Category: Uncategorised

Uncategorised

First Day of “School”

Today was slow to start and slower to finish. I didn’t even bother going to the high school. There was enough randomness to sort through that I just stayed in Melinda’s seat all day. Jason came downstairs to help us out since there wasn’t really anything for him to do pertaining to an auditorium, so I got him going with imaging more laptops. Heather was out running around some more, doing who knows what.

I actually got a little annoyed that Ben went through my work orders and just reassigned a bunch of them to close, because it was all stuff that I had purposefully left open for some sort of action later. Him closing them would serve nothing more than to reduce my numbers on work I had already at least partially done. It didn’t really help with the stress of my work load either, because I’m still having to ignore things that I genuinely want to prioritize.

By the time lunch time had come and gone, Bryan decided he wanted to take a break, so he, Jason, and I all went to Morelos. It was cool getting out with someone new for a change, especially getting to know Jason a little better. He didn’t have much to gripe about, which seemed about right when you actually compare our jobs and our compensation.

After lunch was a bit more scattered for me, and probably not as productive as it could have been. It did put me in a good place to wrap up with hotspots tomorrow though, and then I’ll be left with figuring out how to get around the high school to start closing my own work orders.

I went home to change, but forgot to finish my Lenovo claims during the day, so I had to run back by the shop to get my laptop. Then I grabbed a free cinnamon roll from Casey’s on the way up to Summer’s. I spent most of my time there wrapping up my claims for work. I didn’t really get to spend any quality time with anyone.

On the way home, I had to stop by Walmart for some more cat food. Then it was an early evening to bed.

Uncategorised

The 35 Year Plan

I got up this morning and cooked some sausage and eggs for breakfast. Then I tried to stay at least a little bit productive all day while Summer went to the gym and home to do a bit more cleaning herself. I got a few things picked up and did some more laundry while looking at some real estate listings just to get an idea of what’s out there.

Summer got back in the middle of the afternoon and started looking at some houses too, but it was all just sort of dreaming about the future. I rehashed the multiple stages of my plan with her, and then again with my parents over a shrimp soup dinner. I think it helped get everyone on the same page again, and I think we’re in a good place for steady improvement.

After dinner, we came back to my house so she could collect a few things before going home to the girls. I started my last load of laundry and did a bit of work to prepare for tomorrow. For better or worse, it’s the first day of school, and I’m mostly going it alone. I’ll just have to churn out what I can, and ignore the rest.

The Plan isn’t a step-by-step path to what you wanted today. It’s to maximize the opportunities for you to learn , and be in the right mindset to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.

Uncategorised

Small Drive

We slept in super late today and got up for lunch at Cici’s. I had another incredible spinach alfredo pizza with all the extra toppings on top. The kids filled up, and we headed back home so they could go ride their bikes for a while. Afterward, Summer took the girls home and Noah to work.

A little while later, my parents brought Nova over to borrow a laptop for college. When I asked about it, it sounded like something that I should be able to fix pretty easily, so they left to retrieve it. I had to remove just under 20 screws to get to it, but determined that the hard drive was bad. Luckily I had a spare to donate, and we got her up and running again.

At some point in all of this, I wandered around outside with the cat for a bit and lubricated my sliding glass door, which helped way more than I thought it would. Then I went next door and did the same for Bác Vân after such a positive result. Split seemed to be quite a bit better, and definitely had more energy than the past few days.

Both girls decided to stay the night with their grandparents, so Summer eventually made it back over by herself. We got sucked into some couple’s YouTube channel where they were building a beautiful A-frame house. I ran to Arby’s for a couple French Dip and Swiss sandwiches, and then it was a pretty late night to bed.

If they can do that in 20 minutes, imagine what we could do in 45!

Uncategorised

Can You Print Me Now?

