Sweet Victory and Bitter Defeat.

When things all go pear shaped, and it seems like you are bashing your head against a brick wall, just when things seem like nothing else can go wrong... It does get worse. But there is always a solution. Don't fret, it can always be fixed somehow. And if you can't fix it, someone else can.

Point in case, is my friend Jeff. Now despite what the name suggests, Jeff is Russian, or Yugoslavian or something. Jeff is an IT Guru (but I can't show his face on Television). Say hello Jeff. Jeff has a problem. His Server is down and an office full of angry staff are on his back to get it up and running. Jeff's only problem is the fact that he is 900km away and cannot accurately guage the scope of the problem. Remote access is not an option, as the server is not booting at all and there are no staff members that are skilled in the areas of server related RAID controller diagnostics...
As you would assume in this (unnamed) enterprise operations environment.

Enter the McTechnician, a highly skilled and secretly trained Professional, always rising to the challenge of a server resurrection. Server resurrection is almost a dark art, leading the practitioner into the realms of the mystic Linux or Windows Server domains. Twice, was I forced to do battle with the server environment, once supremely triumphant, but denied the title of champion on one occasion. The offending server, a corporate beast of the financial institutional persuasion. Of course I nay describe the owner of this dragon, save to say that I was comprehensively beaten by the brute, failing to locate her storage control drivers in order for a recovery to successfully take place.

Likening myself to St. George, I set a second and third plan into action in a bid to slay the beast and get the system back online, but was defeated on every attempt. Ungracefully, I retreated, like a whipped dog, with it's tail between it's legs. Saddened by the undeniable fact that I had been beaten by a machine and it's pathetic operating system. So with lance in hand and head bowed in defeat, I reluctantly retreated to the office where more such problems awaited. And so ended a challenging day of both victory and bitter defeat.