Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a great book that I am reading that I highly recommend that you all check out:

The Practice of System and Network Administration
by Thomas A. Limoncelli, Christine Hogan
Paperback: 776 pages
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co; 1st edition (August 14, 2001)
ISBN: 0201702711
Amazon Price: $44.54

It's an absolutely fantastic almost entirely platform independent book that covers plans, philosophies, mindsets, techniques, outlooks and practices of good experienced system administrators. It's really amazing to see a book that has had the courage to cover the non-technical aspect of system/network administration. This is the stuff that separates people who just know the technology (or maybe even not if HR did the hiring exclusively) from the people that make great sys admins.
Well my writing isn't as good as a professional reviewers so I highly recommend heading over to your favorite search engine and looking for one of the many reviews that someone has written of this fantastic book. Here are the chapters:

I. THE PRINCIPLES.

1. Desktops.
2. Servers.
3. Services.
4. Debugging.
5. Fixing Things Once.
6. Namespaces.
7. Security Policy.
8. Data Integrity and Disaster Planning.
9. Ethics.

II. THE PROCESSES.

10. Change Management and Revision Control.
11. Server Upgrades.
12. Maintenance Windows.
13. Service Conversions.
14. Centralization and Decentralization.

III. THE PRACTICE.

15. Helpdesks.
16. Customer Care.
17. Data Centers.
18. Networks.
19. Email Service.
20. Print Service.
21. Backup and Restore.
22. Remote Access Service.
23. Software Depot Service.
24. Service Monitoring.

IV. MANAGEMENT.

25. Organizational Structures.
26. Perception and Visibility.
27. Being Happy.
28. A Guide for Technical Managers.
29. A Guide for Non-Technical Managers.
30. Hiring System Administrators.
31. Firing System Administrators.

V. END MATTER.

32. Conclusion.
A. The Many Roles of a SA.
B. What to do when
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