Tag: gaming

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

Six Months

I had ELPA testing all day at the junior high, so I spent all morning over there just in case something happened. Nothing did. I got a few other things cleaned up while I was there, then met Allen at Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads. I spent the rest of the afternoon at the shop and then visited Oakland for a bit on my way home.

I took off a couple hours early to take Grey to the vet since she’s been a little shyer than usual. It was a quick visit. One look to find three mammary tumors. She said cats don’t survive them 90% of the time, so surgery wouldn’t be a realistic option, and all we can do is watch her quality of life. She guessed it might give her six more months.

With that news, I took her back home and gave them both some wet food. Then we sat on the couch together for a couple hours until I had to pick Eaddie up from karate. She wanted to stay and hang out with her friend, but I had to get her home to shower.

Summer and Autumn showed up shortly thereafter, and Summer warmed up some leftover pasta for us before the girls shuffled off to bed. I played Breath of the Wild the rest of the evening while Summer nursed some gnarly shoulder pain.

Uncategorised

Sunday Pickins

We slept in a little today after a good, long night of sleep. I started to clean up around the bedroom just a little bit, but it ended up being more like picking through a time capsule than a true cleaning day. Eventually Summer took off to go to the gym and shop for dinner stuffs. I ended up playing a little bit of Overwatch with Clint to pick up the last of my bonus loot boxes for the week. Then I got a shower and headed to Summer’s for dinner.

The girls had other food sorted and went to bed pretty soon after that. Summer made a really great pasta out of some of the leftover pulled pork, and I transferred her big tray of leftover baked beans to smaller containers for freezing. Then Summer and I watched an episode of Parks and Rec before I headed home to do one last load of laundry for the weekend. Clint and I ended the night with a few more rounds of Overwatch while my towels dried.

Baked beans, the plentiful legume.
The more you get, the more you entomb.
The more you entomb, the cheaper you eat,
So freeze beans from every quiz bowl meet!

Uncategorised

Foreboding New Year

It’s starting to look like this may be kind of a rough year. I started out with another dead fish – this time the black tetra that had bloated up. It was actually still breathing when I went to take a shower, but taking it out of the tank and setting up the quarantine finished it off by the time I was out of the shower.

I got stuck parking a little weird when I got to work, so I managed to clock in just a few seconds late, which was more annoying than anything else. Then I just babysat testing all morning. At least I got a couple arms full of scrap to take out of my office and to the graveyard. It already makes a difference in moving around in there. As lunch neared, Jason asked for suggestions. I mentioned that KFC had been remodeled and he responded with, “what sounds good?” I guess he, Dale, and Brice went to McAlister’s. I just went home for more leftover barbecue.

The afternoon was pretty mellow. I got done with what little bit had come up and then left the same time Summer finished. Autumn had stayed home for some reason and Eaddie didn’t want to go to karate or come with me to eat, so Summer took her home and went to the gym while I went home to start laundry. Summer stopped by for just a minute in the middle of that and mentioned that Grey seemed really thin and not well, so I’ll have to take her to the vet next week sometime.

Once Summer headed home, I got the litter box cleaned and fought some ants in that bathroom. Then I folded laundry and played a few losing games of Overwatch to really seal my exhaustion for a long night’s sleep.

I really hoped after the twelve years since my last one, this would be my year to shine.

Uncategorised

Ye Olde Frands

The junior high was testing this morning, so I spent most of the day trying to stay busy there. I actually got a few things taken care of, and there wasn’t a single testing issue, so it was a pretty stress-free day. Ben and Gary came over around 9 to meet with some kid from Tech about the robotics tournaments and what they needed from us to make their equipment work. Unsurprisingly, Gary was the smartest person in the room by a longshot. It was almost impressive how quickly everyone else’s eyes glazed over, and I was proud to have mostly kept up.

Dale called for lunch, so I met him and Bryce at Wendy’s. One of the maintenance guys walked in and spun some more tall tales for us as well. It felt like a really short lunch, but it was good as usual. Then it was back to the junior high until school let out. Then I ran by Oakland on the way home to replace a projector lamp.

