Tag: work

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I Watched, I Let it Burn

Gary actually had me join him for some higher level systems stuff today, but what it really turned into was some babysitting while a guy from Pure Storage came and replaced the controllers in our drive array. It was still cool to be a part of it, and while we were in the main server room, I initiated a quick cleanup of some of the trash that had been neglected over time. It ended up taking through lunch, so I grabbed a Soylent for Gary while we waited. Greg ended up bringing him food, but I wasn’t really hungry enough to eat out and decided to stick with the bagel and kiwis I had brought.

I spent the afternoon in the office just picking at random things until it was time to go. Then I got some gas for the R1 and stopped by AT&T to check on Kevin. We chatted for a bit since they were pretty dead, and then I went on to the shop to see Summer.

When she got off work, we went to my parents’ house for leftover fish soup, and then stayed to chat while Dad brought out some stereo slides. I told him I thought we should get out the slide projector sometime this winter so the girls could come cuddle up on the couch and have a look at some real history; the important stuff – not that boring stuff they teach you in school.

Autumn got home shortly after we did, and Summer and I watched some YouTube. Bác Vân stopped by with some bánh bao that they made at Linhs, but it wasn’t anywhere near as good as Mom’s. Then it was off to bed.

I don’t care! I love it!

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Perfect Plating

Brody and I went up to sign our contracts this morning, and he was paid more than double this month for some reason. Our new payroll lady didn’t have any real answers for him, but if it was me, I would have just kept the money on the front end and let them skip my last check. I got a pretty big bump compared to every other year because of the 3.5% increase to the base pay across the board. Inflation in action.

After that, we spent the whole day at the junior high again, first with RCVA laptops, and then finishing up two of the rooms that had display changes. We had to wait on a couple of the laptops to image, and then we delivered them to the RCVA office where the only two ladies there were both in VR goggles for some goddamn reason??? It’s for the children, I’m sure.

Sara joined a big group of us for lunch at Western Sizzlin, and I tried going lighter than usual. It still wasn’t exactly healthy, but I didn’t leave feeling like I needed to be popped. Then it was a long afternoon finishing up Brody’s last two rooms. For the first time, I managed to fit two HDMI keystones into a wall plate for a super clean install in Mickey’s room.

We were both super sapped all afternoon for some reason, and I don’t think it was the food. We were just tired and didn’t want to move. As soon as quitting time rolled around, I rode across town for gas, then to see Summer briefly in the pit. Then I went home to wait for her before going to my parents’ house for dinner.

Mom had bún bò Huế ready when we got there, so we ate and I showed them the quick 3D model I built of the master bathroom. I suppose it left a lot to be desired, but looking at it through a lens of what I’m hoping to do, having the visual representation of the space really helped me make some decisions on the space.

When we got back home, Summer watched an episode of Master Chef and then dove straight into bed. I didn’t do much more, but waited up for Autumn to get home from a late night at work.

Methinks he doth prestige too hard.

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Shuffleopolis

We spent all day at the junior high, swapping touch panels for TVs and relocating displays to different rooms. I peeled off of that crew to make some more flash drives for RCVA laptops, and eventually started that imaging process as well. I hate to say it, but it was nice to be on a crew without Josh for once so I felt like I had a little bit of control over the herd. I had answers for their questions, and we got things done correctly and efficiently.

Thomas and I went to Taco Villa to pick up lunch for four of us and we ate in the break room, and then I went right back to the junior high until quitting time. Then I ran by the shop to see Summer before going home to change and then to my parents’ house for some fish soup.

I didn’t stick around long and came back home to try and be a little bit productive again. I’ve suffered from a complete lack of motivation lately, but the next couple days should be just a smidge cooler. Hopefully that helps. I did manage to sketch a 3D model of one of the bathrooms, so hopefully that helps, and I’m not just being extra.

Real sketchy.

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You’re Living a Lie!

We had our first conference room meeting this morning, and got a glimpse of some of the structural changes we’ll be seeing soon. A part of that change is that Greg and I will basically report directly to Gary as a part of an Engineering team, and Zach will lead the others on an Operations team. For the time being, we’ll also have to pick up some elementaries until we can get an additional tech or two, so I’ll be the primary contact for Oakland again, which is fine by me.

I spent most of the rest of the day to myself, except for when Renee really wanted some help buying some in-game currency on her phone. I was successful with my task sequence for the virtual academy devices, which was the big task of the day. I ran by the junior high to pick up a few things, and made it back to the shop as it really started pouring down rain.

