so what have I missed in the last 15 years?

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Thu Mar 29, 2018 9:18 pm

uh so its been a while since I have been on (I think last time was 2005 or 06?). Any old timers still around? I remember minir passing away a while back and brent got banned and was doing reviews with HARD OCP i think....

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Fri Mar 30, 2018 9:43 am

Hey Roy, Good to hear from you!
Not too much in the GDB, however the tech forums are doing well.
How have you been? Drop by more often! (Do you ever talk to Battleship anymore? If you do, tell him to stop by!)
Ken

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:50 am

Ken wrote:Hey Roy, Good to hear from you!
Not too much in the GDB, however the tech forums are doing well.
How have you been? Drop by more often! (Do you ever talk to Battleship anymore? If you do, tell him to stop by!)
Ken

I lost touch with battleship a while back. Tried reconnecting back around christmas 2007 but my eldest daughter had to be admitted to the hospital with a fevor of over 106F (she was 6 months at the time) so I lost touch again.

Things have been good but very busy. Married over 10 years with 3 daughters that keeps me busy. Eldest daughter will be eleven in june (going on 30) and is already up to my sholders (I am just under 6 feet). Been doing 10 years of shift work in a gov data center with the usual BS politics, but pay is good, position is stable and I avoid traffic. Starting to get that itch though.

Got a jeep wrangler unlimited sport back in 2014 (just before they got super popular and really expensive). Been tinkering with it.

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:45 pm

nightowl wrote:uAny old timers still around?

I'm pregnant again.

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 5:32 pm

Butt my post count has improved!!!!!

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 5:34 pm

nightowl wrote:Been doing 10 years of shift work in a gov data center with the usual BS politics.

Yes. I know. GS- 9/11/12?

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:52 pm

MadDoctor wrote:Butt my post count has improved!!!!!

LMAO some things never change!!!

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:54 pm

Post by **Philip** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 10:24 pm

Hi Roy! Really good to see you around

Woa, 11yo daughter, time flies.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Sat Mar 31, 2018 10:33 pm

Good to see you nightowl. Hope you're well.

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Sun Apr 01, 2018 6:27 pm

Philip wrote:Hi Roy! Really good to see you around

Woa, 11yo daughter, time flies.

plus 2 younger ones...i'm screwed

Post by **Philip** » Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:40 pm

Family planning = the art of spacing your children apart enough to keep you teetering on the edge of financial disaster

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Mon Apr 02, 2018 8:09 pm

Family planning = the art of spacing your children apart enough to keep you teetering on the edge of financial disaster

Being self-employed has its advantages. I raised 3 kids, all grown now. With each kid came new increased rates for the work I do!

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:02 pm

nightowl wrote: Eldest daughter will be eleven in june (going on 30) and is already up to my sholders (I am just under 6 feet). Been doing 10 years of shift work in a gov data center with the usual BS politics, but pay is good, position is stable and I avoid traffic. Starting to get that itch though.

Heya!

Daughter at 11...so you can still enjoy good times, once they're getting into mid teens...oh boy...the ulcers begin!

Gov't data center....sounds cool. If not potentially monotonous...at least should be decent pay and great bennies.
Still doing IT myself...dunno what I was doing last time you were here, but we have a little LLC we started about 17 years ago, up to 5 of us know and darned close to hiring a 6th. We provide IT consulting/services for SMBs.
Trying to focus on wireless work...aside from the usual indoor stuff...doing outdoor wireless, both outdoor wifi like marinas and campgrounds, and long distance wireless for point to points...deliver bandwidth where broadband can't get to. Getting tired just the usual computer stuff..with all these compliance/security related things hitting so many business categories.

Looking to start relocating to west coast Florida
Other idle time spent picking up older Harley models..fixing 'em up, sell, and find another project. So tend to go through a Harley about once every 3 years.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 3:33 pm

Still testing destroyers (25 years) just got back from Sea Trials DDG-116 USS Thomas Hudner. We got off all ordnance! Very successful trial.

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 8:30 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Heya!

Daughter at 11...so you can still enjoy good times, once they're getting into mid teens...oh boy...the ulcers begin!

Gov't data center....sounds cool. If not potentially monotonous...at least should be decent pay and great bennies.
Still doing IT myself...dunno what I was doing last time you were here, but we have a little LLC we started about 17 years ago, up to 5 of us know and darned close to hiring a 6th. We provide IT consulting/services for SMBs.
Trying to focus on wireless work...aside from the usual indoor stuff...doing outdoor wireless, both outdoor wifi like marinas and campgrounds, and long distance wireless for point to points...deliver bandwidth where broadband can't get to. Getting tired just the usual computer stuff..with all these compliance/security related things hitting so many business categories.

Looking to start relocating to west coast Florida
Other idle time spent picking up older Harley models..fixing 'em up, sell, and find another project. So tend to go through a Harley about once every 3 years.

