Tag: anger management

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Bumday

Our greatest accomplishment today was breakfast. Summer got up and made eggs, sausage, and bacon, and I broiled a loaf of French bread with mayo on it, which I divided into equal sized sandwich portions. The bread turned out great and had a perfect squish to it. Almost surprisingly, there were no complaints as everyone had something they liked.

The girls started out pretty moody in the morning but mellowed out over the course of the day. Summer left a couple times to do some grocery shopping and then to get her nails done. I spent a large portion of the day cleaning up my Google Calendar and Gmail. I did at least take a shower, and I think I successfully removed a couple flow-limiters in Summer’s shower, though it didn’t seem to make a huge difference.

We kind of picked at leftovers for dinner, and ended the night with a little Switch time and then an episode of Parks and Rec.

Oh, I didn’t realize there were things you’d rather be doing!

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Evasive Tax Form

The weather was supposed to be nice again today, but it was still super cold on the bike in the morning. I went back and forth between Oakland and the shop a few times trying to fix some issues before testing season arrives. It was still a mostly mellow morning though. I did run into Michael, who asked about borrowing my home theater speakers for a Dancing Through the Decades dance in a couple weeks. I just didn’t feel comfortable loading them up and bringing them out for use in public though.

I met Zach and Allen at Morellos for lunch, where I vowed to eat too many chips. I had been hungry all morning, and I absolutely loaded myself with fajitas and chips. Allen left us super early as usual, and Zach and I both still got to the shop separately, and well before our lunch hour was over. I really don’t know what his anxiety is about.

I tried to get some tablets reset at the junior high before school let out, but I didn’t get them all done before Jason wanted Brice and me to help Amanda mount a touch panel. At first I thought we were all four going to be there, but evidently he helped Amanda deliver the touch panel, and we were to swap it with a previously mounted television and then bring that back to the shop. I got pretty annoyed at Brice, because Jason emailed us early in the morning with a scheduled time of 3:00, so I left my tablets unfinished to meet at the shop. Brice took an extra 30 minutes to get there, and then we still had to drive to the middle school. On top of that, Gary seemed to be bored at the shop, and Ben was going to be at the middle school to continue his walkthrough. It just felt like everyone was either already there or available to help, and I was annoyed that I couldn’t get my work done. It didn’t help that I was mad at myself for forgetting to complete a work order yesterday, but I really didn’t get any heads-up for that one anyway.

After work, I came home to gather some things before going to Lowe’s to hunt down some light bulbs. I didn’t even see a compatible LED like I’ve been getting from Walmart, but they had one single-pack incandescent for a little more than the LEDs cost. Hopefully it won’t burn out after just a couple days though. I wish I knew what the problem was. I went ahead and picked up a new fluorescent bulb for the 35 gallon bow-front tank as well since it’s been out for years. There were only a couple cashiers, and after waiting in line for quite a while, my guy couldn’t scan a gift card correctly and I ended up getting out of line to check the balance. Once I confirmed what I knew, I got back into the next shortest line and checked out without incident.

I finally made it up to Summer’s for just a spot of dinner and to visit. They had already eaten since I was still a bit full from lunch anyway. Summer and I went to the other room to talk about her offer from the shop, and I tried to help her calculate the value of her time. It really could go either way, depending on her negotiation. The best part is just that she has multiple options for now and in the future, so I tend not to fret too much over her choice. I spent a bit of time trying to buy tickets for Shazam, but had to give up after I met a hidden order limit that required a call to guest services to explain.

Eventually I headed back home for the evening and tried to take care of the aquariums a bit. Once that was done, I spent the rest of the night cleaning with the purpose of finding my W-2. I just couldn’t find it anywhere, and I started to get really aggravated. I felt good about getting so much stuff cleaned up and thrown out, but I was going crazy not remembering where I had put it. Eventually I found it in the living room, but didn’t have enough time to actually file my taxes. I guess there’s still tomorrow.

At least I got my watch shipped off.

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Risk of Rain

We had a meeting this morning with our new testing coordinator about ACT Aspire testing. Heather made us pancakes and sausage for breakfast, which made the dull meeting better. The highlight was the look on her face when we told her the number one reason we get called in to help is for one of the things we are specifically forbidden to do. At least the whole ordeal didn’t take long, and then I filled up on breakfast.

