Tag: work

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Four Percent Friday

We didn’t have much going on today, but I still didn’t feel the need to go to the high school. I spent all morning at the shop, partially working on a couple things. Pretty soon it was only an hour until lunch, which wasn’t enough time to really get into anything. A group of us went to CJ’s for a long lunch. When we got back, Zach and I rolled a magnet around our parking spaces to pick up the 30ish screws and such that were left behind by the people savages doing the work upstairs.

Allen had a touch panel to install in the afternoon, so I went with him. We got it hung pretty quickly, but then encountered a weird touch issue. He immediately jumped to calling technical support, and then leaving them a voicemail when they didn’t answer – all before actually trying anything to fix it. He was in some kind of stupid and belligerent mood, which is the absolute worst for him.

We wrapped up the day about the same as the rest of it, with a whole lot of keeping chairs on the floor. I think it’s the seasonal rut.

On the way home, I stopped by Superfast to loan Summer a projector, then went home and continued my colony in Oxygen Not Included. I made a fair amount of progress, but am getting to a point where I need to come up with a better way of managing gases. Eventually Summer and Eaddie got home and I went up to meet them. I dug out a bunch of leftovers to clean up, and then we watched a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation before bed.

I’ve got forty hand towels, some energy bars, and a Chinese finger trap. Let’s get gross.

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Not a Fan of the Wobble

I got up a little earlier this morning so I could go to Starbucks for their free holiday cup. It was a cheaper plastic than I expected, and they didn’t even use it for the drink I ordered, but the $5 caramel brulee latee was delicious in spite of how much it had cooled down by the time I got through the line. I was feeling pretty congested all morning, so I took a half sick day from work and spent it cleaning and trying to balance my ceiling fan. The cleaning alone helped the wobble an embarassing amount, but there’s still a sway at low speed that I just can’t shake (heh heh).

Summer and I met at Arby’s for some lunch before we had to start our days. She had a Chamber meeting, and I chose to show up for the last half of my day at work. I didn’t get a lot done, but it looked like not many at the shop did either because it had flooded again, and the worst yet. I left work after what felt like no time and went home to rest a bit before dinner with my parents.

The girls met me there once they finished with their activities, and then we all went to our homes for an early night of rest.

Proper story’s supposed to start at the beginning. Ain’t so simple with this one.

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The Sickly Terminator

I got up this morning feeling pretty well rested, but still warm and clammy. The humidity and rain didn’t help much, but it didn’t rain nearly as much as I thought it would. I made the trek back across the campus to terminate those four lines for Jason’s closet before making it back to the shop for lunch. Allen agreed to go to Mulan’s with me so I could get some soup to soothe my head.

After lunch I came back to the shop for a bit before deciding to take the rest of the day off. There wasn’t much going on, and I knew I wouldn’t be very productive. I went by the shop to check on Summer, then went home and rested a while. Eventually I started up Oxygen Not Included and played until Mom called for dinner. She made shrimp noodle soup, and I figured it might make me feel better even though I still wasn’t very hungry from lunch.

Eventually I ended up at Summer’s waiting for the girls to get home. I laid on the couch and queued up some YouTube videos, and then Eaddie put on the last episode of season six of Parks and Rec once they got settled in.

This is the hardest I’ve ever worked on anything since… Wow, I’ve never worked hard on anything! What a cool life!

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See, You Inhale!

I didn’t get to ride yesterday, so at only a couple degrees cooler, I rode to work today. I had to stop by the arena first thing for a big PLTW fair they were putting on for other schools. Ben came by too, and we wandered around listening to kids talk about their PLTW projects from all grades. There were way more elementary kids there than anyone else, which was probably good because they seemed more interested in what they were doing, and acted like they understood more of the content than anyone else. The older kids all had projects that were pretty obviously on rails and didn’t really grasp the concepts they were supposed to be learning about. I guess it’s pretty easy to be cynical about it though, even though I was probably in about the same place as them in junior high.

After we left there, I spent some time trying to track down some cabling with the guys from the PAC. They didn’t seem to really have anything else going on, so we just wandered all around looking for switches with unpatched network lines in their racks. The last rack we stopped at had four new lines run to it that just weren’t terminated, and it sounded like Jason ran it to his office himself. Ultimately knowing that last piece of information, we wouldn’t have had to run around on this wild goose chase, and I could have just made those new lines work for him and freed up the other good line in the upstairs control booth.

Allen and I went to Ruby Tuesday for the $5 salad bar, and we got our favorite lunchtime server. He got pretty close to remembering our drinks, and got us in and out in record time. Back at the shop, I sat with Ben for a bit talking about my morning before heading back to the high school to complete my morning’s task. As I wrapped up, I went to Jason’s office and found his fancy new RTX-wielding computer stowed away, and three other decade-old, non-district computers hooked up in its place. It looked exactly like what you would not want to see some random guy doing at work with your physical network infrastructure. I don’t know what he was hosting on that machine, but it all seemed very sketchy and I just decided to document my findings and run away.

