PeteLumbis(dot)org - Blog

I’ve been quiet in the blogosphere as of late. Work has eliminated almost all respects of that “free time” thing I’ve heard other people talk about (usually while riding the train to or from work).
I’m in the middle of leading a major project to completely redesign a customer’s network, which includes migration plans from the existing network, overnight maintenance windows, Visio diagrams, network configurations and all kinds of other boring stuff. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of time I’ve spent in the last two weeks on conference calls.

I’ve probably averaged around 50-60 hours for each of the last two weeks. To describe the madness I’ve been dealing with, Wednesday I found myself the victim of a lovely food born illness. After calling in sick and spending most of the day dying I was still checking my email remotely when I had the energy to get out of bed. Around 3:00 I was feeling a little better, but still pretty shitty, so I logged in from home and started working. I was about an hour and a half into what I was doing when I had to run to throw up. I took care of that business and went right back to work. Later that night I was part of a simple network maintenance window that took a few hours and found me working from 10:00pm-12:30am.

Last night was a much larger maintenance. I went to work early to try and get everything taken care of and then proceeded to run around all day between meetings, interviews (conducting), working to meet my deadlines and conference calls. I left the office at around 7:00. I got home, ate dinner and headed back to the office around 9:30. I then worked from 9:30pm until we finished the cut over (after a few small bumps) at 2:30am. Everything was kosher so I was happy. Tired, but happy.

My stress level has been reduced from around an 8 (it was around an 11 before I came up with a genius network scheme that got me out of a TON of work) to maybe a 6. That is until we finish the full network migration over an entire weekend a few weeks from now.

In a much larger scheme of things this whole project is great (besides being the occasional major pain in the ass). This is really the experience I was looking to get. This is exactly what I wanted to do and I’m exploring networking technology in a way that is new and interesting. I’m really utilizing my knowledge in a brand new way, and so far, I dig it. I’m learning a lot (in both the hard and soft skills side of things) as well as just getting better at my job, which is a never ending goal. Although I’m working myself to death now, the project will be over soon enough and I can go back to breathing easy and feeling a grand sense of accomplishment.

In other work news I might be flown down to Austin for training for a new client we recently got. Wild. Nothing is official and I’m not going to hold my breath, but I still can’t grasp that. Most of the time I still feel like I’m still a co-op, but apparently I’ve officially entered the world of adulthood.

Tomorrow I’m going to go ride The Cyclone at Coney Island with a few friends. It will be a great way to relax, unwind and not be working.

I didn’t have anything to do today so I met up with Liz and we went to see the International Yo Yo Open at the South Street Seaport. After watching for a while (and taking pictures that I’ll put up sometime in the next decade) neither of us had anything on our agenda so we walked all the way back home to Park Slope. On our way we wandered around DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) had some delicious Mexican food and then kept walking. The whole thing was about six miles. My legs are a little tired from all the walking (in flip-flops none the less. It makes me think of the stories Tom told me about his buddy Mikey walking across Philly in flip-flops). I’m just about to leave again to go see I’ll Come Running as part of the rooftop films series down the street on the roof of the Old American Can Factory.

I’ve been reading Little Brother by Cory Doctrow. A copy was graciously given to me by my friend up the street, Liz. She works for the book publisher, so she hooked me up, what a swell friend.
I want to talk about this book more later but there was a passage I read tonight that rang oh so true. By the way, the book takes place in San Francisco.

Mission burritos are an institution. they are cheap, giant and delicious. Imagine a tube the size of a bazooka shell, filled with spicy grilled meat, guacamole, salsa, tomatoes, refried beans, rice, onions and cilantro. It has the same relationship to Taco Bell that a Lamborghini has to Hot Wheels car.

There are about two hundred Mission burrito joints. There’ all historically ugly, with uncomfortable seats, minimal decor-faded Mexican tourist office posters and electrified framed Jesus and Mary holograms-and loud mariachi music.

I uploaded another day’s worth of pictures from Istanbul. I think the remaining three days are only about 100 pictures so maybe I’ll get them up a little quicker.

Check it!

