Tag: work

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Why so Serious?

I got up extra early this morning so I could make it to my interview with plenty of time to spare. I got the last couple pages I needed from my office, then went across the street to sit and wait by the door until everyone else was ready. The interim superintendent wasn’t there, but it was a panel with Jeff, Justin, Judy, and then Ben for emotional support I guess. He didn’t really ask anything, but he did help elaborate on some things as I answered their questions. For the most part, they stuck to a list of questions Ben wrote for them, which they wouldn’t even know enough about in order to rate my answers.

I wasn’t terribly nervous, but I did decide to go all out with a jacket and tie, and started out by dropping my pirate flag on the desk in front of me. The others were spaced out around the U-shaped conference tables. Justin immediately wanted to hear about why I love cows. From there it was mostly business until my only concluding question for them was whether they would like to see a magic trick. I received an immediate and resounding, “yes,” so I proceeded to unlink two rubber bands to at least one incredulous gasp.

With that out of the way, I went back to the shop and watched as Gary, and then Zach left for their interviews. I felt pretty confident in my own answers until I heard their shared responses. I knew it was a moonshot anyway though, and assumed I would have to rely on Doge to make it to the moon for me instead.

The three of us went to Sam’s for lunch with Josh and his wife. Then I tried to leave my leftovers for Summer, but she wasn’t at the shop at that time. We continued back to work for a slow afternoon while the newbies went to work on projects elsewhere.

Thomas came by to chat with Gary and Zach, and from the sound of things, they’re working to come up with an agreeable number that would bring him back to the district. Time will tell, but hopefully not too much time.

After work, I went by the shop to see Summer for a bit until it was nearly time for her to leave. Then I went home to change and made it up to her house for the evening. She grilled chicken for salads, and then it was an early night to bed after a long day of tickling anxiety for me. I don’t know why I had so much trouble with that today, all well after my interview was over. Breathing exercises haven’t been working to alleviate them, so I guess it’s off to try something else.

Let’s put a smile on that face!

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Dress Rehearsal

I felt exhausted all day again today, and I still don’t know if I’m just not getting enough sleep, or if it’s some kind of internal clock thing that still hasn’t reverted back to this time zone. Fortunately it was pretty quiet at work. Mike was at the high school all day for the virtual conference they were hosting. I spent all day with Brody hunting for Chromebooks. We’re short nearly half of the lease that needs to go back, and I don’t know what we’re going to do. Hopefully we can return some alternate devices.

We decided to try The Gunslingin’ Burger for lunch. I had been once with Allen a while back, and my opinion didn’t change today. It was a pretty good burger, but not worth near what it cost. It would have stung less if the combo meal at least came with a drink, but the girl said they stopped including a drink when too many people chose to bundle with shakes. I guess it never crossed their minds to simply not allow that, and to only include a fountain drink.

In any case, I’m still creeped out by the life-size cross standing in the dining room. Then the chef seems to miss social cues as he lingers to ask how you enjoyed your meal. In most any other environment I wouldn’t take issue, but in this scenario it just kind of makes everyone feel a little uncomfortable. I think at a cheaper price point I would just accept everything else, but this just feels like a lot.

After lunch, I ended up sitting out of any real group work. I tried to do some sleuthing to find the missing devices in any system at all, but didn’t have any luck. I spent the last bit of the day prepping for my interview first thing tomorrow. I think I’ve just decided to go all-in. I want to believe that the three of us have a fighting chance, but a bigger part of me thinks there’s no way they’ll let it happen, so I feel like I have to really do something to stand out.

After work, I ran by Summer’s shop to try and print a better copy of my “blank” page to my résumé. It turned out really well, but I wanted to see if Staples could go full-bleed. Unfortunately they couldn’t, but I perused clearance while I was there. Then I stopped by Taco Bell for a quick dinner on the way home. They were unbelievably slow, and the food seemed really lean, but it tasted alright.

Mom and Dad stopped in while I was putting together my individual packets for tomorrow. Then I video chatted Summer while I picked out a nice outfit for the morning. I hope it pays off.

I suppose you’re all wondering why I called you here today.

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Crying Over Spilled Milk Products

It was a good thing I showered up last night, because I refused to get out of bed this morning. I gave myself another half hour or so, then got up and ready for work. Ben was out, and will be out for quite a bit as he wraps up his last month. Zach had everyone on projects, which involved cutting zip-ties at Crawford, then hunting for leased devices to return from the middle school.

A handful of us went to Slim Chickens for lunch, and I took Eaddie some on the way back to work. Then I spent the rest of the day with Brody trying to find the last of the devices. We took a pretty good bite out of the list, but there’s still a lot to go, and we’re running out of places to look.

