Tag: family

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Incomplete

I went to bed several hours early last night, and woke up a little early this morning. Summer went to the store for some breakfast and then came back to make sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits. I worked on several things, including vacuuming for several hours, laundry, and continuing to defrost the mini fridge. Very little of it felt finished.

I took Muad’Dib out for a run and encountered a littlel dog with heterochromia. She was just running loose and came to chase Muad’Dib for a bit before a kid came out to get her. We visited Dad, then got back to the house where Summer warmed up some of the meatballs she made the other night. We ate and then I took a shower.

Summer and I had a talk, but like everything else, that conversation isn’t finished. Things calmed down pretty quickly though, and I had to prep for a week of salespeople and visitors at work.

She spilled her coffee; broke a shoelace.

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Bring Grandma to Work Day

We had enough time to stop for coffee and then a biscuit this morning, and then still had time to stretch our legs when we got to work before putting on Muad’Dib’s costume. I wore my red hoodie, and he wore his robe, hairnet, and eyeglasses, which everyone loved. Joel brought Dexter, and though he was skittish at first, he eventually warmed up to Muad’Dib. Muad’Dib kept stealing his toy bone though, and I had to scold him.

I got into the firewall some and figured out how to pass the traffic I needed to make the Unifi captive portal work, so we won’t need a WiFi password next week when everyone shows up for training. I spent a bunch of time out and about, and felt a little more comfortable joking around with people, which was great.

We went to McDonald’s for lunch and had a pretty bad experience again. It wasn’t terrible, but every single aspect of being there could have been made better with almost no effort. I ended up sending a huge letter of complaint through their online form, since they requested I do so after I left a poor Google review.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly. I had a sudden anxiety attack, and Joel sent us home half an hour early. Muad’Dib and I got to the house where Summer was preparing for trick-or-treaters. We went on our run with Muad’Dib dressed as a cow, and then I took him around the block again without the outfit so he could feel more comfortable running fast.

I ate some food and then we sat outside with Summer while she passed out candy. There weren’t very many people in our neighborhood, which was great news for me. We came inside and watched the rest of Ironheart before winding down for bed.

My, what big runs you have!

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#mood

We picked up a frappé when we got into Morrilton, then realized how cold it was outside as we walked into the building. I bounced around a bit between projects, but stayed busy. The McDonald’s app screwed up at lunch time, but I managed to get my food. I was pretty sure Muad’Dib climbed into the front seat while he was waiting for me, so he was mildly in trouble for the afternoon.

I had to go downstairs to help Elizabeth with something, and her computer update took about an hour to complete, so I was down there with her for a while. We chatted and tinkered with Kandi’s old computer while we waited. Heaven came out and took Muad’Dib in to play with Teddy for a bit, and then we finally got back upstairs just in time to wind things down.

Summer had some food in the slow cooker when we got to the house. It was mostly dry, so I took Muad’Dib on a quick run, visited my parents, and then got back to eat. Summer went to bed after that, and I cleaned up for trash day.

~super automatic~

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PentaCheese Soup

We got up and I made bacon and eggs for breakfast for Summer and myself, and even had a cup of coffee to get things started. Summer went to the gym while I cleaned up a bit, and we eventually got over to Walmart for some shopping. Muad’Dib had been stuck inside for a while, so we took him out. He had to run off some steam in the parking lot before we put him back in the car.

Summer was making tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, so we got stuff for that along with some other random things we had on our shopping list. I was really hungry by then, so we got a bunch of chicken strips from the deli to tide us over until dinner.

Muad’Dib needed a run when we got back, so I took him out for an early run. It was a little wet out, but not too bad. He had a great run in the cool air, and we visited Dad before making it back to the house. Summer made a cheesecake and tomato soup, and once Eaddie got home from watching a recital out of town, I grilled some sandwiches on the stove and the three of us sat down to eat.

We cleaned up and I vacuumed the living room again, but I couldn’t really tell how much good I was doing since Summer had let Muad’Dib run around and get hair everywhere. I’ll have to clean the vacuum cleaner again tomorrow and go over it at least once more, but I think the amount of fine insulation dust is finally getting to an acceptable level.

It’s about standards!

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Raining Dogs

Summer left early this morning for a run in Conway. I slept in a while, but was up when she got back home. Eaddie left for marching practice before a game in the evening, so Summer and I got around to go to La Huerta for a late lunch. We brought Muad’Dib along and were able to sit with him out on their back porch. We were the only ones out there, so service was fairly slow even in spite of the restaurant being mostly empty due to how late it was.

