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I flew into Bethel last night with Carl which was fun - he headed out of Tunt and towards the Kuskokwim looking for moose. Can’t hunt them in the area yet, but people like to keep a look out for them as they’re hoping the zone opens up next year. But, we saw two good size bull moose with big sets of antlers wandering around by themselves just 3-4 miles out of Tunt near the river, so it could well give the locals some nearby hunting grounds soon.

After unpacking a few things in the new apartment last night, I then walked into work this morning to see how far it was (only about half an hour), and got a pretty good sunrise whilst I was at it:

The was just a whisp of mist hanging around the district offices and the high school which added a bit of atmosphere - this is the pretty cool raised boardwalk section, pretty much a bridge, running towards them both:

Work went quite okay. I got all the Win 2k3 servers updated and scheduled for restarts tonight, and setup PowerSchool (SIS) for regular backups to NAS since it seems to be working quite okay after the migration to it’s new server last week. Backup solution starting to get there, though probably just an interim setup as will start looking at better ideas/alternatives once we at least have the core systems backing up each evening so we have something in the mean time.

This evening I was meant to meet up with a couple of guys from work and a couple of Apple reps who were in town to go over some things with the district but the restaurant was closed and guess the other they’d headed off somewhere else before I got there. But, gave me plenty of time to get to Swanson’s to buy some groceries and bits + pieces for the apartment. Got everything cleaned through except the bathroom which I’m going to work on now, and looking pretty good, if a little bare! Will be able to bring some more stuff up next weekend, and then Kat could maybe bring a bag up too as she’s due in town next week for a couple of days training sessions which will be cool.

The last couple of days have been pretty busy at work, but again in a nice way I’ve been able to jump pretty much right in and just start getting jobs done to help out which works well, and I’ve been pleased how well I’ve handled working with the computer systems again given the couple of years I was out the game. Managing Windows servers isn’t too bad either I was wanting to lean away from Windows management, but as it’s not the day to day to grind of dealing with client machines and end-user problems arising from Windows nuances, it’s actually quite okay. There’s also 7 brand new X-Serves for various roles ready to go in, so that should be fun too.

I got an apartment sorted today, I signed the lease and picked the keys up earlier. I went with one of the houses I’d seen on Tuesday from Jimmy Guinn, as the other places I’ve looked at have either been a little way out from the main areas in the center of town, or $1200 without utilities making it pretty expensive. But, I’ll be able to get straight into this apartment next week and get a little more settled.

Hopefully tomorrow is good day to round off my first week, and I’m booked to fly back to Tunt with Yute in the afternoon - weather is meant to be clear and should get me back into the village without too much of a wait hopefully. Certainly a different commute home on a Friday afternoon!

All in all, a pretty good day Work was interesting, but good fun. I got some office space sorted (I’ll be living in a cube!), and started looking over the current setup. The other guys there were real friendly + helpful and we started going over the servers they’re running, and tomorrow we’re all going to get together and start to work out what my responsibilities will be in terms of maintaining the core server functions leaving the other guys to concentrate on the actual server role. Shouldn’t be too complicated and makes things a little easier.

There’s 11 Windows Server 2003 systems, a mix of Dell PowerEdge 2550’s, 2650’s and 6850’s, as well as half a dozen Mac X-Serve servers with another 4 brand new ones sat in boxes ready to go. There’s also a ProLiant E5405 Windows Storage Server 2003 acting as a 2Tb NAS, with a VTrak E610f 6Tb NAS just hanging out that isn’t up and running yet. So, not hurting for storage space! The trick will be aggregating all the backups from the multiple servers onto the storage devices. First task will be moving one off site I guess. But, this was a photo I snapped at lunchtime - the district office is the green building on the left, with Bethel Regional High School on the right:

I also saw an ad in the offices about a house for rent so called up this evening - turns out the guy has a bunch of houses around town and came picked me up and toured me around them which was real nice of him. He had one apartment in a tri-plex right down by the river near Swanson’s, so fairly central, pretty much fully furnished and including all water, heat, sewer and electricity for $1150 a month which I took. Is a nice little place, nothing too fancy, but clean and tidy and somewhere to sleep! Is literally right at the end of the trail from Tunt up to Bethel just off the river so stupidly easy to get to if I ride the snowmobile up in the winter, and being right near Swanson’s, one of the major grocery stores, will help too. He’s going to sort out a rental agreement and bring it round tomorrow so I can move in next week (cos I’m going to have soooo much stuff to move in…). Real nice guy - Jimmy Guin (not sure on the spelling), and he’s a contractor around Bethel so would fix anything right up if something broke.