After work, I went to my parents’ house to take a family photo to send to Susan after she texted to check up on us today. Maybe not everyone hugs their cab drivers. Maybe that’s the problem with the world.

Mom decided to make phở for dinner, so Summer brought Eaddie over as soon as they were done cleaning up at home. We ate a late dinner, then headed home for the night. I stopped by Dairy Queen with Eaddie on the way, and ended up spilling about half of my shake all over the kitchen floor when I knocked it off the counter. I’m struggling with flat surfaces.

I’ve been exhausted during the day, but I can’t ever seem to get to bed earlier. Something needs to change, but I can’t quite figure out how.

Maybe being the first interview can be a good thing.

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Baggage

I didn’t want to sleep in too late today, so I rolled out of bed once I woke up. I had a COVID test at Walgreens at 1, so I went home to clean up first. The test was a super simple and painless nasal swab, and not even too far up the nose. As soon as I was done there, I had to run to Mark’s to help out a bit. What he needed from me took seconds, and we ended up chatting about school stuff for a while after that.

When I left, there was nobody in the Ridgewood Brothers’ parking lot, so I crossed the street to see how things were going. Grant almost immediately offered me a sandwich, which I couldn’t turn down. I took it back up to Summer’s with me since he didn’t have time to chat, and on the way there I called Josue to see how he was doing.

Summer got back with Autumn from their car show fund raiser shortly after I got in, and then Summer and I went to do some shopping before packing. We went to Leonard’s first to spend a $5 coupon I had. Then we went to TJ Maxx for some cheapish rubbah slippahs. Summer got a neck pillow as well, and I’m not sure any of it was a bargain.

The packing took forever due to my travel anxiety, but I’m pretty sure I got everything. Fortunately we’ll have another day nearby in case something goes horribly wrong.

When we finally got back up to the girls, Autumn was in bed. I warmed up some leftovers for us, and then filled out some travel forms with my negative COVID test. Eaddie and I finished up the night with some House, and then went to bed ourselves.

Forget it, just grab all the sinks.

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Playing the Game

Today was perfectly short, since we would be getting out early for the end of the year celebration. It wasn’t the usual mandatory district-wide thing that everyone hated though, and instead each building celebrated on their own. That, of course, meant that our department wasn’t celebrating anything at all.

I didn’t accomplish a whole lot of my own stuff today since I was mostly cleaning things up in preparation for being away. We did get our COVID tests scheduled, which was important. Zach, Greg, Ben, and I went to Wendy’s for some pretty slow, below-average service. My Baconator was good though. Then after lunch I went to the high school to take care of some of Mike’s stuff since he’d been out for a couple days. It all ended up being super simple stuff.

I met Autumn right after school and took her to the shop to see Summer, and then I took her home to start some laundry. Once Summer got home with Eaddie, we took them to karate and then went to my parents’ house to clean up some leftovers they had.

When we got back home, Eaddie wanted to watch some House, which carried everyone to bed.

Alright, back up.

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Two Feet Back

Summer surprised me at home as I was getting ready for work. I was thrown off of my autopilot for a while, but I made it in on time. I finally got rid of the iMac this morning as I watched Doge dive some more. I thought my buy order from days ago was set pretty low, but it just kept going lower. It’s probably a good time to just get out. Zach was still in a mood all day. Ben had to go upstairs for an admin meeting to learn more about how you never destroy the ‘establishment’; you simply replace it. If you do take over, you become the establishment.

I took a super late lunch after nobody else wanted to go, so I ordered two feet of sandwich from Subway and ate with Summer. Then I ran by Crawford to take a look at their copier and get a hard copy of the letter Shavon wrote me. The rest of the afternoon was super quiet as things wind down for the year.

I picked up the girls after work, and went home to change. Then I took them straight home, where I tried to start Summer’s car after a week of sitting. I don’t know if the oil or fuel had settled poorly or what, but I rolled the car off of its little hill, hooked it up to mine with some jumper cables, and eventually got the thing started. I almost got completely creamed by someone running a stop sign on the way to see Summer, but I avoided it with some angry honking.

I dropped the car off and we came home for a quick scavenging dinner, and then Eaddie and I watched some House before bed.

One more day, and we’re off early at that!

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Mac Daddy

It’s been rainy all week, but not the bad, floody, muddy kind. Spending last week with Summer has shifted my morning schedule enough that I’ve actually been a few minutes early to work every day. Yesterday was a single big project day, and today proved to be the same. I knew I had to get into the iMac enrollment again in Jamf, so I tinkered with that between being tasked with other things.