It rained pretty hard all day, but we thought we’d try taking him to PetSmart just to get him out a little bit. I let him out of the car and he ran up to the door and inside, so I had to wrangle him to put his leash on. After that, he went nuts smelling everything in the store. He didn’t seem nervous, but he just wanted to chase after everything. He didn’t get to burn off any energy because of the rain.

We needed to go to Walmart after that, but I didn’t want to get out in the heavy rain, so we just went back home. The three of us laid down to watch Thunderbolts and did some laundry. Dad sid they had bánh bao, so I took Muad’Dib over there to have one while they were still a little warm. Then we came home and went to bed super early.

No cats.

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Lockdown: Not Just for Schools!

I thought McDonald’s would be busy again, but we breezed right through for a coffee. Mitch called just as I was leaving the house, so I called him back to tell him all about our resident alien. After that, the drive in got a little crazy because some idiot with out-of-state tags was cruising in the passing lane, below the speed limit, in perfect lockstep with a semi truck in the right lane. A whole line of cars was swerving and peeking around angrily, trying to pass. I finally got around and slowed way down in front of him to try and get him to move over to let other cars pass, but I also had an upcoming exit.

I cooled down at the office and got into some stuff there. We didn’t have a call in the morning like I expected, but I dug into the security stuff all day. We went for our Big Mac break and I had an apple pie with a vanilla cone, and it was spectacular. I was surprised how good their ice cream was, and the apple pie was perfect with it.

When we got back from lunch, I spotted no fewer than three cop cars near the property, including one parked right near where I always park. Teisha didn’t answer her phone, but I got a hold of Tammy, who let me in and said there was a car chase, and they thought someone jumped our fence. They had locked down the best they could while operations continued in the plant. Muad’Dib and I went back to work.

The afternoon wasn’t very fruitful. Kandi finished her last day without much fanfare that I could see. Muad’Dib and I left a little late, so I skipped our slushie stop and we made it home through heavy traffic. It wasn’t very long before Dad texted that they had bún thang for dinner, so Summer got out of her bath so we could go eat. Muad’Dib got a little antsy, so I let him out to run part of the way. Dinner was good, but we headed home soon after because Summer had an early run in Conway the next morning.

Eaddie was home briefly but left. I was feeling pretty worn down, so I didn’t stay up much later than usual before going to sleep.

Some guard dog.

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Fall of Man

We went all the way across town for a smoothie this morning, and that McDonald’s was way busier than the other one. I don’t know if it was the timing or location, but I thought it would be a shorter and faster detour. We got to work and had a bit of productivity in the morning until I started reading more of my predecessor’s old ChatGPT logs.

At this point, I am completely convinced that Brandon was not real. He was not human. He was an alien, or some kind of lizard person with primative knowledge of our species. I’ve seen the memes about AI, but I could never imagine such intense and immediate reliance on “artificial intelligence” for literally every aspect of seemingly everything he was doing. Every email, every presentation, and every written interaction from him was constructed by ChatGPT. He didn’t even write his own “heartfelt” resignation letter to the company. It was entirely crafted by ChatGPT. What really sent me over the edge was the fact that he asked it to “tell me about 4th of July.” He asked about things that should have been muscle memory for anyone that has been even tangentially interested in IT as a hobby, much less as a career.

Flabberghasted, we went to McDonald’s to decompress. I took the whole hour.

The afternoon wasn’t much to speak of. I wrote some more documentation. I wrote it myself. I didn’t ask ChatGPT to write it for me. That’s what I got from Brandon. Literally a roadmap written by AI to tell me how our network is set up. Even I know what a /24 subnet is. Asinine.

We ran into traffic on the way home and took the Atkins exit just in time to pass Summer, who was stuck due to a wreck ahead of us. I took Highway 64 the whole way home and beat her by just a couple minutes. She had a “beef stroganoff” with meatballs going in the slow cooker all day, so I took Muad’Dib for a quick run and made it back to eat outside with the girls. Eaddie left again for band, Summer went to bed, and I did a bit of cleanup before crashing myself.

This is how AI takes our jobs – not directly, but by empowering those that are simply not qualified for the jobs they conned themselves into.

