bring a jacket, but I was cold and it was windy. We were standing with the people who would become GORUCK Challenge Class 157. Some people I had [...]