Uncategorised

Pause and Refreshes

The car made it to work today, so whatever popped yesterday didn’t seem to be a problem. Testing was a bit quieter, though I was called out to investigate a test-side problem a couple of times. Only one student was affected, on multiple days, with multiple devices. Let support figure it out.

I spent all day playing around in PRTG, and ended up pausing every single sensor and then unpausing just what I wanted. As I would go down the list doing that, it would take a little while to refresh the sensor limit, and new ones would constantly “wake up” that I would have to continue pausing. With a limit of 100 for the free version, I basically only have a bunch of pings to be useful, but now the HUD makes sense, and is much more glanceable.

After work, I went home for fish and some CD towers to take home. I’ve been listening to Mae again for a couple days, and the “artist radio” has been bringing back memories. I stopped by the wash to see Summer frantically running around with just one employee to cover all of the bases, so I didn’t stay long. I got home early enough to ride over to my parents’ house to check on the cat food, and bring some more leftovers home.

Eaddie and I ate the ground pork omelet egg foo young stuff with some fresh rice that I made. I got to sign some permission slips for her, which is always fun for me. Then I decided to treat her to some Dairy Queen. I guess they had a regional manager, or possibly a new store manager on deck, so the ice cream was good. It had been pretty melty in recent years, but his assertive nature seemed to have things in order.

Afterward, we dropped leftover ice cream off for Summer at the wash, since she had a late staff meeting before she would be come. Then I reminisced over Mae, Deas Vail, and The Hollywood Kills CDs. I was surprised to see Mae is touring again, and it’ll be interesting if I get to go see them again.

DAVE ROCK!!!

Uncategorised

Resume Testing

They started interim testing today, which meant I wouldn’t be getting much work done the rest of the week. We started off with a bunch of people coming to the office looking for loaner devices and chargers, and we had to turn them away. I even got a little snippy with Denice when she started mouthing about their inability to manage an effective take-home deployment. It seems like nobody wants to hear the fact that accountability and consistency is paramount. Casey came in and borrowed a couple devices, and though I have no clue what I could have said to offend her, apparently she felt the need to make a complaint that earned me a phone call to “put a smile on that bearded face.”

I found four higher-paying tech jobs on the first page of Indeed, for which I would be more than qualified.

Kim ended up leaving after doing about zero work for the hour she was there, because she had a bunch of people coming to look at her house. It would have been quiet, had it not been for the testing traffic and some students coming by in the afternoon for help. I talked to Denice for a bit after work, and at least then she admitted to being overly-stressed about testing, and I think we left on good terms.

On the way home, just as I was pulling up to the stoplight in Dardanelle, I heard an incredibly loud “kerCHUNK” that sounded like it came from around the rear-passenger wheel. It was loud and violent enough that I swore it shook, or at least vibrated the car. I pulled right over into the gas station parking lot and walked over to the road, where I saw nothing. There was nothing on the dash cam footage, and there was no damage to the car. I couldn’t tell what it was, and I made it back home without further incident, so there’s no telling what happened.

Summer was at a meeting with the Arkansas Tech Career Center, and Eaddie was playing in the pep band for a basketball game, so I went to the old house to feed the fish, then to Walmart to use a coupon for some free Dawn. Then I grabbed some tacos and made it home to eat before taking the Onewheel to my parents’ house to check on the cat.

I took some dry cat food to the neighbor across the street, who reminded me a bit of the librarian at school. Then I rode around for about five miles, practicing some tight turns and deep carves. I felt pretty confident, even with my achy legs and feet. Then I tried riding switch, and my muscle memory was breaking everything. Evidently my riding style is heavily directional, and I got the wobbles almost instantly every time. I kept at it though, and kept switching back and forth mid-ride. I never got any better, and then ended up falling when I tried to do a 180ยบ pivot, and banged up my left elbow. I laid my head back on the street and sighed for a moment before packing it up for the night.

Summer got home shortly after that, followed by Eaddie a little while later. I got a little more sore as the night went on, but was ambitious enough to swap out one of the smoke detectors for a Nest Protect.

All interviews are just for practice until you take the job.

Uncategorised

Documents for Their Documents

I had a slow start this morning, grabbed a free cappuccino, and strolled into work a couple minutes late after fighting some dumb traffic. Denise was actually in her office all day because they’re actually doing testing, and I think that makes four whole days this calendar year. Kim was pretty chatty all day, and I struggled to deal with all the noise.

Lunch time came and went, and we kept having people in and out of the office, which further frustrated me. I spent most of the day trying to spin up SCCM, but it seemed far less than straightforward. There are so many pieces to set up manually, and for some reason I thought it would be a click-through install.

When quitting time finally arrived, I headed toward home, stopping at McDonald’s for a cheap Big Mac before going by the old house to feed the fish, and finally making it home to where Summer had been cooking dinner for a while. I changed clothes and rode to my parents’ house on the Onewheel to pick up some things, but ended up leaving more than I took because the things kept adding up to more than what I wanted to haul in my backpack.