I had to get gas when I finally left work, since I’d been skirting empty for the better part of a week. On the way back home, I stopped by AT&T to chat with the guys there. They were super dead and overstaffed, but still joked about me coming back. It’s definitely tempting, but I really would like to start out at a higher hourly rate. I left just as an area manager pulled up so as not to disturb anyone. Then it was home to start some laundry.

Summer brought all the kids over after a little while to help with the leftover barbecue from last weekend. They watched an episode of Emogenius before heading home for the night. I cleaned up and got on the computer where I saw Jack sitting online. It wasn’t much longer until Johnny showed up as well. I was a little annoyed that there wasn’t ever any chat about playing tonight, but it is what it is. We played some Overwatch until one by one they left.

Get up off my feet and stop making tired excuses.

Uncategorised

Glasstric Bypass

I had quite a bit of trouble falling asleep last night, and then it felt like I slept really lightly all night long. Then we had to get up early to make it to Conway for the movie. Summer took the kids home to shower and clean up, and I did the same before heading out to pick them up.

We made it with plenty of time to get seated. It was actually really nice, with only a few other people in the theater. The tickets were quite a bit cheaper as well. We watched Glass after having seen Unbreakable and Split earlier last year. I thought it was pretty amazing, but I think the plot twist did more to aggravate the others. It makes me wonder if they’ll actually continue with more movies, or perhaps a series.

After the movie, we took the kids to Game Point to look around. We let them pick up a couple games, and I even grabbed a couple myself. Then we went to Walmart to see if I could find any of the clearance-priced Chromecast and Google Home Mini bundles. They were all sealed up behind glass, and BrickSeek indicated it was “limited stock” anyway, which likely meant they had none at the $17 price. By the time we left there, we were all pretty hungry, so we started the quest to find someplace to eat.

We drove through greater Conway to find something, and ultimately landed at Golden Corral. It worked out well for everyone to find something they liked, and we all pretty well stuffed ourselves beyond any reason. I actually didn’t overdo it as much as I often do, but I was already pretty full from popcorn anyway.

From there, we went to Sam’s to walk off some of the food. I very nearly picked up a box of Dr. Pepper syrup to use with the SodaStream, but I ultimately passed with a 2-1 vote against from the kids. I’m still not really sure how that happened. Then we went by PetCo to look for some shrimp, followed by BestBuy to cruise for deals. With nothing of interest there, we made a final stop at Target, where we picked up just a few things before heading home.

I dropped them off at Summer’s house and headed home to prepare for their arrival, but Summer said her car wouldn’t start. I dug out the Xbox so they could play their new game and headed to their house for the night. Autumn crawled into bed pretty early while Eaddie watched Noah play Left 4 Dead 2. Summer and I ended the night with a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation.

I have a dream that my four little coworkers will one day work in a department where they will not be judged by the length of their employment, but by the quality of their work.

Uncategorised

Blowoverwatch

The girls all went to the high school for a quiz bowl tournament today. I got up early and worked on the file server some more, but couldn’t kick a massive headache and went back to sleep until a bit after noon. Apparently it started to snow, which panicked someone at the tournament, so they shut it down early. Summer brought a bunch of leftover barbecue over, so I had that for lunch when they got here.

The girls, in a truly presidential moment, refused to get along with anyone all day long. Criminal Minds managed to shut them up for a little while, but they started up again just as Summer left to pick up Noah. I didn’t have the creativity I needed to deal with it properly, so I just separated them the best I could and went to my room to continue working on the file server. Then I saw Clint online, so we played a bunch of Overwatch until everyone else in the house passed out. If they don’t figure it out by tomorrow, I swear I’m leaving them on the side of the road.

Let’s try not to make this become cruel and usual punishment.