The weather this afternoon/evening was absolutely amazing. A thunderstorm rolled through early this afternoon and kept the temperature down all day. In order to not feel like a waste of space I decided to go for a nice bike ride down to Coney Island. It was a nice little jaunt through southern Brooklyn. The ride was almost 15 miles, all on the good ol fixie. I’m getting a lot better at going longer distances without really noticing that I’ve been pedaling. Next stop fixed gear bike touring!
One of the coolest things about the ride though was the variety of cultures I saw on my way. I passed a few mosques that were just letting out from prayer (more conservative it seemed based on the dress of the members), orthodox jews, a small Thai neighborhood (I think it was Thai writing), Russian (including a Russian Bath) and Spanish neighborhoods.
At Coney Island I walked around a bit and took a few pictures (that’ll I’ll put online eventually) and played a game of skee ball. I didn’t do very well, but it was enjoyable and I got to give my three measly tickets to a very appreciative little girl.

Living in this big new city is generally pretty boss. I do get sad sometimes at the limited friend base I have though. Tomorrow night Agent Jay of the Slackers is spinning at a bar in Williamsburg. I’d really like to go and do a little dancing but I don’t know anyone in the city yet that likes old Jamaican music and I don’t think I’d have a very good time if I went by myself. Kind of a bummer.

There is a coffee shop next to my house that I hit up probably twice a week at minimum. Some weeks, depending on time and energy I can hit up up way more than this. Almost every day that same nice hipster guy is working and I’ve started to become a regular. Today I went in and bought a muffin and a cup of coffee. While he was getting my coffee I realized I only had $2.75 ($1.75 in change for the coffee and a dollar in my wallet). A muffin and cup of decent coffee costs slightly more than this. Being the nice guy he his and knowing that there is a really good chance I’ll be in again he said that I can pay for the muffin and they’d float me the coffee. I can just come in on Monday and pay for it.

Big ups to not having to pick between a grumbling tummy and caffeine headaches! Also, let this be a lesson: tip your barista if you are a regular, even if they are doing nothing more than pouring drip coffee for you. I might be worth it some day.

I just finished Lonesome Traveler by Kerouac and of course there were a few quotes that I loved and wanted to share.

I turned to breathe the great fresh air of harbors, exulting on my good luck - I pictured myself with grave face pointed seaward through the final Gate of Golden America never to return, I saw shrouds of gray sea dripping from my prow-
I never dwelt on the dark farcial furious real life of this roaring world, wow.

Then I saw in a little park in Place Paul-Pianlevé and dreamily watched a curving row of beautiful rosy tulips rigid and swaying fat shaggy sparrows, beautiful short-haired mademoiselles strolling by. It’s not that French girls are beautiful, it’s their cute mouths and the sweet way they talk French (heir mouths pout rosily), the way they’ve perfected the short haircut and the way they amble slowly when they walk, with great sophistication, and of course their chic way of dressing and undressing.
Paris, a stab in the heart finally.

I really love how much of a hopeless skirt chaser Kerouac can be. His love of women in all forms and the way he expresses it always amuses me.

I really dug the book, it was kind of like the short story version of a few different books detailing a few of Kerouac’s adventures. The book was mostly a positive work (no Big Sur, that’s for sure) and an interesting and short read overall.

I’ve been seriously debating offering what little free time I have to the greater good. I’m still not sure what my average time commitments are like so I don’t know if I want to sign up for anything just yet, but I would like to try and make it work sometime in the future.

I live across the street from one of the most amazing places on the planet: The Brooklyn Superhero Supply store. The store really is what it sounds like. You can buy capes, secret identity kits, cans of “justice” and “muscles” (I’ve actually doubled up on the latter). It’s really entertaining and amazing and it is my goal to take every visitor I have to this place. But in more seriousness, the Superhero Supply is an extension of the 826 Valencia national tutoring organization. Started in San Francisco 826 opened as a “Pirate Supply Store” in the front and an English tutoring center in the back. Kids can come and get help on writing and reading. They started opening places all over the country with different themes (Time Travel in Echo Park LA, Spy Store called “The Boring Store” in Chicago, “Bigfoot Research” in Boston) but all focused on teaching kids how to find a voice and write and read. Amazing.
However, as someone that can barely speak English, let alone read it, I don’t plan on being an English tutor, but they do have openings, or at least listings, for people to help out with IT, something I’d be more than happy to assist with.

So pending the available time, maybe I’ll jump on board with this in the near future. The real thing that gets me about the whole organization is that it’s such a smart way to approach education. It’s so ingenious. Make the kids feel comfortable, but more imporantly, make them want to go to the tutoring center every day. I really love this idea. It makes me want to do the same for math and science tutoring with some front along the lines of an evil chemistry lab or something like that. Maybe someday I’ll start talking to the 826 folks to expand their subject matters. If you want to learn a little more about the origins you should listen to the talk given by David Eggers (the founder) at TED which he discusses his project and organization.

