Possible Harry Potter spoiler alert:

Well, I just finished the final Harry Potter book. I was absolutely convinced some asshole would walk up to me and say, “Hey, did you hear how Harry Potter ends? Blah blah blah.” Or, I’d be reading some completely unrelated website and accidentally stumble across some crucial factoid or other.

Fortunately, that did not happen. I would have been quite cheesed otherwise…
I’m sure that people think it’s hilarious to watch me fume angrily while contemplating their imminent torture and eventual demise, never realizing how closely they've come to instant and complete annihilation.

If you’ve never read the HP books because you've heard it’s a children’s story, and certainly beneath your dignity, then I’m really glad for you. You’ve neatly excised any opportunity to enjoy a really well-written (and phenomenally well-received) story for the sake of your machismo! You, sir, are brilliant!

For those of you who happen to be a bit more open-minded, I’m sure you’re having a wonderful time discovering how Harry and his band of merry mates work to find the means to destroy LV (as I like to call him) once and for all… or do they??? ;-)

At any rate, I was pleased with the ending. It often seems that ending a series of books is difficult in the extreme and I seldom read a satisfying conclusion. However, in this case, I’d give it an A-.

For me the question wasn’t “Will Harry kill Voldemort?”, the question was “Will Harry and Voldemort both die in the end.” I know that American audiences love to see a happy ending, but I was really hoping that the author, being British, would insert enough reality so as to avoid the insulin rush I normally get. I wasn’t disappointed - in fact, I was pleasantly surprised.

You know, I can’t recall ever having read a book where the good guys lose in the end. I think that would be really novel (no pun intended… ok, maybe it was intended, but you have to admit it was pretty good). By the way, in deference to the non-HP readers out there, that’s “novel” as in “novelty”.

Ok, enough about HP, let’s talk about work. There’s a big re-org that just occurred in my area. One of the supervisors has become a manager, one of my co-workers has replaced the newly promoted supervisor, and yet another co-worker is about to head up his own new group. Notice that I didn’t mention my own promotion in any of that. Now, what I don’t know is what this will mean for yours truly.

What I’ve been told is that, in the short term, the “new” supervisor will be my supervisor. This isn’t a big deal because I was in the military and learned that I could work for anybody. However, what I don’t know is my eventual permanent position.

It’s been suggested that I become an application administrator while continuing to work for the new supervisor, permanently. (Pardon me as I chuckle heartily while shaking my head and smiling ruefully.) Naturally, being a Unix Admin, I consider application admins to be little more than semi-trained monkeys (that’s for you, David B.) Ok, I’m exaggerating slightly – they’re only partially-trained.

At any rate, I’m really curious to hear what the boss has to say on Monday when he gets back from Canada. I’m wondering if he will try to force me to “become” an app dude. I say, become but what I really mean, of course, is devolve. I imagine that, should I be forced to choose between staying in beautiful Sidney as an app admin, or moving back to Omaha as a Unix Admin, I’m pretty sure I’ll be buying some boxes and calling my old boss! ;-)

My wife, of course, would be ecstatic. She’s been pretty bummed lately and really missing her life back in Omaha. I’ve been telling her to suck it up, but if MY job starts sucking, we’re splitting! Heheh.

What I imagine will happen is that I will move downstairs with the other Unix Admins and start working on their hardware as well as my own. That’s pretty cool because they have some nice IBM gear (AIX) that I’ve got some familiarity with.

Speaking of work, I just got back from Omaha where we set up a new DR site. It was pretty cool – I got to see a lot of my old friends (Hi friends) while I was there.

Also, it was a lot of fun installing brand new hardware and trying to get everything working. It seems like we were successful, but we won’t really know for sure until next week when we get all of the remote network stuff in place.

While I was in Bellevue, I stopped by the old house. It still looks like shit – I wonder why it hasn’t sold yet…

Finally, Chris (the crazy one) got a Mohawk haircut the other day. His mom was out of town on some stupid horsey trip, and he asked me if I would give him a Mohawk. Naturally, I said yes and the next thing you know he was sporting a kicking new style. Long story short – his mom was not amused when she came home on Sunday. It’s since been cut down to where you can just barely tell it’s a Mohawk, but it was
cool while it lasted.

Speaking of Suzanne, her pop is in town this weekend and they’re out camping right now about an hour away from here. I’m going to drive out there tomorrow and hang out for the day. I don’t really want to stay the night, so I’ll probably come back early.

I guess that’s about it. I’m no longer hoping that the house sells because we may be moving back before long if those crazy app admins get their grubby mitts on me!
Oh, what the hell, buy my house anyway… I’ll get another one. I’m a big fan of multiple mortgages.

Love and kisses. Your hero,

Anthony.