CULT OF JAMES

Overnight shift at the NOC. Seven hours on the clock, almost two miles of hallway and parking lot. This is what you do when you’re an Engineer I on nights — you watch dashboards, you troubleshoot circuits, and when you need to think through a problem, you walk. Louisville in July, even at 2 AM, still warm enough to not…

End of a summer day in Louisville. Humid enough that stepping outside felt like walking into a wall. Just a short loop around the neighborhood — less than a mile, no agenda. Sometimes you just need to move after sitting all day. The pace says “slow” but I wasn’t trying to go anywhere. Just out and back before dark. 📊…

The big one. Four miles across a nine and a half hour overnight. Must have been a busy night — more outages, more walking to think, more laps to the park and back while waiting for a circuit to come back up or a vendor to call back. Four miles doesn’t sound like much until you remember it happened between…

Short night or a quiet one. Under an hour of movement, quarter mile. Some shifts the tickets don’t come and the circuits don’t drop and you sit at the terminal watching dashboards stay green. Got up once. Walked to the break room. Walked back. Logged it anyway because if it counts, it counts.

Sunday overnight into Monday morning. Eight and a half hours, almost two miles of restless laps. Weekend NOC shifts are quieter — fewer tickets, fewer calls, more time alone with the hum of the equipment and whatever’s in your head. Started tracking these walks because the Fitbit was already on the wrist. Might as well know how much ground you…

Third overnight this week. Almost six hours at the console, mile and a half of laps around the building and the park nearby. The routine settles in by now — you know which vending machine still has Dr Pepper, which hallway is coldest, which bench outside has the best view of nothing. Troubleshooting networks at 2 AM has a rhythm…

Eleven and a half hours. The long shift. Almost three miles of walking spread across an entire night — desk to break room, break room to the park outside, back to the desk, back to the park. Repeat until the sun comes up and the day shift arrives. The NOC doesn’t care what time it is. Networks break at 3…

Overnight shift at the NOC. Almost five hours on your feet but only a mile and a half of actual movement. The rest is screens, tickets, and the hum of networking equipment that never sleeps. You get up because sitting for eight hours straight in front of a terminal will kill you faster than the problems on the screen. Walk…