/\/\/ A Day in the Life \/\/\

Midstar's "main" office is there in Sandusky just behind the Great Wolf Lodge. I spent Monday and Tuesday there for work. Incidentally the quarry people(mmmmm sulfur) are just across the street, and when they are blasting it shakes the office. My time there was spent getting some Hardware together for me, going through the Employee Handbook and filling out my new hire paperwork. I spent a small amount of time with Rich, the guy I am replacing. I listened in on a few calls and watched what it is he does with the system. It was a pretty productive time, I'd say with one exception. As we were loading everything up, we somehow actually just left the PC there for me. All that time setting up the PC and we left it. It was a mood killer to get back to Cinci and realize that we had left my PC. Oh well, one of the guys from the Sandusky office is headed this way on Friday and will be dropping it off. Meanwhile I am making due with an old Viao laptop and VNC.

Monday night after work, Rick, Dan and I went to the Thirsty Pony for dinner and entertainment. By "entertainment", I mean I now know how to bet on horses. It was an experience, that's for sure. In the picture you can see the 6 TVs I think. Each TV had a different race track, and different live races. There were these ATM like machines where you insert your money (cash or credit) and choose which venue/race/horse(s) and win/place/or show bet you want to place. A "win" bet is when you bet a horse will win. A "place" bet means you bet the horse will finish top two, and "show" means top three. You can place on as many horses as you want, and each horse has different odds. It's really very interesting. I only played 10 bucks total and lost if after a few races. The other guys started with a lot more money, and they both ended up ahead. Rick hit it pretty big though, "winning" a $5 bet on a 28/1 horse. That 5 dollars ended up as 140 something, and after the night was over, he cashed out nearly 160 bucks ahead.
Friday night I drove to Bowling Green in the Saturn, and spent the evening curled up with Jannelle. It was a lazy night, and I was pretty tired. I think I went to bed at 11pm or so. Saturday morning I got up pretty early and traveled to P-burg to take my folks out (my dad really) for father's day. My plan was to finish up on the Honda afterwards so that I could take it home on Sunday. Well the mornings plans surely didn't go as expected, but suprisingly I was able to get everything taken care of. Greg drove up and had lunch with his folks, then we headed out to Daryl's around 3:00. The three of us had a great night out in Canton. We went out for burgers and beers at the Winking Lizard, then hit the pool hall for some games and drinks. Sunday was Disc golf, and boy was I rusty. It was a really nice time, and I think Greg is a little motivated to throw more often. I guess that means that we'll be heading out sometime soon.
I'm finished with my Chipotle and I've lost my dollar in today's game of Hold 'em. I guess it's time to get back to work. I'm looking into an ISP swap as my first project here. Cya later folks!

So here's a brief step-by-step synopsis of my first day at Midstar.

-Get to work at 8:30 AM (soo much better than 10AM)
-Meet with Rick for a while, went over what we need to accomplish with my training time as well as more overview of the job. Til 9:45
-Sit in on a weekly conference call with the developers. 10-11:15
-Go to the Irish Pub across the street for lunch. Included in this trip was a serving of fish-and-chips and 2 20oz Guinness'. We met a bunch of other software guys from another place that Rick worked called Domin-8(yes really).11:15 - 12:50
-Get back from lunch and belly up to the 5 dollar buy in Texas holdem table in Rick's office. I went out first, but it's all part of my plan to hustle them. 1:00 - 3:30
- Sit at my desk and tear through the software and network.3:30 - 5:00
- Go home!

So there it is, my first day at Midstar. I have no complaints. I do understand though that starting next week, we are really going to get down to business. I'll be training in the main office in Sandusky, with Rich the old System Engineer. I think I'll be there for the first part of the week, but I'm not sure when I'll be back in Cinci. Then when we get back I'm going to start looking into swapping the ISP from a crappy 768k DSL connection to something a little beefier. Oh, and Rick wants to make me the IP Phone system Beyyotch (those are his words).

