Tag: work

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Creative Methods of Procrastination

We didn’t have much of a meeting again this morning. I thought I was going to be sent off on my own to just work at the high school, but then Allen showed enough ineptitude that I took the opportunity to ride around with him for a while. He took me to the high school to take care of one urgent matter, and then we rode out to London to take a look at some audio equipment for a student. That was more or less a bust, but it got us nearly to lunch by the time we got back.

I suggested The 3D Cafe since I think I was the only person that had eaten there before. As we sat down I got an ocular migraine, so I just kind of quietly sat and ate whatever I could get stuck to my fork. I had the taco salad that seemed to be mostly grilled onions. I did get a piece of Allen’s fish that was pretty good. Out of three visits, I’ve been served chips and salsa one time, which was particularly odd to me because the table right next to us got some while we didn’t. The food was decent, but our server only came by like once after he got us settled in with our meals.

After lunch I went to the high school to work on some things. I wrapped up a really late day working on a stupid badge printer that kept me occupied for about three hours, then went home until Summer finished up with her day. I did get a worm trap in the mail, so I set it up hoping to catch some of the little guys that have taken over my shrimp tank.

On the way up to Summer’s, I got some chips and white cheddar bites from Zaxby’s to go along with whatever leftovers we could find for dinner. She showed up just after I did, and we ate and then watched a couple webisodes of some BSG stuff. Next up will be the TV movie Razer, which I wish we could have watched in order, but I guess this is fine too.

Why are computers awful?

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Dropping the Count

I woke up feeling so exhausted today, and it kind of followed me for most of it. I was sluggish getting in to work, but managed to get quite a bit done in spite of it. I got some things started at the high school first, then went to the shop for another Jamf call. This time we actually got things working, but not before realizing I had broken something else last week. Fortunately it didn’t seem too difficult for Zach and Gary to fix, and I don’t think it was entirely my fault to begin with anyway.

Zach wanted to go to Morelos, so he, Gary, Allen, and I met Heather there for lunch. Then I went back to the high school to wrap up the afternoon. I got called to the office for advice on how to handle a disciplinary issue, which was interesting. I had to laugh when it ended up being something that we don’t even really punish employees for doing. At the end of the day, I took a little time and contacted Sceptre for the TV I got Summer. I had someone on the phone so fast that I didn’t even get hold music. It literally just rang through. The guy had me email pictures to their customer service email, and I had a response within a few hours to contact Walmart for help since Sceptre only does technical support for our particular ONN TV.

I went home to change and ended up nearly falling asleep. Mom had been fussing about me not coming to clean up some leftovers, so I headed over there and cleaned up a bunch of stuff for spring rolls. Then I came back home and got cleaned up for a super duper early bedtime.

I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-rays, and I want to smell dark matter… I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me.

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Battlestar Finaléctica

This morning felt warm enough to allow a ride in to work, but it did bite the hands a bit. I forgot my breakfast at home, so I had half a Soylent instead. Unfortunately it didn’t give me as much pep as I expected, and I sort of dallied most of the day. I did get a fair amount accomplished, but my priorities were definitely askew. Having a taste for solid food in the morning left me feeling Wendy’s, so when Allen suggested it himself, I was all in. I ran into Kelsey as I was walking back to the bike, and we chatted for just a second outside. Then I went back to the shop for a bit.

The afternoon brought me back to the high school where I fiddled a bit more between getting things done. Summer left work early with the poison ivy itches, so I had kid duty. I ran home to change, then called Clint to chat on the way to get Autumn. I hadn’t talked to him in quite a while and figured it was time to check in. After Autumn, we had to wait a while for Eaddie. When she did finally come out, she walked right past us and we had to pull back around and yell at her.

Summer grilled some chicken and put together a zucchini, tomato, onion, and mozzarella salad on my suggestion, and it turned out really great. It even felt a bit light, and I really held myself back with only one little chicken thigh. Afterward the girls went to their rooms to hang out while Summer and I watched the last two episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I feel like we missed out on some of the suspense of having to wait between episodes, and I was surprised at how much of it I had forgotten or mis-remembered. It was a great watch though, and I was excited to hear of the show’s reboot next year.

