Work, Ham Radio in Dubuque, and Phil
Another week has gone by, so I guess it's time for another LiveJournal entry.
Work has pretty much taken over a big chunk of my life. I'm still getting used to it once again. Not working for over nine months spoiled me as far as free time went, and now that I will be working with computers on a daily basis I fear that I may be putting my own projects at home on the back burner. It hasn't stopped me from going online a lot at home, though, as those who are following me on Twitter can attest to. The other problem is that I don't know what projects I want to carry out. I still haven't set up one of my iMacs because I don't have a piece of furniture to get it off the floor. About the only event coming up is the release of pkgsrc-2009Q3 from NetBSD's pkgsrc, which means I'll have to update my systems, but that tends to go relatively smoothly, even on my Slackware Linux box. I guess this is something I'll have to deal with.
As far as work itself goes, it's so-so. I now have my desk, but I'm by no means done with training. I have a better idea of what I'll be doing, but would still like more details. Unfortunately I won't be able to share said details; like I said in my last (non-Twitter) entry, I won't be able to be as candid about this job as I was about my previous one. IBM has a huge legal department, and I'd rather not be on the receiving end of a lawsuit from it.
My co-workers are a mixed bag also. I guess I'm getting to the point where the novelty is wearing off and I'm starting to see their weaknesses as well as their strengths. I did participate in the first tabletop RPG session last Tuesday night, but not after one of them didn't pick me up from work and me getting there three hours late, then feeling like an idiot because I was already behind and I haven't played Dungeons & Dragons all that much, so I needed some guidance in setting up the stats and traits of my character. Hopefully this Tuesday's session will go better.
One thing I will be candid about: so far the ham radio community here in Dubuque sucks. T Here were three repeaters here in Dubuque at one time (two on the 2-meter band and one of the 70-cm band, the same as Winnipeg), but there's been a lot of fighting between hams for money and tower space, so right now we have only one on 2 meters and none on 70 cm. And the one that is up isn't doing all that great a job of covering the city, let alone the usual 30 miles around it that a good repeater will cover. The main amateur radio club has also had a splinter group form its own club, further dividing the hams in this area. I never imagined that this is what I'd walk in to when I moved here. It's bad enough that I live near a bluff, which pretty much blocks me from both sending and receiving anything to the west and west-southwest. Not having a reliable repeater to use makes the problem even worse, especially since all I have are my handheld transceivers. The only ham radio I've done since I moved here was talking on 70 cm simplex with Paul, KB0ZMT, a co-worker who has several HTs and whom I'd talk to over the radio when I went to lunch while he stayed behind. That part has been fun. I guess this gives me more of an incentive to upgrade my license to the General class so I can get on HF (shortwave) and make some long-distance contacts. Having more money to spend on equipment and accessories will help a lot.
I got to talk to Phil last night on the phone for the first time in about two years. It felt so good to hear his voice again and I wish I hadn't been so tired during our conversation. Since I have unlimited long distance, it won't be another two years before we do it again.
That's all I have for now. I'm getting kind of tired. Here's hoping work doesn't take all my energy from me from here on out.
Work has pretty much taken over a big chunk of my life. I'm still getting used to it once again. Not working for over nine months spoiled me as far as free time went, and now that I will be working with computers on a daily basis I fear that I may be putting my own projects at home on the back burner. It hasn't stopped me from going online a lot at home, though, as those who are following me on Twitter can attest to. The other problem is that I don't know what projects I want to carry out. I still haven't set up one of my iMacs because I don't have a piece of furniture to get it off the floor. About the only event coming up is the release of pkgsrc-2009Q3 from NetBSD's pkgsrc, which means I'll have to update my systems, but that tends to go relatively smoothly, even on my Slackware Linux box. I guess this is something I'll have to deal with.
As far as work itself goes, it's so-so. I now have my desk, but I'm by no means done with training. I have a better idea of what I'll be doing, but would still like more details. Unfortunately I won't be able to share said details; like I said in my last (non-Twitter) entry, I won't be able to be as candid about this job as I was about my previous one. IBM has a huge legal department, and I'd rather not be on the receiving end of a lawsuit from it.
My co-workers are a mixed bag also. I guess I'm getting to the point where the novelty is wearing off and I'm starting to see their weaknesses as well as their strengths. I did participate in the first tabletop RPG session last Tuesday night, but not after one of them didn't pick me up from work and me getting there three hours late, then feeling like an idiot because I was already behind and I haven't played Dungeons & Dragons all that much, so I needed some guidance in setting up the stats and traits of my character. Hopefully this Tuesday's session will go better.
One thing I will be candid about: so far the ham radio community here in Dubuque sucks. T Here were three repeaters here in Dubuque at one time (two on the 2-meter band and one of the 70-cm band, the same as Winnipeg), but there's been a lot of fighting between hams for money and tower space, so right now we have only one on 2 meters and none on 70 cm. And the one that is up isn't doing all that great a job of covering the city, let alone the usual 30 miles around it that a good repeater will cover. The main amateur radio club has also had a splinter group form its own club, further dividing the hams in this area. I never imagined that this is what I'd walk in to when I moved here. It's bad enough that I live near a bluff, which pretty much blocks me from both sending and receiving anything to the west and west-southwest. Not having a reliable repeater to use makes the problem even worse, especially since all I have are my handheld transceivers. The only ham radio I've done since I moved here was talking on 70 cm simplex with Paul, KB0ZMT, a co-worker who has several HTs and whom I'd talk to over the radio when I went to lunch while he stayed behind. That part has been fun. I guess this gives me more of an incentive to upgrade my license to the General class so I can get on HF (shortwave) and make some long-distance contacts. Having more money to spend on equipment and accessories will help a lot.
I got to talk to Phil last night on the phone for the first time in about two years. It felt so good to hear his voice again and I wish I hadn't been so tired during our conversation. Since I have unlimited long distance, it won't be another two years before we do it again.
That's all I have for now. I'm getting kind of tired. Here's hoping work doesn't take all my energy from me from here on out.