Daryl the Admin

#vCluster (my new gig) is doing some really interesting work in the Kubernetes and infrastructure space. It's great people, an interesting product suite, and a set of challenges that pique the curiosity.

If that sounds like something you're interested in, there's lots of roles open from technical account managers, support, product, customer success, and marketing.

We make heavy use of LLMs. So if that's a no for you, then this isn't the link to follow.

https://www.vcluster.com/careers#jobs

This is a post about connecting people to jobs in a challenging market for that. If you feel the need to comment about AI, please don't.

#getFediHired

I've just had to disappoint my doctor's research coordinator by declining to participate in a clinical trial for a new #crohns medication under study.

I'd be willing to participate generally, but the time commitment is just too much. Numerous pre-launch visits, two endoscopies (colonoscopies) and then monthly follow ups for the first three months alone.

Not with a new job, unfortunately.
She was so disappointed when I wound up declining. I'm sure it's hard to find willing and able participants in central PA, though. So I get it.

But it's still a no for me.

For the last few days, there have been loads of dandelion fluff/seeds floating through the air all above and around my house. I don't remember this in past years. It's a wild thing.

Why yes, our yard and the yards around us have many, many #dandelions. Why do you ask?

Okay, hive mind.
I have a cousin (cousin, once-removed, if you needed to know) that's graduating from high school with an associates degree in computer science. An aunt wants to give this cousin a computer science-y book.

Recommendations?

And .... GO.

#askFedi #question #giftIdea #books #computerScience #Grad

Winding up missing an important #crohns tele appointment I was literally sitting waiting at my device to attend (for an hour!) because of stupid things really has me very, very annoyed this evening.

#ibd #crohnsDisease

Have box, insert cat.

#cats #CatsOfMastodon #TuxedoCats

Find yourself a friend to judge the world with.

#cats #catsOfMastodom #caturday

Find yourself a friend to judge the world with.

#cats #catsOfMastodom #caturday

https://mynoise.net coming in clutch this afternoon.

#backgroundNoise #SoundScape #Sounds #generator #focus

Oooh! I remembered to give myself my dose of #skyrizi today.

Go me!

And that's with post-general-anesthesia brain!

#crohns #CrohnsDisease #IBD

I just want to be done with the thing already.

But a few wins:
- Pharmacy had the prep they want me to use, and it wasn't GoLytely
- New healthcare got me my ID card with all the necessary numbers before I headed to the pharmacy to pick up the prep
- I got a morning procedure time slot instead of an afternoon one

#crohns #crohnsDisease #IBD

Successful first day!

#vCluster is doing some really, really interesting things in the Kubernetes space!

Monday tips from Stormy:
Stretched out naps for the win.

#CatsOfMastodon #FediCats #TuxedoCats

If you need an idea for your Sunday, Stormy and Bluebell suggest:

#naps #CatsOfMastodon #FediCats #caturday

New AI safety protocol dropped.

#ai #safety #llmops #funny

Avoiding the docs slide into staleness takes some proactive effort. But a lot of that can be automated these days.

I talk about some suggestions in a blog post here: https://djw.fyi/portfolio/preventing-drift/

#WriteTheDocs #docs #TechnicalWriting #DocOps #LLMOps

What did March do that was so horrid it has to give an hour to November every year?

I want a full weekend, damn it!

#DaylightSavings #SpringForward #TimeChange

As it turns out, I have Thoughts and Opinions about docs. Who knew?

Amazing what years and years of doing something and building a skill (no, not the Clause kind) does

#WriteTheDocs #documentation #docs

Welp, the thing happened to me today.
AI took my job.

I learn hard things fast and explain them clearly.

Do you or someone you know need that skill?

#TechnicalWriter #training #OpenToWork #GetFediHired

Pictures from the Susquehanna just as the Great Thaw maybe finally begins.

#snow #river #williamsport #pa #susquehanna

Today I'm thankful for modern medicine that can help my body realize my intestinal tract is actually still important and useful and not and enemy that needs to be constantly attacked.

There a lot wrong with American healthcare, but for this part of if (and that I can actually access it), I'm grateful.

#Skyrizi #Crohns #IBD #CrohnsDisease

Nacogdoches (TX) // Nachitoches (LA)

We are not even close to being pronounced the same way.

#RidiculousTownSlogans
#HashTagGames

First Monday of February?
Also Groundhog Day?
Also six more weeks of winter?
Also <<waves hands furiously in all directions>>?

Good thing I don't rely on signs for anything.

#auspicious

An ophthalmologist explains how to be prepared for and what to do in the event you're watching TV in your own home and find yourself getting pepper sprayed.

You know, just for informational purposes.

https://youtube.com/shorts/z4dy0Wgct90

#Preparation #ICEOutNow #DayOfAction #protest

Writing is often the smallest part of a tech writer's day. Consider our work as a kind of super QA team and alpha tester that goes beyond making sure the software works as the ticket describes, for example.

Read more:

https://djw.fyi/posts/tech-writer-as-qa/

#techWriting #documentation #writeTheDocs #docs

I logged what I ate yesterday.