You know it doesn’t like that name.

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On Free Hosting

Yesterday I showed up at work expecting a meeting and didn’t get one, and instead spent my day being productive with Brice. Today I did not expect much of a meeting, but everyone was at the shop and Jason was in a talking mood. He didn’t have any actual team-related meeting stuff to say though, and he basically talked about things with individual techs while the rest of us sat around staring at one another.

I stuck around the shop all morning, accomplished a few things that needed to be done, and then spent a considerable time trying to make my email signature look better for the Gmail app dark mode that was recently activated for my phone. It’s been a minor annoyance seeing so many emails come in expecting a white background, and I didn’t want mine to be one of those for anyone else sporting dark mode.

Just before lunch, I decided to go to the high school to get some laptops for Jason to take to central office. Zach was headed that way to look at some doors, so we just rode together. I got a couple more things done, and then we met back at the shop. He, Allen, and I convinced Gary to come along with us to Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads. The food was really good today, and Gary got a really good looking quesadilla. He seems to eat a whole lot of those. Ronda came strolling in with a crew from the junior high as well.

After lunch, I had a call with Jamf about my iPad Pro again. This was the second or third tier of support, and the guy was super friendly and super helpful, though we still didn’t get the issue completely resolved before we were let off work at 3:30. I got home closer to 4 and trimmed the shrimp tank some more. I wanted to sit down and play some games again, but I just kind of zoned out watching the tank. It really has become my zen place.

When Summer got home, I left to get some gas and met the girls at their house for dinner. The girls went to bed pretty early, and then Summer and I watched two more episodes of Battlestar Galactica. With only two more left to watch, I’ll have to dig into the extra content that was added to that universe over the years. I know there are a bunch of webisodes as well as a couple really long special features.

To end the evening, I sat down to write this blog entry when I found my site had been turned off again for overuse of system resources. That still doesn’t seem possible, but I figured I’d gotten enough out of 000webhost for free. I don’t mind so much upgrading to some paid hosting, even for a do-nothing site that I maintain for my own entertainment. The migration to Hostinger was relatively smooth, and at a buck a month it’s really not bad for a four-year term.

The shape of dreams half-remembered. Slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of perfection.

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Turning Up the Back Burners

I expected orders today, but none came. Brice and I were left in the shop, so he came with me to the high school to clean up some super old, low-priority work orders that I’d just never gotten around to completing. It felt really good to get so much accomplished, but I’m not sure anyone else was doing the same. Half of the department was out, and we never heard anything from the other half that showed up. Brice and I just kept trucking on what we were doing, only taking a quick break for some Zaxby’s. I dropped some off for Summer on the way back to the shop, where I spent a little time catching up with Gary before jumping back into the work we were doing at high school.

We didn’t see the email right away, but Ben sent everyone home at 3:30. Brice and I finished up what we were doing and left eventually. I came home and relaxed for a little bit before going to my parents’ house for dinner. Dad was back from his trip to visit his family in the north, so we chatted a while. Then I came home and intended to catch up on a little gaming since I don’t remember the last time I had an opportunity to do any of that, but instead got caught up watching some guy on the internet sort pennies.

The songs are there. They exist all by themselves just waiting for someone to write them down. I just put them down on paper. If I didn’t do it, somebody else would.

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Crew Crumbs

There were only four of us at work today, so Zach took the role as leader to point us at Jason’s list of duties on the board. He sent Allen to do work orders and Brice to try and update a touch panel’s firmware while he and I stripped and rebuilt a large charging cart. We got about halfway through stripping it when Brice got back and helped us finish. Then when Brice went to get the second cart, we realized that the first cart could have been left as it was with the old chargers, because we needed one of each for old and new chargers.

With that major flub out of the way, Brice and I left for Oakland to swap his faulty touch panel. On a whim, I turned the old one on and we couldn’t get it to fail again, so we ended up not replacing it. We got the new firmware to install by reading the instructions, and then we met Zach and Allen at Brangus for lunch.

