Deployment Weekend from the 22nd Floor

My official entry to the FUCION newsletter... I wrote this one while running some DTS packages.

The structure looks awfully familiar doesn't it? :) Any Edgar Allan Poe fans there?

Deployment Weekend from the 22nd Floor

Three-thirty in the morning, weekend to deploy, I was working
Never have I even attempted to work this late before
My brain was off and sleeping and yet somehow the rest were working
Struggling, barely breathing, working in the dark twenty second floor
Sounds of keyboard keys clacking and the whirr of the fan for my Pentium four
Just that and nothing more

Russell of Fidelity, IM’d that he’s done with step twenty three
Twenty three completed steps from an SR that had twenty four
The end so close so near, I begin to pack up my stuff, my gear
With just a mind to clear and one last step, ETC is set to four
The one last step: “Run a DTS located in server .154”
Just that and nothing more

Before Russ started sleeping, he had the DTS up and running
Logged off the Reports server and left it for me to monitor
And so at four, I was watching a gray progress bar progressing
Animated gear was moving, percent complete of twenty four
“A few more minutes and I’ll be out of the twenty second floor”
Go home, sleep and nothing more

Five minutes it was fifty and five more minutes it was eighty
My gear was packed, trash thrown out while waiting for just twenty more
Eighty became eighty-one, as the start of the end has begun
Three more percent were gone as I was staring at an eighty four
But after thirty minutes, gear was moving but still showed eighty four
Never moved, never more

“Ah! A test of patience!” I walked around and soaked in the silence
Silence that was rare in this always lively twenty second floor
No pantry meetings, no keyboards clacking, no cheerful morning greetings
Quiet, dreary and boring, nothing else here for me to explore
I went back to my cube, with the DTS still showing eighty four
Never moved, never more

Panic level somewhere near Max, “Ok lang yan” sit and relax
One hour has elapsed, never has this package run so long before
I promised not to start worrying but one hour this has been running
Finally, progress bar moving, no longer was it eighty four
To my horror, it restarted! And now it displayed twenty-four
Just that and nothing more

Four different languages of shouting and cursing with stomping
Killed the silence that used to linger in this twenty second floor
The words still echoing as my eyes saw but never believing
It was just there blinding as it moved and stuck again at eighty four
“Move! Get this thing over with!” I impatiently started to roar
Quoth the DTS “Nevermore”

“Put an end to this sorrow, I promise to optimize you tomorrow”
More promises I made, but all seemed the package shrugged and ignored
Whiteboard marked pointed, “Avada Kedavra” I shouted
But again it restarted, and muttered “Act like you’re twenty four!”
“Commence kicking” said my brain but then a loud beep – someone’s at the door
‘twas my lead, Lure and no one more

A lighter beep sounded, “DTS Package successfully completed”
Lure said “O, tapos na pala,kala ko uwi ka ng four?”
“Completed na migration, pero bago ang celebration,”
“Dapat may verification, lalo sa server .154”
I said, “Sure, pero bakit ka nagra-rhyme? Para kang tumutula.”
He just worked, smirked and nothing more…