How to be a Network Engineer in only Seven Years!

Well, I was working as a Branch Manager at a computer shop. It was my first IT job, 1998. I had had a restaurant career, guitar salesman career, cash register repairman career, semi-pro guitarist, and a vending machine repairman career. Sometime in 2000, I had ramped up on building and upgrading PCs, and learned what hoops Windows wanted you to jump through to trick it into working.

I started noticing that a lot of our clients were getting DSL, ISDN, and T1 connections, and building ethernet LANs. Wouldn't it be cool if I learned networking and could work on stuff like that? Some of the more senior folks at the computer company had gotten to go to a Microsoft convention of some sort, and brought me back a binder with several demo CDs from Microsoft, including a late beta release of their new network server operating system, Windows 2000 Server. So I decided to tear into it.

I bought a Win2K Server book, put together a second PC, got some ethernet cards, cable, crimpers, rj45 connectors, and a 4-port hub. I started meticulously using the book, installed the server, and going through the capabilities and configuration of all the features. The problem was, I could not get a lot of things to work "in the lab". It was supposed to be simple; you just launched this management application, clicked on this dropdown, put a check in this box, typed something in that text field. If it didn't work, ??? There were no useful logging or debugging messages, no way to see what was actually happening on my new network. Just... Nothing. The abstractions that Microsoft used were so far away from what was actually happening in TCP/IP land were frustrating me. It was like trying to do brain surgery with boxing gloves on. This experience lasted several months.

Our regional manager at the company was making some consulting money running around town setting up network servers for small businesses, by selling them inexpensive PCs, and installing and configuring their network services using a copy of Slackware Linux he had burned to CD. I had been offered copies of Red Hat and Slackware before, and they had been described as "a hacker operating system for your computer, written by hackers, that is really good at networking." I took my new IT career seriously though, and had no interest in "playing around" with a "hacker operating system". It sounded like a neat exercise, I had some experience with early personal computers by Commodore, where everything had to be done by writing some software. I had written a lot of small tools and games, and later done the same in DOS for about 10 years. A hacker system sounded fun, as opposed to Windows, where you had to buy an expensive development package and learn something called C++ to make tools and toys.

Since I was a manager, I was starting to feel like I was part of the Dot Com Boom, an IT Big Shot, hehehe. I started watching TechTV's stock market coverage, and reading things like CNet tech news. I knew that Sun sold serious network servers, big expensive machines, and I learned that they ran UNIX. I had heard of UNIX on and off since becoming a computer hobbyist in 1981 or so, I knew it was Serious System. I did some research and found out that Sun had released their UNIX on CD for PCs! I was very excited. I found out that it was almost 2GB of software to download, which was more than I would be able to get away with on our office network at the time, which was a slow DSL link. I also found out that, while it had been free to download for a time, it was now only available for purchase. The full CD set with a manual was around $100. It wasn't a lot of money, but I didn't think I could convince my wife at the time to let me buy it. I knew that it was a way to grow my skills and advance my career, but I didn't think I could sell it to my ex-wife. Sad, I know. Then one day I saw a story about how companies were maximizing their profits by using PC hardware running Red Hat Linux instead of Sun computers, and that Linux was "UNIX for personal computers". Eureka! So I could learn how to run a real UNIX network server, by using my laboratory PC at home! I started researching Slackware Linux, the flavor my buddy at work was so successful with. I found that there was something called ZipSlack, which was a copy of Slackware that was shrunk down to fit on a Zip disk (like a 100MB floppy for you young'uns). I made a ZipSlack Zip disk and it's companion boot floppy, rubber-banded them together, and took them home with me.

I told my coworker my intention, and he told me about a web site called tldp.org, The Linux Documentation Project. He lent me his copy of Slackware and told me to read the Installation How-To and the DOS-To-Linux How-To at tldp.org. They would explain what was happening when I attempted to install Linux on my machine, and how to do DOS-type things in the new UNIX environment.

I guess this is part one, it is time for me to go leave the office and do stuff. Happy New Year to folks out there, 2008 is coming, hold on to your hats.

Hola amigos

Not sure what is happening here. Feeling run down. I have gotten through a couple of weeks of big change and lots of activity. Some turnover at work, changing conditions. Successfully somehow paid for some gifts and surprises for my sweetie's birthday. Studied hard for my network certification test, coming this week. Then last night, Boom! I hit the wall. Had to lay in bed and just kind of daydream, escape.

This year I quit drinking, and while in counseling, started learning tools to help me live my life. I'm much healthier now in many ways. Recovering from codependency is very difficult when it is your nature. The problem is, taking things on myself that are other people's problems leaves me with no energy, time, or resources to take care of myself.

I feel like lately, I have been doing better about not seeking out other people's problems to solve. I used to actively look for something to help somebody with, rather than do something productive or good for myself. What a disease!

Now my issue is that I am always anxious. I'm anxious about things that I'm responsible for, and trying to take responsibility for. I'm anxious about whether or not other people understand that I'm not as available as I used to be for them because I'm trying to save myself now. I think of them, but I'm busy dealing with my own problems.

I'm anxious about performing at work, although I seem to have made that a lot harder than it is. I've worn myself out worrying about how other people feel, wanting them to feel like we are friends, even stopping in the middle of work to go pacify them. But it is my job to do my work, and not to worry about the emotional climate of the whole operation. Whatever state it's in, it was like that before I got there. And as long as I don't make it worse, the rest is not up to me.

There is a big codependent issue with my sweetie. I still have trouble letting her ask for what she wants or needs, instead of trying to think for her. I think she has the same problems. We are both recovering codependents, but neither of us has ever been with someone who wasn't a "user" before. We take two nights off a week from each other. I think it is still necessary for my sanity because I am trying too hard. I am not just living my life, with her companionship. I am trying to control "us", and all I should be trying to control is me. That's all that life requires. Whew!

Lots of stuff going on. Just need to keep untangling the anxieties, and make sure I do the right thing. Like going down to the washer and dryer, and studying for my certification this evening.

Maybe I'm fighting off a bug :) Often a feeling of total emotional and psychological failure precludes some kind of influenza D-Day. Pray for Mojo!

hold on to your hats!

I refuse to comment on how long it's been since I posted, how lame the original posts were, &c. We start NOW.

So, in the past year I have:
Seen Eric Clapton live
bought a 9mm semiauto handgun that I take to the range
bought a paintball gun and played paintball a handful of times
built a badass 64-bit computer
graduated from 10 months of counseling
read 1.1 self-help books
started internet dating
met some nice girls
met a wonderful woman who I love, and see almost every day
have learned about boundaries
have learned about taking care of myself
have learned not to take on issues that don't belong to me
have learned to say "I'm paralyzed with anxiety" instead of just sitting there being paralyzed with anxiety :)
have gone to an Audi track event and ran laps in a 1988 Porsche 924S
have been to Puerto Rico with my new sweetie
saw the Observatorio De Arecibo there - you know, the 1000-ft satellite dish built into the mountains from the James Bond flick
hiked the rain forest
drove a new jeep clear across Puerto Rico and back
my folks moved to Tuscon
my mom has fibro-myalgia, and the weather is helping her
I went to Tuscon to visit them, fell in love with the desert and the mountains, and was visited late at night by a giant Great Horned Owl
More to come :)