Tag: Reviews

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The Existential Review: Year 3

I had my yearly review scheduled for this afternoon, so I spent the morning doing what I could around my buildings. I took a break for lunch and met Dale, Brice, and Summer at Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday. We ended up getting way too much food because of a coupon, but somehow I managed. Getting over being sick again has me regularly hungry, but I was hoping it would help me cut back.

My review went well after lunch. I sat down with Ben ahead of schedule just to get things started, and we chatted for quite a while. It’s looking hopeful for an esports stipend, and everyone seems to be on board with what I’ve presented. I’m just hoping I can keep it from feeling as life-sucking as last week when the kids were super rowdy for no reason. I think that will get better as the teams get more serious though. Dale’s retirement is set, so it’s looking like I’ll be moved to the high school now, which leaves me to clean up and move offices. I’ll lose a window, gain a ton of room and storage, and be left with the best-documented procedures on campus. Hopefully I’ll be able to retain enough free time to keep learning things I want to learn, and also have time out for esports in the afternoons. Time will tell. I’ll miss my friends the most.

Nearing the end of the school day, I dropped by Oakland to move their copy machines for kindergarten registration, then made my way to the junior high for esports. We had several new faces today, which meant spreading to the second lab for the first time. We were really only short by one computer, but several of my quieter players chose to move over immediately when I offered the space, which made it a bit easier to manage everyone else. Unfortunately that lab hadn’t been updated automatically, so we wasted several minutes doing that before anyone could play. It was nice to get to talk to a few of them in that time though, since normally I’m just having to sit back and watch over the entire lab of everyone at once.

After work, I ran home and messed with the aquariums a bit, and experimented with some alternative CO2 dosing by filling some glass bottles with carbonated water and floating them upside down in the tanks. I’ll probably have to try again some morning rather than so late at night, but again I’m hopeful that it will provide noticeable growth improvement. That put me a little behind getting the girls from karate, but they seemed to have other things going on anyway. From there we went to their house for leftover chicken in the form of nachos. They were pretty good, but felt like they missed a binding agent like cheese dip. They just kind of fell apart too much, and missed the flavor of the dip.

My head cold cocktail seems to have worked fairly well the past couple days, so I went for a third night to combat the snottiness.

Welcome to your life. There’s no turning back.

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I Have Reservations About This

It was more bike weather today. I started off at the shop and got to spend some time in a room with Gary, and I felt smarter for it. I hope I’ll have some time to hang out with him over summer projects, because there’s still so much I want to learn. The trick is to be around for his projects and not the busy work that I normally get assigned to because I’m actually willing to work.

When I finally left the shop, I spent some time at Oakland taking care of a few things before heading back to go to Chick-fil-A for lunch. It tasted better than average, but it was still expensive. I’ll take a deal at Wendy’s over full price at Chick-fil-A every day of the week.

I spent the afternoon at the junior high trying to clean up a bit, but I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished. I did get to flex my math skills a bit by using known component measurements to find the unknown angle of a TV that Jessica wanted to mount outside the library. After that, I got to use Google Assistant with Duplex to make a dinner reservation at Pasta Grill for Mom’s birthday. The assistant asked everything from how many people were coming, to what name and contact number she should give the restaurant. Ronda said it seemed like it would have been faster just to call myself, but she missed the whole point of not having to talk to people myself. A robot did all the work for me. The only thing it lacked was a transcript or recording of the call. I would have loved to hear the transaction. About 15 minutes later, I got the notification and an email that my reservation was confirmed!

I finished up at the shop, enrolling the Chromebits Jessica got for her TVs. Then I ran home to clean up for dinner. Summer and the kids beat me there since I stopped for gas, and then we headed to Pasta Grill.

Julie beat us there and confirmed that the reservation was made. I couldn’t find anyone that knew anything about the call, so I guess I’ll have to try again when Erica is working. I’m glad it worked, but I want to experience the other end of it so badly. I’m such a nerd.

