Diary of a stressed Network Manager.... Part 1

Actually, so far this week has been far from being stressful (which is a pleasant surprise).  We're two days in to the school summer holiday, and I've already managed to get most of what I wanted to do during the first week done and dusted.  OK, I've had to relocate my office to a classroom while my office gets decorated, but so far I have managed to setup and configure 3 servers (1x physical and 2 x virtual), and setup an image of a new PC, ready to be 'ghosted' to a suite of brand new Acer X2631G i5 computers.  And of course move my furniture back in to my usual office.

My office for the past 2 days while my office gets decorated.  Spot the most important piece of technology on my desk....  Yep, the fan!

Our new Microsoft Exchange Server (currently being set up).  Actually it's a host to two virtual servers (one that will host Exchange and another that will be a Domain Controller).

 

My office at 9:00am this morning

My office at 9:00am this morning (from the other direction!)

Still working on it, but this is how my office appeared by the end of the day.  Looking cosy!

 

New PC's ready to be imaged for deployment

My office for the past 2 days - soon to be an IT suite with very nice, shiny new computers.  Out students our sooooo lucky!!

 

Anyway, I really do hope that the rest of the summer holiday goes as smoothly as the first few days.  Wishful thinking?  We'll see.

Winter, hurry up!

I've got to say, I've been rather enjoying this summer weather over the past few days.  "What?  Stuart likes the summer?" I hear you say.  No, not the usual sunny, hot temperatures, but the rather impressive thunderstorms that we have been experiencing lately.

One thing I can not stand is when the press/news go on about the 'awful, wet weather', and that when the sun and hot temperatures come back, it's all "Glorious, lovely weather returns".  Wrong - Not everyone likes the hot, sunny weather.  Stop assuming that everyone likes blistering heat, and blinding sun.  I hate it in fact.  I suffer from severe hay fever, the heat and sun gives me terrible headaches, I sweat so much that I feel like I need to shower every ten minutes.  I cant sleep at night when it's still so humid, and I feel terribly uncomfortable all day long.  I hate it.  I can not understand the appeal of summer.  The sight of half naked men walking down the street, showing off their disgusting bodies (seriously girls, do you find that attractive?).  Being stuck in a queue right behind someone who has BO - I mean seriously, instead of buying several cans of lager, treat yourself to some deodrant, or soap!  Also, I can think of a thousand better places to be than on a overly crowded beach, surrounded by hot, sweaty, smelly people.  And is it just me, or do others also find beaches such dirty places, with litter and rubbish left by these so called sun worshippers?

AND don't get me started on men in flip flops and sandals.

So, it has been rather refreshing that this year we've had some spectacular thunderstorms, and quite a bit of rain to help cool the air.  OK, so the thunderstorm that we had yesterday caused a power cut at the school resulting in me having to pop in to work for an hour (on a Saturday), but hey - that's a small price to pay for such lovely weather.

So, for all you people out there who think hot sunny weather is the best - spare a thought for people like me (and I know there are many others like me) who suffer during this dreadful time of year.  The best weather is when it's cool and raining.  Bit of wind and snow is nice too - but definitely not the sun or heat.

Roll on the Winter, and bring a few more thunderstorms our way please!

IN OTHER NEWS....

After a sad final last day of term on Friday where I had to say goodbye to some wonderful work colleagues/friends who have decided to move on to new adventures elsewhere, the school summer holiday is finally upon me (where has the past year gone?), which means six weeks of stress and worry while I get both Evesham High School's and Simon de Montfort Middle School's networks merged in to one.  Not great when I'm having my office completely redecorated at the same time.

My office, as it currently looks - Who needs a desk?

 

One of our ICT Classrooms (DU1), currently being used as a storage room while my office is painted, and a new carpet placed down.

 

It's going to be difficult getting things done whilst the decorators are in, so I am really hoping that they'll be able to get it finished early this week so that I can start with the actual merge the following week.  That and setting up a new suite of computers AND a new Exchange Server.  This summer holiday is going to go down on record as being the most stressful ever.

If I make it to September without a coronary, I'll be amazed!

Stress, Worry, Anxiety, Oh My!

Yes I know....  I am a worrier.  I worry about everything, and stress about every single thing that goes on in my life.  It's not healthy, and I dread to think what it's doing to my heart and blood pressure, but hey ho...  What can I do.  I've tried all sorts of medication (even herbal ones), but ultimately my nerves always get the better of me.

With only one week left until the end of term and the start of the school summer holiday, this time of year is usually quite stress free, but I've had something on my mind now for the past few months...  something big that (truth be told) has been giving me a few headaches, and sleepness nights, and now it is nearly upon me - the dreaded network merge between Evesham High School and Simon de Montfort Middle School.  I think it's public knowledge now, but both schools are merging during the six week summer holiday to become an entirely new school called....  "The De Montfort School".  and my job is simple - join both school networks together so that they are both on one network. 

