Tag: anger management

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Shrimp Daddy

We had a pretty contagious day of not giving a crap about anything. Jason sent every last one of us to the junior high to do a few things, and then vanished as usual. He did stop in a couple times just to make his presence known, but otherwise he was as useless as ever with an attitude to go along with it. I stopped in to talk with Matt about esports again, so I guess that’s still on the table. Then we got a few lines run and found another that already existed. They fed us chili dogs there, and pretty much everyone came out for it.

I spent the afternoon with Brice, first going by Oakland to take care of a couple of his things. We ended up sticking around the office for a while just to enjoy a Friday afternoon. Then we finished up at the high school running a video cable for a troublesome display. I didn’t leave with an overwhelming feeling of confidence, but I guess we’ll see what happens.

Summer had me get the girls from the junior high, so I dropped them off at their house because they didn’t care to have me around. I went home to clean up a bit from all the ceiling dust. That’s when I spotted something new in the Imagitarium!

I finally have baby shrimplets! They were so minuscule that I had to get out the magnifying glass just to see any detail on them. Some of the bigger flatworms rival them in size. I’ll never know exactly how many shrimp I have ever again, because this is just the first of many population explosions. I’ll need to get some other tanks cycled soon for my genetic experimentation.

Mom called me over for dinner, so we sat and had some soup together. Dad had already left on his trip, but left us some fresh banana bread for dessert. Then I headed up to Summer’s where everyone had pretty well split up into their rooms. Summer and I watched an episode and a half of Battlestar before she passed out. I’m super happy about having a long weekend myself.

Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man, with my three wishes clutched in her hand.

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Just give me the damn password, Bob!

I forgot my phone at home this morning, which wouldn’t have been a huge deal any other day, but I was expecting a support call from the sign company. I hoped he would call sooner than later, but I guess his day went by quicker than mine. I spent the morning catching up on a few things, then met Allen, Gary, and Zach at Wendy’s for lunch. Wesley and a couple of his guys were there too, so we sat and complained about our absent coworkers.

We got some new work shirts in after lunch, and I ended up spending more time there than I had anticipated. It wasn’t a big deal though, since everything I really needed to do had to wait until the end of the day anyway. That’s when I finally got my support call. I had just gotten back to the high school and started to settle in when my phone rang. I had to run all the way across the campus, and then spend over an hour on the phone while this guy remoted into our sign computer so he could show me first hand how little he understood about what he was doing. On the way there, I encountered a brand new brick wall blocking my path, so I had to get creative and walk around the stupid place.

As he started digging into things, I kept telling him to upgrade the firmware. He kept getting his head stuck on version numbers that seemed impossible, and kept installing and uninstalling different versions of the software to get around it. All I wanted was the stupid admin password, which he finally provided, and I could have resolved the stupid issue in under five minutes. Instead I was stuck there, unable to do the other work I had planned for the end of the day. We did finally get the sign going again, which was only partially a relief. The real concern is how long it will last until it breaks again.

That wrapped up my workday, so I headed home to change before going to my parents’ for dinner. We cleaned up some super old burrito stuff and I sat there for a while messing with my phone again. I’ve about given up on fixing it, and I’ve made peace with just wiping the whole thing and starting over. Next Tuesday is the new Pixel announcement, so worst case scenario I can just get a whole new phone.

Get in there, Bob!
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What Prompted This?

I had a pretty rough start this morning, but with an iron will and the perseverance of someone with a powerful need to eat, I was able to make it happen. Work started out okay, but then I got to my office.

I had just gotten into a little work order to install a minor upgrade in a computer lab, which seemed petty and annoying at first, but became fun when I realized how easy it was. Halfway through that, my favorite regular customer walked in asking if I had gotten her email. I guess she thinks I just sit in my office playing Minesweeper until a little notification bell goes off. As it turns out, work orders and emails are a relatively small part of my job. I fashioned a response for her and the handful of people she addressed, and made a mental note to proceed with my next troubleshooting steps for her at some point ever. Then I continued on with my more pressing matters.

The rest of the morning went by pretty quickly. I texted Allen to reserve a lunch date at Taco Bell for a Toasted Cheddar Chalupa before they went out of fashion. When we got there, we felt encouraged by the marquis advertising the object of our yearning. Even the Taco Bell app was working just as it should. Things couldn’t be better. I had just selected the $6 box for my order when the girl at the counter told Allen that they no longer carried the toasty, cheddary treat. With that, I sat down and ate the saddest bean burrito I’d ever eaten.

