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Eight years of PKMN.NET Articles: Typhlosion | A day in the life of an admin
This is a day in the life of an admin. Me, specifically. Typhlosion.

Technically my day began at one minute past midnight this morning, at which point I was sat at my laptop waiting for something to happen. I tend to do that - find myself sitting at my laptop until the little hours doing nothing in particular. Not even chatting to anyone in particular, just reading the same posts on the forums over and over again. At some point - in this case about 12.30 - I eventually decide to shut the old laptop down and head downstairs to put the burglar alarm on.

I hate doing that. Stockport is something like the nineth worst place to live in the UK apparantly y'see, and I'm terrified of being broken into. The houses on either side of mine have both been burgled in the last few years, as well as the shop and pub around the corner both being victim to the odd armed robbery. Yeah, it's such a nice image isn't it? I get it everytime I creep down the stairs to turn the alarm on. The only assurance I get then is that if anyone breaks into the house, everyone this side of Manchester will know about it with the noise that alarm makes. I then crept back upstairs to bed, got undressed and collapsed into my bed. I've shared a room with my brother for a few years now, and I usually have to get up at least twice a night to go and slap him until he stops snoring. Last night I lay awake until about 2am texting my ex, because I'm a sad pathetic student who feels lost without a love life. It wasn't innocent texting either, put it that way.

I was woken up at 8am by my brother shouting the odds at my mum. I have no idea what the argument was about, but experience tells me he either didn't like what was in his lunchbox or hadn't quite feigned illness correctly. My head hit the pillow again and I eventually rose out of bed at 10.30am.

The first thing I do on any morning as soon as I rise out of bed is have a shower. We had our entire bathroom redone last Summer. The sort of redone in which the idiots doing in decided to put the TOILET in last. Yes, the TOILET. My house didn't have a toilet for a whole week last summer. One night I got so desperate I had to walk to twenty minutes to my grandmother's house and beg for mercy. This being at about 11pm. She wasn't impressed.

Neither was I when getting into the shower this morning. As I once put it to my mum: "why can't we have one of those old-fashioned showers? The ones which let YOU choose the temperature the water comes out at". This morning was a freezing cold shower morning, which resulted in another loud twenty minute rant at the top of my voice before I remembered the house was empty.

I then dumped myself in front of the main computer in the house, ready for some solid revision for my upcoming exam. Within twenty seconds I decided I was hungry. I laboured downstairs to find a note from my mum asking me to hang the washing out. I never see the point in this, since it always rains at some point of the day up in the North of England, but heck, she's the boss.

By this point it's now midday, and time to feed the members living in the basement (what? the banned ones you never from again have to go somewhere). This is done by throwing the plates from last nights supper down to them, as well as tubes of superglue. It helps keep them busy.

Eventually I did spend the afternoon revising, whilst also playing on Football Manager 2008 (what? It's called multi-tasking!).

All hell once again broke loose at 3.30pm, but not because my three darling siblings all returned home from school and started fighting for the television straight away - but because it's the time all admins change into their alter egos. James becomes a real life Scyther, Steffan turns into a ice-breathing duck, Jeroen becomes a copy of the rules, Rex becomes... well we're not quite sure, Phil remains as Phil and I turn into Wayne Rooney. Nobody's ever seen Matt, so we're not sure what happens to him. Individually, nothing spectacular maybe. But together we become HORSES (Horribly Obscure Rescue Service Every Suppertime). At this point we zoom around the planet at supersonic speeds as superheroes, working together to fight hackers and rule breakers, and forcing new rulebreakers into my basement, while releasing some we take mercy on. And all in time for supper.

At 6pm ish I had my supper (I can't even remember what it was, but it involved potatoes and was nice, so the poor banned members are going hungry tomorrow), before strolling back to my laptop and loading it up. Quite how six hours can often pass while I sit here I'll never know. With Emmerdale and Coronation Street playing away at the side, this is the time I get most site related work done. Today it was finalising the Meet The Contestants page for PokéMole 5 (I plan way in advance). The evening is also the time the admins make important decisions, such as whether Joeno and myself will question Psythor's sexuality that night or not and whether we're going to treat the server to a Chinese or an Indian takeaway this weekend. It's often a very serious decision, which is often settled by Joeno and myself loading up the webcams and having a staring contest. Joeno won. Again. Just. Sooner or later we'll confront the less important issues, such as whether we're going to uphold a ban or maybe how we're going to tackle a bit of major coding work on the site. This is all decided by a flip of a coin or a battle over wifi.

It's a tough job.

Page written by Typhlosion.

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COMMENTS
Sappy on Thu 10 Jan 2008 18:18:31 UTC.
God, first the lamb now this. Is must be tiring being an admin. Good work =D
Mushroom on Thu 10 Jan 2008 20:28:15 UTC.
Question: So HORSES wear capes?
Neo Wario-MY ENCHILADA! on Wed 16 Jan 2008 19:09:55 UTC.
Wow, may I ask, have OFSTED found this cellar?
rukurio_master on Sat 12 Apr 2008 17:45:46 UTC.
makes a lot of sense
on Mon 09 Feb 2009 18:40:43 UTC.
Go Ice-breathing ducky!