My boss was gone for most of one week. he left me a set of tasks that had to be done by the time he got back on friday. one of the tasks was to move the video conference system closer to the monolith (the big ass black cabinet where we keep all the fun AV toys). well in order to do this, i had to somehow convince two large wheeled cabinets with two top-heavy monitors and god knows how much expensive equipment that it had to move across the room and occupy the same point in time/space as a large wall mounted desk, a light fixture, two cabinets and a chair. As i am not the most amazing whiz at physics, i didn't immediately see how this was possible. i was also extremely reluctant to put the video conference system anywhere where it wasn't easily accessible since the system was not working (see adventures in funkytown 2).
I decided that the best way to get this done would be to do it my way. Several people commented later that they heard a lot of loud music, several crashes and some loud swearing coming out of the bat cave that day. Eventually i managed to take the desk apart and stash the various pieces throughout the room so no one would know of the autrocities that had gone on there. I then managed to push, shove and cajole the two huge video carts to where they had to be and it actually looked really nice. After i had finished this arduous, hurculean, titanic (well...tiring anyway) task, there was a knock at the door. I turned down A Newfound Glory and opened the door to refveal one of our storeroom guys. he had a package addressed to me. a very large package.
yay! presents for RoB!
it turned out that the kids at ameritech were tired of klistening to me yell at them over the phone and couldn't figure out why our system didn't work so they send us an entirely new hard drive and Codec unit. I called the help desk guy (who i had by now gotten on a first name basis with) and said "Hey Zack, i got the new unit and it's almost installed but i need you to read me off a couple of numbers for step 17."
Zack: RoB, what are you talking about? the tech isn't supposed to be at your site until one thirty.
RoB: and?
Z: and sit's only 11:00. so what do you mean it's almost installed?
R: it's almost installed but i don't know the numbers i need to put in for step 17.
Z: ummmm...(muffled discussion with person behind zack) RoB?
R: yes?
Z: ummm...can you wait until one or so? the tech will be out there to help you.
there was a loud clunk as the phone went dead.
The tech showed up at 12:30 (while i was out reading Wolverine comics) and was looking around for the new unit. I walked in at around 12:45 to see him on the phone with ameritech. "I KNOW it was supposed to be here...yeah...hold on, someone just came in...hold on, i'll ask" he looked up at me "Are you RoB?" i said yes and he asked me where the new unit was. I opened the cart door and pointed and he said "no, that unit is all hooked up and everything. I need the one that came in the box today." and i explained that everything was done on that unit in the cart except for install step 17. The tech relayed this to Zack on the other end and Zack actually went and found the serial numbers to compare to see if this was really true. (It turned out that i had plugged the audio cable into the wrong slot too but that's the only thing i did wrong.)
Later we tested the system and it all works now (yay) so we're working towards a Fire Chief's conference next month where we hope to beam the governor to the conference via our kick ass video system in the bat cave. I do so love making people think i'm smart.