The Other Side of the Law

I know it’s been a log time since I last posted here, but there are several good reasons why this is the case…namely being I am 2 hours away from my home computer upon which I feel most comfortable writing posts and the fact that for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been very busy at my new job. So…on with the show!

As you know, I’m now working at a law firm in Helena, Montana. It’s a pretty nice place that has around 70 people working for it in 3 different offices in 2 different cities (Helena and Missoula). I’m working in the Helena office which occupies 2 buildings.

To make the geeks that read this blog happy: We have 7 servers (1 Novell Networks Server, 1 GroupWise Server, 1 BlackBerry Server, 1 Citrix Server, 1 Storage Server, 1 ProLaw Server and 1 Phone System/Server). Now, when I was at my last job, I got to mess a lot with the client side stuff for Novell and GroupWise, but the server stuff I have never done before, so it’s been a good learning experience so far. Before working here I had only heard of CrackBerries (BlackBerries) and had never done any administration of a server for them or even held a handheld unit. Now, after spending about 5 hours on the phone with Tech Support, I know a lot more than I ever thought I would. Citrix I’ve only heard of once before, and so far, I know I don’t like it. Other than that…nothing to say there. ProLaw is the software that keeps track of all the cases, documents, changes etc that the firm generates or is involved with. That is to say: It’s a HUGE database of TONS of data. I make sure it’s backed up every night.

When I first started here, the BlackBerries weren’t working all that well and there was a trouble ticket list around 30 items long. People added stuff all day long my first two days there, but I’m pleased to say that now, 2 weeks later, the list is down to 16 items. That may still sound like a lot until you realize that 4 of those are research, 2 are long term projects, 2 are training issues that I need (namely ProLaw and Citrix) and 2 of them are things I am waiting on other people for. All-in-all…not a bad 2 weeks, if I do say so myself. That also doesn’t include the tickets that I get while walking down the hall, sitting at my desk, hiding by the server, crying in the closets…wait, scratch that last one…or anywhere else people find me (I got a trouble issue while standing outside my truck in the parking garage one evening even).

I sent this to one of my sisters, but can’t think of a better way to put how I feel about my work, so I’ll just paste it here: I've never had a job that I really used everything that I knew. This one is no different. But, I have had many jobs (like this one) that have a little to do with what I know, but more to do with taking calculated risks to make results. What I mean is this: We were wanting to reprogram something that we have (a Cisco Router for the geeks out there). I've never done it and nobody else here has either. We were going to spend $80 on 1 cable that would get us to where it would allow us to do our work, but I said that I would see if I could figure something out with what we had. I took a laptop, some cables and some parts down to the server and figured out the stupid thing. Saved $80 and learning some really cool stuff in the process. To me...this is what it's all about. Take what you know and make the next big leap over what you don't know to land safely on the other side. Sure...you'll fall down sometimes, but damned if you didn't learn something then too.

One top of that, everything else has been going well. We went to this place called “Gates of the Mountains” last weekend that was really nice (mountains, a boat ride on the river, goats, wild eagles) which is where the picture at the top of the blog comes from. This weekend, we plan on going to a concert at Carol College with fireworks and everything. Should be a great weekend.