I headed back home before dark, and Summer had baked ribs and potatoes, and pan-fried some Brussels sprouts. Eaddie made it home late for dinner, and then everyone wound down pretty quickly. I was tired and uneasy, but eventually made it to bed.

Settled down.

Uncategorised

Raya and the Blackest Dragon

Everyone slept super late today. I got up first, and started making breakfast croissants. We had some leftover ham we had frozen a while back, and I fried up slices of that with some eggs and cheese. They were really awesome with the “everything” croissants. It was pretty yucky out all day, but Summer went to the gym and I cleaned up the kitchen before running outside to run the sump and then taking a shower.

We really didn’t do anything after that until dinner time. Eaddie had a bunch of dreams about food last night, so I took that inspiration and made some pizza on toast with leftover pizza dipping sauce, slices of mozzarella, and some hard salami that Summer was letting go bad slowly in the refrigerator. Eaddie and I tried melting some old chocolate to dip strawberries, but that didn’t work well. At least we ate the chocolate and got it out of the cabinet. I was still hungry, so I had some leftover turkey soup.

Summer and I watched Raya an the Last Dragon, and I found Awkwafina’s voice to be completely out of place and offputting for the story. It made the whole movie feel less authentic, and took a lot of weight out of the theme for me. It just felt cheap.

Eaddie didn’t even bother watching with us, and went to her room. Summer quickly went to bed after it was over, and I ended the night by paying some bills.

What is culture, anyway?

Uncategorised

McDate Night

Eaddie had her all-state audition today, and I was going to get up to make her breakfast, but I was sleeping pretty hard and Summer got up to get her going instead. I eventually got up and had some spaghetti for lunch while Summer went to work and the gym. I took care of my plants, took a shower, and started picking at things I had moved from the old house.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly, and Eaddie went out with Eli after band, so Summer and I decided to go out to McDonald’s to get their new Double Big Mac, which is four all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a new brioche sesame seed bun. While we were eating, a school bus from Texarkana pulled in with a load full of band kids.

After we ate, we went to T.J. Maxx to shop around for a bit. It was just really nice to be out of the house with Summer for a bit, because she comes home burned out from work every day, and we never get to do anything. We picked up a Blizzard for her from Dairy Queen on the way home, and then watched some Modern Family until Eaddie got home.

Eaddie was relieved to make first band, sixth chair for the second time in a row. I thought she’d make a higher chair with how hard she’s worked on it, but it sounded like her nerves get to her at auditions. I told her to do some drugs first next time, and get first chair.

The girls went to bed after that. I stayed up for a bit longer than I expected, but all of today went by pretty quickly.

Rain, rain, go away, long enough to dry my ba…sement.

Uncategorised

Fillet and Grill’t

This morning went by pretty fast, but then the afternoon dragged a bit. I got parts of VMware updated or patched, but I feel like you need a certification just to understand the vocabulary. There are so many parts, and it’s tough to keep up with how they are all interconnected.

After work, I loaded up a bunch of Soylent at the old house to take home, and then I went by the carwash to see Summer. I went ahead and washed my car there, since there’s not much sense in babying the paint any more. Then Summer finished up and we both headed home.

Eaddie was already home, and we made her go to Kroger with me to pick dinner. It was really nice out, so I thought I’d grill something. Eaddie thought salmon sounded good, so I picked up a really big fillet, some broccoli and cauliflower, and shrimp.

I had to clean up the kitchen when we got back, and then Eaddie invited Eli over. I cleaned up the fish and cut the fillet off of the skin really easily. Chef Ramsay would have been proud. I got everything on the grill, and we had a late dinner that everyone seemed to really enjoy. I thought it turned out great, though I did get a little heavy-handed with the salt on something. The steamed rice helped cut that down though. We had just enough left over for me to pack them up into individual meals, and then I precleaned a little more so I’d have room to make breakfast in the morning.

The girls went to bed early because Summer had an early day today, and Eaddie had all-state band tryouts in the morning. I stayed up a bit longer, but the sleepiness got to me.

More surface area!

Uncategorised

That Last 92%

I kept getting behind slow people to and from work today, but the weather was nice and the clean acceleration for passing was nicer. Kim walked in right behind me, but spent a good portion of the day out of the office somewhere else around on campus, as far as I knew. I spent most of my day behind emails, trying to wrap up Jaime’s nonsense. It became more and more evident that nobody there really knew how the grants were supposed to work, and it really seems like the district is just sort of winging it.

In the middle of Kim’s lunch duty, she stuck her head in the door with a couple disposable trays of food and said she didn’t want any of it. Evidently they made extras for kids, but nobody wanted them and they were just going to throw them away. That meant early, free lunch for me. I didn’t get my usual salad, and the food was cold and dried out, but it tasted alright.

The afternoon was fairly quiet, again with Kim out of the office for a large portion of the day. Most everyone was gone by the time I left, and I raced home to load a few more things into the car. Doug caught me outside and talked to me for a little bit, and then I made it home to start some turkey soup.

