The Incredible Fool

Incredible meaning difficult to believe, not to be confused with uncredible, meaning having no credibility. I have credibility, but I feel many people find what I have to say difficult to believe.

Fool as in someone who is ignorant and perhaps has poor judgement. We are all fools, in this sense. We are all ignorant, and depending on what we are basing our judgments, our judgement may be poor. Accepting that possibility, that I may be a fool, is a means of empowering me to question myself and my judgement.

A jester is someone whose job it is to make people smile and laugh and take things less seriously. I aspire to behave like that, those I can not get to agree with me, or listen to me, I hope to make laugh. People who won't listen and won't laugh frighten me, because they are taking me too seriously.

Additionally, a fool can be someone who "cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm." I love indulging my enthusiasms, if it interests or excites me, I want to do it.

So there you have it, a look at why I claim to be an Incredible Fool. I may not be the only one, perhaps you are one, but it's the name I've given myself, and 'An Incredible Fool' doesn't work well as a pronoun; I am a definite article.

I am also harmless. I wasn't bothered in high school, because no one felt threatened by me. At graduation, I asked one of the 'tough' guys in school, who was only next to me thanks to the alphabet, why I had been left alone, while my friends had taken more flack (sometimes, for me). His word; Harmless. I mean no one harm, please do not harm me.

The Present
I have abandoned Plan A because I do not feel the career I have followed to this point is the right career for me. I worked hard to become a good Linux Administrator, and I have many years of experience doing it. It is a hobby I enjoy thoroughly, and my skills COULD still be put to use in this field.

I consider myself a trouble shooter or an analyst. I analyze scenarios and ask questions, and work to solve problems. It's something I am very good at, though my tact could use some polishing. You have problems, I have solutions. If your problem is that you don't make enough money, hire someone else, I want to fix REAL problems.

I am currently planning out Plan C which is my Epic Road Trip plan to prevent Cabin in the Woods. If you can help, there are ways you can help. If you don't want to help, that's fine too. Just try to stay out of my way, the plan is in motion.

While going off on my trip, I will be still considering Plan A and working on writing some stuff I can share with others, that exhibit my skills as a computer scientist. I will also be pursuing Plan B which is the plan to find something I can do to contribute to society, as anonymously as possible. I do not want glory, I do not want money, I do not want fame. I want happiness and security.

Résumé

 * My LinkedIn profile is much more up-to-date and in-depth.
 * My GitHub repos.
 * I am NOT a programmer by trade, but I do write a lot of code.

The Incredible Fool                                       github.com/cpbills the.incredible.fool@slowdownanduseyourwords.com                Sunnyvale, CA Trouble Assassin - ANALyst SUMMARY - experience solving problems utilizing Perl and shell scripts - eager to sniff out problems and work to implement documented solutions ... very experienced with debugging and refactoring others' code - career of 7 years experience working as a Linux/UNIX Administrator - began experimenting with Linux in 1997 and began career in 2000 - favors security, simplicity and stability over new, untested and novel - proficient with Perl and willing and capable of learning Python ...    ... and anything else required to perform my role effectively SKILLS - Languages: Perl, Shell Scripting (bash / sh), C and SQL - Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware and CentOS Linux - MySQL backup and replication - Nagios and Puppet in a scaled environment - Linux janitorial work, cleaning up messes and improving efficiency - debugging and code interpretation EXPERIENCE FREELANCE LINUX GURU                                        2006 - PRESENT - github repository of projects @ github.com/cpbills - intrusion detection and investigation, finding the hole - MySQL/PostgreSQL database backup and host migration - web site / application debugging and performance tuning MEEBO, INC                           Mountain View, CA   02/2011 - 11/2011 Server Operations Engineer (Team of 6) - automated host and service configuration generation for Nagios - management of monitoring for multiple large production sites - MySQL replication, backup, restoration, fail-over, documentation - configuration of rack switch vlans and vlan migration of hosts MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY             East Lansing, MI   06/2011 - 07-2011 GRID Admin for The Buell Lab (bioinformatics) - Audit a 50 node HPC for crunching DNA data - Examined findings and recommended courses of action - Analyzed systems I was granted access to  BAY MILLS INDIAN COMMUNITY                  Brimley, MI   09/2005 - 02/2010 Linux Administrator / Internet Manager (1 Intern) - log scanner; highlighted and emailed supicious log activity - virtual user database for Postfix, Courier IMAP/POP3, ProFTPd - administration tools for management of virtualized users - planned and executed ISP upgrade from SunOS to Debian - mentored intern, trained to handle some responsibilities JULIAN SAMORA RESEARCH INSTITUTE      East Lansing, MI   09/2000 - 01/2002 Linux Systems Administrator (Team of 2) - management of user accounts and shared resources - managed half a dozen hosts running RedHat and SunOS EDUCATION LAKE SUPERIOR STATE UNIVERSITY   Sault Ste Marie, MI                2005 Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science, Computer Networking

The Future
I have no idea at this point, but I've got some shades, in case my future glows too brightly.

Future employer; I have a programming challenge for you.

The Past
Is the past. I'll blog about my past somewhere else.