I finished the day at the shop with several other unmotivated guys for the last hour, then went home for just a little while before Summer asked me to deliver the girls to their activities. I took Autumn to the junior high for a game, then Eaddie to karate before stopping by my parents’ house. I visited with Dad for a little bit before heading home to dope up and pass out.

I found a couple NyQuil and chased it with some Party Fuel to kickstart my night. It went to my head pretty quickly, so I laid down and dropped a Vicks inhaler into my CPAP to doze off for a few hours. It pretty clearly didn’t help my sinuses as I slept, but I guess it was worth a try. I woke up to write this post and discovered how much better the Australian website is for the VapoInhaler than the American one. We’re such a clinical society. I hope we’re happy.

Here are Newton’s laws of motion, which are apparently pretty important…

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Lunch Is on My Face

Today started out cool, but quickly became pretty temperate. I had to reset the sign again in the morning, and then I ran around the building taking care of a few work orders. It went by pretty quickly, and I headed back to the shop a little early to see if Gary wanted to go to lunch for his birthday.

Gary initially didn’t want to go with us, then my suggestion of Bocadillos seemed to pique his interest, but ultimately he declined and left me with Ben and Allen. The three of us headed to Dardanelle, and all got the two tacos and burrito special. It took me a bit, but after several attempts I got the Clover app to accept my check-in photo, and I got to experience that process. It was pretty cool being able to just tell them I needed to check in, and then let the app automatically pay for me. It didn’t give me an opportunity to tip, which would be a bummer for when you get table service, but I’d use it when I’m just there for ice cream.

After lunch, Ben and I sat at a computer in the shop and poked around the G Suite settings to try and figure out why a few emails to students weren’t being delivered. Then I wrapped up the day back at the high school, setting up some computers in the arena for an event tomorrow morning. Ben and I have to go by there first thing in the morning to help out, but hopefully that will just be to stand by for assistance.

Eaddie came to the high school and I took her home with me. She was in a bit of a mood and just wanted to watch YouTube videos on her phone, which annoyed me a bit. Once I got changed, we headed to Pizza Hut to pick up a free order of wings that I got, compliments of Sprint. Then it was off to her house to wait for dinner. Summer got home after dropping Autumn off at an Explorers meeting and grilled some brats and asparagus. Then she, Eaddie, and I watched a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation before bed.

We’re all just calm and happy people together enjoying ourselves on earth.

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Turn Up the Heat

A thin layer of frost covered everything this morning, so I had to wait for the car to warm up before heading home. We burned the first hour of work sitting around the shop yapping at each other, and then I helped Brice hang a touch panel at Oakland. He must not have felt very motivated, because we ended up sitting around there the rest of the morning until lunch time. Somehow I had convinced everyone that New China sounded good, so five of us went there to eat before coming back to the shop to form two more groups.

This time I was sent with Heather to hang a touch panel at the junior high, which I expected to be a pretty straightforward in-and-out job. That quickly turned to rubbish though, because we were super unprepared for anything. We ended up running the video cable three times, couldn’t get any of the old cable or the old ceiling-mounted projector out of the ceiling, and had to make two trips back to the shop on top of her countless trips back to her office for more parts. It took us all afternoon to do what should have been completed in about an hour, and by the end of it all I was just completely beat.

I headed home to relax and no sooner had I pulled into my driveway, than Autumn called wanting to know if I was coming to pick them up from the junior high, where I had just left. I was super aggravated, but not at them. I missed Summer’s text from the middle of my fighting to get the last job done, and was just completely over having to run around everywhere. I immediately left to get them, then dropped them off at their house. Eaddie somehow left a giant something in my back seat, so I had to turn around from a mile down the road. Neither of the girls would answer the phone or look outside to see who was honking their horn so annoyingly, so I just got out and threw it up at the front door.

When I finally got into my house, I could barely even sit comfortably out of feeling so defeated. Eventually I was able to wind down with some drinks and a long, thoughtful game of Oxygen Not Included. My heater finally kicked on for the first time this season, and I’m pretty sure the current setup will never even utilize the heat pump because I keep my house so cold. I guess all that planning ahead and overthinking for the month and a half of summer without air conditioning ended up being just a big waste of time and money.

Everything is cramps.

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Hey You Guize!

It was just above freezing this morning, but fortunately a clear drive home. I had to take extra care getting ready, to layer my costumes well. I was to dress up as Amanda, but I wanted a less niche and more casual outfit underneath, so I had my usual Dracula t-shirt on. Then I donned some skinny jeans, cow socks, house shoes, a blue zip-up hoodie, wet hair parted on the right, hole-punched red dot stickers for gauged ears, Red Bull, and a flask of lighter fluid to complete the look. When I got to work, I got a few chuckles, but I don’t think most of them truly appreciated how much effort I put into the ensemble.

We didn’t actually have a meeting other than to see each others costumes, so I headed on to the high school for real work. There, I ran into Doug as he was helping Misty bring some things into the greenhouse. Then I immediately changed out of my skinny jeans into some slim ones that felt suddenly very loosey goosey. I fixed a couple other things pretty quickly, and then mulled around the laptops a bit more.