But, I swear I’ve never met so many people with English connections or stories! 8.05a.m a lady came with a MacBook that wouldn’t power up - had spent a year or so teaching in Newcastle. Ted, the technology director, had grown up around the north east and visited last summer. And then Jimmy’s daughter and her husband and currently living in Liverpool studying for her master’s degree! Have met more folk with connections to England than when I was living there

After waiting around in Tunt due to a thunder + lightning storm rolling around, Carl called me up and we got of Tunt around 9.30p.m. Pretty cool flying in a Cessna 172 for the first time and I could hear all the radio chatter too which makes it more interesting than on the bush flights when sat up front and just have the drone of the engine to listen to! He gave me a ride into town which was really good of him, and the B&B is really nice - they’ve only been open about a year and is probably one of the nicest places you’ll find in town Their Wi-Fi is pretty fast too!

Hoping to get some sleep ready for an early start tomorrow. Getting pretty nervous as kinda tired now with waiting around so long in Tunt, and just want to get started and the first day out the way!

The last few days I’ve been brushing up on OS X server and some Windows Server 2003 training ready for next week. Trying to cover all bases depending on what systems I’ll actually be working with and getting back up to speed on what I used to do on daily basis.

I got booked into gr88 Bear B&B for Monday-Thursday night which shouldn’t be too expensive and hopefully I can find somewhere to start renting for the following week. I also headed round to chat with Carl McIntyre who travels into Bethel during the week as well working for AVCP who offered me a seat with him flying in tomorrow evening in his Cessna 172 which helps out a little too. Will be nice to already know someone living in town to maybe meet up for something to eat or in case I need help with getting things sorted.

Always a little mix of nervousness and excitement when starting a new job, but really looking forward to getting into Bethel tomorrow night ready for Tuesday morning!

Got a phone call this morning from the school district in Bethel to confirm starting the system analyst job next week Guess I need to find somewhere to stay now… Looking forward to it though, and there’s already a little project lined up for my first day (Tuesday, since Monday is Labor Day public holiday). Plan to fly into Bethel on the Monday evening as even with the best will in the world the bush flights wouldn’t get me in by 8a.m on the Tuesday morning!

I’ve been filling in the paperwork for a new hire - working out your own tax deductions via the W-4 seems inane given all payroll info is going to be handled via computer which could spit out your deductions in an instant. It’s pretty different to back in England though where married filing jointly doesn’t affect things and child tax credits are handled separately too. Guess the idea is to have as much as possible handled within your pay check rather than additional credits here and there and then rebates at the end of each tax year which makes sense. Still think i prefer the UK way where you don’t have to even file a tax return under most circumstances and have it all handled automatically for you

Pending a reference check from Greencroft, today I was hired as the new system analyst managing application systems for the school district, scheduled to start next week It was a fairly informal interview, but a great opportunity to meet the other guys within the technology support team, and I then spent an hour or so with personnel and the technology director to give me a few things to start thinking about working towards to try and hit the ground running on the first day (always easier said than done!).

The role will primarily focus on supporting all the servers across the district in their overall day to day running including backups, updates, and routine maintenace, with two other system analysts in web systems and networking systems maintaining their actual roles such as looking after the e-mail system, school information system, distance learning courses, etc. I’ll also be taking care of the end user support with regards to the FileMaker database systems, as well as the increased use of the school information systems. It will certainly be a very challenging though equally as rewarding role, and the district also hired a new itinerant site technician yesterday that will travel between some of the villages - a good sign they’re continuing to move forward and improve their support services.

I’ll work the next few days here in Tunt to finish off the project dismantling the basketball project as I hate leaving things unfinished, and it will also help with an extra bit of money to see us through as it would be the middle of October before the first pay check from the new role would appear. Living in Bethel won’t be cheap! Hopefully the district will get in touch to confirm all is sorted on the reference checks and I can start next week, and this weekend I might also try chatting with Carl here in the village as he flies into Bethel during the week too working for AVCP so might have some suggestions on getting housing sorted.

