Well today I have some good news and I have some bad news. Which do you want to hear first? The good news? Ok then here you go.
The first step in bringing Edmonson County Schools up on a all fiber backbone for it entire district network, should be done by the end of the week. I ate lunch with the crew that is hanging the fiber for us. Really nice guys that I don't think I would have any problem with hanging out on a regular basis with. The electronics are on order and hopefully they will get here soon. This will put two buildings on the backbone and allow us to start relocating servers to our office soon. Hopefully, this will allow more centralized control over the servers and the network. Lord knows they are going to need it, but I will get to that in a second. It will also increase the contectivity of these schools to the internet by about 48 times and allow for a district wide file server, proxy and authentication. It really is a pretty cool thing and I am glad that I was part of getting it designed and built.
Now onto the bad news. Due to preceived budget cuts, that might happen, as of right now I will no longer be employed by Edmonson County Schools as of the last day of June. If the state gets their act together and approves a budget that doesn't cut my salary out of it, then I should still work there, but I don't know if that is going to happen. It sucks to have found a job that I really enjoy and that I am doing great at (IMO) and to have it taken away from you, because there are stupid people running the government. Of course, it matters little that there is no practical way for Lamar to run the district without an assistant, and there is no practical way for him to use the servers that I have built on Linux, since he has no experience with it. That doesn't matter. If I do lose my job it will be interesting to see what shape the district is in after a couple months of school. I don't say these things as a slam on Lamar, I think he is a damn good DTC and tech, but it just isn't feasible for him to be able to do it on his own. So it is a month of uncertainty and looking for positions somewhere else, before I know for sure if I am gone or not.
On a somewhat interesting note, pauline is somewhat happy over the fact. Now she feels free to look at positions that are other places besides here. I am not sure that I am all that eager to leave here though. I like it here. Also, my parents (to the best of my knowledge) have decided on a house plan, and builder for the house on the farm. It looks like it should be started as late as September of this year. Plans envolve me wiring it for data, voice and cable as well as finishing an extra bonus room on the second floor. Looks like I might have plenty of time to help. 🙁