Crappy week, finally over.

This week did not go well for me. I was mostly swamped with sysadmin issues, and didn't even look at my bug queue until this morning. Of course, it was enormous, and I have a lot of catching up to do. And just to keep things interesting, Cert sent out a new cyber security alert last night.

But that's just usual stuff.

However, this week was especially stressful because it was John's last week as our leader. Since John announced his resignation, we've all entered this weird Johnny Mnemonic brain-dump sort of mode, trying to transition as much as possible before his departure. And, it all kind of culminated today, on John's last day.

I tend to get very sentimental, and I really hate saying goodbye (and I'm glad that I wasn't here for Jason's last day). John has been trying to play that whole "I'm not dying you guys, we will still be in touch" card all week. But, I doubt that it made anyone feel any better. Jeff really bummed me out this morning, when he started going through the Oreilly books, to pick out which ones were John's. So, I jumped at the first opportunity to run over to the machine room... the hum of the servers really has a meditative and calming sort of effect on me.

I'll try not to wax poetic too much, but just want to mention one thing, for the record (after all, that is mostly why I write this blog).

There is no doubt that John is an extremely competent sysadmin, programmer, and manager. All of our work lives will be infinitely more complicated and hectic, now that he is gone. That really goes without saying. But what I respect and admire most about John is that he is a genuinely good person, who always tried to do the right thing.

Good luck. And, we'll try not to blow the place up without you.