Busy as a Bee, and I am Grateful for it

February 16
Wednesday. As I have mentioned last Monday, I will have a tremendously hectic week. Two jobs came almost at the same time. I'm wondering right now, how come I still have the energy to write an article at this time.

Hello again, wonderful readers and friends. How is your week going so far? I hope you are all doing great. As for me, that's what I will share with you today.

Sometime last week, I was asked by one of the school heads to fix the CCTV cameras. I started troubleshooting them last Saturday. I reported that two of the cameras are broken and two need some re-cabling. I said I will schedule the cabling for Monday.

Last Friday, a friend called me to if I can do a job for them. The job is to install their equipment on three branches of a popular chain of gorcery stores. He let the person in charge call me. The job was simply to plug in network equipment on each branch then test it. Somebody else will do the configuration online. I said yes.
It was an easy task with considerably good pay.

Monday. I had no confirmation from that company that called me. So I thought I will start working on the cameras. The plan is, to reposition one of the cameras with a broken cable to a more strategic position. Two of the affected cameras are not strategically positioned. I suggested not to put them back there. One of the cameras is broken anyway.

Since the other borken camera was in a strategic position, I suggested to replace it with a working camera.
I thought that was the easy job that I can do last Monday. However, when I checked the connectivy of the cable, there was none. We found out that it was bitten off by a mouse. The easy work became another hard work.
What I thought we can finish in a day or one and a half the most, it took us two days and a half to finish it. Almost three days, actually.

Tuesday Afternoon

The equipment that I need to install arrived Tuesday. I had to delay my afternoon schedule to get it after lunch.

Inserting a long UTP cable (network cable) through a flexible hose took so much of my time. Moreover, we were working outdoor under the tremendous heat of the sun. Nevertheless, the camera worked again.

Wednesday.

We finalized the position of the outdoor camera this morning. We started to work on the cable that was nibbled by the mouse. Then another cause of delay. We were able to replace the cable but it was not tested until after lunch.  Again, the work took longer than I have estimated.
After making sure that the camera was fully working, I had to leave at three. I left the job to my companion. All he need was to install the camera on the beam anyway.

First of the Three Branches

I arrived at the first branch of the grocery store where I need to install the equipment. Unfortunately, the person in charge of their IT infrastructure was not there. I had to wait a bit.

I installed the equipment immediately. I was then instructed to contact the IT guy at their head office. x Unfortunately again, he was not available. I was asked just to leave the equipment there and wait for their call.
Well... my side hustle was not finished yet. I hope I could finish everything by tomorrow.

Frankly speaking, I had no idea what was that equipment for. However, after talking with the IT guy and seeing that the equipment is Aruba, it supposed it was some sort of VPN or an equivalent of VPN that will reroute all the network traffic to their head office in Manila.

In closing.

I did any network infrastructure work in the past two years. I'm thankful for jobs like these being handed to me. Not only does it mean an additional source of income for me, but it's also an opportunity to keep me updated on what's new in the IT world.

Thanks for reading