I woke up about half an hour before my alarm went off and couldn’t fall back asleep because my mind was just racing. I didn’t really know what to expect for the day, but the rest of the week had been pretty awful. Ben wanted me to prioritize hotspots, so I started at the shop doing those. I actually found a bit of a groove and got quite a few done before I had to head to the high school for another call with PaperCut support.

I stopped by Casey’s for a free slice on the way, then made it to the high school with plenty of time to set up for the call. It was a pretty quick call, and the solution was simple enough. I just had to go to the settings for every single network printer in the district to stop rendering devices on the client computer, and disable bidirectional support.

Afterward, I went through and closed all the print-related work orders I had been sitting on. Then I wrapped a couple other things up and headed back to the shop. I had a wild hare to clean out the fridge since everyone had basically been snapped out of existence last week, so I shared pictures of all the gross moldy food, and ate Allen’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The afternoon was frustrating because I had several hotspots that wouldn’t get the enrollment command. I got close to the number of required devices, but at the end of the day I was short. I was almost glad it was sort of a failure, though it really wasn’t.

I headed on home and started cleaning up house before everyone got home. The girls went out to eat with their father, so Summer brought Zalads from Zaxby’s for us. The girls arrived with Noah after he got off work, and they sat around while he ate. Then we eventually played some Cards Against Humanity, because we are bad parents.

Finally, another win for the week – Split actually ate nearly a whole can of cat food. Classic pate. He’s never really loved that stuff, so this is the first one I’ve even tried. Who knows if he’ll like it tomorrow, but hopefully this will help.

Technically, it does cover your face.

Uncategorised

Michael and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Today was easily the roughest day I’ve ever had at a job. My hair dryer blew up on me yesterday, so I went to the high school with wet hair to try and work on as much as I could possibly accomplish. It wasn’t long before I was sent to the shop to help Bedo with hotspots. All the while, I had people begging me to tend to their problems. Nothing was working. Everything was broken. I was the only person that could fix any of it.

I tried to pick at a couple of my oldest work orders just to accomplish anything at all, but I’m sure that just made others even more upset with me for not picking their issues. I just couldn’t win with anyone. Even Luke got my number and had to text me, on top of an email he already sent me, on top of the work orders I had already received, on top of the in-person harassment I’d already received.

The hotspots weren’t cooperating either, and any time I got into anything at the shop, I’d get called away by someone else needing something. It truly felt like I was just the sole face of the department. When I finally felt like I had a win helping Bryan with something, even my own team aggressively shot me down with hostility.

I finally left, late again, and utterly defeated. The girls had activities, so I had to pick them up. Autumn went to band, and Eaddie went to karate. Then I had to pick Eaddie up because Summer’s work meeting ran late.

The girls were going to stay the night, but ended up going home instead. I drank my dinner and cleaned more carpet. Zero wins today.

I think I’ll move to Australia.

Uncategorised

ALL THE ROLES

I spent all morning running around the campus trying to fix the PaperCut issue. I finally got on a call with support, who offered some tips that ultimately only helped a fraction of our issues. I guess nobody’s ever heard of print jobs getting stuck like this.

I was going to go home for lunch to check on the cat, but that never happened. I just worked through lunch, then made it back to the shop in the afternoon so I could learn to print some staff badges. It’s really annoying that people in quarantine are testing negative but not coming back to work. I really don’t even understand why they’re testing in that case.

After work, I headed home and started cleaning. I got a load of laundry done, then went to Walmart to try some other cat food before coming back to clean more carpet. It feels like the water will never run clear, and my waste tank is so incredibly tiny that I think I walked a mile just emptying it repeatedly.

At least I got a snow cone.

Uncategorised

Taco Salad

I slept much better last night, but Summer didn’t. I sent her to work with a bottle of caffeinated water, which is a thing that apparently exists. Then I was off to see what they day had in store for me.

I spent the whole day to myself at the high school, but still felt only slowly productive. It was cool to see the group text come to life so much, since eight of them were quarantined but supposed to be working from home. Even Allen chimed in a couple times.

