A Friday celebration for admins, on their day. With contests, games, and surprises. Just like it was 8 years ago.
Preparation for the Admin Day 2011 started a few months earlier. I received this letter:
Dear ADMINS!
The 'System Administrator Day' is just around the corner! We're preparing for the third IT festival ADMINFEST.
Traditionally, the IT festival will take place in Rostov-on-Don as part of the All-Russian Sysadmin Gathering.
The event program includes: A grand opening of the Festival, an obstacle course, CD bowling, and traditional sysadmin contests: mouse throwing; keyboard assembling; destroying an effigy, and, of course, a festive evening in your honor.
Participating teams: teams are formed of 8 people, if you are a united group of ADMINS, register your team and take part in the traditional sysadmin relay.
Jury: Members of the IT Directors Club of Southern Russia – 'THE KNOWLEDGEABLE ONES'.
Participation in the event is free, no strings attached...
Registration is voluntary, BUT STRICTLY MANDATORY. Those who cannot attend will receive 20 tickets for the helpdesk WITHOUT QUEUE.
Then another letter arrived, but this one was more detailed:
There are 17 days left until AdminFest!
If your entire workday revolves around the computer, you have a screwdriver instead of car keys, you understand DNS and HTTP, and the world's problems are just the world's problems, if you can't stand stupidity and believe in Cthulhu, your favorite outfit is a sweater, worn-out jeans, and comfortable sneakers, and you count yourself among that unique group of people whose profession is 'system administrator', then we await you on July 29, 2011, to together challenge the widespread ignorance and misunderstanding of the basics with traditional sports events and activities — at AdminFest!
This year we're inviting you to dive into the atmosphere of revolution, from party cards and workdays — to real slogans and manifestos. Feel the magical aroma of freedom of speech, express your concerns, and fight against the unreasonable! We cannot wait for kindness from nature; taking it from her is our task!
Our demands: 'Down with computer illiteracy! Every User knows where DNS is!'
Such 'rules' were on both sides:
The 'Admin' Oath:
I (Full Name) solemnly swear allegiance to the ideals of the admin brotherhood and the entire world of information technologies, and I pledge:
— to not deviate even an inch from the unwritten charter of the SA, to honor its traditions and the spirit of the invisible union of information technologies;
— to participate relatively honestly in the struggle for survival and in tough times never to let down friends, fellow admins, and not to abandon careless users too often;
— to share knowledge with my colleagues, sparing no byte for those worthy and faithful to the spirit of brotherhood;
— to be a model of culture, to promise much, and to work as needed;
— when encountering a capable user, not to hinder their evolution, but to observe and quietly enjoy the spectacle;
— while consuming resources to monitor stack overflow and under no circumstances allow it.
Judge's oath:
I, having understood, beginning on this day to officiate at the gigaolympic games, acknowledge my responsibility to uphold the spirit of the celebration and recognize my unlimited and tempting power over the unfortunate participants and swear:
— to judge and evaluate results impartially, allowing the strongest and smartest to win, rather than those who need it more;
— to assign scores according to the quality of task completion and to award no more than the highest score for a contest, even if I know higher numbers exist;
— to not allow fans (and even the charming ones) to assist the team;
— to renounce bribes in any form, starting with life-giving beer and cute puppies, and ending with beaten old floppy disks.
Well, who would willingly decline such enticing invitations?
Thus, upon registering, I found myself at this celebration of life!
On the long-awaited Friday evening, I arrived at the location specified in the invitation. The park's atmosphere had changed beyond recognition. Almost every corner and tree delighted the eye, no matter where you looked.
On the path strewn with discs, it was easy to find the organizers' table, where registration, issuance of admin membership cards, and team gathering for participation in contests were taking place.
While registration and participant introductions were ongoing, body art tables were already in operation, where festival participants gained new additions to their skins.
At the end of the event, additional points were awarded to team members for such pictures, which ultimately affected their final standings in the overall table.
I also found a team by joining its ranks and received a team symbol – a 256 MB memory stick (DDR PC3200).
Other teams had symbols like a 5.25-inch floppy disk, helicopter blades, etc.
Such membership cards were issued at the beginning of the event to each participant.