When we got back to the shop, I spent a little time there on my iPad Pro again, with no additional luck. I ended up back at the PAC to try and downgrade the sign software, but got stuck again when the support rep refused to provide the password for the hardware we purchased. School let out just as I gave up, so I had to ride through that traffic to get to the other side of the building to my office. I wrapped up a couple more work orders to finish the day, then finally made the call for my vision exam.

The later it gets in the year and the more I read about what my EyeMed benefits actually are, the more upset I get over having waited so long, and also having purchased the insurance at all. It seems like a complete sham to have a provider that only has three local providers in their network, especially when one of them is the CFO’s wife, and another has a 2.7 star rating on Google Maps. I half expect them to poke me in the eye with a sharp stick and tell me I’ll just have to be blind for the rest of my life. I wonder if my insurance will even cover a sterile stick.

I didn’t have much time at home before I had to get Eaddie from her after school activities. We headed up to her house and killed most of the time until Summer got back with Autumn. I cooked some chicken strips for salads, then burned the rest of the evening fighting Google systems and their sign-in prompts. I should be able to get a two-factor authentication prompt on my phone, but it’s been broken for what feels like forever. I’ve reset more things, more times than I can count, and I’m just sick of it.

I took a break to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica with Summer, and ended my night in another disappointment without my prompts.

Well, this is embarrassing.

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Blockin’ out the Scenery, Breakin’ My Mind

It was quite chilly out this morning. My fingers felt the sting of the autumn air on my ride in to work. I got out of the teens on my work order count, not counting any of the 1:1 laptop stuff, so I felt pretty good about it. I got a response back from 000webhost about my site and got the suspension lifted. The first thing I did was make a backup, but I have a feeling this is ultimately going to end in me paying for hosting. They’re cheap enough though, and the support response was fast and helpful. I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth so far.

Gary said he was going to Tropical Smoothie for lunch, so I met him, Zach, and Heather there. I had a coupon, but it was “Pick 2 Tuesday” that got me the same thing for a buck less. The flatbread was really good, and the pumpkin smoothie was delicious and larger than I expected to get in a twofer. It still wasn’t cheap, but I felt pretty good about it. I couldn’t believe how busy they were though. The drive-through line just didn’t quit, and there was hardly any room for other traffic to pass through. It didn’t bother the bike any though.

After lunch, I met with Ben and we worked on the LED road sign. We were out there for nearly four hours working on the damned thing, and we really didn’t do anything to fix it other than reboot it several times. Once we got it working, I screwed it up again by updating the publishing software to a version that evidently isn’t compatible with our sign’s firmware, so that’s another call in to the company that no longer supports our sign. I have a feeling they’re going to just have to replace the stupid thing anyway, probably with an even stupider thing. The whole time we were working on it, I just felt like maybe if there was only someone that worked specifically at the Center on their very technical things, that we wouldn’t have to be out there. At least the weather was nice, and I even got some closeup time with a black widow mamma and her sack of eggs.

Once home, I spent a little time cleaning up before going to get the girls from karate. Then we met Summer at my parents’ house for bún bò Huế before heading home for an early night.

ESPORTS REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
J/K

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Conquer the Buffet

I had to set my work alarm this morning to get Summer to Little Rock for her Conquer the Gauntlet race. Her group started at 10, but she had to get registered first and wanted to be there around 9. It was a pretty quick and uneventful drive, and we stopped at a gas station so I could get snacks on the way. She would be racing with Dylan, and I assumed Hannah and I would be doing something else, but when we pulled in she made me pay the $10 for spectator parking.

She got registered and we met the others. They brought their dog Jovi to hang out as well, who was a big hit with everyone around.

Once Summer and Dylan got started, the three of us waited around and tried to decipher the map and find the best places to catch them at the obstacles. The first stop was a little bit of a wait right near the start, where they had to cross a pool of water using inclined monkey bars. Then we found another spot where we thought we could catch two obstacles, but we ended up only getting to really see one. We had to wait for over an hour for them to get there, and we seriously thought we had missed them somehow. They finally came trudging along just as we were contemplating heading back to the finish line.

When they finally did finish, Dylan and Hannah left for other things while Summer and I hunted down some food. My snacks were awful and I hadn’t felt well all morning, so I wasn’t up to being very adventurous. Summer decided on Tokyo House for their buffet, and we made our way across greater Little Rock.

Everything was great there, and somehow I managed to overstuff myself far more than I’ve done in a long time. I was absolutely miserable the rest of the day and into the evening. We came straight home without any other shopping stops as I had intended, and Summer got cleaned up from her race. Eventually I had to take Noah to work, and then I went home to nap a while until Summer was ready for me to take her to her 20 year class reunion at Old Bank.

After dropping her off, I headed home and napped on and off a while longer until she was ready to come home. I think her reunion was probably both harder and better for her than mine was, but all in all I think we’ve both decided reunions are for the birds.