Summer wanted to get lunch, so I picked her up after I got off and we went to La Huerta. I had forgotten how they made their taco salads like an enormous taco instead of a bowl, and actually prefer it. Maybe I can get them into the work rotation.

When I got back home, Dad’s vapor barrier materials had arrived, so I dragged them in out of the rain until he could come get them. Then I did some laundry until it was time to get Summer for our evening with John, Melissa, and Travis.

I ran a little late, but we still beat John and Melissa. Travis had set up a game of Candy Land with some extra Dungeons & Dragons monsters and a sheet of rules for our drinking game. We were the only ones that actually brought anything to drink, so it was “nasty beer” and Irish car bombs all night aside from the rum and Diet Mountain Dew that Travis had around.

We enjoyed the first game well enough, and things just got sloppier from there for most everyone. Travis broke out Cards Against Humanity for a bit, and then spent far too long fumbling around for Guitar Hero on an old Wii system that required disassembling most of an entertainment area in his room. In the end, I was really the only one sober enough to play the guitar anyway. My eyes were burning really badly from the smoke by that time, so I tried to get us out of there. Everyone protested, and then I was stood outside with Travis for several minutes as he lamented.

Eventually I got the urgency of leaving across, and we made it home where Summer went straight to bed and I stayed up with Eaddie getting her prepared for her flight the next morning.

No one can make you.

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Slow Return to the Cinematic Universe

I pretty much worked with Kyle all day today, finally running some cable at Dwight in the morning, and then shuffling devices at junior high in the afternoon. We only had to make one trip back to the shop, but we ended up with a pretty clean install.

Everyone really wanted Fat Daddy’s for lunch, so I followed along and had an overpriced chili dog. It looked pretty gross with everything added on it, but tasted fine except for the cheese dip, which was just a bit too much. There wasn’t enough chili, and the coleslaw made the whole thing cold in the middle.

After lunch, I ran by The UPS Store and paid for our lease shipment finally. Then I tried to track down a single missing device that I’m pretty sure was dead out of the box at the junior high. I couldn’t find it after a couple rounds through the building, so hopefully it turns up sooner than later.

When I left work, I went home for a bit and waited on Summer to get back from Conway so we could use my BOGO coupon at CiCi’s. Then we met the girls at UEC for Black Widow. I was a bit uncomfortable for most of the movie, and ultra disappointed that we missed it in 3D. I guess all the movies rushing to release now after being held back due to the pandemic are pressuring theaters to run everything through really quickly. I got pretty stressed over it, and ended up disappointed in the theater as usual, from the stuff hanging in front of the screen and casting shadows, to the loud air conditioner, to the sound of the auditorium next door. At least the size of Auditorium 8 was better than I had remembered.

The movie was enjoyable enough, but did feel really lackluster after the prior movies, and even all of the Disney+ series. It felt more like a formality of passing the Black Widow baton than anything else. What I’m really looking forward to is more Loki.

It’s no “Falcon and Arm Guy.”

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Call of Doody

I had a pretty rough start this morning, but thought things might turn around eventually. We spent all morning at the junior high building tech tubs full of old laptops for summer school, which only lasts a couple weeks. We finished just in time to make it back to the shop before lunch, and Ben was there to join us.

We all went to CJ’s, which was pretty packed, so we ended up parking down the hill in the 40 club lot. Lunch was pretty good, but it was crowded and loud, and their sound system kept cutting out, which made the music annoying.

As soon as we got back to the shop, I split my pants and had to run home to change. By the time I made it back, everyone had headed to the middle school to set up an alternative learning environment room. We had enough people in the room that it felt a bit crowded, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Kyle and I ended up splitting off from Josh, who couldn’t keep track of the parts he needed, to do some work at Dwight before the day was up. We didn’t finish, but quitting time is quitting time. After a quick run home, I went to see Summer for an oil change. Then it was up to her house for dinner.

I prepped some veggies for grilling to eat alongside the pork she had in the slow cooker, and it came out pretty good. We ate as soon as she got home from the gym, then watched the last episode of Loki before I headed back home to clean up before bed.

Eggie wegs! I would like to smash ’em!

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Running in Circles

I didn’t feel great pretty much all day long, but at least I spent most of the day to myself at work. I was left at the shop alone to finish imaging the laptops for the secondary learning center. I took the opportunity to make a few trips out to the recycling dumpster to stretch my legs and sweat profusely in the sun and humidity. It would have been fine in the shade.

