DON'S MESS

    A few months after the toner incident there was a special task to restore the SAP/UNIX machine from tape.  The first tape cartridge was in the machine and was going to eject around midnight.  The machine would do some processing and call for a second tape around 2am.  I was there when the technical guy was explaining this to Crystal. The only odd part was that In this specific case they had turned off the checking so it would not validate that the second tape was the correct number. No big deal. Just plug in the second tape when the machine asked for it.      The next morning Crystal left at 6am and of course I was standing there at 8am when the technical guy and managers walked into the datacenter. Something was wrong with the machine. They ejected the tape to find that Crystal had ejected the first tape and when it called for the second one she plugged in the first tape again. This had totally messed up the box and made a huge mess. They cou...

Back to stories about Crystal.  This is a longer story but worth the read.  It was a long time ago when I worked in the data center. On a normal night there were two Operators working. On this particular night it was Crystal, who was an experienced Operator, and Dave, the new guy who had started 2 weeks earlier.  The managers all liked Crystal since she was a good looking bubbly blond.  On the other hand, we did not like being paired with Crystal since she did less than her share of the work and wasn't always on top of things. It made the nights much more difficult. Keeping everything on schedule through the night was hectic and critical to get the different divisions open for business on time.        About midnight, one of the two large laser printers popped up a message on the console that it needed toner.       I will add a couple of important notes here….. If you have never had the pleasure of working with toner it is an ex...

 Another data center story from a long time ago: One day one of my fellow operators Mark was informed that he had been promoted to the application group.  This was good news. Our boss said they would need to find his replacement before he could start his new job. The hiring process at this company was extensive. I remember going for 5 interviews with the company and a tough test before being hired.  A month passed.  Mark walked into the data center at 3 am on Sunday morning. The operator that was working asked him what he was doing there  It was not shift change time and he was not scheduled to be there. Mark did not respond. He walked over to a rack of tape cartridges and pulled two cases of 3480 cartridges. Each case contained 20 mainframe tapes. Then he walked toward the back of the data center. The Operator continued to try and talk with him. Still no response. Mark took the first tape from the case and threw it at the big wooden doors at the back of the dat...

I long time ago I worked in a data center.  There were 6 of us that worked 12 hour shifts...lots of fun.   I worked with a lady named Crystal….I will tell more about Crystal in future updates…..She made popcorn as a snack almost nightly…. She would go out to the break room, put the popcorn in and set the time for 2 minute and 35 seconds. Then she would go back to work and return a while later.  No problem right??  Well one night she started the popcorn and went back to work.   BUT…., when she returned more than an hour later she found that the microwave was still going.  The popcorn had burned and burst into flames.  The microwave was ruined and the whole building wreaked.  She figured she had entered 2 hours and 35 minutes instead of 2 minutes.  I was just glad I wasn't my manager who needed to explain to the CEO whose office was at the other end of the building and upstairs, why his office smelled terrible for days.  After th...

We sold the house and moved to the extended stay hotel almost 6 months ago….. And wow it has already been a month since I retired.  It is sooo nice not to have to maintain the house and yard…..It has freed up a lot of time for other things and has been a nice break before we start traveling.  Of course I think we have tried all the ice cream shops around here…….My blood pressure is down but oddly enough my cholesterol is up…… we will see how it goes…..