It's still rather early here in BG. I'm blogging from Jannelle's place. I drove home the Saturn last night so that I could spend some time with her. I crashed hard last night though(not the car, but my brain). I slept straight though till 7:30 this morning and I've been wide awake since. I think my dad is going to come pick me up soon, and I'm going to take him out for breakfast as an early father's day present. Then, I'll be working on the Honda for a few hours to finish it up. Then, Greg will be in town with the Hyundai and be eating lunch with his grandparents. Then, he and I will be headed over to Daryl's for the weekend. There's lots of traveling in my future, but it'll be worth it for sure!

talk to you all again soon!
Casey

I would like to see the outside of your office building.
# posted by Destrawt : 9:24 AM

This was the reply to my question below; Any requests from my adoring fans on what they would like to see in my next pictures?

Well, here you go. Here is 4705 Duke Ave. The Siemens building. 6 floors of call centers. If you look closely, on the 6th floor, after the first indentions of the windows, you can see my desk. Ok, not really, but you can imagine me sitting there, can't you?




Now, here's the exception.

This building is no longer where I work. As of 8:30 AM on June 17, 2005(that's tomorrow folks), I will be working across the street at Midstar. Today at lunch I met with Rick Stevens, a buddy of mine that I met through Greg and Steph. I was originally to be the Cincinnati counterpart to the Lead Support Tech/Systems Admin basted in Sandusky, Ohio. Through one issue or another, the funding wasn't available for me to join the team. Well, the tech put in his 2 week notice this morning, and Rick needed someone that could come in and train/take over immediatly. I will be the new Lead Support Tech/Sys Admin starting 2 weeks from Monday(when the other tech leaves). I am so pleased to know that I will be working hands on again. This new job offers me a fantastic raise, medical benefits, and an IRA option. They're even going to cover my cell phone bill, and I can come to work in shorts, a tee shirt and sandals. WOOOHAAAA!!!!!!
I'll fill in the rest of the details over the phone or in person. You all know how to reach me.... It's party time!!!!! ::dance dance dance::

Oh... and who is Destrawt, and why is that person my only adoring fan?

So I have been listening to the new Meshuggah album this morning. Daryl mentioned to me yesterday that he picked it up, but I didn't even know there was a new album. So far its iffy. They assembled the albums so every song transitions into another. It's pretty progressive of them I guess. I like being able to pick out songs that I enjoy, and listening to them from start to finish. Now for any song to feel resolved, I have to listen the rest of the way through the album... and that is assuming there is resolution at the end, I haven't gotten that far. I'll keep listening and report more.

Here's what I look at when I'm at work. It's an OLD Dell GX system. The monitor will support decent resolutions and refresh rates, but I think it's getting fuzzy. My eyes ache sometimes.



This is what my PC sees all day. Isn't he just the cutest Siemens employee ever?



And when I get tired I look out my window. I know this is a bad picture, but there is some sort of tinting on the window. whatever....



Time to hit the showers. Any requests from my adoring fans on what they would like to see in my next pictures?

Ok.. now that I have my bluetooth adapter, I have renewed interest in sharing with you all the world around me. I will TRY, every day, to get a picture posted about something that's going on.

FYI, in general, everything is well here in Loveland. We've had some really cool storms here the last few days. I've been walking at, lunch time, around the parking lot that is about a mile in circumfrence. My little in wall air conditioner is working it's poor life way as it has been really muggy and hot recently. I got my replacement phone last thrusday, and the new one is working a lot better. Jannelle is well, but had a little "issue" before she tried to leave on sunday. At this point the Drs. have said that it was muscle spasms in her neck ( a la Colin Mac) and they gave her muscle relaxers.

ok, so here is the first contribution. Remember, all these photos are coming from my little Motorola A630 cam-phone. In the mornings, as I sit at my computer, the sun shines right through my blinds and into my drowsy, sleepy face.