Category: Uncategorised

I finally got to have my day of accomplishment at work, and completed multiple lab images. There were really too many of us doing it, but that seems to be how everyone rolls. I’m just glad I made some progress and was able to keep mostly busy all day.

There were Junebugs all over the front door of our office downstairs, so I collected a few after work to bring them home to the duck to see if the old saying has any merit. We’ve gone from just a few small bits of random greens to large mounds of greens, so the little duckie should be a big duckie in short order.

Finally, I caught a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother before bed.

Daddy’s water burns.

I keep hearing about how this summer is abnormal for us at work, but I think more work is coming pretty soon. It’s pretty easy to tell who gets the lion’s share of the work around there. I try my best to stay useful. Some of the more outspoken there can get pretty aggravating, but they’re so deep in their echo chambers that it’d be nearly impossible to change their mindsets. It wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t just so much negativity all of the time.

After work, I went to my parents’ house to return Dad’s live mouse trap so he could attempt to catch a rat that’s come around. I rummaged for some more greens for the duck, and had a bit of dinner, then came back home to upgraded the webcam and the streaming system I had set up for the duck. Now I’m able to keep a better eye on it, as well as share its adventures in its eight square foot duck condo.

Not much else to report, sadly. I wish the duck liked me more, but maybe not liking me will give it a better chance in the wild later on.

Magic Springs this weekend. Probably.

I grabbed the sample bottle of Coffiest Soylent for breakfast this morning. I’ve been wanting to try Soylent for quite some time, so I jumped at the chance for a “free” sample from Amazon. It had a bit of a grainy finish, but really it was smoother and thinner than I expected. The coffee flavor was relatively light, but enough to make it better than palatable. I may seriously have to consider getting some for the odd occasion that I need something quick to go.

I spent the afternoon re-imaging computers in a couple of my labs, and am still having trouble finishing them up. Several of them have failed each time, all by not joining the domain. I’ve broken down the number of simultaneous images, which has helped, but it’s still super annoying having to babysit. The side effect was getting to spend some time in a lab with some proper stereo speakers in the ceiling. I found a particular electronica song with true stereo that was made incredible by the extreme separation of the channels on opposite sides of the room. I think being mounted in the ceiling also helped.

After work, I fed the duck most of the remains of the veggies, so tomorrow I’ll have to go find some more. It’s nice having the webcam now so I can be sure it’s eating, and not just going crazy sitting on the bedroom all alone.

Tune in tomorrow: Same Duck-time, same Duck-channel!

I burned up last night in a major way. I first went to bed with a 100º fever, and felt progressively colder as the night went on. I woke up freezing about every half hour and kept drinking lots of ice water, knowing my body temperature was really high. Eventually I snapped and felt incredibly hot, and tried to sleep sprawled out over the covers.

I had started to install Windows on an old netbook, and continued through the different steps each time I woke up. By the time morning came, the netbook was fully installed with all of its drivers, and was completely up to date. When my alarm went off, I felt significantly better and decided not to call in to work.

After work, I stopped by Tractor Supply Co. to return the chick food supplement that I had mistakenly bought over the weekend, and then headed home to clean up and feed the duck. I spent quite a bit of the evening researching ways to host a duck cam on the site, and ultimately ended the night on a YouTube Live Stream using the netbook I had set up from last night. The webcam on the netbook is absolutely horrid, though, so I’ll have to come up with something better.

Waddle waddle… ’til the very next day.

Today is quickly becoming a blur in my ill-fated evening.

I got up early and played some EVE with Keno for a while before showering and getting ready to grill out for Father’s Day. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that I was told we had a change of plans to make spring rolls instead. I felt a little bad because it’s not Dad’s favorite meal, but by the time Mom had dinner ready, I was too tired to fuss over it. Dad had smoked some pork loin that we ate in rolls instead of the boiled pork Mom usually makes. It turned out really great, but I’ve always really liked spring rolls.
 
I had been feeling a bit cranky without food all day, but by the time I made it home, I couldn’t miss the telltale body aches of some flu-like invader. I completely missed the possibility of salmonella, and jumped straight to avian flu. Either way, I assume I’ll be dead soon. At least I will have prepared the duck one last fresh meal before I go.

Can someone come destroy my RAID if I die, please?