My team is at the top of the photo, the captain is holding the organizational document in which the earned points – workdays – were pasted after each competition.
Once the teams were formed (it ended up being five teams with eight members each), the host invited everyone to the stage, and the organizers gave their opening speeches announcing the start of the competitive section.
The host (referred to as DJ Minus, but in fact, it was an experienced Admin IT professional) explains the contests and the rules of the event, along with the competitions prepared by the organizers.
The first contest for our team was ‘The Web’. The rules were simple – three team members had to complete the obstacle course of taut ribbons from start to finish, without repeating the path of the previous player.
That is, to find three different routes through the web barrier.
This was, so to speak, a warm-up contest to stretch the muscles and minds for the upcoming tasks.
Next was the ‘Relay’ contest, where three representatives from the team were supposed to race against another team, dribbling a basketball while wearing a gas mask and holding a baton in one hand, reaching the judge at the end of the track, performing fifteen squats, and then returning to the starting position while continuing to dribble.
This was one of the intense and challenging contests – not only did we have to compete against the opposing team, but also to rely on speed and endurance.
But our fighters didn’t let us down! And the support from the other team members was strong and loud here.
Next was a calmer, but equally interesting game called Ksonyx.
Those who remember this game from the early 90s will quickly understand the rules.
A representative from each team, with their eyes closed, would step inside the rectangle.
The teams played until each had three lives—first, one team controlled their player by voice, who connected segments inside a rectangle with tape, while a representative from the other team had to break the uncompleted line while blindfolded, guided by the team's voice.
Each player's movement consisted of stepping forward.
In the end, the team whose player segmented the greater area before exhausting all lives wins.
Then there were two equally calm contests—sitting bowling and throwing mice.
In bowling, the goal was to roll a disk forward and knock down the pins.
Since the pins were very thin and the disks didn’t roll easily, few people hit their target, but still, some pins were knocked down!
In throwing mice, accuracy was key—because the monitors were far away and the device itself was lightweight and not very aerodynamic.
But after the first trial throw for aiming, I managed to hit the target once out of the three attempts counted. All team members participated, just like in bowling.
The most intense brainstorming contest—'Crocodile'—took place near its monument!
In this contest, each team was given five IT words, and the representative had to show the meaning of each word with gestures.
We guessed all of them, although some of the words were challenging: trackball, repository, switch, and intranet. I can't recall the fifth word...
The team's performance impressed the judges so much that they struggled to compose themselves after each word was guessed.
After such mental effort, the final contest became the highlight of the competitions. Tug-of-war with twisted pairs.
Here, strength and strategy mattered. The three strongest participants from each team faced off against their opponents.
In the finale, the teams squared off against their less strong competitors. In the end, our team proved to be the most powerful.
At this point, all the participants in the celebration energetically cheered for the teams. The musicians nearby also helped the players with their IT-themed songs.
The host demonstrated the stretching of the twisted pair:
After all the contesting adventures, our captain earned labor points for the final competition and pasted them into the team booklet.
While the judges of the event were tallying the scores and summarizing the results, the organizers quietly gathered the decor, as it was already getting dark and there were issues with the park's pathway lighting.
The results have been verified and handed over to the host. Our team wins overall, and all participants of Admin Day celebrate.
The judges then gave gifts to the captains of all teams, and then handed out commemorative souvenirs (I got a USB mouse) to the winning participants.
The celebration of Admin Day transitioned into a phase of burning the effigy of user nonsense, made by the organizers.
Our captain ignited this marvel, which burned long enough under the watch of a specially trained individual with a fire extinguisher. Then dancing around the fire began to the sound of drums.
Here’s what happened in the end with the system unit that was filled with hardware after all!
The joy and emotions were so overwhelming that they stayed with everyone for a long time.
Then everyone walked to the stage, where we were greeted with a small rock concert, closer interaction with the organizers and all participants of this incredibly fun Admin Day!
Thus passed another crazy System Administrator Day in our city.
A big thank you to the organizers of this celebration and all the participants who found the strength and time to be part of this team gathering. After all, admins are a force!
A few more photos:
IT Guy and IT Gal:
Strength:
In a battle band on the eyes:
Where would we be without a mouse:
What are we watching? It's all over.
Happy System Administrator Day!
Source: habr.com