Summer was having a rough day, so I took a late lunch to get the girls and took them to Morelos. Three of us had the taco salad that was on sale, and they were delicious. I originally felt like they looked really small, but the girls only ate about half, and I was pretty stuffed after finishing mine anyway.

Summer took the girls home afterward, and I finished my day up fighting a growing PaperCut issue. I didn’t really get anywhere with it, but it definitely seemed to be getting worse over time. That will probably be my big project for tomorrow, since it seems to be district-wide.

After work, I went to get the girls and deliver them to band and karate. Then I spent some time with Split while cleaning up a little bit. Summer got Eaddie after karate and brought her over until Autumn finished. Then they all headed home for the evening, and I spent the rest of my night with a gravy-filled cat.

What an inconvenient time to start dying.

Uncategorised

iPood

I was a total wreck of exhaustion this morning. I thought I slept well, but I felt broken and weary as I climbed out of bed. I moped around a bit and had a shower, but I could still barely move, so it was up to a bottle of Bawls to get me moving.

I started at the high school, but pretty quickly ended up at the shop so I could ship off a piece of server equipment for Gary. Then I went down to the shop to learn that I would be setting up iPads all day. I finished 40 of them in total, and delivered them to Crawford as I left at the end of the day.

When I got home, I called the vet to try and get an appointment for Split, but the good doctor was quarantined. We may be able to wait the week, but as time passes I feel less confident in that.

Mom made phở and spring rolls for dinner, so the girls met me there to eat. Then it was back home for a very short evening before bed.

This day in the past, the baby was still a little atrophy.

Uncategorised

Corrugation Station

We got up this morning without any plans for lunch and a sizeable hunger, so Eaddie and I ran to Burger King for a super cheap bag of food. I really don’t even know how they can sustain those multi-packs of food, because nobody else can feed a family of four for a lucky thirteen bucks.

After we ate, Summer took the girls home to do their chores while I tried to clean up a bit more at home. I got a bunch more empty boxes out of the house, including a big one from my first flat panel TV. The Vizio is still in the garage from when I brought it home from Summer’s, but it stands freely without too much trouble. My newer LG OLED, on the other hand, would require much more care in shipping, so I really didn’t want to get rid of that enormous box, filled with high density styrofoam.

Eventually I made it out to Walmart to pick up a few things to take up to Summer’s for dinner. She tried slow cooking a pork loin for pork tacos, but it just didn’t shred at all after such a short cooking time, so I chopped it up for tacos. Overall it was a super fresh dinner that I could have felt good about if I hadn’t eaten over twice the three tacos I should have eaten.

After dinner, Summer, Eaddie, and I watched a couple episodes of Glee before I headed back home for the evening. I broke down a few more boxes, still failed to get the cat to eat anything, and eventually made it to bed before the loneliest, most stressful work week ever.

Just call me SuperTech.

Uncategorised

Finding Room

I got up pretty early this morning for how late I made it to bed. I really ought to look into blackout curtains or blinds. I didn’t really have any trouble getting out of bed though, so I got showered and started cleaning up a bit around the house. I finally decided to get rid of some big, empty boxes that were taking up a lot of space. There are still more to go, but today was already a noticeable improvement.

In the early afternoon, I went to Mark’s office to help with some trouble he was having with G Suite. I ended up sticking around for quite a while before making it up to Summer’s for a chicken dinner with some kick.

I didn’t want to leave Split for too long, and I still wanted to try and clean up some more, so I didn’t stick around too long. The girls ended up beating me home though, because I spent too much time in Walmart picking up some fresh, refrigerated cat food to try, and then perusing the clearance items. I did come out with a couple gems though.

Julie wanted to chat on the phone for a bit on the way home from there, and then the girls and I watched an episode of Glee before they each started wandering off to bed. It was nice to have enough room again to pull the futon out to make a more proper bed for the girls.

A wonderful place that becomes slowly less comfortable over time.