The duck jumped out of his little home somehow. Luckily he wasn’t too difficult to catch in the bedroom, so I set him up with a new home in a slightly larger bucket and moved his water bucket closer to the center. I went to the Co-Op to check for some duckling food, but they didn’t have anything smaller than a 50-pound bag. From there, I went to Tractor Supply Co. and picked up some feed, but I was so focused on avoiding antibiotics that I missed the warnings that what I had bought should only make up about 10% of their diet. I finally ended up going back to Atwoods to pick up some game food that I think will work alright.

When I got home, Michael called and asked if I wanted to go to Hot Springs with him so he could check out a new bike. I didn’t get to go because Mom wanted to go out to eat with Bác Vân, so we went to Chili’s where they both complained about the food and the president, and about how salty they both are. I had one of the best sirloins I’ve ever had, especially considering how much of a steak snob I’ve become.

After lunch, I came home for a while and messed with my Logitech Harmony Elite remote some more until
Allen invited me over to help him unload a grill from his truck. I returned the frozen food he left with me when his freezer broke, and he offered to cook a couple deer burgers for us. They were dryer than the usual burger I would make, but I really liked them. It was definitely a little different, but they were good.

When I got back home, I played just a little EVE Online with Keno before heading to bed.

It’s Space Excel!

Today was admittedly tough after staying up so late and sharing war stories with Allen. I had been feeling sour since a few meals back, and finally watched in horror as I relived the previous day in reverse. It was the combination that did me in, but I’m a glutton for a deal.

We eventually got checked out and headed to our last day at HSTI. Amanda and I lost out on my first pick for a class on Chromebooks, and ended up going to a security class that was really just a shitty sales pitch in disguise. I’m not sure I could have been more disappointed. I expected at least some coverage of best practices or something, but all we got was a couple of guys literally reading every. single. PowerPoint. slide. To make that even worse, the slides were basically just a list of all the products they sold.

We eventually split for lunch and shoehorned ourselves into some seats in the cafeteria for some subpar catfish. The chicken strips were pretty rockin though.

I kind of got guilted into coming back sooner than I really wanted. They probably would have begrudgingly stayed if I really pressed it, but I was tired too after the long night and rough morning. Gary hitched a ride with AWOL, so it was just Jason, Zach, and me for the ride home. Once there, I took a nap for a while before playing some Overwatch to keep myself awake, then unpacked before bed.

Overall a great experience with some lessons learned.

I don’t want this to sound too commercial, but here are some packets of references from work we’ve done in the past that you can take with you.

Today was by far the slowest day of work this summer. I finally finished setting up my 60 tablets, and set up a Chromebit for digital signage. I’ve got a couple things to finish up tomorrow, and then I’m ready for the HSTI conference.

After work, I met a guy named Ethan that wanted to know if my ’87 Fiero was for sale. I expressed my feelings, and he seemed to be mostly looking for a steal, but he may come around. I’m rarely a motivated seller of my own possessions, but if he comes back with the right amount of cash, I’d probably have to accept the relief of the physical burden.

I got most everything packed up for the trip, but I’ll have to finish in the morning since I’m driving and everyone wants to leave right after work. I had hoped for some time to come home and clean up, but I guess New Guy duties override that.

What a bunch of nerds.

I finally cleaned my aquarium after a few weeks of neglect. I keep getting a film of green all over my glass, and I’m not sure if it’s algae or diatoms, and I guess I’ll just have to do bi-weekly water changes to get rid of it.

For dinner, I took my Bác Vân out to La Plaza for tacos because all of the taco trucks we could find were closed. Even La Plaza was slow, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see the trucks closed. I can’t imagine how hard it is to maintain a steady flow of business for some of these places.

I also finally got around to hanging my motion sensing lights outside. And I took out the recycling.

I think I may already be dead.

Today was odd. I woke up around 7 went back to sleep for a few more hours because my back was still hurting. I got up again after 10 and played some Overwatch for a while to get ranked for this season. I ended up taking a nap for a couple hours in the late afternoon until around 6, then played some more games.

It looks like I may not go to Magic Springs tomorrow as planned for the past week. I may end up going by myself if it’s nice out, but I’ve probably got things to do around the house instead anyway. This week/end was a bummer.

It’s a burden, really.