Greg and I split off of the rest of the crew and went to Taco John’s for lunch. For a rare occasion, I preferred it over Bocadillos because I could have a lighter lunch with just one Taco Tuesday and a small fried chicken snack that came with the tiniest order of Potato Olés I’ve ever seen.

We had to print some badges and create some accounts in the afternoon, which had me looking a fool when some of the accounts weren’t made. It made matters worse that most of those accounts that weren’t created hadn’t even reached the school board yet, so we had no proof that they should actually be there.

After work, I went home for a little while before heading to my parents’ house for some rice. Then I went up to Summer’s and started cooking some rice until she got home to grill the strips of meat she sliced off of a pork shoulder we had in the freezer for a while.

Autumn worked late. Eaddie shopped for some new eyeglasses with me since she got a new prescription. We ate, and then it was an early night to bed.

You’re making me look bad in front of my new boss!

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No Reservations

We were down to a relatively small crew today. Kyle and I went with Gary to the high school for the new core switch changeover. Gary configured switches while the two of us went around to every printer we could find and reconfigured DHCP reservations. Unfortunately we didn’t have the forethought to do the same for the release boxes on the majority of those printers, so we had to go back and do a lot of that in the afternoon.

We took a break and went to Sam’s for lunch before finishing up at the high school. Then we spent the last bit of the day at the shop before going home. It had been a relatively cool day, and a great day for a ride, but as soon as I would stop anywhere, the humidity had me sweating buckets.

Eventually I made it out of the house to go to Summer’s for dinner. I stopped by her shop first to try and get an oil change, but I didn’t make it in before closing time. I headed on up to the house and started warming up the spaghetti she prepped the night before.

As soon as Summer made it home, we all sat down to eat. Then we played a game of Uno before watching the latest episode of Loki. Finally it was an early night to bed.

Annihilating entire realities, orphaning little girls… Classic hero stuff.

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How Much Water Does it Take to Clean New Orleans?

Today was a slow day at work, especially having finished most of the imaging. I worked in my office for a while and fixed the SLC image. Then I ran to the junior high with Greg to help Brody, who had been working on a faulty touch panel for the past hour or more. We determined it likely had a bad board that also prevented the power button from working, then went to Sequoyah to check out the library sound system.

I went home after work and just kind of burned up some time in the afternoon. I started to go back out, but was blocked off by some roadwork on 16th Street, so I just went right back home. I had texted Ben earlier in the day, and he invited us to Kings Live Music in Conway to see Ashley’s son Presley play. Summer really deserved some country, so we left town a bit after six.

We stopped at a place called Sharks Fish and Chicken for dinner just inside of Conway. I let the hostess pick a sandwich for me, and got a pretty good Philly steak. I think the surprise star of the show was the side order of fries, but it was all pretty good though. Afterward we headed to Kings and ran into Kevin and Ashley. Ben came along shortly afterward and we took in a country music show, as presented by Mario Mario of the Mario Brothers.

I don’t care for country, but I can handle just a guy with a guitar. I understood the lyric about a “holler,” and even heard a song I kind of liked, about hurricanes washing away New Orleans. We had drinks and a good time was had by all. Presley did a great job, and Summer was just as happy as a clam to hear the songs of her people.

We made it home late, and the girls were winding down after a day of cleaning house. Summer went straight to bed, and I wasn’t long behind.

I’m just glad we didn’t have a pickup roll call.

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Amp It Up

I spent the morning with Mike again, and we finished imaging all of the laptops he had. While we were there, Gary had us help mount a couple big fiber switches in the core closet. We tried going to Chili’s for lunch afterward, but they had a sign on the door saying they were only doing takeout orders due to being short staffed. We all met at Old South instead, who looked super packed but ended up being relatively quick to seat us.

After lunch, I finally got to work in my office a bit, which was the first time I’ve done so since Thomas started. I got my speakers set back up in a different corner so they’re not obvious to those just passing through. The sound is full and rich with the larger speakers, but not as overbearing since they’re just sort of providing ambient audio from afar. I was hoping the tubes on the amp would be a bit more noticeable in the darker corner, but the power light is still just so overbearing.

When I left work, I went home to change and then met Summer and Autumn at Ridout to look at some cabinetry. I’m kind of leaning toward white for the vanity, which is a surprising color for me. I think it’ll help keep the place lighter since we’re going darker with the floor tile.

The girls had karate, so Summer took Autumn home to get ready, and then I picked her up and we went to Mulan’s for dinner. Eaddie mowed when we got home, and Summer went straight to bed to watch TV. I relaxed for a bit, but it was tough going to sleep.

Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade, and it’s not just puberty.