At the start of the week I put in an application for a system analyst position with the school district up in Bethel. It’s a little different than what I was doing at Greencroft before I moved out to the US, and in some ways a bit of a step up and away from the network management side of things, but looks like a great new challenge. This afternoon I got a call back from the technology director inviting me for an interview next Tuesday afternoon (meaning, of course, it will snow on Monday evening and I’ll be stuck in the village on weather hold ) which is pretty exciting and encouraging, so this weekend I guess I’m brushing up going through my notes from past courses and exams, as well as making sure my suit still fits… But, small world, although the director spent 40+ years in Australia before moving over to the US, he grew up in England and still has some family in Chester-le-Street, about 7-8 miles from Durham!

But, I was wanting to move away from Windows-based systems even whilst at Greencroft and the school district is pretty much all Mac-oriented, meaning Filemaker would be a little different for me for example, and quite a bit of the role seems to involve the back-end systems rather than installing a new printer cartridge or replacing a RAM module, which is nice. Would mean basing myself out of Bethel, which is mixed good + bad - would be nice to get out the village during the week when everyone is busy teaching anyways and would mean I could easily get fresh fruit + veg brought back in for Kat, but the cost of living in Bethel is pretty extreme with heat easily going to be $500 a month, even before $200 round-trip on the bush flights to get me in + out of Tunt. Depending on exactly what the position includes, might even be possible to work out some time basing myself out of the school here in Tunt during the winter when there *will* be weather holds between here and Bethel.

Still, it’s a great opportunity to get back into working at something I enjoy doing and something I can make a difference with, and the money is very attractive. Would offer enough to rent somewhere in Bethel for during the week and fly back pretty much every weekend and still leave me better off than working two jobs for the school here in Tunt. Not quite your normal commute to work, admittedly. I’ll have to see how the interview goes and exactly what the role would include, as well as how to work the traveling, but would certainly be an improvement from falling off ladders

Whilst working on Saturday morning I decided to throw myself off a ladder for something to do I did manage to find the only place in the steel storage building to do this where I wouldn’t crack my head on a 4-wheeler, filing cabinet, or metal trolley, and also landed flat on my back as opposed to something silly like on a shoulder or ankle where a break or dislocation would have been an odds-on favourite to have happened.

Okay, so I didn’t exactly do it on purpose (and apparently the precedent was set by needing to get drunk before falling down and suing the school…). As I was stepping off the ladder onto the upper level of the building, the ladder slipped away from under my other foot, sending me 8 feet or so onto the wooden boardwalk below. Over an hour at the clinic today (ten points for guessing it’s not open over the weekend, though at least there is an emergency call out available if it had been serious) and all I got was some ibuprofen and told to take it easy, which is about all I was expecting, though the doctor that checked over the details back in Bethel did suggest going into the hospital if it get’s worse or doesn’t ease up in a week or so. Which was nice. Hard for them to done anything else really, as nothing is broken or obvious signs of problems other than swelling + bruising, and they were very nice whilst checking me out.

I might be going into Bethel in the next week or so in an attempt to get out of the heavy lifting business anyway- more on that one as things pan out. Could get Subway whilst I’m at it! In other news, Kat’s half-sister Cheri` sent through a care package containing 36 Twix bars

The last few days have slowly been easing us back into village life after our vacation. It’s been nice to see the teachers coming back and meeting the new guys. Everyone is back now, with Pam and Dan are out again in Bethel for a couple of training days. Frank + Mark have me working on taking down the outdoor basketball court which is kinda sad in a way - the court belongs to the tribal council who are charged with then reconstructing it, however the way things work out here, that could take some time meaning the kids now have even less to do around the village. But, playing out well after curfew until midnight and then starting again at 5a.m (no-one knows how they get up that early when standard wake-up time is closer to midday!) means it’s kinda been brought upon themselves, and there’s a new steel building waiting to be built where the court is currently sited so Frank wants it gone.

We had the power out for 5 hours or so this afternoon as the new airport gets their electrics hooked up which is kinda cool. At least the generators wound themselves back up again and power came back on okay Kat has been busying herself at school over the weekend getting her classroom ready - they have a couple of inservice days at the end of the week before the kids start back on Monday. I think all the kids are struggling with such a long summer without fish camp to go to and could do with getting back into the swing of school schedule! The weather has been pretty warm too, though it’s meant a ton of tiny no-see ‘ums that fly right through the bug mesh on the windows Give some fantastic bug bites…

Yup, back to normal!