After dinner, I came home and started some laundry while I messed with the fish a bit. I don’t want to move Blue since she’s built a bubble nest and is actually floating her eggs, but I did get some snails moved to the kitchen. I want to clean up the 55-gallon, but I’ve got too many other things I need to do this weekend. I’ve felt exhausted for a few weeks now though, and summer is only going to make it worse with the heat. I just have anxiety about feeling behind all the time now.

Too many things!

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Shazam!

Summer got up early this morning to pick Autumn up at 8 from her lock-in, and took her to the gym while they were out. I felt a little sorry for her at first, but later found out she went to sleep after midnight, so she gets less sympathy now. That’s just a normal amount of sleep for any regular human.

When they got home, I left to clean up and pick up Noah while Summer made lunch here. Summer had Autumn take a shower before she passed out, and we let her sleep until just a bit before we had to leave for the movie. It rained a bit on the way to Conway, but it was never really too bad. I tried to set a leisurely pace.

We got to town a bit early, so we stopped by Harbor Freight for a minute to see if they had something on sale. Evidently I had mistaken the date on the flyer I had at home, so we left with nothing and made our way to the theater to see Shazam!

The movie was pretty great, and in fact was probably the best recent DC movie I’ve seen. Noah didn’t like that reviewers said it was a “fun” movie because he didn’t understand what that meant, but I thought it was a perfect way to describe it. It was lighthearted in all the right places, but still told a story with some feeling.

On the way home, Autumn’s cup lid split and she got soda in her lap. Then when we got home and dropped Noah off, I did the same in the 10Box parking lot. We ran to my house to clean up before going to Walmart to pick up some extras for dinner. They didn’t have the asparagus Summer wanted, so we ended up having chicken alfredo instead, with dinosaur-shaped pasta. I spotted some french bread on clearance that turned out great too. Summer had a really successful week of meal planning and cooking at home.

After dinner, Autumn wanted to watch Coco again, and this time Summer and I stuck around to finish it. I still would have preferred to see it in 3D at home, but I guess I’m glad to have at least seen it by now. Autumn fell asleep in the middle of it and went to bed, and then the rest of us went to bed after it was over.

You’re going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.

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Subway++

I didn’t think I had much going on this morning, but we eventually discovered that I wasn’t getting work order emails properly again. I bounced between campuses in the morning to take care of some older things, including discarding a cart full of netbooks so I could repurpose the cart in the library. Then I met Allen for lunch at the Subway in the old Darrell’s building. He had suggested Subway, and I was curious about their other offerings. I got boneless wings and made it a combo with two bread sticks and a drink. The food tasted cheap, but I paid $9 for the meal. They did have a mini Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, but it had a weird lever that had a really poor tactile response. The inside of the restaurant was actually really nice though. I haven’t tried their pasta, but so far I can’t recommend anything but the Subway for their corporate-y goodness. What I had tasted like frozen gas station food.

The afternoon was partly spent catching up on newer work orders that flooded in after the Web Help Desk reset. Ben came by at the end of the school day and tested out LanSchool for Chromebooks in my APUSH class. To make a long story short, it was absolutely terrible. The limitation of features and the ease of a student making it annoying for a teacher trying to keep tabs on them were just too much. Another hard “no” from me.

I went home after work and spent a little time with the fish before heading to Summer’s for dinner. She had a roast in the slow cooker all day, and the girls ate in front of the TV while we sat at the table. Summer spent some time doing school work while I read up on the Travel on Fi comment thread on SlickDeals. Wednesday will be the 90th day since her phone activation, so I’m getting really antsy about getting the $799 travel gift card. I’m really doubting she gets it automatically, and I kind of dread having to contact Fi about it. They’ve always been pretty decent, but it’s just annoying.

