Dear Sherry

Dear Sherry,

I may be a little late getting to Columbia. We can blame it on SHTS and a magic box.

First, SHTS. I am IMS support. That is laughable since I can barely spell it, but I can install the base code and turn it over to the end users for them to customize. A few months back, we got in a request to upgrade to the latest version. We got the tapes in about a month ago and I started the install. I was about halfway through and on the Friday of that week I dutifully entered the SHTS code for the work I had done so far. SHTS came back and told me that it was an invalid code. The owner of the code had turned it off.

The following week, my team lead sent off a note to the manager who owned the program that the code had been turned off and could he reactivate it so I could write my (very productive) time against it. This manager is a total asshole. Think Lundberg in the movie Office Space but without the personality. I've been on conference calls with this jerk. He wants all sorts of bullshit, but doesn't want to pay for it. He told my team lead that it wasn't his program anymore.

My team lead, who can do a pretty good Lundberg himself when you piss him off sent him back a note that said, essentially, "Ummmm yeah. I guess you're just gonna have to cancel those three projects due at the end of next month. Ummm yeah. We can't support them since we don't have a SHTS code to use".

SFB (Shit For Brains): That's a drastic thing to do.

My team lead: Ummmm yeah. Why does that concern you? Ummm yeah, you said you don't own that program anymore.

So there it stood until last week. One of the IMS users FART'ed (Fast Available Real Time) me that she needed a password reset on one of the IMS systems. I reset the password and FART'ed back that I really shouldn't do this since I didn't have a SHTS code, and by the way, all the development work for IMS was in the shitter since SFB turned off the SHTS code.

The shit hit the fan!

So now SFB is trying to set up a conference call with I/T support (My team lead, the Project Manager In Charge of Administrative Bullshit, The Project Manager In Charge Of Useless Meetings and me) and another manager to decide how they are gonna fund the IMS work that I'm supposed to do. The first two scheduled meetings were not convenient for all the people who need to be there. The last invitation said 10:30 Friday so I accepted that date and time. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that it was Pacific time which is 1:30 my time. I had planned to be gone by then. Maybe I can get out early enough to take the call from home. But that all depends on whether I can get the magic box to work.

Everything was going just fine today. The meeting with my manager that I thought was on Wednesday, was actually today. My team lead had his at 9:00 and was in her office for 45 minutes. I had mine at 11:00 and was out in ten minutes.

Her: What are your goals?

Me: To stay employed the rest of the year.

Her: What can I do to make you happy?

Me: Get in a z/Series processor.

She: It will be approved April 1.

BWAHAHAHAHA! April Fools Day!

Me: Get me toys so I can run the latest operating systems.

When I had handed her a printout of all the stuff required for our interview there was a blank page that she handed back to me. I folded it into a paper airplane and sailed it right into her trash can. She was impressed. Anyway, she had me add a few items to my goals and I went back to my office, updated the draft copy of my goals and sent them off to her for her approval.

The IBM CE got the magic box installed and configured yesterday. For those of you (maybe three of you) who work with large systems it was an RVA. You can get those suckers real cheap now. It was replacing an older RVA and I did the gen yesterday. Today I got Operations to help me drop the fiber from the old RVA and plug it into the new RVA. I varied a device on line. So far, so good.

I went back downstairs to my desk and fired up IXFP (A program used to manage RVA's) and watched it die. There were some other problems and since there were no users on this system, I had Operations IPL it for me. Nope. Hosed. Arrrgggghhhh!

So I think I figger out what's wrong. Nope. I send off a note to the IXFP guru and he tells me to change the subsystem and ECAM device to another subsystem. Tried it. Didn't work. Now this really sucks, because without this I cannot use Snapshot which is a program that makes instantaneous copies of DASD devices. That's why I call an RVA a magic box.

I have to set up for a user in Japan, and I always use Snapshot to copy the appropriate DASD. That's OK. They're small volumes and I can just do a DFDSS copy which I do. Of course, on one of the volumes some booger eatin' moh-ron had created an orphan VSAM dataset so that copy won't work until I work some magic and delete that sucker.

All copied. Let's bring up the systems. Crap! Half the volumes are coming up offline. So now I have to fix the I/O gen on the master volumes (How they got fucked, I don't know) and do another DFDSS copy. But it's time to go home. I need to pick up some drugs at Kaiser and I forgot.

So, tomorrow, I have to fix the I/O gens, see if I can get IXFP working, stop at Kaiser to pick up some drugs, and attend a conference call with SFB. I'm hoping to get out of Atlanta by 3:00 but the traffic from Peachtree Industrial to I-20 on a Friday afternoon really sucks!

What are we doing for supper? Should I stop and eat some McBarf burgers on the way? E-mail and let me know.

I hope to get there no later than 7:00.

Your brother,
Denny

Posted by denny at March 11, 2004 08:12 PM