Category: Uncategorised

Today was eventful. Not long into the morning, we had a tornado warning and rushed everyone to the saferoom. After everyone got settled in, the power went out, and I thought it would be great to get a chant going. My March of the Winkies from The Wizard of Oz didn’t catch on, but someone started a stomp-stomp-clap that got shut down really quickly by the usual buzzkills.

This lasted until lunch, which was when I found that most of the city was without power. Fortunately, my neighborhood wasn’t hit too badly, but several trees and power/utility lines were down around town, including several traffic lights.

After work, Jesica and I went to Stoby’s for dinner, where Kristie the waitress got to choose my meal for the second time. The first was the ultimate double bacon cheeseburger, but this time I convinced her to go off-menu with me, and I got a Philly cheesesteak quesadilla that was great. I love when I get a server that has fun with it, and I usually get to try new things this way.

After dinner, we went back to Jesica’s apartment and watched The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has been on my movie list for a long time. It was nice to finally get to check that one off. I enjoyed it. We were meant to get cream slushes from Sonic, but we had both forgotten by the time I went home, so I guess that will be an adventure for another day.

This one is different ’cause he’s lonely.

I spent most of today working in Google Sheets. While not super productive as far as job requirements go, I enjoy it because it feels like I’m creating a puzzle that will be super useful to me later on. I’m currently taking inventory of all the computers on my campus and matching them up with expectations I have based on district policies or conventions. It’s nice because I get to spend a lot of time in the puzzle, but I also have to physically move around the building in order to collect my data, which keeps things from getting too dull.

After work, I cleaned up a few leftover spring rolls at my parents’ house, then came home and played some Overwatch with Aaron and Johnny. I’ve had worse days.

Kelsey’s birthday was today, but she had to cancel her weekend plans after driving into a ditch, so I decided to have MOOvie night on Saturday.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

I always love getting together with work people for things like potlucks. I guess a more true statement would be that I just like getting together with people, but when you do it at work they can’t get away, so they’re stuck with me.

I prepped the caramelized onion and broccoli last night, so this morning I got up early enough to finish the rice and cheese for my casserole. It turned out pretty good, but I always forget that I end up shorter on broccoli than I’d like. Mental note to use like 3/4 a bag of broccoli to one can of cream of mushroom soup and half a block of Velveeta.

After work, I went to my parents’ house for phở. I guess you could say that today was a good day for food.

After dinner, I washed the bike and didn’t want to park it wet, so I rode around a bit and ended up stopping by AT&T to visit. I hadn’t intended to stay too long, but then closed the place down like I usually do, and Kevin and I chatted in the parking lot for a while as we’re wont to do.

She had it comin!

But it didn’t.

I have been talking to Michael, one of the teachers I work with, about riding recently. He has a couple dirt bikes that he likes to take out into the forests, as well as a street bike he wanted to take out today. We met at his house where I got to see all of his cool toys first hand. Corvette, dirt bikes, street bike, R/C planes… It’s like he’s as scattered with his hobbies as I am.

We took off for a ride down Highway 7 when his bike died on him. It ended up being out of gas, but I wouldn’t have guessed that to be the problem since we could still see gas in the bottom of his tank. He ended up walking the highway to four different houses to try and find a sip of gas. The irony was that we were only about three miles from a gas station where we intended to stop.
Unfortunately, the ride didn’t get any better. It had started to sprinkle on my way to his house. It looked like it was clearing up as we left, but the further we rode, the wetter it got. Lacking traction and warmth, we stopped by the side of the road just before Fourche Junction and decided to turn back. The rain had stopped by the time I got home, but that didn’t help the fact that I had to pour the water out of my shoes.

I spent the rest of the day updating this site with a new page for Moovie Night. I think I’m finally happy with how it looks enough to redirect the old domain from movie.cow.wtf. I can spend hours doing that, but the hardest part is finding a day that I’m not too tired and that people will actually show up. At least I can count on Jesica and Will.

Oh, look. Winter’s back.

Today flew by, more or less a blur. Jasmine served us lunch at Ruby Tuesday. In the afternoon, I stopped by the gym to check out the robotics racing competition. Not sure how much “robotics” there is in strapping a motor to an ERECTOR set, but I guess they at least fit some gears together. I feel cynical, but it seems like this stuff should be more challenging.

I guess at least they had some fun with it.

After work, I spent some time outside with Bác Vân to help clean things up.

I even pulled some poison ivy off of a tree with a garden hoe.

Jesica came over and brought me some bowtie pasta and cheese (because those aren’t macaroni noodles, Jesica!), and we watched The Great Gatsby. I vaguely remember reading the book in high school, but my reading comprehension was even worse back then, so I didn’t really grasp a lot of what was going on. To see the story now, I could only gaze on and compare it to my own life.

Sixteen years. Over half her life.

His mind would never romp again like the mind of God.

I stopped by the post office again this morning to finally ship off my video card for RMA. It cost me more to insure the package than it cost me to actually ship it, which makes me wonder what the chances are that it won’t make it there.

Everyone was busy doing their own thing at work all day, so I ended up taking lunch by myself. This doesn’t happen a lot any more, because the guys have about 4 restaurants that they rotate through like clockwork. I went against my better judgement and had the buffet at KFC. The food was decent, though I’ve had better from there. The problem didn’t occur until later when I couldn’t stop shoveling food into my mouth hole.

While I was sitting there, an old man walked up to another guy that was sitting alone at a high table behind me, and asked if he could eat with him. It’s so seldom we see things like this. Neither had a lot to talk about aside from the weather, or where the younger man was from. Washington state. He was here on business, doing some training on some new equipment they just had installed at the local sawmill. Long hours. He flew here, but he’ll get to go back home soon. The older man used to drive a big truck.

They’ll probably never see each other again, and it reminded me of this video:

The night was full of embarrassment in nearly every game of Rocket League I played with Johnny and Josh. Like mismatched gears, we ground to a halt.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Breathing intensifies…

Last night I had a dream that I was at a school in some position in which I was to write a letter of recommendation for a student. I don’t know what for, but I know that I spent most of the night trying to get this letter written with great difficulty. Every time I’d wake up, I would go back to sleep and continue trying to write it. After that, I was driving in a futuristic version of Russellville, where there were two levels of road, and I was on the elevated one looking down at all the city lights on the street below.

Today, I’m back to being a computer tech, and I want to smash this laptop out of frustration. I had a lot of difficulty getting motivated in the morning, but after lunch was better. I ended up staying late to help with setting up some equipment at Oakland Heights for their kindergarten registration.

After work, I went to my parents’ house to finish up some spring rolls.

I don’t even know where the rest of my evening went. Typical.

I hate your stupid face.

Today started like any other day, and ended much the same.

I never could find an appropriately sized box to ship my video card, so I stopped by the post office on the way home. The cost of shipping always surprises me any time I need to mail something. The “free shipping” machine of online purchases makes it completely transparent, so I have no bearing on the actual value of post.

After work, my parents wanted to go to KFC, but changed their minds when we got there and the buffet was closed. They did the exact same thing like a week ago. Monday through Thursday at 11-3, and then later hours on the weekend. There’s a sign.

I wasn’t too hungry anyway, so I just came home. I spent way too much time fighting with a broken set of mini blinds. Why are these so expensive? Why am I wasting hours trying to tie up a broken string that still won’t really fix the blinds? What can I do to learn a sense of style so I can feel good about buying a whole new matching set for the house? Why is it like $400 per window to get smart blinds that integrate with the rest of my smart home?

It’s 2017. Things were supposed to be better by now.

I’ve been searching for the daughter of the devil himself.