Okay, so I’ve been pretty quite on this thing. Life has not really stopped since I moved to New York (surprising, huh?).

I moved into a new apartment almost a month ago, as i mentioned previously. I’m very happy here. My roommates are awesome, the apartment is wonderful (even if it is a pain in the ass to carry my bike up our retarded twirly staircase). We have a nice roof deck next too our kitchen (only we have access). The neighborhood, Park Slope is awesome (and apparently one of the best in the nation, so says Wikipedia). I’m really happy here. I’d say I’m 95% settled in, with a few things here and there to unpack or get to be completely settled, but nothing that really matters or is essential. Basically I’m lazy.

Work is going well. I’m learning so new things, including network design. I’m actually in the process of completely redesigning the network for one of our clients. The network isn’t large but I’m picking up a few skills that I really need and don’t have/didn’t have before. Even though everything in America’s economy is tanking we are growing really fast and are actually looking to literally double the size of the networking department in the next two months, so that’s really reassuring.

I’ve been making a few friends here and there, most of whom I knew at another time in my life. I’ve been spending time with Erin, of course, but also Liz (who I met through Erin and lives down the street from me), Ilana (who was friends with some friends in Boston and also lives near by) and Karen (who was friends with Sara at BU) just to name a few. They keep me pretty busy.

Alex was here last weekend and we just kind of bummed around Brooklyn all weekend with no real direction or agenda. It was nice to see an old friend.

A week or so before that my friend Genvieve was in town from San Francisco with her boyfriend and I got to have lunch with her and catch up a little bit. It would have been nicer to see her more but neither of us really had the time and finding out we were both going to be in New York was too last minute.

Otherwise here is a short list of things I’ve done in the last few weeks:

• Saw the Brazillan Girls at Prospect Park for free (like 4 blocks from my house)
• Saw Elvis Perkins and the Cold War Kids at Prospect Park for free
• Went to two great company outings with lots of free drinks and food. This included one on like the 30th floor roof deck in way southern Manhattan with an amazing view and a live Afro-Cuban band.
• A private screening of the movie Erin worked on for ages
• A screening for the 24-hour film race that Erin and her roommates did a few weeks back.
• A Mets game (which was fun but depressing to watch as they blew it at the very end)
• High Tea at the Ritz-Carlton as a thank you gift to Erin for helping me paint for an entire week
• Saw a Gotham Girls roller derby league game. The Bronx Gridlock put a serious beat down on the Manhattan Mayhem.
• Discovered the amazing beer and cheese store that’s mere blocks down the street from me. They sell Growlers!

Those are just some of the things I can think of off the top of my head, not to mention the countless just “getting together for drinks or dinner” events I’ve had. Seriously, I only know a handful of people and I’ve never been busier. It’s unreal. But life is good, if a little overwhelming at times. I’m still working on how to strike a balance I’m fully happy with in the work/life/study arena, but I’m working on it.

There is a character by the name of Sean Tevis that is running as a Democrat for a seat as a state representative in Kansas. Although I don’t live in Kansas he seems like an interesting fellow truly looking to try and push for reforms and changes at the state level in Kansas. He also has a great little comic written based on XKCD.

Although he is a little lean on actual issues and platforms, he is running for a state position and you don’t normally see a lot of those on state rep sites. The thing that gets me about him is that he seems to be a truly genuine concerned citizen. As a person that has spent a lot of time thinking about running for political office some day Sean is a little on the inspiring side. He seems to be documenting about what I would expect any sort of political campaign I would ever mount to look like. Although I think my own aspirations are currently limited to the city council level, I do still have some interest in state politics, just not nearly as much as city politics.
Anyhow, he seems like an interesting guy and worth supporting. You should also read his blog, it’s really surprisingly human for a politician. I’m pretty sure I’m going to give him a few dollars, and I’d say you should too if you have the scrilla to spare.

I’ve been talking to my coworker about how we need to let people know when we are rocking out. Last Thursday we put a paper sign up outside of the area the network team sits in. This weekend I went to Ikea and actually picked up a light to make sure everyone knows when we are Rocking The Fuck Out.

From last Saturday through Friday morning Erin and I have been working on painting the room in my new apartment. We were also lucky enough to get occasional help from Erin’s friend Liz. Liz was nice enough to take a few pictures of the final product. Sadly I don’t think there are any pictures of the original disgusting seafoam-ish/greenish/blueish color that was horrible. Erin might, but I’m not sure. Anyhow, look at the pictures, make Charlie Brown jokes and tell me what you think.