Taco John’s had their lobby open for business again, so a bunch of us went there for lunch. Unfortunately the tacos were super chewy and stale, and the salsa bar still wasn’t open. Crunchy tacos and salsa are pretty much the only reason I like eating there.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, but I think I was successful in getting the Mac enrolled again. It kept its wireless profile and directory binding, so now I just need to figure out the naming script. Kyle came by at the end of the day and asked for some help at Oakland, so we ran over there to look at their AV setup. I let him take off at quitting time, and stayed to chat with Sheri for quite a while after.

When I finally left for home, I called Summer back and chatted with her while I fried up some more rice and ham. Then I got to tinkering with my résumé and a fun cover letter that is anything but serious. I had such a blast that I just kept adding more and more to it. It’s way more fun when you already have a job and don’t really care if you get a different one, and maybe the showing of fun personality traits will actually help somewhere.

This page intentionally left swashbuckled.

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Code Monkey Get Up

It was a really quiet day at work with very few interruptions, which allowed me to dig into why some syncing scripts were broken. We didn’t even suspect that was the issue at first, but spending most of the day on fixing one kid’s email turned into a project that would fix sync issues for all of next year. It was neat to dig through Ben’s PowerShell some more and try to grasp what’s going on.

A bunch of us went to Linh’s for lunch, and then Gary helped me update Jamf in the afternoon. I guess we got lucky, because it was completely uneventful and straightforward. Hopefully the Mac will enroll properly now, but I didn’t stick around long enough to see.

I went home for the evening and didn’t get around to much. I still had some leftover rice from a few days ago that I fried in a pan, and eventually made it to bed for a quiet evening.

We’ll update PHP another night.

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Geek Bonding

I dropped the girls off today and made it to the shop early. Zach had me replacing Center Valley’s Chromebox lab with Kyle, which took all morning. We had to stop by Crawford on the way, but otherwise it was uneventful. We got to talking to the resource officer that sits in that lab about barbecue, which got Kyle and me craving Ridgewood Brothers.

When we got back to the shop just a few minutes before lunch time, we learned that everyone else was going to La Chiquita. Ben wasn’t going though, and I haven’t been super impressed by that place recently, so Kyle and I defected to get some barbecue. There were only a few people in line ahead of us, so we got our food and ate in plenty of time.

I burned most of the afternoon either working on an iMac for Daniel, or digging through random work orders. I felt pretty good digging through Ben’s PowerShell scripts, which is good because he won’t be around to explain them for long.

They let us leave half an hour early, so I went home and finally did my taxes. I came out owing about $100, which is about perfect for me. It’s like I got an interest-free loan of a hundred bucks throughout the year. When I finished up with that, I went to my parents’ house for some bún bò Huế. Julie was there and we chatted a little about Hawaii.

I picked up some Taco Villa for Summer on the way back, but still had to get a change of clothes and some gas. She ate a little when I got home, and then it was a quiet night without the girls.

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Lunch with the Paddler

I got up and took my shower at Summer’s this morning so I could get the kids to school and still have time to get to work myself. It actually worked reasonably well, but I still struggle with the water pressure. I jumped right in to the work orders that had been assigned to me over the past few days, but had trouble completing much of anything. I mostly bounced between Impero and CPPC stuff.

Janie called me to fuss about the policy we were voting for or against removing, and she seemed unwilling to vote for anything other than something that will directly impact those that have been screwed in the past. I hope she wins that fight, but I don’t want that to hold me back from removing redundant or uselessly complicated policies.

I called Allen and planned lunch at Sam’s, and I should have called Dale as well since we saw him at Taco Villa on the way. We had a good size group and had a good time. It was nice to see Allen in public and not looking too scruffy. Retirement looks good on him. While we were there, evidently Brice was sitting across the room and came over to chat, or leer. Or at the very least, awkwardly hover. I really hope they don’t consider him for the job, if only because I don’t want to have to be around to rebuild the entire department when they quit because of it.

We found the bus that would bring Eaddie to my office, so she came over after school and we picked up Autumn after her color guard practice. Autumn really wanted to go to karate but had to go to her band awards ceremony for a grade, and tried weaseling into being toted back and forth across the complete opposite ends of town. We shut her down, and left her at my house so I could get my own chores done.

I dropped Eaddie off at karate, got Summer’s last prescriptions, and then did some work with Mark for about an hour. I had about 10 minutes to chat with Nate across the street before I had to pick her back up, and then we went to get Autumn.

On the way up to Summer, we stopped for some Burger King and had a late dinner. I tried to start on my taxes, but didn’t really get anywhere before I had to get to bed.

The problem with going to the moon is that there is no “up” in space.