Good News

As most of you know, I was let go from NEGT on March 4th. Though I've enjoyed the mandatory vacation, the idea of employment was starting to sound pretty good.

Well, I just tonight accepted an offer from Nextel as an IT Support Specialist III. I start April 11 at their Herndon, VA campus. Basically, a first-tier support on the application level, monitoring UNIX server apps. It will be shift work at first, the first 3-4 months earning my "stripes" so to speak. I'm a contractor initially, but if they still want me after the 3-4 months then they will hire me full-time and I move into one of several level two or three tier positions, meaning more responsibility and different areas of responsibility.

This will be a bit of a change, not only the shift work but transitioning from a jack-of-all-trades into an application specialist, but it should be fun and challenging.

Not sure what my work email will be, but as always you can reach me at my home email.

Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers!

Speed upgrade! YEAH BABY!!!!

I've noticed some work by Verizon techs lately on the junction boxes nearby. As you may know, we have VZ DSL, at 768/128 (refer to earlier posts on speeds). After reading a post on the forums of BroadbandReports.com regarding speed increases, I decided to roll the dice and see what the fine folk at billing might say. The results are in:

2005-03-23 23:41:31 EST: 1391 / 359
Your download speed : 1424695 bps, or 1391 kbps.
A 173.9 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 368552 bps, or 359 kbps.

Which is pretty darn consistent with the 1.5/368 upgrade promised by COB today. Major, major w00tage.

Let the fragging begin...

(OK, so my game will still most likely suck, but hey I'll take any advantage I can get.)

Oh, and BTW, Xfire came out with nifty new miniprofile styles and sizes:

I miss your help son

An old man lived alone in Idaho. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, Bubba, who used to help him, was in prison.

The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Bubba,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.
Love Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
For heaven's sake, dad, don't dig up that garden, that's where I buried the BODIES.
Love Bubba

At 4A.M. the next morning, F.B.I. agents and local police showed up and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love Bubba

Unemployment Update

Well, the update is... yep, still unemployed. Working on it tho. Contacted my interview from last week, they're still considering me but I am in the running. Should know next week. Also replied back to another contact about a job as a data center supervisor that looked REALLY cool. And there's a listing on fbijobs.com in DC that I need to apply for, just takes a little time to get my KSA's together.

So far I've repainted the bedroom (re-did primer on all walls to cover up the pink, and painted three of them multicolored-green with the wooly roller, haven't done behind the bed yet) and finished the bathroom with the same mint green as the other half. I need to work soon so I can get some rest.

Got a LAN party tomorrow at Rob Willis' house, might be the last we play with him for awhile since he's off to start his new career in Vegas as a Mentalist. Best of luck to ya man, I admire you for pursuing your dreams. I could never pick up my family and do something like that, but I'm not the gambling type.

OK, and as I'm sitting here blogging, my youngest is watching The Book of Pooh on Disney (the one with the puppets) and they are jamming to some R&B. That's just disturbing. Some images of my childhood should not be desecrated in such a way. LOL

Well, that's all for now. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Last day at NEGT tomorrow.

Then he said, "That is that."
And then he was gone
With a tip of his hat.

Hi Cassie!

Welcome to my first actual reader of this blog (at least the first to leave any comments) - my lovely niece Cassie! I'd give a reciprocal link to her blog, but I don't have the URL. Cass, feel free to leave it in the comments. And thanks for reading!

:-)