As soon as everything was in the Instant Pot, I headed out on the Onewheel. I felt fairly confident on it today, and went up and around the hill to swing by my parents’ house. When I got back home, I drove to the Neighborhood Market for some noodles. Just next to the egg noodles, I saw a package of gnocchi that looked pretty good, so I decided to throw them in the pot too.

I was a little worried, but the broth actually came out really good. It was probably the best turkey soup I’ve ever made. I was worried about not having enough meat in it, but it was fine. The gnocchi was really good too. Even Eaddie liked it, even though it wasn’t a full multi-course meal.

How am I the expert here?

Uncategorised

Mental Health Work

I had some coffee this morning and then got into PRTG again. Maybe I felt like I had been too productively lately, but I just wanted to work on something for me. I think I got it looking pretty good, and even got a little now-playing ribbon for my music. That’s not to say that I didn’t do anything important. I cleared a troublesome log in VMware. That fixed the error, but not the root of the problem. There will be time for that tomorrow.

I stopped by McDonald’s on the way home for some free fries, and loaded up another trunk full of stuff to take to the house. Then I started to go out on the Onewheel when Summer texted that she wanted fried chicken for dinner. She agreed to actually go out instead of just coming straight home, so I made it around the block and headed back home to pick her up across town. I nearly ate a face full of sand at the top of the hill, but was able to hit the ground running as the board tumbled end-for-end behind me. I bruised the bottom of my foot a little bit, but not too bad.

Eaddie was out with friends again, so Summer and I went to Zaxby’s and hung out there for a little while. Then we went to Walmart for some stuff so I could finally make turkey soup. When I dropped her off at the carwash, we found where she had hit something in the road, and it gouged the rocker panel trim on the right side in front of her rear wheel.

We made it home and wound down for the night. Eaddie made it home late and talked to Summer for a while before coming to me with a W-9 from school for some reason. She couldn’t even assemble a sentence as to why she needed it. All I heard was something about “superintendent” and “National History Day.” We didn’t get paid to take the kids on the trip. We hadn’t even been reimbursed like we were promised, and they wanted this form filled out overnight with barely any explanation. It sounded fishy to me.

Needs more maths done.

Uncategorised

On Content Libraries

I was a little early for work today, and I did a pretty good job of staying on task with my VMware project. I did get pulled away from that a couple times, but by lunch time I understood how to make a content library, and got my VM running with a guest OS. I was pretty stoked.

After work, I picked up some more stuff to take home. As I was leaving, an old guy walked by with his tiny dog and wanted to talk about the Fiero, the Tesla, OPEC, and his dog. He was a little quirky, but seemed super nice. I was pretty sure he said he lived at StoneBridge at the end of the road.

I made it home and immediately took the Onewheel out before it got dark. I went by my parents’ house and let Dad try it out again. He had some trouble with the dismount, but I still do too. I think it may just take a more assertive approach than what I want to take. As it got dark, I rode on home and eventually went back out for some tacos for dinner.

Summer went to bed, I started some laundry, and eventually Eaddie made it home after robotics and dinner with Eli. I dug around for some paperwork to send to Tesla, and then it was off to bed.

Fringe understanding

Uncategorised

Make Life Take the Lemons Back!

I didn’t feel great this morning, and after picking up a Casey’s coffee, I made it to work about 12 minutes late. Otherwise, it was a decent day of learning VMware, with several student interruptions. I was surprised I was able to stay as focused as I did for the entire day, but I still didn’t have a whole lot to show for it by quitting time.

I had the rumblies for most of the late afternoon and all the way home, where I loaded up my trunk with more stuff from the old house. A bird got me while I was parked at work, so I ran by the carwash to hose it down. Then I made it home and quickly unloaded.

Eaddie was hungry and Summer was late getting home from work. I wanted to kill a bit of time until we at least got a response from Summer whether or not she had any opinions on dinner, so I decided to run a couple things over to Dad on the Onewheel. Just as I was hopping the curb out of the driveway, I stumbled and the board sucked up my pant leg. It was really wedged in there, and I had quite a lot of trouble getting free. I felt pretty helpless standing in the road with that heavy thing stuck right at shoe level.

I finally freed myself and jammed my thumb in the process. Then I made it to my parents’ house without further incident. I didn’t stay long since it was already dark. I got home just before Summer did, and she didn’t want to get out. Eaddie wanted to celebrate a good flute lesson, so we went to Cici’s and had a good time.

Summer was on the couch when we got home, so I put on an episode of The Brothers Sun. Afterward, I saw an email from the Tesla service center saying that they agreed to buy my car back. I have mixed feelings, partially because there’s not a current Model 3 Performance for me to repurchase. I’ve got to try and get some documents from my closed loan account anyway, so maybe they’ll have a solution for me that doesn’t involve being without a car for several months. I love my car, but it would be stupid not to get a newer, potentially nicer one for less money. Wouldn’t it?

I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?