Some of you with entirely-too-long attention spans might remember that back in 2007, I talked about a missed job opportunity at work, and how I was fine with the decision because I thought something else would open up eventually. As it turned out, another team member left shortly after I made that post, and I decided to give the process another shot. Long story short, that’s more or less what I’ve been doing for the last seventeen months or so. By the way, that new hire turned out pretty well, I dare say.

Unfortunately, I was right about the ramp-up; it was pretty difficult at first, and I made a lot of stupid mistakes along the way, although thankfully nothing serious enough to bring down the site or anything like that. (Okay, I did accidentally knock LoudounExtra.com off the air for about 15 minutes while moving a server at the offsite data center, but that’s another story.) Fortunately, I work with patient people and have managed to get to the point where I’m doing much more good than harm. I’m no guru, but at least I have a shot at it. I still hang out in Express’s newsroom from time to time, but happily we hired an extremely good Mac tech to take over for them, so they’re in excellent hands.

Of course, these days I’m frequently grateful just to have a job, let alone one I enjoy—not that I shouldn’t be a little nervous about it. As a result of the absolute beatdown that the media world suffered last year in the markets, my erstwhile employer is implementing a few changes for the coming year, one of which involves bringing the two editorial groups from Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (which, by the way, became Washington Post Digital on Thursday) in Arlington, VA, and The Washington Post newspaper in downtown DC. As a result, we in the Technology department are also relocating, although at press time we still aren’t certain if we’re moving downtown (that’s the Post building at 15th and L in DC on the left there, the brownish building in the center of the pic) or to an offsite data center. Our chief poobah Katharine Weymouth and new executive editor Marcus “rhymes with the veggie” Brauchli have explained to us their plans for keeping the company sound over the next few years; they make sense and do sound promising. At least more so than, say, the Tribune’s plans, which mostly appear to involve grabbing as much copper wire and office supplies as you can before leaving the building.

Back when times were happier and bunnies and kittens roamed the market floors singing songs and showering traders with gumdrops—you know, October 2007 or so—I bought a car. There was nothing wrong with the (now fully paid off) WRX, mind you; in fact, it’s now Perri’s car, a substantial upgrade over her 1993 Subaru Loyale—90 hp and passive seat belts, talk about safety! I had just been longing for one of these for some time, and finally couldn’t resist any longer. That’s actually the color combo of mine in the picture on the Edmunds link. It was not all that pleasant an experience to actually purchase, at least not until I went to the same dealer family that sold us the WRX (that’s Fitzgerald, for the record) who were the complete opposite. Should have gone there first! It’s been an absolute joy to own, even in these cold and dark times, literally and figuratively. It’s fun to drive, handles like a dream, stops on a dime, and didn’t require selling a kidney to afford. As a side bonus, I regularly top 30+ MPG on the commute according to the ScanGauge I picked up for it, as shown. On that score, at least, life is damned near perfect. At least until Perri gets a job and I can somehow talk her into taking the Miata, keeping the WRX for a winter/practical car, and letting me take on a 370Z…

Oh yeah, did I mention that Perri left her job as a HR generalist at Georgetown University Medical Center? Not against her will, mind you, unlike so many others last year. In her case, it was simply giving her too much stress. How much? Bleeding-ulcer level as it turns out, something we only discovered while she was vacationing by herself in Vermont. She spend three-fifths of her time in the hospital, although thankfully she did not require anything more than some iron supplements, a transfusion or two, and for me to fly up to Albany to meet her and drive her home. Since her father also required a brief hospital visit earlier in the year (unrelated, and his turned out fine—at 82, he’s healthier than either of us), that left me as the only household member to escape. Well, there’s always this year, right? Anyway, she’s browsing around for work now, although oddly enough, a number of employers don’t seem to be in a hiring mood.

I think that’s the highlights, at least for now. Like I said, I’m hoping to do more this year than last as far as the site goes (I have a new WordPress theme in mind, among other things), so we’ll see how well that works out.

Sigh. Well, it’s been another questionable year, and as you can clearly see by the vast number of posts I’ve made here, something of a wasted one as well. Basically, from around June through pretty much today (and continuing into the new year), I’ve been extraordinarily busy with work between election stuff, helping to launch new sites, and now preparing for 2009’s planned move downtown (work, not me, and I’ll have plenty to say about that topic I’m sure).

On top of that, the world is all topsy-turvy with historic Presidential fodder and mind-blowingly bad economic decisions and the usual in-between stuff. Frankly, the whole thing can’t end soon enough for my tastes.

That said, I do plan to try and come back here again. I’ve really let my writing drop off (as in, to nothing) and managed to pretty much ignore the outside world for some time now. I’m honestly hoping I can change that in 2009. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, tell 2008 to get lost. I’m going to bed.

Yes, yes I did. And I will again. This time, for sure!

On the plus side, at least we now have one device in the house which should always have at least some kind of Internet connection (which is why you’re even hearing from me now since once again our connection is down). Screen’s a bit small but it certainly is handsome.

(in case you’re wondering about the title, it’s an elderly “Simpsons” reference.)

I had to think long and hard about doing so, though. For one thing, I really like working with Express and interacting with the rest of the company. The job itself is stressful but not disastrously so and the people are the best users I’ve ever supported; all the clichés about tech support that I’ve heard (and lived) are pretty much nonexistent at this job. Even though I’d eventually like to move out of user support and into computer support instead, that’s hard to give up. Even worse, I’d have to entrust that role to someone else, and that’s always been a problem for me wherever I’ve done support: frankly, I consider myself pretty damned difficult to follow up. Yes, I know everyone is replaceable, but I’m really good at what I do (one of the few things I may be good at, but still) and I tend to be a little protective of the people I’m responsible for helping.

My other major concern was that I might be a little inexperienced for the new job. Due to an assortment of factors, they were looking for either an experienced sysadmin who could dive in right away, or a less-experienced but familiar quantity—in other words, if they couldn’t find someone to fit the bill experience-wise, I would be pretty much the only junior candidate considered. Even though I know they would have allowed for some ramp-up time, I still felt a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of going from a help desk tech to a system administrator in essentially 2-3 weeks.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on one’s outlook, they decided to go with the more experienced candidate, so I didn’t even have to go through an interview. The new hire apparently has extensive Solaris and WebLogic experience already, which can only benefit us all in the end (and yes, I’m still innocent enough to care about my employer’s long-term needs in addition to my own). Plus, she requested a MacBook Pro for her workstation. Yeah, we ought to get along pretty well. (If I were going to be in when she started, I’d put one of the eMates on her desk to gauge her reaction.)

What I’m hoping is that I can end up working with her and our other Unix admin to build up more skills over the next 6-12 months, in case another opportunity to move to the network side opens up. Apparently it was a tough call to pass me over, and I seem to be well-regarded by everyone, and I’m not really interested in looking elsewhere just for a Unix job (how many companies in the metro D.C. area don’t require a college degree to even be considered? very few, I’d guess) so I have no problem with being patient. All in good time.

Fortunately I don’t seem to have bent anything, but I decided to take the day off from work to recover a bit (my whole lower body is stiff and sore). I’ve been alternating between trying to get some sleep and popping a couple of Advil every four hours.

The moral of the story is, handrails are there for a reason.