And I still have to do my taxes…

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Here in my Garage

Today was the last day of spring break, and therefore it was a day of cleaning up. Summer gathered her things so we could pick up the girls, and on the way out I spotted a mail carrier driving toward my neighborhood. I was expecting my plants that were delayed from yesterday, so we came around the block to wait for it. Summer couldn’t find her keys, so we took the time to unpack her bag and look for them. The mail carrier never came though. I eventually had to give up, and we went to get the girls and take them on home. Just as we pulled in to Summer’s parents’ house, I saw that my package had been delivered, so I dropped the girls off and headed straight back home.

To my surprise and some disappointment, I didn’t receive my aquarium plants. It was actually my Momentum Smart Garage Door Opener that was delivered. I started cleaning up, took a shower, and then ran next door to borrow the extension ladder so I could get into the attic. It was a painfully easy installation, even considering I had to run power above the ceiling. I got the camera set up and hooked up the opener cables so I could open the garage door from my phone. By that time, Summer had dinner about ready, so I headed to her house.

She grilled some chicken to go with some mashed potatoes and cheesy squash and zucchinis that turned out really great. The cheese was probably a bit much, but it was so good broiled and browned the way she made it. Eaddie wanted to watch an episode of Parks and Rec, so after dinner we watched one episode before I headed home to complete some laundry before bed.

While the laundry was going, I got dishes done, and then started messing around with my TeamSpeak server some more. I think all that’s left is to test it with multiple outside connections. Everything looks great so far though.

Vi sitter här i Venten

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Sweet Home Alabama

We got up early this morning for breakfast in the lobby, and then Summer was off to The Great Inflatable Race. I went back up to the room to shower and get things packed up before she got back. Her race ran a little behind, but she still made it back in time to get showered and primped before our late checkout time. I even tucked my shirt in and wore a tie for a few minutes.

Our first stop was at Shoe Carnival in the shopping center by the hotel. She wanted some new shoes for her dress, and I walked around holding some shoes for a while that I ultimately returned before checking out. Then she wanted to go to the McCain Mall right up the block. We made a loop through the whole place, really only stopping at Dillard’s, GameStop, Victoria’s Secret, and finally Spencer’s where I picked up some Rap Snacks for Dale. We were out just long enough to work up a bit of an appetite, so we made our way back over to Red Lobster.

There was only a really short wait for our Lobsterfest to start. Summer got a lighthouse glass without having to steal it, and I begrudgingly ate a sirloin because it was smothered in lobstery things. The lobster pizza appetizer was good, and Summer had a margarita that was unexpectedly the size of her head. I helped her on it just a bit as we took turns getting brain freezes. Then it was off to the Verizon Arena.

We paid for pretty decent parking, though in hindsight I think the block further for half the price may have been a better deal, and ultimately gotten us out of traffic faster. We got to the arena just in time to walk right on in and find our seats, which were also right by the entrance. Summer had a really great time while I fought with my Eargasm High Fidelity Earplugs. I think my ear canals turn up sharply, which causes the earplugs to seal shut. At least I got to learn that now before going to a concert that interests me personally. I kept them in to save my hearing, but the audio was clearly muffled unless I used my fingers to tweak them slightly in my ear canals.

Nice screensaver!I only recognized one song all night, which was by the opening Charlie Daniels Band. The Devil Went Down to Georgia was a staple for my Diamond Rio MP3 player in high school. Summer only knew it and maybe one more of their songs. The real treat for her was when Alabama came onto the stage. She got excited at several of their songs, none of which I could recall ever hearing in my lifetime. I was surprised to hear them go on and on about how many awards they had won and how many chart topping singles they had, partly because I’m only used to hearing rappers do that, and partly because I had never even heard of them. I spent the rest of the evening more in a state of discomfort than anything else. It was hot and cramped, and the band kept doing what I can only describe as a pop quiz after nearly every song, where they had the band start playing the song they just finished and tried to coax the crowd into singing the chorus a couple more times. Of course a country concert wouldn’t be complete without a pickup truck brand roll call, which was just a huge circle jerk of more things that I hate. Even the encore was lazy and uncoerced, as the band had barely left the stage long enough to take another shot of that Tennessee whiskey before coming back out. It just felt like they were pandering to the meme of assumed encores.

