Author: Daniel

Partial credit is being issued today. I spent most of the day feeling ill and the resulting work and effort kind of reflected that. I should be better about that, but I’m a simple creature sometimes. Just like I don’t regret staying home yesterday, I don’t regret going in today. I was far more capable, but it just didn’t amount to much. I could’ve accomplished an equivalent amount in probably two hours any other day.

One of the odd things I’m wrestling with is a note that came out in my first evaluation. I need to delegate more, more managing of the work and employees and less technical involvement. That’s a totally reasonable request, but it’s a tough transition. In the last gig, I was doing most of the technical work at this tier, most of the time. At the same time, I resented not getting some assistance, though honestly most of the time there wasn’t anyone else available that was capable of doing the work. Now I’ve got guys that can do the work, but I don’t want to bother them with it. I’d rather keep them fresh and relaxed for those times where I need 100% out of them. I’m fine with taking on the intervening stuff myself. But that’s counter to the direction I’m being asked to go.

It’s part of that professional transition that I summarized as “making it.” Now that I’ve got a pretty good idea of how everything here works, I need to step back and let the sysadmins work. My focus needs to be in keeping track of all the work they’ve been tasked with, triaging the severity thereof, and letting them know what should get worked on at what time, and that’s the primary responsibility. The secondary responsibility is being the “Tier … (More) “Prorated”

Closing out the week is less arduous than it felt last time around. I feel more fresh than last week, despite (or, because of?) more booze being drank this week than last. I did get a full 8 hours of sleep last night, and I’ve gotta say, I’m at a point in my life where I really appreciate sleep. It’s the best.

Today I get my first evaluation from my boss. The timing is pretty good, Nutanix is ready for production as of yesterday and that’s one of my deliverables for the year. There is one more interim evaluation some time in July or August and then the final evaluation in November. I feel like this could put me in a great mood for the weekend, if nothing else. I want to be told I’m on the right track so far. I think that might just happen.

I finished reading Time Management for System Administrators yesterday on the train, hence the no new articles. All in all, I’m not terribly impressed. I thought it was going to be a GTD clone, but it doesn’t do any of the things GTD does as effectively. It boils down to “capture everything, and make a new schedule every day with all the stuff you have to do, then prioritize each item and estimate how long it will take.” The problem with the second half of that is that it doesn’t solve the problem the book set out to do. Limoncelli mentions “The list of doom,” which is a book where you write your tasks in and cross them out when they’re done, and eventually you end up with open issues scattered throughout the book. So instead, you’re to build the list up every day, rewriting the same junk every morning until it’s completed. … (More) “I perform better while drinking out of a coconut.”

So we actually decided “drink more” had some merit. I’m pretty sure I still smell like Texas Roadhouse, but it was a bit of necessary food and booze therapy.

There’s something highly important about a big, sincere laugh. There’s some sort of biochemical thing happening that is needed to re-center yourself. I think so, anyway. And this is not connected to the overly-sappy “Live, Laugh, Love” thing that’s overdone by people that “hate drama.”

Despite a hangover, I feel better than I did the day before, like a clock has been reset, a deadline pushed back just a little bit. It leaves me feeling like I’ll be more able to enjoy Friday and the weekend rather than stagger into it gasping for air.

Nonetheless, I should’ve hydrated a bit better. Oof.

I’ve been feeling like I should switch up my projects on the train, like I should get back into web development. Honestly though, there’s not much I really feel like doing right now. I think it might be more of a general purpose skill improvement I want, to be a better professional. I do have some new books to finish, and the Surface is powerful enough to virtualize a test lab. I have videos to watch, I have a lot of options. I think it might be a desire to not have some skills go stale for lack of use. Web development would be up there, C# and PowerShell are a duo I need to spend more time committing to memory.

If you don’t mind, I’m going to read for a little bit.… (More) “137/240”

It felt like a day for action. No reason not to get stuff done today. Turns out, we spent the day waiting on Nutanix to hit us with a fix for our license. They finally delivered 5 minutes before 5:00.

It turned into a day of meetings and planning. Not really what I was going for, but so it goes.

I did take the 9:00 train in to work because last night was one of the most historic nights in NBA history, saying goodbye to an all-timer and closing out a season for the ages. Sports historians will look back on the Warriors offense and conclude that Steph Curry facilitated a style of play as much as any one player has ever done so, outside of Shaq and Wilt.

I spent the morning ride collating and organizing data from a couple of surveys I did at the start of the season. Over/unders for wins and aggregated power rankings. Plenty of people will say the Bulls had the most disappointing season this year, but by the numbers, it’s the Pelicans by a huge margin. They ended up 17.5 games below their Vegas projection. The overachiever was, of course, Portland, at 17.5 games above their projection. And let’s be honest, they have the Clippers in the first round and I wouldn’t laugh you out of the room for saying Portland has a chance to win that series. C.J. McCollum has been a revelation, Damian Lillard is in the conversation for 3rd team All NBA, and the whole team is generally punching above their weight. Just the same, I really liked the makeup of last year’s team, it seemed like such a good blend of people with Batum, Lopez, Matthews, Lillard and Aldridge.

The Spurs ended up with the least lauded 67-win season … (More) “122/240”