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Clownin’

I got five orders into McDonald’s today. We started with a coffee before leaving town, then stopped in Morrilton for a chicken biscuit. I spent all morning documenting printers, and then we went for a late lunch and redeemed points for a free Happy Meal. The six McNuggets didn’t quite satisfy me, so I redeemed a free Double Cheeseburger, which was quite a bit heftier than I remembered. I was actually quite pleased. I wrapped that up with a free Apple Pie for dessert.

As I was finishing up, a young, very McMethed-out girl approached and asked if I had a hot spot. I was polite and tried to learn what she really needed, and she said she was trying to get a ride to her uncle’s place that was “less than ten minutes away.” I had to decline her at that point, and she walked up to a kiosk to order something before walking over to talk to someone else, who I think was an employee.

The afternoon went by quickly, and then we made it home so I could eat some leftover chicken before taking Muad’Dib on a run. I originally thought I’d run him to the high school to meet Summer for the marching assessment, but she wanted me to run him first, and then go with her for the entire time she would be there.

Muad’Dib ran well, but I had to zap him a few times when he kept trying to chase cats, or generally wouldn’t listen. He was mostly good, but just wasn’t being as obedient as I needed him to be. Summer and I had a chat when we got back, and then we went to the high school to watch a couple bands play before Eaddie would go out with the Tech band.

We brought Muad’Dib along, and he was immediately wound up and alert for all the noise and goings-on. He didn’t even wait to get out of the car, and sprung out as soon as I opened the door, which was very unlike him. As we entered the stadium, there was no one to turn us away. He got more and more anxious as we entered the crowd of people. We got seated and watched one band, but then I decided to take him off to the side of the field to decompress in the grass. We walked around for a couple of bands, and then he finally felt okay to come back for Tech.

Summer was straight to bed as I tried to clean up some stuff in the garage and kitchen. I didn’t feel great, but I eventually made it to bed.

Makin’ my way downtown, walkin’ slow, faces pass, and I’m homebound.

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Off Grid

Today started out fairly tense. Summer and I left for Little Rock to see Tron, and it was just awkward silence the whole way. Things lightened up after that as we went through a whole bucket of popcorn before the previews started. I thought the movie was okay, but it was grungier than I liked. A huge part of the appeal for me was the digital perfection of everything, so it was kind of ick that the main character was a program who looked like he hadn’t showered in a couple of days. Of course Daft Punk could never be replaced for the soundtrack, and NIN only added to the grungy feeling of it all. Ultimately it was an entertaining flick without too much Morbin’.

We hunted for food after the show, and ended up driving a ways further south to eat at La Patrona Asian Sushi Buffet. It was an odd fusion of Asian and Mexican, split pretty closely down the middle. The food was okay. I liked the variety, but it wasn’t a huge selection. The service was very lacking because we didn’t seem to have a dedicated server, but we had already paid up front. I’d eat there again, if I were hungry, and if I were already very close.

After that, we made it over to the Outlets of Little Rock, which was a cute little outdoor courtyard type shopping center. It reminded me very much of Disney Springs, but only in the way that Arkansas could do it. The highlight was probably the weird Asian arcade behind the weird Asian pop culture store. There was hardly anyone there, except for one guy that was really getting into whatever piano-style rhythm game he was playing.

We made the loop and headed toward home, stopping in Conway so Summer could pick up something from the wash there. Once we got to the house, I took Muad’Dib for a quick run as the sun went down, and then it was a rush to bed.

end of line

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Ghost Season

Several people were out on vacation today, so the office was super quiet. I bored myself with Microsoft licensing this morning, but still never took any actual steps to accomplish anything. It was all just more, repetitive research.

We went outside for some zoomies, grabbed some McDonald’s, did some more zoomies, and then had an even quieter afternoon since we were the only ones upstairs. It got to the point that we had to take a walk downstairs just to be visible. I grabbed some printer info and visited with staff for a bit, and we actually ended up leaving a little bit late because of it.

On our way out of town, we had to stop for our Friday slushies at Casey’s. I thought I might have to go by Mark’s again, but he put me off until Saturday, so I took Muad’Dib out for a run while it was light out. We visited my parents and then made it back to the house in time to warm up some leftover enchiladas to eat with Summer.

It was a quiet night after that, with Eaddie out for the high school homecoming game. Summer and I laid with Muad’Dib for a while. I caught up with Eaddie when she got back home, and then went to sleep.

Foul dog!