June 01, 2003: [•] First off, you may have noticed that DF.com was down on May 30th. Around Midnight a severe thunderstorm killed power for most of the Town of Warwick, NY and though electricity came back on around 3 AM for most of the Town the server itself wasn’t so lucky. Rock revived it around 5 PM later that day though and it’s been back up since then (obviously). Friday was my last day on the Help Desk and my last day as Lead Technician. It was thoroughly uneventfully yet not without an odd feeling in the air. Hanging right above my head was the next two weeks schedule. This week I was marked for vacation, but the week after I was no longer there. It just felt odd to see a schedule for the first time in four years where my name didn’t reside on it. My new job as a Network Specialist will be tough at first. There is a lot for me to learn and a lot that I want to learn though maybe not necessarily required. I’ve been told I’m going to be focusing on web page design, hosting, server administration, and television production. That’s a mish mosh of tasks and a venerable plethora of job skills will be required. I’m up for the challenge though and look forward to finally putting my multimedia art skills to their limits. I will miss the Help Desk nevertheless. I spent over four years on that job working my butt off and though I believe I did contribute a good amount of skill to it I know that there are many things that feel like they are going to be left unfinished. No doubt some of that can be addressed though as I’ll probably end up helping out over there time to time. So all in the end the change is for the better. Speaking of change, I picked up my new 2003 Ford Focus ZX3 yesterday. Two disappoints: First, no rear disc brakes. Second, no sub-woofer. Still it’s a good deal and at least I got most of what I wanted. I’m very happy with my payments and the car itself. Though I’ve driven it a total of 5 miles I feel like I’ve had it for years. It fits like a glove and I think it better suits my personality than the sedan version. Gette likes it too. The rear seats are noticeably higher in the hatchback than in the sedan. The result is she can now see out the rear window. For the first time ever she demanded to go into the car instead of walking to my mom’s (around the corner), which she NEVER had requested before. She hated being put in the other car, but this one she simply says “Me go Daddy’s car”. Sounds like a plan to me 😉 As far as Daddy/Baby time goes vacation has been great. On that note, it’s time for Sponge Bob Square Pants so I’m off to spend time with Gette.