Fortunately we got out more quickly than we had come in, until we got into the traffic. It started to sprinkle as we walked to the car, but it wasn’t too bad. There was a questionable guy outside selling shirts at a significant discount from their inside asking price, so we grabbed one of those on our way out. I should have planned the escape route more before taking off, but I was so concerned about beating traffic that I ended up looping through a few more blocks of it than necessary. There was quite a bit of traffic on the interstate as well, almost all the way to Conway. The rain cleared up enough that it didn’t feel so dangerous to be cruising down the highway though, and we made it home just after midnight. Summer crashed pretty much right away, still high on her birthday vibes. I’d say today was a success.

I done told you once, you REDACTED

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Large Scale Shopping Trips

We got up this morning and headed to Hot Springs to pick up the aquarium stand I bought from PetSmart. There wasn’t an option to do a store transfer, so we just decided to make a day of it. We stopped in Ola for a potty break, and then made it as far as Nimrod Dam before she ran off to the bathroom again.

When we got through most of the mountains, we stopped at The Shack for lunch. I let myself get a little rushed when placing my order, so we both just got small burgers, and then we had some sweet potato fries and onion rings. It was all pretty good, but unremarkable. The homemade lemonade was amazing though, likely because of how much sugar it had.

Once into Hot Springs, we went straight to PetSmart and wandered around for a while before driving across the parking lot to go to Bed Bath & Beyond. I don’t even know how many hours we spent in there. I passed up some clearanced clear ice molds in favor of splurging a bit more on some larger round ones. We did pick up a FitBit smart scale though, which turned out to be a bit cheaper than I expected. It didn’t take much thought to decide to return to the store to pick up the last three on the shelf. As I was checking out, the cashier mentioned hearing us talk about them and said she thought about getting one for herself. I left her one to stick under the counter, and we were on our way.

It was time to eat again, and it took us a while to settle on something. We ended up at Osaka Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar, where I had trouble finding anything that looked good on the menu. I didn’t realize it when I declined the option to sit at the grill, but evidently they had different menus depending on where you sat. It turned out okay though, because Summer really liked her teriyaki combination, and I had the katsu don, which was really tasty and cost about half that of what I would have ordered from the hibachi.

After we ate, we stopped by the sexiest store in town to see what all the fuss was about. It was really just another one of those places where retail pricing is still ridiculous, and I was super surprised at the variety and quantity of people that passed through while we were there. I guess it’s just marketing and convenience, and hopefully not a generous return policy.

We stopped by the spring water fountain and filled our box full of bottles on the way out of town. I took a perceived shortcut on the way out just to see what it was like, but the lack of lighting made it a worse choice overall. We did just barely make out a yard full of toilets though. As we made it out to Hot Springs Village, we stopped at Walmart for another bathroom break and perused a bit for some cookies, beer, picture frames, and any clearance stuff we found interesting. Then it was over the mountain and through the fog to get back home.

Alexa? Lights! Camera? Action!

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Dungeons & Deaths

We started work 15 minutes early in exchange for leaving 30 minutes earlier than usual. Ben had a conference to attend, so the rest of us kept busy cleaning up random projects. I got a little time at Oakland to myself, but then spent the afternoon with Zach and Allen after we all had lunch at Fat Daddy’s. I always forget how disappointed I am in the value of their Friday special of a pork loin “covered in bacon.” $7 is just a crime.

After work, Summer brought the girls over to me at the shop, and I took them to get dinner before dropping them off with their grandparents. Autumn wanted a burger and Eaddie insisted on Popeye’s, so we ran by McDonald’s and then Popeye’s before heading to my house to eat. The chicken took an incredible amount of time to prepare, at least for those that were in line ahead of us. I was parked by the speaker for near 15 minutes before they even addressed me and asked me to wait longer before taking my order.

Once the girls ate, they stopped bickering just long enough for me to drop them off. From there, I headed to Kroger and then Domino’s before swinging by Summer’s. She had to be back home relatively early to be up for a quiz bowl tournament the next day, so she just followed me to Travis’s house in her own car.

