X-Games has nothing on systems administration. Nothing. It should be an Olympic sport.

When you're dealing with a mission critical server farm, you have to have excellent hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity, mental fortitude, physical agility, and an extremely fit cardio-pulmonary system. Because when the server goes down, the gloves come off, and the wrist support brace goes on.

As an adrenaline junkie, I rather enjoy the rush. Survival mode kicks in. My heart starts racing. My breathing increases. My eyes go into tunnel vision. I'm typing so fast by fingers can barely keep up. Then there are the obstacles in this technological steeplechase: the phone calls ("The server's down!"), the mysterious problems ("Why do I have two database processes now?!"), the imminent danger ("Every minute we're down costs thousands of dollars!"). I jump over, dodge around, duck under. All in pursuit of the ultimate prize: a well-oiled, fully-functioning server.

But all athletes must retire sometime. The body and psyche can only go so far before fatigue, and even chronic injury, sets in. (More on this later.)

¶ 11:39 AM