May be time to finally pay for some of that web hosting now…

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Have fun doing the dumb things without me!

This morning actually felt like fall weather. The air was cool on the ride to work, and it was quickly downhill from there. We all got a super slow start, but Jason was quick to tell us we had a bunch of undesirable work to do without his help. I can’t stand his attitude on the best of days, and lately it’s just been super shitty. Even Ben was out there in the graveyard with us. It wasn’t even particularly awful work to be done, so I don’t get his vocalization to the rest of us. We had a relatively good time out there.

Allen and I went across the street for Fry Day at Smackin’ Wings again. This time we sat right behind Gary and Heather since they beat us there without inviting us. They had beef queso nachos or fries on special today, and they looked super nasty when we got them. I got the fries, but wished I had gotten the chips like Allen. They needed a whole lot of something else to make them better. When we left, the guy that delivered the food to our table came up and said they comped our food because it took too long to serve us. In reality it was actually faster than our last visit, only taking half an hour from the time we sat down. Even Gary and Heather waited longer than we did, but they ddin’t get their food for free.

I spent the afternoon wrestling with my athletics iPad Pro some more, which evidently they purchased for the sole purchase of underwater video for the swim team. I don’t fucking understand this place at all. The high school was on a pep rally schedule, and Allen was in a helping mood, so he and Brice met me there to run a short cable and climb a ladder up to the cafeteria projector. I was happy to accomplish that much, but annoyed to hear Brice say he was all caught up on his work orders while I’m still drowning in 1:1 devices that have to be shipped off.

After work, I met the girls at my parents’ house to help cover the pool. I really wanted to swim again, but it’s been cooling off fast lately. I hate how little use the pool gets after the very first part of the summer. Eaddie wanted to work out with Summer, so I took Autumn home with me. We watched a little bit of The Office until she was ready to go to the homecoming game. I dropped her off and then came home to fight with some Google stuff on my phone. When she was ready to leave, I picked her up and we waited for Noah to finish at work. We picked him up, got his bag from his house, then went up to Summer’s for the evening.

It was our fault. We wanted instant gratification, and soon the screens felt like home.

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iPooed

I really felt like I sunk the entire day into a stupid iPad Pro that we couldn’t enroll in our device management system. Even Ben sat down with me for a while and tried to help, but it just didn’t work. Eventually I just had to get up and take a break, so Allen came over and took us to Subway for lunch. I got more and more aggravated all afternoon as I kept finding myself surrounded by people not working.

After work, I rode home and took the car in for an oil change. Summer was beat from a pretty rough day herself and wanted me to get dinner for her. It started to downpour, so I hung out at the shop until it settled down as they closed up. I ran home to change shoes for the evening and called in an order to Spices, then went to pick it up along with the girls from karate. Back at her house, I finished up some leftover tacos with Eaddie before catching an episode of Battlestar and then going to bed.

I did my fair share of homework when I was younger. I don’t need to be doing yours too.

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Under the Limit

I got up this morning and headed home to get ready for Bikes, Blues, and BBQ. The bike was washed, but I still had to clean and lube the chain as soon as I got home, and then it was a quick shower and scramble around the house to find all the little things I wanted to bring. We met Allen at his house, then followed him to the ATM and then to pick up Charlotte. We took the interstate all the way to Ozark, and I’m surprised we didn’t lose them for good right then and there.

The gas station was packed with bikes, but somehow they spotted us once they got there. Charlotte made it all the way there without eye protection, so Allen made her pick up some sunglasses and we sat down for a quick lunch. I thought we’d just pick something out of the hot case, but Allen and I both ended up ordering for table service. Summer and I shared a ribeye and eggs, and he had a chili dog while Charlotte ate a hamburger from the case.

We hit the road as soon as we finished eating, and I should have talked to Allen first about his speed. It took me all day long to convince him that his speedometer was reading way too high, and that he was just barely crawling along. I took it super slow, but we just kept losing them and having to stop and wait. I figure he averaged in the low 40s, and even being passed by an SUV wasn’t enough of a hint for him. It made my ride pretty miserable, but he just refused to try and keep up, which hasn’t ever really been like him in the past.

We made one stop for gas just as we got out of the woods, and then made our way to Dickson Street. The place was packed just as it always is, but I managed to snag a parking spot right on the corner of where we’ve always parked before. Allen and Charlotte finally caught up to us, and we made our way down to the food tents. I got my refillable cup for way cheaper this year because they offered a single day cup for $10 instead of the normal $25 or more for the whole weekend. Then we wandered around collecting a little swag wherever we could.

