Being back in IT is one hell of a major shock to the system.

Firstly, for those of you still on the night shift, I can confirm that this strange enigma known as ‘daylight’ really does exist and there really is a great big ball of fire in the sky. This is apparently called the ‘sun’ and its one of the things responsible for continuing life on Earth. Apparently. :-)

After so long away from corporate IT, its a bit of a struggle to get back into it. The office I’m in has fluro lighting and theres no external windows nearby, so I’m hoping my migraines don’t come back to haunt me. If they do, I’ll probably spend a lot of time out in the hallway while I’m working. :-) At least then I can look down the hall to see the carpark behind the building. ;-)

So much to say…

I’m not so worried about working the daylights again. I’m sure I’ll adjust to it in time. What does have me apprehensive is working in IT again. More specifically, working in a Microsoft Windows house. 95% of the clients I’ve witnessed so far are using Windows 2003 Server. The majority of my work will be done via the internet using Terminal Services to resolve issues. This is not a bad thing. I could’ve had a role out on the road, but those of you that know me are pretty aware I’m not exactly comfortable out around people. Joys of being agoraphobic to an extent I guess.

I haven’t touched Windows in a professional sense since 2003. I haven’t touched it in an administration capacity since 2001. So this is really going to be a major surge for me. I’ve not used Win2k3 before, so I’m really jumping in the deep end here.

Brooke and Anouska are really supportive and talking about how I’m a fast learner and how I’ll pick it up really quickly. But I’m not so sure. I’ve spent much of my time watching 1′s and 0′s fly across wires. Never really been that interested in figuring out Windows.

One of the first things I did on the machine I’ll probably be using a lot of my time was install Mozilla Firefox and Redhat Cygwin. ;-) Sounds silly to most of you, but I can’t remember how to write batch files in Windows Command Shell. I haven’t used it in so long, I can’t even remember the syntax for the attrib command. :-P Whenever I go to list files in a directory, I use ‘ls’ instead of ‘dir’ and all sorts of other weird stuff.

I should probably learn PowerShell, but I doubt that’ll get much mindshare until Windows Longhorn Server 2008 goes live. Eventually. Powershell seems to have gotten a pretty quiet reception so far, even if it is probably one of the most useful and advantageous technologies Microsoft has released since Windows 2000 went on the market. I have it installed on my PC here at home, but I still use a bash shell running on top of Cygwin instead anyway. :-)

However, all of that is beside the point. For me, I feel like I’m back at square one. I have all this Unix/Linux knowledge, all this networking knowledge, and I’m jumping into the Windows market again. I’m back on the server queue at Microsoft Services all over again. That scares me.

Still, I need the money. I have commitments to fulfil and promises to keep. So I’ll do whatever it takes to keep those promises. Even if it means going back to IT work, something I swore I’d never do again.

Funny how when its all you know, you can’t avoid it. Although in this case, its nothing at all of what I know. ;-)

The people are pretty laid back so far. No major dramas on the first day. I have already heard “warnings” about some of the guys there, but I’m not going to take any notice of them. There is one guy I seem to clash with already. He doesn’t like my background being Unix/Linux/Security/Networks from what I can tell. But thats his problem I guess.

I am still totally apprehensive about it. I’m really not sure if I’m doing the right thing or not. A lot of people are putting a lot of trust in my ability to learn quickly, and thats a little frightening. I really don’t like it when people build up an expectation of me. I don’t like being talked up and I don’t like being noticed. That might sound silly to you, but its just the way I am. Partly because I often feel like I’m going to let people down when they talk me up.

Bah, forget it :-P

I’m honestly not entirely sure how this will work out. But its only a year or so if plans don’t change.

The best part about this job? Because its in Onehunga, I don’t have to travel on any motorways to get there. :-) And because I start work at 7am, I’m on the road by 6:30am so theres no traffic. And finishing at 4pm (theoretically) means that I miss much of the peak traffic heading home. :-)

After spending up to 90mins each way in peak traffic every day driving all the way out to Massey to spend a further 13 hours driving through the night, that makes a huge difference. :-)

The worst part? Thursday night, the guys will go on the road without me and some newbie kid who thinks too highly of himself will take my place on the patrols. Still, that seems to be the progression. Do your time walking the shop floors on static guard duty, then you’ll get a chance at the patrols. Thats the way its gone for at least 3 people in the company now.

Still, at least I’ll get to stick with them part time. I’ll be working some weekends for Arrow still. Thats not all bad I guess. ;-)

Now, if you’ll forgive me, I’m off to bed. Its nearly 9:30pm and I have to be up at 5:30am to get ready for work.