#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~

Cone Down

Muad’Dib just didn’t want to listen today. He immediately jumped out of the car and wanted to chase a cat in the parking lot, and refused to come to me as I called after him. I finally caught him and had to spank him before he would follow me into the building. It was a quiet day and I tried to focus on the Avigilon all morning.

I had picked up a coffee, and then a steak biscuit on the way in to work, so I ended up taking a late lunch. I had my usual Big Mac and then an apple pie with a melty ice cream cone that the girl had to put into a cup on account of how soft it was. It was still a perfect combo.

The afternoon was slow to go by in spite of how late we left for lunch. I had brought Muad’Dib back in on a leash, and ended up having to leash him again on the way out because the same cat was hanging around outside. We got into the car and made it to the house where Summer was taking a work call.

I took Muad’Dib out for a run and let him play in the creek, so I knew he would need a bath. We visited with Dad, then got back to the house. He didn’t much like his bath. I cleaned up an assortment of leftovers out of the fridge, and then went to my room to wind down.

It’s a lonely job.

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!

The Secret Life of an Alien

I had an anxiety attack in bed while I was trying to go to sleep last night, which was a rare occurrance. At least I went to bed early, and got an above-average amount of sleep. We got out of the house and tried the other McDonald’s, but still got stuck in line again. It seems to be completely luck of the draw. I took my coffee and made it to Morrilton to order a biscuit for breakfast.

It was more deep-dive into the AI exploits of the fraudster technology manager, and I am one billion percent positive that he is an alien from another planet. I have begun collecting evidence. If I disappear or am found dead, then dear reader, do not believe anything they say about me. It was no accident. They got to me, and silenced me the only way they could.

I went down to help Elizabeth with something, then took a walk with David to investigate our two fence controllers. It appeared they had blocked the safety sensors to keep the back gate open, which seems counter to any security protocol. It had clearly been that way for some time.

We went back to McDonald’s a third time for lunch and had to argue with the staff about my order. The two low-level staff were as friendly as they knew how to be, while admitting complete ignorance. The manager on duty absolutely refused to make eye contact or respond when I spoke directly to her. I wasn’t ugly in any way, and I see her five days a week, so I could not fathom the stress she was under. I was eventually fed and went back to work.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly because of how late I went to lunch. I texted Kyle since I remembered he used to work at Acxiom, and he actually replied pretty quickly. I talked to him about our resident alien, and as if by mysterious forces beyond our universe, he was actually working for the company that Brandon moved to. We shared several laughs over text throughout the evening.

Muad’Dib and I made it back to town and I ordered tickets for Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox. Then we went on a great run in the crisp air before it got dark. Summer and I ate when we got back, and then I took my car for a good washing. The new FSD release gave me all kinds of fits this morning, and even fussed quite a bit on the way home, so hopefully this helped.

I vacuumed some more to end the night, and got to sleep just a little bit early again.

⏁⊑⟒ ⌇⟒☊⍀⟒⏁ ⌰⟟⎎⟒ ⍜⎎ ⏃⋏ ⏃⌰⟟⟒⋏

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.

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.

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

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!

Planner Fasciitis

We had a staff meeting first thing, so I tried to get out early and get a biscuit from McDonald’s before we hit the road. We were slightly behind after that, but it wasn’t too bad. I locked Muad’Dib up in the office, and the meeting ran pretty short. Only the operations guys really had anything to discuss. Joel did ask me to come up with a way to share my projects, so I dug through Brandon’s stuff again and discovered Microsoft Planner. It seemed easy and integrated, though not without its faults. I found out pretty quickly that it didn’t have an “undo” button, so I’ll have to be cautious with my clicks. It was also designed with some strange behaviors with text and click boxes. I spent all morning trying to square up there, and organize all of my thoughts.

We left really late for a quick lunch at McDonald’s. Service is back to being pretty terrible, but there was at least one little ray of sunshine behind the counter among the others. Back at the office, I had a pretty heavy anxiety attack, and then we finished up the afternoon so I could head toward home to help Mark with connecting his new “server.” That took a while, but they didn’t care that Muad’Dib was with me, so we just did what we could as quickly as we could.

It was already starting to get dark, so I ran Muad’Dib to my parents’ house. Dad was out chasing comets, but we saw Mom and then ran back home. I ate some leftover wings and realized I had been unintentionally dehydrating myself, which may have caused a dizzy spell. My blood pressure was okay, but I started to feel out of phase like I was going to pass out. I downed a couple tumblers of water, and things seemed better before bed.

You are aware of water at all times.

Wheely Kneely

The Onewheel went out for delivery today, so Dad came over to the house to sign for it, and tried some more to find the doorbell transformer. After a few hours, one of those missions was successful.

Muad’Dib was a little ornery, but was overall reasonably well behaved. I left him in the car while I had a Quarter Pounder, and we finished up the afternoon to get home for a proper run.

Summer had a rough day but wouldn’t talk about it. I took Muad’Dib out, and he was even slower than usual because he hadn’t been run in so long. We stopped to see if Mom had shrimp soup ready for dinner, and then made it home to get Summer to go eat.

I wrapped up super early because I’ve been sleep deprived, and we have a team meeting in the morning.

I’ve got nothing.