The Life of an IT'er

Today I've been blessed to "man" a student lounge and a college art gallery so that students will have tech support while accessing wireless internet hot spots.  (That really should be "woman" or "person" the places, but somewhere/somehow "man" became the term for doing what I'm doing.)  And it's all good.  Not only am I helping these college women by answering their questions ("Is the lab open for printing?" and "Can I sit here?"), but I'm getting all kinds of emails answered from my multitude of mailboxes and catching up on Words with Friends.  Oh and facebook, let's not forget that one.  All of this while eating my favorite Vic's popcorn and Cheese-It Party Mix salty snack.  This IT'er is really feeling all spoiled-like.

Being All Thankful

This week is the week of Thanksgiving, and I have so much to be thankful for this year - including actual holiday pay!  As a self-employed person, holiday pay did not exist unless I worked during that time.  But this year, I will have 2 days of lounging in the comfort of my home and getting paid while doing so.  Now if that isn't a good reason for being employed than I really don't know what is.

Meanwhile, I've been fighting an online "fire" so to speak and getting pretty annoyed by it, as a solution is not forthcoming and I feel like I'm beating my head against a wall.  The worst part is that it seems to keep growing and becoming a worse headache for me as time goes by.  What is it?  Well, our merchant account on Authorize.net disabled SSLv3 support and now when a user attempts to make an online payment, they receive the error, "The client and server cannot communicate, because they do not possess a common algorithm."  I'm googling and working with the server dude to try to come up with a fix for this problem, but it's not coming easily.

Did I mention that I love my job?

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' - Keep Those Doggies Rollin'

Back at orchestra rehearsal and with fellow parents sitting a chair away from me on either side. Must be careful not to blog about them – I'm nice that way. Anyway, so what's up with the clan these days? Let's see... oh yes, that handy bulleted list helps like nobody's business:

• School – besides Pre-algebra kicking the oldest in the pants, she's musical and literary and wants nothing to do with something so trivial/abstract as math even though it's in her blood to be amazing at everything she does, both kids are doing so well in school they're bored silly. Yes, the gifted programs challenge them to some extent, but still. Why so much reteaching every August? That's what they want to know. Unfortunately, that No Child Left Behind plan forgot the gifted peeps, so we deal with system as best we can.

• CCD – still loving this whole 7^th grade CCD teaching experience, and with students actually showing an interest in scripture. How odd is that? But it's true. My people are finding their way around the bible without breaking down and asking for specific page numbers (gospel, book, chapter, verse!) plus they're actually getting what it's all about. In fact, I'm so proud of those folks that Oreos will be making a special appearance at the end of class this week.

• Music – is keeping us so busy it's just crazy. The youngest is reaping the benefits of having private baritone lessons all summer by leaving fellow bandies in the dust, and the oldest has applied to participate in yet another orchestra, as if she doesn't have enough to do already, right? Crazy. Busy.

• Business Clients – involves more crazy busy-ness, but technology is near and dear to my heart, so I'm perfectly cool with it. In fact, I'm in the process of overhauling a client's website and feel like a kid in a candy store, or maybe IT person in Best Buy is a better comparison. The web redesign experience is like hosting a “What Not to Wear” episode, only web-style. It's like I'm Clinton & Stacey pulling outdated clothes out of the closet and dumping them into the trash, replacing them with spiffy-new-modern digs. Ooo-aahhh.

• Stylin' - amidst all these fun and exciting activities, I broke down and had a good hair chopping which basically gave me a refreshing new look & feel, probably due to the fact that my head is 10 lbs lighter, or something like that. A girl's gotta do what a girl's got to do.

Did I mention our Huskers are back in the game?

Life. Is. Good.