Calorie total was okay, but I had way too much fat and not even half of my protein target.

And I know this is why you track.

#healthAndFitness #weightTraining

!important poll about cookies (the edible kind).

There is only one right answer, of course.

#poll #cookies #dessert #preferences

Some of the things I do as a software tech writer that this blog post misses:

- QA (and not the kind where you're asking if the thing works as described, but the kind where it tests if the thing works in a way that makes sense for end users and their needs)
- Installing the thing and testing it (and not in a software test kind of way, but in a "how the end user needs it to work" kind of way)
- Reading support tickets to find where users are banging their heads so we can stop the 🤕
- Talking with sales teams to find what the asks are in prospect meetings so that we are talking about them

#docs #documentation #techWriting

Tell me you haven't talked to a real live tech writer on a time scale of decades without telling me.

https://kibbler.dev/blog/turn-your-codebase-into-a-knowledge-base

#TechnicalWriting #docs #documentation #writeTheDocs #techWriter

Select all that you have in your residence

#poll #ModernLife #prepared

Renee Nicole Good

#SayHerName

We need more people paying their #CatTax or other #PetTax.

#CatsOfMastodon

I give myself a shot thing for #crohns about every eight weeks. It's not a big deal, really. And the meds work.

So I use a sharps container. Fine, pharmacy (or someone in the great cacophany of folks involved) provided me one. Today's dose filled it up.

The container had a number to call about getting a box to recycle them. I called it. It was the manufacturer's assistance program. Fine.

Spent 10 minutes updating all of my information with them. Then the agent says, "Oh, we don't take those in any more."

🙄

You could have saved me ten minutes when the first words I said were "sharps container".

How many books do you currently have in progress?

#books #reading #inProgress

Understand Chicago.

https://aphyr.com/posts/397-i-want-you-to-understand-chicago

#chicago #ice #deportations #dontLookAway

The problem is that it's 7:30 and I want to go to bed. But I have to mentally pretend that it's 6:30, which is really just too early to crawl into bed, isn't it?

#TimeChange #DaylightSavings #FallBack

I don't know about the rest of most of you here in the US and Canada, but this 49 hour weekend we have coming up is absolutely NEEDED.

#DaylightSavings #FallBack

Europe ends Daylight Savings Time this weekend (October 26) and the US and Canada follow the next weekend (November 2). Thus we enter the semi-annual weeks when no one can schedule a meeting with someone in either of those territories accurately.

#DaylightSavings #MakeItStop

Choose your week-long conference roommate from one of these TNG recurring characters:

#StarTrek #ChooseYourDoom #NextGeneration #TNG

For my soon-ish birthday, my specialty pharmacy gave me a nearly $7,000 bill for the latest shipment of the single dose of medicine I take every eight weeks.

Never mind that when I changed to this group of providers with my insurance change back in June I gave out information numerous times to multiple parties that should make my co-pay $0. Including to one company in the chain whose sole purpose is making sure I have a $0 co-pay.

Ah, #americanhealthcare !

#chronicIllness #crohns #ibd #skyrizi

Successfully re-upped my internal 5G receptors for the current season.

(Note: This is mostly a joke with a real event that occurred today behind it.)

#CovidIsNotOver #COVID #Vaccine #flu #fluShot

My oldest asked for help getting started with the budgeting app we use. Of their own accord. Unprompted.

(Granted, we've suggested this a couple of dozen times since they started working about a year ago. But you take the wins where you can.)

So they are currently setting up their categories, setting targets, and assigning their current savings to them in #YNAB.

So proud of them!

#teens #parenting #budgeting #financialLiteracy

After years of IV infusions and hours traveling to and from IV centers, self-medicating at home in five minutes while also continuing to work is still amazing.

#crohns #crohnsDisease #ibd #skyrizi

#caturday #CatNaps #SundayNap #cat

When you install a newer version of a software program, are you:

#writeTheDocs #docs #documentation #wordChoice #terminology

My #CrohnsDisease has been well controlled since 2020 (thanks to awesome, yet horribly expensive medications). But every now and then I have a day that reminds me what uncontrolled #Crohns is like.

Today is one of those days.

I have reached the stage of my current dose of #Crohns meds where my body is letting me know the med is low and starting to rumble.

I'm due tomorrow.
Thank the stars.

#ibd #crohnsDisease #skyrizi

This is how an AI sees it.
And then the dragons arrived.

(The Coming Wave, Mustafa Suleyman)

#AddDragons #books #FediGames #MastoGames

Tell me the opening line of a book, but add "and then the dragons arrived" at the end.

#AddDragons #books #FediGames #MastoGames

This brought to you by learning today that I'll have four weeks to potentially find and see a new care team, get them to issue a new script to a new pharmacy benefit provider, get pre-approval for Skyrizi from said pharmacy provider, and get the med delivered by a new specialty pharmacy.

But I can't even find out yet if my doctors are in network with the new plan or if the benefits will even consider covering Skyrizi. So that's exciting.

#crohns #crohnsDisease #healthCare