near misses

i worked on saturday. i mentioned in a previous post that i was very tired and running on empty. well, on saturday it nearly affected my work because at one stage i thought i shutdown a server that processes a lot of the trades from across europe and the far east. my heart was beating at a 1000 a minute when i had thought i had made the mistake and was thinking it was likely that i had. thankfully when i checked it i hadn't shut down that server, but i couldn't remember as i have been running on autopilot.

fatigue is really starting to affect my work. about 2 hours later that same morning i nearly shut down another trading server that i was not supposed to, but i spotted my mistake just before i was about to take it down. it just needs a split second of a lack of concentration to go from shutting down server3424 and instead shutting down server3242, especially when you have 45 servers to go through. saturday ended up turning into another long day. i got into work at 7am and left at midnight. its a good think i don't have a life otherwise it would have been really inconvenient.

this week will be busy because i have to build some esx clusters before i go away on friday. no bother. i can take anything this week.

anyways i dodged 2 bullets, as on both occasions i would have been fired immediately. still, no more 7 am saturday starts for me for the next couple of weekends as i fly away on friday evening. hopefully i will return refreshed.

actually when i return it looks like a few more weeks of work and then it will be quiet as the project i am working on will be completed. i think they won't bother renewing my contract as there won't be anything else for me to do, unless another project comes up in the new year, but i am looking to get out of here anyways. i get the feeling they won't need quite a few of us and a lot of the other people are starting to get worried about not being renewed. me, i am chilling. i really could do with a few weeks off between contracts. i need a break. it feels like i have been at work constantly for the past 2 years, mainly because except for 2 weeks off i have been at work constantly for the last couple of years.

today i have mostly been listening to the cure - a forest. this is epic.