Sounds simple enough, and in all fairness it is.  We are in a fortunate position where both schools are next door to each other and we already have a fibre cable/gigabit connection linking both sites, so the infrastructure is all ready in place.  Once we configure a few network switches, we should be able to get SDM's servers and computers on to the High School's domain.  The problem is, my constant worrying that something may go wrong at the start of September, or if I've missed something in my project plans.  Unfortunately some of the work also needs to be completed by external contractors, so I'm worrying whether or not they can do their parts on time too.   It's really messing my head up, and on many occasions I've been asking myself whether this is really what I should be doing for a living.  It's not that I can't do the job - I can...  It's the constant worrying.  I suppose it comes with being a Manager, but I lack the ability to switch off after work too which doesn't help, and on many evenings I find myself using remote access to do some extra work on the servers from the comfort of my living room.  I even admit, I don't spend nearly as much time with my family as I should.

So, what is the point of this post I hear you ask?  Well, I've written down my feelings before in a notebook and it helped, so I figured why not write about them here on my blog.  It's not like I have many visitors to the blog, so I doubt anyone I know will read it anyway.  Even if they do, there's nothing new here - everyone who knows me knows I'm a worrier.

Maybe I might get a visitor who managed to control their stress and who can perhaps give me some hints/tips.

Just don't tell someone who suffers from stress and anxiety to not worry.  If they could, they would!

Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon.

 

Well it's been some time, but I've decided now is as good a time as any to give the "mother page" a brand new facelift.  Don't expect anything too flash as I don't really update the website that often.  I really should as I have many more photographs and music to add to it.

 

Oh well... maybe one day I will - when life becomes less stressy, which by my calculations will be in about another 10059 days, 5 hours and 50 odd minutes, (assuming our crap government doesn't decide to 'up' the retirement age any more).

 

Anyway, if you fancy having a gander, feel free to head over to www.stu-wilson.com

 

101 things that are better to do than watching football - Number 1

It's the time again when the poxy World Cup dominates every form of media available and people like me (who can not stand foodball) find it increasingly hard to avoid seeing any reference to the bore-fest that is the World Cup.  Whether it's turning on the TV or radio, going on to the internet, walking past a poster on the streets, we will all be reminded every single day that it's that time when a bunch of grown men pretend to be children in a playground, kicking a silly ball around.

So, for the first time ever I have a produced a video which I want you to share.  Get your friends to share it.  Get your family to share it.  Get your work colleagues to share it.  Hey, if your pet has a Facebook page, get them to share it too!

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152162997448097&l=7267241332003267292

 

Yes....  Watching a kettle boil is more interesting to watch that the World Cup.

 

I imagine this whole 'sharing video' malarkey will end up failing miserably with only a few shares, but hey....  Why not!

 

Now sit back and enjoy the boiling.  (By the way, it was a lovely cup of tea).

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 26 - The Sign (Ace of Base)

Oh my, it's been just over a year since my last "Song that reminds me of my childhood".   To make up for it, here's one that some may argue was not a song from my childhood at all.  Here's "The Sign" from Ace of Base.

I've always said that my childhood pretty much ended the day I walked out of my secondary school on Friday, June the 25th 1993 but I'm going to stretch it a little here because this song came out in October of that same year, and will forever be imprinted in my memory due to the constant air time it had on the local radio station (Essex FM) when I was doing my work experience at the Echo newspaper during my brief time at Basildon College in 1994. 

Now for me, the 90's wasn't really a great decade.  Sure, it had a few good things going for it, but for me music wasn't one of them.  During the early 90s, my interest in music was pretty much non-existent apart from listening to Erasure, Jean Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield.  I suppose this song, and The Beloved's Sweet Harmony are the two songs that really define my musical tastes from those early years of a decade that to me will always be fondly remembered by me for playing my Amiga 500, getting my head around playing Magic (some card game) with my friend Dan, ogling over Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax in Star Trek Deep Space Nine) and watching Noel's House Party on a Saturday evening.

Anyway, on a separate note - I do really hope to update my blog with more posts over the next couple of weeks.  Work has been considerably busy and stressful and has pretty much taken over my life.  I'm literally living and breathing servers, and computers to the point where I'm even losing sleep!  Yes I know it's not healthy, but what can I do....  It pays the bills!!!   The good news is that this time of year is usually a quiet time for us in the IT department at EHS (most of the students are either on study leave for their exams, or have left), so hopefully things will calm down for me so that I can get myself sorted again in time for the mass of work we'll be doing to the school network over the summer holiday. 

Onwards and upwards, and don't forget you can check out my other "Songs that remind me of my childhood" by clicking here.