John and Melissa beat us there, and we spent just a very small amount of time on introductions and pleasantries before jumping right into a game of Dungeons & Dragons. The game was pretty fun in spite of me dying twice and not having anyone around to resurrect me. Summer seemed to enjoy it as well, and we’re excited to go back and continue the campaign.

With the game over, Summer went to get the girls and I met her back at her house for the evening. I showed Eaddie a bit of Bandersnatch while the other two went to bed. We made it through to the credits once before the Netflix autoplay took over and tried to start an episode of Black Mirror. I wish you could just disable that timer and have it automatically play the full credits every time.

I’m gonna have to kick this into high gear!

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Robot Trivia

I got myself out of bed this morning and finished up some leftovers before heading home to get ready to visit the junior high. Zach called me just as I got home and wanted to know if he could borrow Cards Against Humanity. I suggested that the whole massive desk that I own might be too much unfunny stuff for his crowd, so when he got here, we spent a little while sorting all of the expansions out so he could take just the base game with even the pick-2 cards removed.

I kicked him out as soon as we finished so I could shower and go visit Summer and the robotics tournament. I ended up standing around robotics for much longer than I anticipated after I rescued Ethan and his need of a printer. It was really neat to see, though. The tournament seemed to go really well, and I’m hoping that it will be similar for us when I work the first elementary tournament. Some overtime pay will be a really nice boost as well.

By the time I got out of that tournament, Summer was wrapping things up for quiz bowl. I followed them back to her room to help pack up, and then headed to her house while she ran the girls around. Autumn would be spending the night with her grandparents while Eaddie went with her father. I managed to pack all of the leftover food into Summer’s fridge, and Summer picked up the house a bit.

Once the girls left, we ran by Harbor Freight to pick up a few things with some 30% off coupons. I finally have a shoehorn, and now my most difficult shoes slide on easier than any other shoe I own. I warmed up some leftovers and we settled in to watch Bandersnatch, which was amazing. I kept trying for alternate endings while Summer passed out, but it really was a piece of art. I think I managed to find everything.

╔╩╗

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Save it for the Blu-ray

I delivered one more frog at Oakland this morning, then stopped by the shop for just a little bit to see if anything was happening. It was pretty quiet, so I went to Crawford to take a look at something Allen was having trouble fixing. It didn’t take me long to realize we were on the completely wrong path, and I left there to go to the junior high and work on it.

The junior high had their Christmas lunch potluck today, and I stuffed myself. There was just so much food. I couldn’t really even eat dinner after all of that. Everyone was pretty much just wandering around aimlessly because most of the kids were gone from having finished their tests. I chatted with Dustin and Haley for a little while, but then school let out an hour early and quickly became a ghost town.

I stopped by the shop again, but everyone was just sitting there waiting to be told to go home. We never really got anything official from central office, but Ben let us go just a few minutes early. Gary was there helping Zach look at something though, so I ended up hanging out until the usual quitting time anyway.

Summer and the kids were getting ready to go to Conway, so I met them at my house right after I left. The kids were hungry when we got there, so we took them to Red Robin for some burgers. Summer and I still weren’t hungry, so we just shared a tower of onion rings. Afterward we went by Sam’s to walk it off, and then made a quick run through Academy to look for paintball canisters, and then to PetCo to see if they had anything cool.

Finally at the theater, I collected my five comped tickets at the box office, loaded up on popcorn, and made our way to the XD auditorium for Aquaman. I wish they would re-cushion that front row of seats, because they’re starting to get pretty rough, and they lean back too easily. Then the theater filled up and we had a clapper/knee-slapper on the left and some guy that thought he was at a sporting event behind us. Neither would shut the hell up. Honestly I would have listened to the whole Pitbull song if these guys would have shut up. It was so annoying. Theaters need ushers again. I’m just glad I didn’t care so much about the movie, because otherwise I would have raged at the distractions.

Seriously dude, you’re going to the special hell.