Allen needed help hanging a touch panel in London, so Dale and I joined him on that quest. Shortly after we got there and got set up, they had a fire drill and the two of them insisted on going outside for it. I went ahead and hung the mounting hardware while they were gone. Of course I ended up having to drive back to town because he forgot a part. That got us to lunch, and they suggested staying in London to eat at Fat Daddy’s, but I wasn’t even remotely hungry. We came back to town, and I went and sat with them at Taco Bell for half an hour, but then just went to the junior high to work on my stack of work orders.

I very nearly completed resetting all of my PLTW tablets, but still ended up staying late to finish the second lab. When I finally left, I met the girls at my house and made more pork nachos for them. I probably ate too much of it myself, but at least I cleaned up the leftovers. They headed home shortly after that, and I spent some time on the aquariums before sitting down to some Overwatch with Johnny, and then Jack. When they both finally got on at the same time, we played some of the new Risk of Rain 2, which was relatively fun, mostly annoying, and ran pretty terribly on my ancient computer. I want so badly to build another one, but also recognize that I have such little time to sit down at it. A laptop is appealing, but I don’t exactly have the money to pay that premium anyway. I guess I’ll stick with my old computer for a few more years of indecisiveness.

I forgot all about that damn whale in the gym. I really wanted to see it.

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Tabula Rasa

It was cold this morning, but it would warm up pretty quickly, so I took the bike to work. I spent all day at the junior high touching all of the Samsung tablets in three different classrooms, and still couldn’t get it done before lunch. I met Zach, Allen, and Jason at Morelos where I tried something new – the lunch burrito supreme. I was a little disappointed in its size, and the mixed beef and chicken was really kind of split down the middle the short way, but with the rice, beans, and chips, I had plenty to eat. On the way out, some little squishy unicorns caught my eye in a quarter machine, and somehow I talked both Allen and Jason into donating a quarter each. I was shocked, but it made me happy.

I went by the shop for a little bit after lunch and chatted with Gary about some of the troubles I had been working with, and that’s when I got two work orders about kids looking at porn on the tablets. At first it just seemed like one more thing to throw onto the pile of crap I was dealing with, but after further inspection I’m not positive I caused this one. I spent the rest of my day and most of my evening updating and factory resetting tablets in two of my three labs until I couldn’t stand to look at them. I have one lab completely finished, but I won’t know for sure until tomorrow. Then I’ll still have to come up with a better management process and also wipe two more labs’ worth.

At first I thought I would skip dinner because of how late it was, but then I remembered I had a Subway coupon that expired after today. I was super hungry too, so I ordered a chicken bacon ranch sub and rode on home. I got one load of laundry done as well, and was still ready for bed earlier than the past few nights. I’m already over 40 hours for the week. Hopefully all this overtime helps me build a case for a raise and a solid position with my esports program.

Oh, glee.

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Tabmanian Devils

I had to spend most of the day fighting the tablet issue I had yesterday. I took a short break to meet with Rachel about esports, and again for lunch at KFC with Allen and Dale, but it wasn’t until after lunch that I got them working again. I won’t find out until tomorrow whether or not I’ll have to touch all of the classroom devices to fix them all.

Jason and Zach helped me hang a TV at the end of the day, and we really got it up in record time because neither of them were very excited to do the work. Jason actually looked to keep busy all day, but I’m really not sure what Zach did for most of it. We did a good job though, and I’m always for good, efficient work.

When I got home, I started trimming and replanting the bathroom aquarium and did a quick water change. We were going to get 50-cent corn dogs for dinner, but then Mom said she was making chow mein. We coordinated Summer’s gym time with me borrowing Allen’s truck to move the mattress from my parents’ house, and I grabbed some corn dogs for the kids on the way. I happened to pull in right behind Keith at the drive-through, and we hollered back and forth for a bit, and then it was off to dinner.

