2008's To-do List
I've been out of work for over two months, recovering from surgery to fix a severe repetitive stress injury. It started about two years ago when my workspace was setup poorly. I hyper extended my arm to mouse for about two months and it caused an inflammation that eventually lead to calcification. Somewhere along the way, that calcification lead to a tear in the rotator cuff and finally, a detached tendon. After the surgery and 20 staples across the shoulder, I was in an upper body brace for a month and now I'm in a sling. RSI doesn't play as you can see in the picture below:
I've mentioned this in several posts because it's extremely important to get the message out to all of you who spend 8+ hours a day on a computer to 1. Ask for a professional ergonomic evaluation of your workstation. 2. Keep your posture in mind when working and remind yourself to stretch in place or stand up and stretch hourly or half-hourly. If necessary, use schtasks in Windows:
schtasks /create /tn StretchReminder /tr "msg console Stretch!" /sc HOURLY 3. Reevaluate your workspace on a weekly basis to ensure you haven't accidentally slipped back into bad habits.
In other news.. while polishing up my resume for grad school, I read that accomplishments should be listed on a resume instead of (or in addition to) responsibilities. Keeping that in mind, there's a lot I'd like to add to my resume and thus, accomplish this year. Barring my shoulder doesn't impede my efforts to do so, here's my list of what I'd like to do and learn:
| At work work | |
| - | Use Project 2007 to manage projects, store files in SharePoint repository |
| - | Implement an incredibly useful SharePoint-based intranet and extranet (majority of the year) |
| - | Implement WSUS 3.0 for all servers |
| - | Migrate every SQL 7.0 database to SQL Server 2005 |
| - | Destroy all NT4 machines still in production |
| - | Attempt to setup a master job server again |
| - | Persuade management to use and love virtualization |
| - | Explore Microsoft Office Communication Server, Microsoft CRM 4.0, InfoPath and System Center Essentials |
| - | Attend PDC 08 |
| - | Attend Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2008 |
| Home Office | |
| - | Use Project 2007 to manage projects, store files in SharePoint repository |
| - | Attend grad school |
| - | Learn C# 3.0 (O'reilly's Head First series kicks a lot of butt!) |
| - | Get my PMP (project management) certification |
| - | Update my colocated network to include: a new 64-bit capable HP server, Windows 2008 (core and regular), Windows Virtualization Server, Windows SSL VPN(!), VMware Virtual Server 2 for the Rackable machine, SQL Server 2008 w/mirroring, Exchange 2007, Linux w/DRBD mirroring, mySQL w/mirroring. |
| - | Master PowerShell 1.0/2.0 |
| - | Completely redesign RealCajunRecipes.com (now #1 for the term cajun recipes and cajun cookbook on Google!) |
| - | Master CSS |
| - | Read 3 tech books cover to cover |
| - | Play with PowerDNS |
| - | Play with F# and Mono on Linux |
| - | Play with xen and puppetmaster |
| - | Setup Linux to authenticate with my Windows domain/SSO |
| - | Work on my vi skills |
| - | |
| Bonus: 2009 | |
| - | Finish grad school |
| - | Obtain my CISSP |
| - | Learn a ton more about Oracle and DB2 |
| - | Learn SQL Server Reporting Services |
| - | Master SQL Server Integration Services |
| - | Get certified in SQL Server 2008 |
| - | Teach a database class at USF |
I hope to revisit this list at the end of 2008 and see how many goals I've reached. Don't fret -- I've got personal goals too, those are just kept in my personal analog assistant.
Oh and I'm currently reading a really useful O'reilly called "Time Management for System Administrators" and I recommend it to anyone reading this blog. It could have done without the Microsoft jabs, like most O'reilly books, but it's still really good overall. I'm finishing up that soon and it will be the first of the three or more technical books that I hope to read from cover to cover this year. Number two is Head First C# and I'm not sure about the third just yet. Any suggestions?