Now, to start
where I left off...in January, I was called out of the blue for an
interview with the manager of IT at Cook Inc., as well as the
supervisor over IT client support. They were looking for another
client support person, and felt I was overqualified for the help desk (phone
answering) position I had applied for initially. (It was nice that
they felt I was "overqualified" for anything!)
Late in January I
received a call from our HR department, informing me that I had
gotten the position. I took the rest of the day off to celebrate my
finally finding an entrance into an industry I had long wished to
work in, and I didn't have to take a pay cut (ie: part time work,
etc) in order to do so.
I started in that
position on February 19th. They gave me a rather nice laptop and a
"Smart" phone. It didn't take me long to get used to working in
the environment, and learning things like network infrastructure and
company policy on certain things. It was certainly a wonderful
change of pace.
I'd have to say
the best part of this new position was being able to get my hands on
the latest software and technology. I was able to use Windows Vista
within a month of it's official release, amongst other learning
opportunities that I would not have been afforded before (and indeed
had not been.) For example, I had never worked with Active
Directory, the core of windows server networking since Windows 2000
Server first hit the scene. At ITT, our curriculum was apparently
dated even as we used it, as most of my training for server based
networking was on Windows NT 4 Server, which is similar, yet quite
different (don't ask.) At least I did have a good understanding of
UNIX/Linux thanks to ITT, as Cook's entire production system
utilized lots of Linux.
I worked this
position all of this year. Working throughout the facilities of Cook
put my face in front of a couple hundred people who often recognized
me as "the computer guy" (seems I don't often remember to introduce
myself when I'm in the mindset of working on a problem!) These folks
began to occasionally ask if I worked on equipment outside the
company as a side business. I often agreed to diagnose and/or fix
their PC issues for a fee. This brought to mind the idea that
perhaps BRS isn't a lost cause like I had nearly declared it early
in the year.
I had built a
nice, slightly updated version of "The Backwood Realm" in the late
winter and early spring, but then some of the guys at work showed me
some other web solutions that began to help me wrap my head around
using databases (SQL, etc) and scripting to crate dynamic,
interactive web sites. Prior to this it had been kind of an
overwhelming undertaking for me.
The BWR version 5, still
my personal page, no longer the front page of backwoodrealm.com.
Find it at
http://www.backwoodrealm.com/index2.htm
Backwood Realm Systems
first "official" business site, on 12/31/07 (www.backwoodrealm.com)
Using this
knowledge, I launched the new BRS business site late in the year
(November) and moved "The Backwood Realm" to secondary status as my personal web site at
home.backwoodrealm.com.
As if getting the
position at Cook wasn't enough, the HR guy (who I know personally
from church) at Bedford Machine and Tool talked me into sending him my
resume, as they were considering bringing on an IT person to care
for and advance their overall infrastructure. I doubted they'd top
what I had financially and benefit-wise at Cook, but after a short
interview, it not only started to look interesting, but fun and
challenging as well.
In December, just
before Christmas, I was offered said position. I chose to take it. I
started there on January 2nd, 2008.
It was a great
thing to begin my journey into my career in IT, even if it seemed to
come 5 years too late for my personal preference. Nevertheless, it
did arrive! I can't imagine where the next 5-10 years will take me,
based on the last few, I'll go further than I did from 97-07!
I
do hope to still program a bit. It is
obvious, especially considering myself "post-2002", that ITT Tech
turned me from a programmer into a network guy. I still love the
challenge of programming, it just seems that at this point in my
life, I can't find enough quiet time to hash out the issues that you
have to in the course of developing (and especially troubleshooting)
any sort of computer program. Especially the more complex they get.
When I officially quit DOS programming, I had just completed an
unusually functional (for BASIC) game engine that ran completely in
DOS text mode and used ASCII charaters as playfield objects (see
this>>
)
which was something I had been developing in little pieces since
1999. It included a screen editor, and played much like the very
first Legend of Zelda game on the NES.
If I were ever to
program another game (and I do me IF), it would have to surpass the
E3 text game engine, and it would have to be unmistakabley 32-bit. I
would also desire that it would be written in some form that would
allow it to be compiled cross-platform (IE Win32, Linux/X11, and
Mac). I have found such a solution in the QT libraries for C++, and
have been trying with more futility than I'd like to admit in
teaching myself deeper levels of C++ in order to write SOMETHING
FUNCTIONAL. They day may come....when the kids are teenagers! :)
