Author: admin

No one is probably more glad to see 2002 come to a close. While there were some good things that happened last year, it was more than outweighed by so much kaos that it was so much easier to write it off and set my sights on 2003. So far, this year is going better. I can tell you that I am forever grateful for my mom and her support (both emotional and financial). Thanks to her, Christmas worked out great and I was able to spend some time with her. As far as business goes, it’s going good, just slow. Need more clients to see my financial mess get cleaned up. But no complaints as I’ve got 5 other friends in the IT industry that are out of work and have very little to no options for money coming in. I named my company Penguin Bytes (not really geared towards the Linux OS, but I do support it). The name is more along the lines of my love for penguins (ChillyWilly should make that obvious). I am also working with a friend of mine who has a company – Aitrus Telcom. If it works, I’ll transition my clients to Aitrus and then keep Penguin Bytes for misc. jobs and for starting my writing career. More updates later. thanks for reading my rumblings.

So, it’s time for an update. Didn’t get the customer service job. Was hoping for it, but pretty much knew that it was too hard to hide 17 years of IT and network administration experience. Did get another client this last week.. Same way I got my first…. they had the the same consultant who wasn’t returning 10 days worth of calls. So, it’s time to finally admit the economy for IT people sucks ass and take advantage of the computer needs that companies still have. Three more clients and I can see the reality of starting to make it. Sure would be nice. It was pretty embarrasing at the store with my 6 one dollar bills and 3 bucks in change and was still $0.41 cents short. But a nice cashier at the Murray Smith’s gorcery store (thanks Sandy… I don’t know you, but I owe you for your kindness) made the night better. If you are reading this, sorry about all the shit I talk about in my life. It’s not been pretty lately and it’s pretty much all that goes on in my life. But once I get ahold of things, my ramblings here will be more exciting to read. Just bear with me and put up with my boring ass shit tales.

Don’t think I mentioned it here or not, but she had some issues this past year. Her mom and I took her to meet with some counselors (visions of my childhood flashed often) and she just finished this week. It helped a lot as she is doing better in school and is spending more time with me lately. Nice early Christmas gift for dad. In return, she wants a GameCube, although she understands about my money and job issues. But, I’ll see what I can do to make it a good Christmas for her. Don’t suppose they sell GameCubes at the Chevron (one of my credit cards still works… ). Just wanted to update on my special girl. Laters.

Yeah, yeah. It’s been a while (about 3 weeks) since I last posted anything here. Trust me, it was for a good reason. My clients I’ve been working have kept me busy. One got a great deal on a used computer, which I installed for them. Viruses were abound, which got cleaned up. And one added an in-house email server. And I’ve got quotes for two of my clients to help install DSL for them. So, busy is good. And some money helped, too… even if all of it went right away to pay my bills. It was good to work. Still got money problems. Applied for an $8.50 /hr customer service job, which I hope I get. Even something at this point will help. And fighting with a client in Las Vegas to get some money owed to me has been a small challenge. My friend used to work there, but got laid off for dumb ass reasons…. (read: hurting for money, couldn’t be honest enough to admit it). And now the few hundred I’m owed is in limbo (read: being jerked around). Done bitching about my money problems. Posting another update tomorrow.

Ok, it’s been a few days. But nothing to report on until today. Yesterday, called one of my regular clients to see how things were going. He tells me, “so you got my email ok?” I asked him what email (it had been almost an hour since I checked it) and he tells me that he had some computer and server needs. Kinda cool, in a weird way… but I’ll take it. So that’s a bit more cash that I needed (and there are more things that need to be done once Qwest gets stuff done on their DNS). Still waiting for a couple of small checks from a client in Las Vegas. So each day, Wells Fargo gets hits from me, seeing where my balance is. So far, it’s not been too bad. But being no-cash poor is bad. My Chevron card is getting a work out in milk, bread, soda and gas for the car. Thank god they raised my limit. But I know someday soon, that’s a card that’s going to need a break and a pay off. We’ll cross that bridge when I get there. The ego boost from last Friday’s interview lasted a few days…. it was nice while it lasted. I need more!! So far, no searching finds my web site. Maybe someday soon. For now, my searches turn up all of the stuff I did years ago. Nice to find that out there, but I need the current stuff to show up…. like my Web-begging site. So far, no bites or hits. Someday soon.

The bills never stop coming, but that’s my daily story. The few positives that did happen yesterday and today were good. On thurs, I talked to a very good friend who is very close to me. She went through about 7 months of no job and it took a toll on her self-esteem and her social abilities. But just last week, she got a job and is starting on her path back to normal human life. It was good to know she went through the same shit I went through. Being able to relate to someone I am close with helped a lot. And today, I had that job interview in Salt Lake. It was good and I thought I did well. And being one of 6, it still makes me nervous, but just talking about my work experience was good. My main forte is MS Exchange (both 5.5 and 2000) of which I’ve managed for several companies, both large and small. This company has 120 desktops, so it’s not a huge environment, but at least they truely focused on my technical skills. So we’ll see what happens with this one. Still no hits on the web site, but I imagine that’s going to take time. For now, it’s finding more CDs and DVDs I don’t need anymore and getting a few bucks for each one. It’s not much, but it adds up.

After a pretty harsh two weeks with no bites, one bite came back today. And it was one that I expected to brush me off. Back in late June, I emailed my resume for a position for a LAN Admin here in Salt Lake. About 3 weeks ago, I got a call from the HR person and she said they received over 1,100 resumes for this one position! (yeah, “Holy Shit!” was my same response, although it’s somewhat the norm for some coveted positions). So after being told they would get back with those of the 24 resumes they picked through, they would call back the 6 they narrowed it down to. So it turns out that I made the cut! WhooHOO!! It helped make the rest of this empty day better than I expected it to be. While I’m not betting the whole basket of eggs on this one, I am hopful that something will happen. I’ll keep things updated. On my home page, so far nothing on the search engines. I’m hoping that people will see my page and want to part with a few George Washinton’s or more.