The train pulled in after not very long, and we decided it would be fun to take a ride to Baum Stadium instead of driving. The train left every half hour, and even though it was a short ride, I thought it was worth the $10 round trip tickets just to experience the old train cars.

Baum was typical as well, but this year RumbleOn came out swinging with a wind tunnel money booth. Summer and I both got a turn in exchange for our motorcycle VINs, and we really scored big time. They had some funny money thrown in along with the singles, but we could use it to buy prizes from their booth. I caught $12 in real money plus like another $25 in the fake stuff. Summer did pretty close to the same, and they rounded us up a couple times just to give us more stuff. We walked away with 22 singles, two shirts, and two insulated cups, as well as a couple souvenir poker chips made for the rallies.

We hit all the tents there, then took the train back to Dickson where we got dinner. I had the best alligator I’ve had yet, which was battered like catfish. We all basically lost the Cherokee Casino wheel spin because we all won $10 in free plays, when all we really wanted was some hand sanitizer or lip balm. We wandered around a little more, but were pretty exhausted by that time, so we headed on home.

Allen still refused to keep up, so we just left them and made the trip home as quickly as possible. I thought it had started to sprinkle just as we got into town, but it was really just a massive cloud of bugs hanging out over a bridge by the lake. It was super gross, so we had to shower before we could do much else. When Allen got home, he called and said he dropped his bike as we were leaving Fayetteville, but luckily nothing was damaged. Overall, aside from an incredibly slow ride, it was a great success.

Next year we’re riding the Grom so they can keep up.

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Polishing the Doo

I thought I would start at the shop this morning just briefly so I could take the new, overbuilt, misappropriated computer to the PAC, but getting it going ended up being an all-day affair. It was maddening being around the shop too, seeing people casually come and go, or hearing them wasting time watching videos in their office. I’ve got a steady flow of too much work to handle, and all I get from those people is that they’re too busy or just flat out refuse to do any of it.

I felt like I couldn’t even get an assist on the computer this morning, and eventually Allen came back around for lunch and I just left it. KFC’s soda fountain was out of order, but the tea was alright. The food had been better. I saw Kyle there and asked if he was going to Bikes, Blues, and BBQ, but he isn’t. Back at the shop, I finally got a little useful help and learned the Dell-supplied drivers didn’t match the hardware revision, which was the source of my troubles all along.

As the school day ended, I gathered my things and headed to the high school for the first time. I got the computer set up in the curtain access room-become-office, and amazingly the wireless antenna on that thing was able to pick up a signal. I did have to run to the office for a longer power cable, but I got it running and able to access the network at the very least.

Eaddie had taken the bus there today, but Summer had to pick her up since I wasn’t there all day. I went home and spent a moment to decompress a bit, then went to get Eaddie from the shop just before Summer got out. I took her home and we had some chili that Summer had simmering all day, and then I killed most of the evening streaming random things on YouTube until Summer and Autumn got home.

While they ate, I got Eaddie to try her hand at the Melbourne shuffle. She enjoyed it at least enough to not completely goof off, and got the running man down pretty easily. Once the girls went to bed, Summer and I watched a feel-good episode of Battlestar and went to sleep.

Maybe if we keep throwing money at the corruption, it will go away.

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Just Shrimpy

I got home this morning and discovered one of my cherry shrimp had died. I’m assuming it was just a bad molt, because they all seemed fine yesterday. Can you imagine being trapped and suffocating inside of your own skin?

Work carried on with more random workie stuff. I do find myself annoyed with basically always having a backlog of work to do. It’s not that I don’t care to work the whole time I’m there, but rather that it’s so much more work than what I was doing before.

Lunch time ran a little late, and I found myself at Hardee’s to try their Monster Roast Beef. From the moment I walked in, I felt a little like I was in some kind of slummy neighborhood. What was confusing to me was that I saw examples of great customer service happening around me, but then I felt like I just got the “thank you, now move along” treatment. It was really kind of a weird experience. I felt like that place used to be a lot better. The sandwich was super tasty but surprisingly wet. I guess the roast beef was kept in juice to keep it moist, almost like a pre-soaked French dip.

I didn’t accomplish a whole lot more in the afternoon, and ended the day with some clerical nonsense that drove me a bit mad. I went by the warehouse to pick up some speakers, then home to change and hang out for a while. I made a frozen shrimp pasta dish of some kind that I got from Zach several months ago, and mixed it with some “grilled potatoes” he gave me as well. The whole meal was old enough to be walking and talking, but it tasted alright for what it was.

To wrap up the evening, I headed up to Summer’s and started setting up the speakers, and then we went to bed with the last episode of the second season of Battlestar.

Battlestar Shrimptactica