Sis Admin's Diary #5 - Work, drink, repeat
It used to be the case that things were quieter on Fridays, because we'd plough through all the work and have it all logged by Thursday afternoon. For the past couple of months it's been constantly busy.
The project's deadline has been extended, because most of us are running into little awkward problems that need ironing out. That used to be normal for software releases, but it's become common practice - especially in the games industry - for companies to release software that's incomplete and defective, and release fixes as updates later. We're avoiding that.
This morning I signed into the network and onto a couple of the on-premise servers. Last night's system upgrade appears to have gone well, and I just needed to re-enable several of the integrations.
The DNS issue had finally been sorted, with the security disabled to allow everyone to access the site. I needed to apply a quick fix to the login button, and advise the UAT people that the public URL appears to be pointing at a CDN, so they won't immediately see whatever changes we make.
Early this afternoon I attended the monthly LGBT group meeting. Today's meeting we shared details of upcoming events and had just a general chat about things. There isn't much on for Transgender Awareness Day, which I wasn't aware of myself.
I'm the only transgender person in the group, and the only one on the facility, as far as I know. Identity isn't something we should need to care about, in my opinion, but I've seen a lot of discrimination in the technology industries over the years, with people being targets of bullying and/or constructive dismissal because they're gay, transgender, disabled, because they're a female above a certain age, etc. One public sector organisation I worked for in the past was notorious for the latter. Thankfully it doesn't happen where I am.
Finally decided to get round to closing the support request that involves adding a number of staff to a couple dozen groups. This is another one of those requests that takes a while to sort out, but I'd already done the SQL work for this yessterday.
I'm aiming to call it a day at 16:00, because that gives me a couple of hours to get ready for the night out.
Update
Mark, my partner and I made our way to the pub this evening. It's was dark, and the stteet wet, as we walked the mile there. It's hard to imagine the evenings were warm and sunny just a couple of months ago.
The pub is owned by one of the large companies. As is typical with such pubs, it's bright and rather sterile. There are plenty of familiar faces and some community on Friday nights, though.
Occasionally I'm not the only transgender girl there. I think there are at least four in my town. Most the others usually don't wear much in the way of makeup, and almost never wear dresses. They're also much bigger than me.
Mark and I really needed a drink this week! For me that usually means at least six glasses of G&T, followed up with several Espresso Martinis. The latter is what gives me a bad hangover the next morning, but they are so addictive.