I was doing private IT stuff until a couple of years back. Had to get out of it because my primary job was taking too much time. Dont know if you know whats going on in canada but they started a new government department called Shared Services Canada about 5 years back. Now this was supposed to take over all IT for governments departments and move all the servers to data centers. Good in theory. It has been a complete disaster. The previous government started this and had the goal to "save money". As a result they froze all government IT staffing and budgets and did not put any money into the existing IT infrastructure while trying to set up the new one. They even tried to get rid of our data center until they realized how big and what we handle (it would cost 300 million). They also removed the clause of being in a position for 3 years before moving on. As a result of all this we are down to 2-3 people per crew (used to have 6). There are only 3 seniors on shift. one is off, wife just had a kid and the other is very close to retirement.

Other big issue is they decided to merge all the government pay systems into one called Pheonix. So again because it was a political, they moved all the pay centers to a small town in quebec with a totally new untested system then fired all they senior pay advisers across canada and permanently shut down the old systems. As a result of this 7 out of 10 pubic servants have a pay problem (over payments/ under payments or not getting payed). I was lucky my organization did not switch over to this new pay system, but came close. All the new guys however are on it. One guy was being payed as a student for 2 years even though he was permanent.

the straw that almost broke the camels back is we got a new network manager that came down from help desk three months ago. Great at doing the manager stuff (although has made some questionable decisions), but has no idea how to do anything on the floor. Found out last month he his heading out to Quebec city (his wife and kids are there). wanted someone to act in his position while he was gone. I have been picking up the slack these last couple of years, so i decided to step up officially (10 years experience on OPS and 3 on network). He ended up choosing his buddy he brought down from helpdesk that has only 3 months of training. I have seen this happen with the wife. Short staffed so they don't want to per-mote and rather bring somebody from outside which makes it worse in the long run. Wife had to quit for 3 weeks then came back in as a shift supervisor at another store. Also found out I lost my co-worker I had been training for the last couple of months. He is covering alone for the guy who is off due to the birth of his daughter. They also forgot I took last sunday afternoon off for Easter dinner. Had to come in at 5am (shift starts at 6:30) so the other guy could come in early to re -leave me. I got an email from the supervisor that is directly in charge of me saying he is extremely appreciative of all the extra work I do. I think he is worried I am going to leave. I don't blame him.

So I think I have some major career decisions to make. I am leaning towards taking it easy ( i will have over 450 hours of vacation this year built up). I have made some inquiries and all sections are desperate for people. prob is if shift I leave it would be a pay demotion....

Rainbow · Post by **Rainbow** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:07 pm

Wow this looks like a reunion thread!

Post by **Philip** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:37 am

Rainbow, good to see you around

Roy, there should be other promotion opportunities, sounds like a big operation and you have the experience. You can maybe shake things up a bit and make some noise if you are not easily replaceable, you just have to try and be objective and carefully assess your situation, government work usually pays well.

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 3:10 pm

nightowl wrote:...they decided to merge all the government pay systems into one called Phoenix.

Check.

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 4:34 pm

Philip wrote:Rainbow, good to see you around

Roy, there should be other promotion opportunities, sounds like a big operation and you have the experience. You can maybe shake things up a bit and make some noise if you are not easily replaceable, you just have to try and be objective and carefully assess your situation, government work usually pays well.

taps nose

Rainbow · Post by **Rainbow** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:01 pm

Philip wrote:Rainbow, good to see you around

Roy, there should be other promotion opportunities, sounds like a big operation and you have the experience. You can maybe shake things up a bit and make some noise if you are not easily replaceable, you just have to try and be objective and carefully assess your situation, government work usually pays well.

Thanks! Hello to everyone

Is my old buddy Dan still around?

Post by **Philip** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:50 am

He stops once in a blue moon, haven't seen him in about a month I think.

Leatherneck · Post by **Leatherneck** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 10:05 am

Howdy!

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:32 pm

Philip wrote:Rainbow, good to see you around

Roy, there should be other promotion opportunities, sounds like a big operation and you have the experience. You can maybe shake things up a bit and make some noise if you are not easily replaceable, you just have to try and be objective and carefully assess your situation, government work usually pays well.

been making noise for a while. unfortunatly being in canada and not being french(bilingual) really limits promotional oportunities in the government. Again its not the work, the the bosses/support. Will see. Hoping to do a big trip out to vancouver island and visite the wifes family at the end of the summer so i'll probably stay where I am right now unless things go really south.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:05 am

I don't think I'm banned?

Nope, I'm not.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 3:42 pm

Brent wrote:I don't think I'm banned?

Nope, I'm not.

Holy crap, Hi Brent. Long time no see.

Post by **Philip** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 9:27 pm

Ha, Brent!!!
What's going on dude, it's been ages?

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Thu Apr 19, 2018 3:04 am

Brent wrote:I don't think I'm banned?

Nope, I'm not.

Brent!!! what have you been up to? You still doing hardware reviews over at Hard OCP?