I don’t know how Eaddie ate so much, but Noah gave up pretty quickly on his chow mein after eating like five corn dogs. I think Eaddie only had about three, but she loved the chow mein too much to pass it up. Summer took leftovers for lunch, and then we loaded the truck up to get things moved.

We dropped the boxspring off at my house first, just to raise my mattress up off the floor a little bit. I don’t love it, but I’m so indecisive about a bed that I really don’t know what I want anyway. Then we took the mattress up to Autumn’s room for her. I topped off Allen’s truck and returned it, then headed home to put everything back together again.

Johnny and Jack were playing some Overwatch, so I jumped into a couple matches with them to end the day. The steamrolling was unreal.

Turn around, now you’re my A Team.

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Persistent, innit?

We started this morning at the shop without too much news. I had testing, so I was out all day for that. Evidently the alternative was to do all the work running cables and hanging touch panels for Brice. I don’t know why anyone fights it, because he’s going to be our boss eventually anyway. I got another email from Travis about esports and continued to try and put together some kind of response for him. Even after I calmed myself down, it shocked me to hear from him again so soon. I guess nothing really would have prepared me better.

Dale and Allen called Pizza Hut for lunch, but after waiting for about five minutes for anyone to show up, I decided to meet Zach, Ben, and Amanda at La Plaza. What a mistake. It took them 40 minutes to get our food to us, and every single one of us got something wrong with our food. Then it took them several more minutes to check us out with barely an apology.

I finished up testing, then spent some time at the shop before heading home. I fed Grey some more wet food and sat in the floor with her for a while. Then Travis emailed me again at home. It was easier to respond in a personal way rather than through his Courier address, and we exchanged a few emails basically trying to ignore the history. He added me to Steam, we traded phone numbers, and then I headed to Summer’s.

I stopped by Oakland on the way because I forgot to get the squash and okra that Tammy brought me out of the lounge freezer. Summer warmed up some leftover pork chops and baked beans with potato salad. We ate, and I laid with her on the couch for quite a while before we came back to my house for the evening.

And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state

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Fly

Gary had to help get League of Legends to work again this morning. I guess they moved some DNS entries around on their update server, which broke SSL encryption for us again. I’m mostly just parroting words, though. He made the blinky thing workie again. Then he took me to the other basement.

I met Allen at KFC for too much food. I still wish they’d reinstall a tray rail along the buffet. They’re just asking for trouble without it. Then I spent the afternoon at the junior high contemplating organized sports. Being under the AAA umbrella means that players can only play for four years, which means 8th graders can’t actually compete. Fortunately that doesn’t seem to mess me up too badly, because I don’t think anybody has actually stepped up to play in the tournament yet. Matt wants to just throw a couple kids in, but all I see is throwing money into a hole.

After work, I wasn’t hungry enough for phở, so I skipped going to my parents’ house and went to Walmart in the rain to get Grey some wet food. On the way out I drove past a guy with no legs scooting himself across the parking lot between cars on a skateboard, so I’d say things are going pretty spectacularly for me.

Back home I got Grey to eat a little bit before trying to play a custom game of League of Legends with Kang against some bots. For some reason it ran horrendously on my computer, and I just left frustrated. I don’t understand why it drops so many frames, yet Overwatch, Rocket League, and even PUBG will run fine. Generally upset about my computer, I got up and did the dishes and then came back to play some Overwatch with Jack and Johnny, and then Clint after Johnny left. Still fewer wins than expected. Must be tired.

“I don’t listen to a whole lot of classic metal, but if I decided to explore it more, I would definitely listen to more Metallica.”

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Early Saturday

I couldn’t sleep in this morning and got out of bed right around 8. Summer and Autumn were already gone for a quiz bowl tournament. I had some leftover barbecue for breakfast while Eaddie slept in. Eventually I got her up and we got ready to go to my parents’ house where Uncle Giao and Aunt Teresa had come to visit. Bác Vân was there too, and Mom made phở and egg rolls for lunch. We ate, then hung out for a little while before heading back to my house.

