My apologies for not having written in a while! I've just been so busy... eh... that is I suppose a lie. Well, not that there isn't any truth to it, but I just haven't gotten around to writing in this blog. But fret not, for I have not forgotten about everyone!
But... it is late and I am tired, so here is the run down on how things have been.
They've been good. Simply put, all is well. Basically, since I last wrote I have:
- Become more comfortable with my job. I'm taking calls for 5 schools now, and I am pretty good with most of those. Still taking a little too long to document the calls, but it'll come with practice. Side funny story, my manager thought that I had learned a school one day and put me in the queue and I actually had never even so much as heard of the school and when I got that call, boy was I surprised =P Let's just say I had to have a lot of help with that particular call.
- I've finally moved upstairs into the room I'll be staying in. It's nice, great view, 5 windows, works great with my router set-up, and is all around good.
- Got a Seneca Park Zoo membership. Now, my view on zoos are kinda mixed. I really love animals but do not fully support putting them in exhibits. However, as a whole, I do support research and preservation of nature, so while it does mean unfortunate news for the few animals in exhibits, the grand scale of things may improve the lives of other animals that might not be given a fair chance in life. It is what it is. It's also important I think for people to see what kind of animals they are hurting by things like cutting down forests, etc. Perhaps if a few more people can see the beautiful animal's homes that they are destroying, perhaps they will think twice.
- Went to Philadelphia with Marissa for her birthday to see a concert. Perhaps the best part (for me anyway) was the trip itself and being able to spend the whole weekend with Marissa, but the concert itself was pretty good too. I really just like spending days with her, that's the most important thing to me.
Hmmm... and I'm sure there's more. There are definitely more pictures to show. About 500 from the zoo, 100 from elsewhere. Perhaps I'll pick a dozen or so and upload them here. But not tonight. Now I must go to sleep.
Keep the comments and questions coming. I feel more motivated to respond to things directed towards me than to do so on free will, so I might even dedicate a blog post to one of your questions if it can't be answered in one line! Just think, a whole blog post! Dedicated to my special viewer! Yada, yada, etc, etc. But really, anyone have any questions?
Peace out, until later!
Hi Mr. D
ReplyDeleteYour funny side story left me a little confused. Nothing new there, is it? Ha Ha
What is the difference between the schools that you are servicing? Aren't they all using the same software packages? Inquiring minds want to know. LOL
When you get time, maybe you could explain this to me.
We don't even really deal with software, so no, which would explain why it's a little confusing, haha. In fact, of the 5 schools I take calls for, I have to use all 4 of the ticketing systems we have too, each school uses either a form of something called HDO or SNOW, and I managed to get lucky and had to learn all 4 flavours to do my schools.
ReplyDeleteBasically, the bulk of what we do is to manage account access, either to email, networks, online courses, or Student Portals (things where students can access some or all of the above, and more). We use remote access for most of the schools, but every school has a different procedure, different requirements, and for the most part entirely different processes. The end result normally reduces to resetting a password, but the steps to get there are not even remotely similar. In fact, I still don't know how to do 2 of the schools I have, but because they are low volume, I guess the managers think it's sufficient.
We are given documentation on each school, passwords to get into Administrator things, and the like, but each school is totally different. Sometimes the online learning course things like online classes use the same framework called Angel, but the lucky spread of schools I have also use things called BlackBoard and WebCT (sometimes the same thing, but in my case they are even different, haha). So pretty much if I can master these 5 schools I can probably adapt to most of the others as it appears that these 5 schools use all different kinds of things. The access we have to some of them are more administrative than others, in fact, one of the schools I take calls for I can't even see their information other than to verify them and to click a button that will send them an email, so that one isn't too bad. Whereas another school I have full access to every log in that someone has and could accidentally change or lock them completely out of their account, haha.
It's interesting because I'm learning a ton of things related to Active Directory on a large scale, Remote Desktop'ing, VPN, and many other technical things that are huge in IT today.
We also take requests from professors to fix / setup online courses, people requesting desktop moves, and basically any other technical question that isn't training on software (there are other numbers people have to call for that).
Hi
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a "full plate" at work. Sounds ineresting and also very career building. This will give you the experience that you sorely needed when you were first looking for a job. Should lead to bigger and better things in the future.
Also glad to hear that you finally got your exhaust system fixed. Bet you have to get usede to the quiet all over again. Ha Ha.
Thanks for answering my inquiry re. the difference between the schools. Didn't realize that your job wasn't basically the same as you had at UofR. Glad to see it's more encompassing.
Hang in there, Mr. D.
GPA
I'm very happy that you have your car fixed. Yipee to that. It was a wise thing to do. Not so good to hear that you had a close call with another deer but glad it didn't hit you. You are being kept very busy in your job & certainly are learning a ton of new things. You won't have much of a chance to get bored anyway.
ReplyDeleteLove you,Gr.M
So I am bummed. Susan, Jessi, Kelli, and Josh are all coming to Tim and Jan's 50th anniversary celebration but I'm not able to make it. So you and Marissa are just going to have to come out to California. We have you covered North or South as the girls are both in San Diego. So start saving your money. I assume you will be at Tim and Jan's celebration?
ReplyDeleteClaude
Hmmm... not sure yet. That's around the time where Fall courses start and the nature of my job has "Lockdown" periods in which you can't request time off. Alongside that I'm not much of a group / party type person, so I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteNever been to California before. The further non-Japan place I've been west is... ummm... Buffalo? =P Maybe. Haha.
Well I hope you get to your grandparents celebration. It'd be nice for you to meet your cousins. But you should come visit California.
ReplyDelete