Uncategorised

Clocking Out of Break

Like most of the break, we slept in a bit later than we wanted. Summer got up and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and we spent most of the day playing games either together or separately. It felt like kind of a waste of such a nice day outside, but Eaddie was the only one that even mentioned doing anything. I kept letting myself get caught up in my game of Zelda, and Autumn mostly stuck to her phone when Summer wouldn’t let her watch Criminal Minds.

The three of them did at least manage to finish building the game table in Autumn’s room. Then the other three of us played quite a bit of Mario Kart before Summer heated up a lasagna for dinner. The day went by pretty quickly, and everyone worked up a pretty good musk by the time the kids had to get ready for bed. We finished up with a lime pie that Summer and Eaddie made, and then the kids were off to bed for the school night.

I headed home and started a load of laundry I didn’t get to, and while that was going I noticed Clint, Keno, and Jack were all on playing Overwatch, so I joined them for a few rounds as well before bed. We finished up right before my laundry was done. I’ll have to get up a bit earlier tomorrow so I can be sure to have plenty of extra time for the new time clock procedure we’re implementing at work. It really must be great to have a contracted number of work days just like us and not have to worry about a time clock the way that certified employees don’t.

We’ve got to quit wasting breaks.

Uncategorised

End of Break Blues

Summer got up this morning and left for the gym and to do a bit of shopping before the girls got back from their father’s. I got cleaned up and had to stop by Walmart to pick up the asparagus and Brussels sprouts that Summer forgot.

The girls were eating food they brought home when I got there, so it was just the two of us eating the ribs, mashed potatoes, and veggies she whipped together. It was super good, so I wasn’t too upset about it. After we ate, we played a relatively quick game of Monopoly before moving to the Switch for Mario Kart.

We’ve all had trouble getting to sleep early, but I’m hoping to turn my clock back by about four hours tonight. Sadly, returning to work is starting to look like reality.

Where else can I find a job that lets me work this little but pays better?

Uncategorised

PixElated

I didn’t manage to get to sleep until about 5, and I woke up around 8 to check the status of Summer’s phone. We really didn’t have any more time to waste because Google Fi was threatening to cancel her “service” and bill her for the phone if she didn’t activate it, even though it was completely on FedEx for losing her first phone shipment nearly a month ago. When she finally woke up around 10, I had her get dressed to wait for FedEx and I went back to sleep for a little while. It was right around lunch time that they finally made the delivery. I still woke up from the knock on the door though, so I went ahead and got up to help her set things up.

We got her screen protector and case on, but she forgot her Slickwraps skin at home, so we’ll have to try that out later. The port from Verizon to Google Fi was painless though, and after some initial, vaguely unintuitive setup, she was up and running on her new phone. I think after seeing hers, I’m less upset about not having a new one this year. I can definitely hold out for a better price point than the one I got when I switched last year.

After we got her going, I dominated Noah and Eaddie at some Mario Kart that I picked up on sale last night before bed. Summer and Autumn made a run to Burger King and Popeye’s for a late lunch since it’s impossible to please everyone, and we’re raising a bunch of “librul snowflakes” as they say at work. Summer even made the executive decision to order bone-in chicken over Eaddie’s preferred strips, but then ended up bringing strips back anyway because the wait was significantly shorter.

We ate, Summer took Noah home, and then the four of us played a ridiculously long game of Catan because none of us are comfortable enough to play with any real strategy yet. When that was finally over, I was completely beat from being awake for so long after such little sleep. Summer took the girls home and I tried doing my rounds on some of the pets before falling over.

It looked like the betta dropped a few more eggs, but they floated this time. She also has some pretty significant fuzz that looks like stuffing coming out of a hole in a stuffed animal. It’s been there for a while and she can’t seem to shake it, but at least she seems more active. I think she’s been eating some of the freeze dried bloodworms I’ve added to her water, but I can’t tell for sure. She’s definitely still not anywhere near back to normal.

After that, I got side tracked a bit and ended up breaking the tape measure I’ve had on my desk for years. It had been slightly messed up for ages, and I broke it the rest of the way trying to correct it. I guess for a dollar store purchase, it served well. Harbor Freight will fill the void nicely in the near future.

Too many rabbits.