Eaddie watched Legends of Tomorrow while I milled around the house and tried to organize some things for esports. Summer and Autumn got back around dinner time, and we packed everyone up to go back to my parents’ house. We ate and socialized until Uncle Giao and Teresa were ready to head out. As we were driving away, he stopped and asked me to lead him to the hotels, so I drove him up north. I don’t know why they wouldn’t just stay in one of the spare rooms at my parents’ house, but whatever the reason, it was annoying enough to me that he would rather ask me to drive them to a hotel instead.

Since we were already on that side of town, I decided not to go back for Summer’s car, and we just crashed at her place. I couldn’t get Battlestar Galactica to play properly and Summer was ready to pass out, so that was it for the night.

Relax, don’t do it, when you want to go to it.

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What’s the Dale, Yo?

It rained all day today, so we had to trailer the TVs we were mounting. Dale had us load up four for the high school, but when we got there we decided not to do two of those because they had newer projectors already. Then the two we did hang were in rooms that seemed not to use them at all, so I’m not even sure it was necessary. All of this was really out of the ordinary for Dale, so it really threw us out of whack the rest of the morning.

I offered up a couple places at the junior high where we could mount the last two, and after Zach spent about half an hour trying to back the trailer up to the pad, we got one TV hung. They left the last one in my office, and we met the gang at the shop to go to lunch at Popeye’s.

Way too much food later, I was left to go to the junior high and take care of a few things by myself. I spent a while trying to get sound out of the TV we hung, and then went through a few rooms to check on the quality of some projectors to decide on more replacements. The teachers were all there for SSP night, so I found all of them to discuss the replacements. About half of them were all for TVs, and the other half didn’t want to give up their touch panels. It’s all well enough, I suppose, because I hate getting rid of stuff that still works.

Summer had to stay late for her conferences, so I headed home and played some Rocket League and Overwatch with Johnny and Aaron when they came on. I missed having friends to play with, but I didn’t miss all the whining about why things are the way that they are in the games. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad.

My body is finely tuned, like a microchip.

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Coach Cow

It was storming pretty hard this morning, but we got just enough of a break and cared just little enough that we still managed to truck a touch panel to Oakland first thing in the morning. Together, Zach, Gary, and I got the panel hung with only a little unnecessary help from John. It would have helped if we had started with the correct size drill bit, but the important thing is that we got it done.

Afterward, we got the rumor mill going pretty hard, and there were a lot of things left up in the air. Jason’s still going to be out for a while, and apparently they’re letting him use sick bank days for what any reasonable person would feel are seriously inappropriate reasons. I was going to get 50 cent corn dogs with Summer and Ronda, but Ronda backed out, and then Zach wanted to continue our conversation over lunch. The three of us went to Zona K-tracha for lunch, and all ended up getting the same mixed lunch fajitas. The waitress seemed to be new at literally everything she did for us, down to asking if we wanted ice in our waters. The food was good, but inconsistent with our previous experiences. Overall good, but not worth the difference over a closer restaurant to the shop. Previously it had been pretty amazing.

I took care of work orders after lunch, and spent some time setting up an account with PlayVS. Matt and Ben officially gave me the go-ahead to be the coach for the district’s first Esports league team. PlayVS tripled the number of games to three: League of Legends, Rocket League, and Smite. None of us had any real idea how we would start the whole process, so I started by firing off an email to Gabriel, who I had helped pitch Esports to Matt in the first place. My main concern right now is how we will pay to enter the league, and whether we even should for this season with so little time to prepare.

As the day ended, Summer and I were going to meet at my place over some corn dogs while the girls were in karate. Kevin was still in his office working super late, so I thought I’d swing by and bring him a couple, but he had disappeared by the time I got there. I headed home and ate with Summer, then finally ran by the junior high basketball game to feed him there. He was super duper appreciative of that, and we chatted for a while before I headed out. I talked to Ronda and Jennifer at the concession stand for a little bit and ran into Charlie there because his daughter wanted to watch the game. I guess it’s something social to do. I didn’t used to see the appeal, but at least it looked better than an outdoor sport.

When I got back home, I spent some time in the living room with Grey. I think her tumors are getting worse pretty quickly, but she’s not acting totally worthless, so it’s going to be hard deciding when to end it. We’ll just have to take it day by day. Johnny and Aaron got online after a little while and I chatted with Johnny until bedtime.

Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol.