Tag: Onewheel

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Elon, Take the Wheel

I let the car take the onramp all the way to the offramp this morning, and only had to intervene once when it stupidly tried to pass in the right lane a block before it would have had to turn into the office parking lot. I just don’t get why it does obviously stupid things when it does so well at other times.

Randy wasn’t feeling well and ended up leaving after lunch. Nobody else came around, so I just went to Arby’s by myself and hung out there for the hour. I didn’t get into anything super complicated, and actually spent most of the morning waiting for Randy to show me a couple things, so I’m still feeling a little bit lost a lot of the time.

The morning happened to go by super quickly, so of course the afternoon dragged on. I decided to take the next two days off for recovery, so I headed home and then immediately took the dogs out for a walk. We went backwards this time, and went to the pond first to get a bit muddy. Then we stopped by my parents’ house before going up the hill and through Pinewood before making it home, where we took one more lap around the block before stopping.

Eaddie and Eli ate salad crap that Summer brought home, and I left out of frustration when I found an empty condiment shelf in the refrigerator. I ended up going to KFC to pick up a Famous Bowl, and then I went to the city park to eat at a picnic table. I sat there and enjoyed the weather for a while before going to the old house to check things out. There weren’t any toilets, so I ended up leaving sooner than I expected.

I didn’t want to go home though, so I immediately started Full Self Driving without a destination, just to see where the car would take me. I wondered if it would choose turns, or if it would just keep trying to drive straight as long as it could. It ended up taking a right at the stop sign, which made me think it was going to default to taking me home. It made it all the way across town, but then took the first exit out of the roundabout, which put me back on 12th Street all the way to Glenwood. There, it took its only left turn the entire night, and took me up to 2nd Street. There, it took another right and got through the stops all the way to the traffic light. It tried to proceed through green, but then hit the brakes hard right in the middle of the intersection because it couldn’t see the street. There just happened to be another car coming from the other direction, so the headlights probably didn’t help the matter. I pressed the accelerator to carefully nudge it through the intersection, and it continued on as if nothing had happened.

It ended up at sort of a dead-end, so it took a right and went nearly all the way to Oakland Heights before it took a sudden right to get back over to Detroit. Then we headed north, all the way over the tracks, and then took the first right out of the traffic circle on that side of town. It took me around the Parker Road bend, then all the way up the steep hill to get to Highway 124. We drove by the girls’ old house and ended up on the intersection of 124 and Weir Road. It took me back toward town all the way to Main Street before taking a right and going all the way over the bridge. After we made it through downtown, I finally told it to take me home, and it did. We made it just over 15 miles over the course of 35 minutes with absolutely no interventions, and I really only stopped because the battery was low and still hadn’t recovered from my drive back from work.

Summer was already in bed. Eaddie saw Eli out, I took out the trash. Eventually sleep.

Adventures with Machines

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Final Test

Full Self Driving took me all the way from the onramp to the office this morning, with only one intervention when it wanted to move into the passing lane in front of a car, but wouldn’t take the shot when the person coming up behind me in that lane flashed their lights to let me merge over. Apart from that, it was hands in my lap the whole way, with only a few directed lane changes by signaling.

I really just tinkered all day again, since I was waiting for Randy to get me some instructions on how to reach our servers that had been migrated to Hyper-V. There were a couple techs in and out of the office pretty much all day, so things were always relatively fresh, though I was still just stuck in my corner doing my own thing.

Summer was in town for a meeting of her own, so she came to the office and then we drove separately to Red Lobster for lunch. I tried their unlimited salad and chowder, but only had time for one salad and two chowders. Our server was kind, but acted like the chowder was somehow being “prepared” in a way that took more time than ladling it out of a crock pot. There is no possible way that endless shrimp is what caused them to go bankrupt, because I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get more than two refills in a visit. They were always so incredibly slow, no matter which restaurant we visited.

The afternoon was mostly dull as I spent my time pausing sensors in PRTG in preparation for our trial license to expire. I didn’t want to be forced to pause 100 free sensors at a time until I managed to find the 100 I was most interested in seeing. Randy, still fresh off of his vacation, was fairly over being at work, so he shooed us out a couple minutes early.

Summer made it home early for Eaddie’s marching assessment, so I stopped by McDonald’s and Arby’s for a couple of deals for dinner. Then I ran the dogs quickly before dark, and Dad came over to get me to go see the band.

Autumn had found Summer and sat next to her, and immediately moved over to talk to me once I was seated. She made a big show about how she wanted to apologize in a blanket statement for “everything” she had done to me, and expressed how it had been weighing on her all this time since we kicked her out of the house. I just told her I wanted her to work hard to be successful, but she was content being an absolute parasite and claiming success in the way of “all As in nursing classes.”

Eye-roll.

No lessons have been learned, and she’s still only apologizing for selfish reasons to make herself feel better. I’ll believe it when she’s not trying to weasel her way out of caring for her two elderly “roommates” that are paying her nearly half of my salary just to carry on existing.

The bands did great, and we squeaked out as soon as UCA finished their set at the end. I could have done without, but Dad drove. I went home with Summer since she drove herself, and then we went to bed as quickly as we could make it.

It’s always Green Hill Zone.

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Second Lunch; Worse Than the First

I let FSD drive me to work today, and I basically didn’t touch the wheel after Atkins. I kept waiting for there to be a steering wheel nag, but it just didn’t happen. I got the typical “pay attention” warnings if it looked like I wasn’t staring straight ahead for too long, but otherwise my hands were in my lap for the entire drive. I intervened once when I was nearly all the way to work, in order to prevent it looking stupid in heavy traffic. Then I had to whip into the office parking lot quickly because it couldn’t find the entrance with an oncoming truck. Otherwise it performed reasonably well on the highway as long as I was dictating lane changes. That’s still an issue that makes it look like a first-time driver.

Randy was back, and full of piss and vinegar, which was more funny than scary. He gets on rants and just lets it fly, which is only different from my usual accompaniment in that he’s much louder. I don’t mind, and I at least feel like we have the same struggles. He sort of helped me with access to stuff I had been missing since he left, and then he hung around the main office area complaining about all the email he’d gotten.

There was a non-union organization representative that brought us pizza from American Pie Pizza for lunch, and it reminded me of Brick Oven. I liked it, but after I’d eaten my first slice and a bite of the second, Jim called Randy and wanted to go out to eat. Randy said we were going to second-lunch, and at this point I’m still mostly in it for the camaraderie, so I summoned the Model Y and we took it across town. Maggie said she was too nervous to ride with FSD, so she drove separately.

The place Jim wanted to go was closed when we got there, so we rerouted to Señor Tequila, which I thought was fine, but not good. I figured it might be authentic with such little English being spoken, but it was just like any other middling Mexican restaurant. The beans were runny and the chips lacked salt. Otherwise the food could have used a bit more kick. I tried the tamale, and it was fine. The restaurant was also awkwardly quiet. I just wished I had stayed with the pizza instead.

We finished up the afternoon and I tried to close out some stale tickets, and then I headed home. I had to stop at Kohl’s to pick up an order on the way, and then I had to take a break before taking the dogs out on their run. It was already getting dark quickly, so we stopped briefly to see Dad and then continued up the hill and around the block a couple times. They did alright, but not great. I was also aggravated to see pots scattered in the yard and the edge of Stilgar’s pool all chewed up when I got home. They got some chews since I haven’t gotten any more hot dogs, and then I came in to clean up and wrap up before bed.

Cornel West, he’s our guy! If he can’t win, then why’d we try?

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Tiny Boxes

I was surprised to be the first one awake today after staying up so late. Eaddie got up and left for church, and Summer and I eventually got up and made some coffee. We played with the dogs for a bit, and then she wanted to go to the gym. I got up and around for a shower and started cleaning up all the Vine stuff that’s been littering the dining room. Once Summer got home, we went out to New China for lunch.

When we got back to the house, I left her to clean and mop while I went to the old house to pack up some more stuff. I expected there to be more empty boxes than I found, so I only assembled one box from the front bedroom. Then I boxed up a bunch of tiny stuff from my computer desk before heading back home in time to walk the dogs.

They were a little more rambunctious today, but overall did fine. We walked through my parents’ yard and got some water while they were out, and then went around the basin. They got super excited and started chasing some kids on bicycles, so I had to pull them back pretty hard. It would have been way worse if they weren’t running straight forward at them.

I fed them once we got home, and then Summer and I wound down while we finished cleaning up inside. We only saw Eaddie briefly after lunch before she left for practice, so maybe we’ll see her tomorrow. I fortunately got sleepy really early, so I looked forward to nearly seven hours of sleep.

Windown

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McBucket

Summer had a 5k this morning, and Eaddie left to help with a cat yoga class. I got up reasonably early and unboxed some more Vine stuff to review until Mom texted that she had bánh giò for breakfast. I took the dogs out with me for a run, and it was actually cool enough outside to wear jeans. We made it most of the way to my parents’ house when I realized Muad’Dib had lost his e-collar, so we turned around and went back toward the house. I had a pretty good idea of where it fell off, but it was handy to be able to beep it remotely.

When we got to my parents’ house, Dad and I ran a line for them in the old dog pen, and I draped their leash over it to keep them in place. I went in to eat the bánh giò, but then Mom said she had noodles and sausage for later.

I took the dogs around the basin on the way home, and let them sniff around in the stream a bit. I was surprised at how populated it was with minnows, and it kind of made me want to bring some home for the aquarium. The dogs made it home at a much slower pace, and then Summer got home from the run and cat yoga.

We got cleaned up and eventually headed back over to my parents’ house to eat. Then we had to go to the old house for fish food. The restoration guys left the bedroom window completely wide open, so I was surprised that there wasn’t a cat or something inside. The weirdest part was the bathroom window with the lock that had been turned 180º from where it should be, and I had to unscrew it from the glass frame in order to fix it.

On the way home, we stopped by McDonald’s so I could get a $3 Happy Meal in a Boo Bucket. I didn’t much like the design, but I didn’t look them up ahead of time. I kept interrupting FSD from driving us home because it was making stupid navigation decisions, accelerating too slowly, or braking too quickly.

Eaddie was out late, so Summer and I finished up WandaVision in preparation for Agatha All Along. I don’t know if we’ll get to start that tomorrow, but I wouldn’t mind waiting for the entire season to be released so I’m not waiting for a weekly release schedule.

Hot Dog

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Chuy Fajitas

I was super tired this morning, but I managed to get out of the house early enough that I could pick up a coffee from Starbucks. I got a Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte thinking the oatmilk wouldn’t upset my stomach, but I still felt a little bit gurgly for most of the day. I was early enough to the office that the back door was deadbolted, so I walked around to the front to get in. I later learned this was unnecessary, because my office door key also opens that door, but I also learned that you have to push or pull the door a bit while turning the key.

Maggie and Jay showed up, and Jay went to the middle school just long enough to decide he wanted to take the rest of the day off. They were having parent-teacher conferences, but he said he just didn’t see anyone around and decided he’d rather spend the day elsewhere. I worked on SCCM some more, but didn’t get very far. In fact, after going to Chuy’s for lunch with Maggie, Kyle, and Jim, I learned that the SCCM server had disappeared from vSphere entirely. It was still operational, but I couldn’t actually remote into it.

I gave up, and Maggie and I left at three. The Model Y got Full Self-Driving in the morning without any warning, so I let it drive me home. I stopped in Conway thinking I had a deal for Long John Silver’s, but after I got there I realized that none of the local restaurants were participating in the deal. I continued on home, brought in a huge stack of boxes of Vine stuff, and eventually got out with the dogs.

They were behaved pretty well, and boy did they want to run. They maintained an average pace of 8.8mph with a top speed of 20.4mph. It was a wild ride, but it was great fun. They just kept going, I guess because of the cooler weather. I thought they would be worn out, but after some treats and food back at home, they got wound up again late in the evening.

Summer got home a little late, but earlier than she originally thought. She has a 5k run in the morning, and then a yoga class with Eaddie later in the day. Eaddie was out late but then came to talk to me for a bit when she got home, just as I was going to bed.

Old people bedtimes

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High Schooled

I don’t know how the cops manage to single out particular vehicles for traffic stops in the morning. We nearly had a dead stop after Conway this morning because someone got pulled over. I got in and started messing with SCCM, but then Kyle called for some help replacing a switch at the high school.

I made it across town and it wasn’t too bad. He really only needed me as an extra set of hands, so I pulled a flatbed cart with the switch chassis across the campus. We looked for some rack screws to mount the old temporary switch, but instead just set it on top of another shelf. After sitting around and waiting for Kyle to investigate his issue for a while, he discovered that the problem lied in a configuration change that he made, so we moved everything back to the production switch.

At that point, I was late for lunch with no plans or lunch buddies. I tried texting Ben to see if he wanted to meet, but he responded after I had already made it across town to Arby’s. I ate my roast beef and then went into the Walmart for a few minute to investigate their clearance section. I found a couple things for the girls, grabbed some apple cider, and headed back to the office.

Instead of getting back into SCCM, most of my afternoon was occupied with more PRTG, since it was evident that it has been correctly identifying failures for Kyle before he has been aware. Hopefully making those maps highly visible for everyone will make them all more aware of their systems.

The drive home was a little slower because the Model Y’s range had diminished for some reason. I don’t know if it was the temperature, but I barely made it home with 5%. I stopped by the old house to check on the fish, and Dad had been by to move some of my stuff into the shed next door. Once I finally made it home, I took the dogs out for a pretty quick run. They were super good, and I kept trying to teach them directions.

Near the end of the run, they both had to poop at the exact same time with absolutely no warning, so I got that cleaned up and we made it home. They both got their own hot dogs for being so good, and then Summer and I watched some WandaVision before bed.

In a real magic act, everything is fake.

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Peptolk

I felt pretty sick to my stomach all night, and it didn’t get a whole lot better this morning. I actually slept about half an hour late since I planned to power through my morning routine after showering so late in the evening. I foolishly thought I was ahead and could stop by Starbucks on the way out of town, but I was actually the latest I’ve ever been. Maggie and Jay were the only ones in the office though, as the old men were outside smoking.

Maggie ended up leaving early to take her kid to the dentist, so I was actually in the office by myself for nearly the entire day. I grabbed some McDonald’s for lunch to try their Chicken Big Mac. It was fine, but it really just made me want a regular Big Mac more.

The afternoon was dull until I finally left a little bit early. I stopped in Blackwell for some beer and then made it home. I took the dogs out for a longer run than usual, stopping to visit with Dad, then out to sniff around the pond. We went past the basin and then turned back around to go through it again on the way home. We passed another girl, her baby, and two large off-leash dogs that came by for a sniff. They made my dogs pretty jumpy, but they weren’t bad.

We made it home and they did super well, so they each got their own hot dog after dinner. Then I had a couple burritos before settling in. I cleaned up a little, got a couple more security cameras up, and then did some shopping before bed.

The worst kind of liquidity.

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Productive Household

Summer had to go to Greenbrier this morning, and I woke up with a pretty bad stomach ache before she left. I just stayed up, hoping I would be able to get to bed early in the evening, but procrastination finds a way. I spent the morning paying a bunch of bills and then trying to clean up around the house. Summer wasn’t gone terribly long, and then we hung the towel rack in Eaddie’s bathroom.

I made burritos for Eaddie and myself since Summer had already eaten and was cleaning her side of the house. Noah came over after work and generally made himself at home. I took the dogs out for a run around the block a couple times, and eventually got wound down for bed after everyone else beat me to it.

Sure, help yourself.

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Oldies, but Goodies

The girls both had homecoming things they wanted to do today, so I had most of the day to myself. Summer went to the gym in the morning, but when she finished, I had to take the Pathfinder to give her a jump because the battery was too weak to start the Murano. I don’t know why she didn’t take the Model Y, but it was just as well, so we could get the battery on the charger. When we got back home, we took the dogs for an early ride with her on her bike and me on the Onewheel. We visited my parents, then took them to the pond for a splash.

When we got home, Eaddie had left for Tech’s homecoming and Summer got ready to meet her old classmates at Fat Daddy’s for the afternoon. I cleaned up a bit around the house and took a shower, and then Becky and Jennifer invited me out to IHOP. Summer got home just as I was walking out, so I took her car.

Becky was already waiting in the lobby, so we chatted while we waited for Jennifer. Then we visited over pancakes and coffee. On the way out, we saw Antonia and her family coming in. It was a quiet night after that. I laid with Summer and watched TV for a bit before getting ready for bed myself.

Muddy Buddies