I was going to stop by the shop to see if I could find a lunch partner for something a little lighter than usual. I had gotten stuck by the D&R Railroad when Ben called to see what I was eating, and we decided to meet up at Linhs. We had a really good chat over some really good food as we usually do, and then it was back to work. I decided to end the school day by blaring Thriller as the final bell rang and kids flooded into the hallways. Again, I felt like not many truly appreciated what I was doing there. The workday ended on a higher note as I was able to recover my bricked touch panel by installing the correct firmware.

When I got home, I shed all the extra clothes and tried to make sense of my evening. The girls had gone out to eat for dinner and weren’t doing anything for Halloween. Summer was working out and would have to start prepping some chili for work tomorrow. Suzanne was going to come visit and meet the family, but wasn’t certain of the time or whether she’d be able to join us for an actual meal that was up to me to produce. I ended up picking up some Taco Villa on the way up to Summer’s, and we ate as she ran around the kitchen all evening.

Suzanne eventually showed up with a gift of some fresh sourdough bread that she had labored over all afternoon, and we sat and chatted for quite a while. I do miss the days of being able to stay up and do that for longer, but hopefully this time of year will allow for more of that.

This hammock itches inconveniently.

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Constructing the Shittiest Laptops

It was really slow this morning, so I broke down and started pulling good parts off of any laptops I had in for service. Then I put all the broken, shattered, wet, and otherwise malfunctioning parts back together to make the shittiest, grossest laptops for shipment back to Lenovo for repairs. My Safelite appointment got moved to the afternoon, so I went to Wendy’s for lunch with Allen. Then we went to the middle school for some ice cream cake Charlotte got for one of her employee’s birthday.

Just as we finished up there, Safelite called and I headed to my parents’ house so we could have the repair done in the garage. Luckily it started to rain quite a bit just after I got there, so I made the right call. The repair didn’t take all that long, and though the crack is still very visible, at least now I don’t have to worry so much about it spreading. I went to the shop for a little while to check out some toothpaste Oreos that Melinda brought. I think Gary was the only one to be had with that prank. I wish I had gone to get some regular Oreos before I got there, so I could pretend to eat and enjoy them in front of her.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the high school working on a few work orders that had come in. Then I managed to brick a Newline touch panel on the way out, which kept me there a bit late. By the time I finished up, I had to go get Eaddie from her activities. We went back to my house for a little bit before heading up to her house.

I started cooking some of the last of the chicken for salads and then we all pretty well called it a night.

Quiet contemplation over Gravity

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Rocket Legs

Today was cool and drizzly, and it crept along just like you’d expect a cold, drizzly day to creep. I got a few little things done in the morning and thought I might start messing with the 1:1 laptops a bit in the afternoon. Brice sent us a picture of a Mac ‘N Cheeseburger from Ruby Tuesday, so he, Allen, and I decided to go try it out for only a fiver. Our server was a guy I’d seen around town a lot, and I think he worked at the call center for a little while back in the day. He was nice enough, but it felt like it took him forever to take our super simple orders. Luckily the food came out super fast, and though it didn’t look nearly as good as the picture, it did taste pretty good. I still think it’s hard to argue it against a $5 combo deal at Wendy’s though.

I went by the shop for a little bit after lunch just to catch up on things, then went back to the high school. Dad confirmed that insurance would cover my windshield chip, so I set up an appointment online with Safelite. I had only just submitted the form when my phone rang with a lady calling to confirm the insurance information. Just a couple minutes after that, a local guy called to reschedule my appointment for tomorrow morning since everyone in the area had already left for the day. With that taken care of, I wrapped up the day swapping parts on some laptops. The district won’t make any self-maintainer money from it, but they couldn’t anyway since I don’t have the certifications required by the program. Frankly this way is less wasteful anyway, so I’ll put in the extra effort to save the planet a bit.

Eaddie rode the bus to me since Autumn went home with a fever today. I took her home so I could change, then dropped her off at karate while I went to eat with my parents. Neither lunch or dinner left me feeling totally satisfied today, but I filled up on some water rather than eat more. The hunger came back well before bedtime. When I got back home, I cleaned up a bit and then sat down to play some Rocket League with Josh for a bit. I hadn’t played in a super long time and was using my Xbox Elite Wireless Controller that I hate, but I made it work and didn’t flail around too horribly. Aerials were rough and pointless, but I scored a goal or two.

Maybe time to do some future shopping.

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So Im-Portent

It was supposed to be clear today, and only a little bit cooler. Instead, I ended up riding to work in a drizzle that lasted into the afternoon. The sign went out again, and it took me a couple trips to realize it was the GFCI outlet again. Nobody said anything about lunch, so I just went home and spent my hour there with my shrimp over some frozen chicken sliders. They could’ve been worse.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly too, and at least it wasn’t drizzling any more. I ran to get some gas before going home, and spent a whopping $1.75 to fill up the Grom. Summer picked up the girls from school and dropped them off at my house, so I got changed and then took them home. Summer had a roast cooking all day, so I made some rice and tried to get the girls fed before she got home from the gym.

Nothing significant to report.