Changing Directions and The Switch of Pain...

This past week I finally heard back on the job that I had interviewed for nearly 3 months ago and after a snafu with the communication lines, I didn't end up getting it. So now instead of moving into an engineering/development job working with Linux, I am staying with my current team and moving into a blended role of system administrator and backup network architect/design engineer and overall jack of all trades. This is a little bit of a shock to me as the feedback I had gotten from my three interviews for the other job were all very positive. I had a lot of backing from managers that I have worked with in the past which probably helped propel me into the finalist category. It means a lot to me that someone stepped up to bat for me like that and makes me feel like I have really had an impact in my current role on making things better. The new role that I am playing should pose a new set of challenges, something that I am definately ready for. As a network designer I will have to integrate a couple of very large networks on a global scale and make sure that it fits at least two different company security models. Nothing like have things stacked against you before you get going. I have a great team behind me to make sure that we are successful in getting this accomplished. It has me rethinking about going after my network certification and perhaps pursing one for network design. The two that I am thinking about are the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and the CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate), some credentials that could help on the open market and positively affect the salary level :)

On the switch of pain, it seems that we have had some rough spots in our family attempt to switch from PC's to Apple Mac computers. Kelly has an iBook running MacOS Panther (10.3) and the kids and I share the iMac running MacOS Tiger (10.4). Things bubbled over the other day while Kel was trying to figure out iPhoto and how to change filenames for pictures she has taken. Turns out that iPhoto provides a nice interface to categorlize the pictures and let you rename the pictures while you are in iPhoto, but it is really just a database and it doesn't actually touch the names of the files. So when Kel went to send pictures to a friend, the file had the old filename and out came the flames... After a bit of calming time and talking it through, she is willing to continue working through it and I can safely report that the iBook is still in one piece ;-)