OMFG that's early

[psyco-path.livejournal.com]

I'm converting my facility to ethernet (from token ring, yes I know.) I start Sat morning at 1 am and will work 13 hours then come back and do the same thing sunday. I am a (somewhat) old fart who hasn't seen that side of 2am for many many moons.

How would my fellow geeks suggest I prepare for this wonderful fun time?

My plan as it stands is waking up early (like 3 am) on friday morning working a half day of work going home and passing out.


Comments?

X-posted

Comments

[tmercenary.livejournal.com]

I work 4X10 graveyard shifts normally. Do the half day Friday, depending on your comute, you may want to take a extra hour for lunch and take a nap. I do this when I have to do an extra 3-4 hours once in awhile.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Got plenty of your favorite caffeine or other late-night stimulant?

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

red bull and no doze is your friend.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

that's a good plan. Get very little sleep. Going ot work that day will give you a reason to stay up. When you go home, make sure you take a sominex or somehting so that you sleep the whole time. You wouldn't want to wake up at four PM or somehting and then be screwed. Changing your sleep scedule can be fast, but you really have to work for it. Treat it like jet lag and write out a scedule so that you know what's up. in fact, you might want to keep a timekeeping device with the time purposely wrong so that at 2AM when you wake up for work your watch says it's seven or something. Keep a cell phone on for real time, and keep a watch with Rich-time on it so that the times make sense in your brain.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I didn't even notice that this was one tech-support. I should pay more attention.

Evil long shift preparedness list

[dreamatdrew]

[] As much sleep as humanly possible beforehand
[] Massive amounts of caffinated beverage of choice
[] Massive amounts of munchies of choice, sugar prefered
[] Sterio/walkman/iPod/SOMETHING with lossa high energy music which you can crank
[] A kitchen timer with a REALLY LOUD bell (trust, it helps to close your eyes for 10 minutes or so, especially after dealing with lossa wiring, but you dont wanna keep em closed for too long)

[psyco-path.livejournal.com]

I do. that's a given.

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

COFFEE!?

[inahandbasket]

Plenty of good advice above, but I just need to say it...

UPGRADING FROM TOKEN RING???
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[psyco-path.livejournal.com]

I could go on about the horrors that I encountered when I arrived.

7" floppy diskettes
Cassette tape backups

Old machines were placed in a closet when not used anymore.

I felt like an archeologist.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

There are companies that specialize in safe handling of those sorts of materials. Tried getting a job with one to no success. Smelting lead glass monitors and stumbling across the odd SuperStack III would be infinitely more interesting than "check your speaker wires, I know it sounds stupid but they do break from time to time".

[tecie.livejournal.com]

We just did something like that in my DC a few months ago. Are you in IBM? (I thought we were the last holdouts, that's why I ask)

[psyco-path.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not at IBM.

I'm not going to say where but we're in the top 20 on fortune's list.

Is it me or are the really big companies the ones who upgrade last?

[revchris.livejournal.com]

The average University's got you beat in that area. I support one lab that still has a 386 running DOS. They've got two spare computers, just in case, because the machine it connects to is so old that nobody makes newer software, and the old software has timing issues on anything faster.

Of course, on the other end, I've got a 100-unit dual-Opteron246 cluster arriving in about a month for one of the computational groups.

[kalium.livejournal.com]

My University has a PDP-11 stashed somewhere.

Oh, and the bits and pieces of Enigma laying around*.



*may actually be on display, not in use

[revchris.livejournal.com]

We have lots of enigmatic pieces laying around. Does that count?

[kalium.livejournal.com]

Not really the same, you know?

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

Are you making your own patch cables or using premade (ends already put on)?

[psyco-path.livejournal.com]

Pre-made but we have to manualy label each end.

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

Nah. Stay up late tonight, sleep in on Friday morning as late as you can manage, have a slow, relaxing day with catnaps, and then power through Saturday morning using energy drinks and possibly cocaine.

Go home, crash, repeat. Sunday will be easier.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Um, regarding the munchies and so on.

Try to reserve the caffeine to last resort status. You have a rebound effect if you consume too much over an extended period.

Try NOT to overdo the carbs/sweets. Once again, reserve them for last resort time for a quick boost. Everyone's heard of the sugar crash...

The best thing is to keep stocking up on high protein - carbs the night before for helping you sleep, then a big protein-filled "breakfast" when you wake up. Bacon and eggs is good. Burgers and even pizza while you work are also good. Things like jerky for snacks is good too.

I know the aforementioned steps, because this is the advice that our safety team at work gives to air traffic controllers on shift work. You want those guys to be awake! And it works, since I've tried it on those late night jobbies.

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

had EXACTLY the same once ;)
worked in an factory to renew the network completely without disturbing the work. on day-X, i had to stay onsite the whole day to prepare, the whole night for the change and 3h of the next work-day to check the change worked.
was an 28 hour day at work and 30h without sleep for me :)
i LOVED it :)
after i was sure everything is working, i drove to an lake, layed down in the sun and slept for hours *G*
*set geekmode=1*