After lunch, Brice and I went to the high school to hang a signage TV in the STEM center. It went up without too much trouble, but then I couldn’t get the Airtame to talk to our cloud account for some reason. We spent a while messing with it, but never did get it going. Zach sent us home just a few minutes early, and I went to the junior high to wait for the girls to finish their activities. Once they came out, I dropped them off with Summer and went home to clean up. I’m pretty sure I saw a new shrimp spawn, and the first batch are getting big enough to see them all over the tank.

Mom had been boiling some phở broth all week, so I went over there and the two of us had dinner together before I had to go see Summer get her quiz bowl ring at the football halftime show. As soon as that was over, we headed back up to her house and the girls left with their father. Then Summer and I ended the evening with a couple more episodes of an ever-dramatic Battlestar Galactica.

Yeah, you point finger back far enough and some germ gets blamed for splitting in two.

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Pulled an All-Dayer Today. Pretty Rough.

It’s endlessly frustrating how much work I always have left to do these days. Then I go to the shop and hear someone watching YouTube videos a good hour before lunchtime. I spent a bit of the morning at the high school rushing to get some things done before my call with Jamf support. We never came up with a resolution, but at least I learned a couple things during the call.

Zach, Allen, and I went to Morelos for lunch, and then crossed the street to give Summer some lunch too. Then I made my way back to the high school to get as much other stuff done as I could. I ended the day dragging the ladder around the STEM center so I could set up their new Airtames. I still don’t understand why we’ll buy TVs for them, but not every other department. I file those under “nice to have, but ultimately pointless.”

Summer needed me to take the girls to karate, so I ran home for just a little bit before picking them up. Eaddie forgot her pants again, and fussed at me the whole way to take her home to get them. I told her it wasn’t about time, and that I had other things I wanted to do that didn’t involve driving all the way across town. Then as soon as I got to my parents’ house, Summer called to say that Eaddie had taken her car keys. So here’s me, driving back across town again to return the stupid keys.

Mom and I finished up some leftovers with some more of that weird, flavorless squash. I added a ton of fresh ground black pepper this time, which gave it a nice kick. After that, I started to head home but decided to go up to Summer’s instead.

When Summer and Eaddie got back from the gym, we let the little stray cat in for some cheese, then settled in for some Battlestar before bed.

to be continued

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Midweek Blitz

It was back to work today after a four day weekend, though it didn’t really feel like I had a day off at all. I jumped right into work and picked apart all the work orders I had gotten while I was away. A few of them had already been looked at by someone, which was a really nice surprise. I ended up spending all morning at the shop to catch up. Most of that time was spent with the iPad Pro after hearing back from Jamf support, but unfortunately we still couldn’t get it enrolled properly.

Zach, Ben, and I went to Arby’s for lunch and all got the Beer Cheese ‘n Double Beef Sandwich with free fries. It was a bit messy, but not any more than a big Beef ‘n Cheddar. I really enjoyed it. Then after lunch I finally made it to the high school to jump into my remaining work orders. I kept really busy right up to the end when Autumn came to the high school. On the way out, we walked across campus to the PAC so I could take a look at their sign again. What a surprise to see it not responding over wireless.

Autumn and I came back to my house for just a little while until it was time to get Eaddie from her after school activities. Then I dropped them off at their house before going to visit with Mom for dinner. She had made some salty sausage and stir fried some kind of squash to go along with it. Then we shared some French bread and sweetened, condensed milk for desert.

To wrap up the evening, I came home and did some more laundry while I took care of all the pets. The teeny baby shrimplets have doubled in size by my estimation, and it’s becoming easier to see how many of them there are. I really may have to just eat the culls, because they’re booming and it’s only going to get worse as more of them mature.

Missin’ out on ACOT has me all sad ‘n stuff.

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Shrimp Daddy

We had a pretty contagious day of not giving a crap about anything. Jason sent every last one of us to the junior high to do a few things, and then vanished as usual. He did stop in a couple times just to make his presence known, but otherwise he was as useless as ever with an attitude to go along with it. I stopped in to talk with Matt about esports again, so I guess that’s still on the table. Then we got a few lines run and found another that already existed. They fed us chili dogs there, and pretty much everyone came out for it.

I spent the afternoon with Brice, first going by Oakland to take care of a couple of his things. We ended up sticking around the office for a while just to enjoy a Friday afternoon. Then we finished up at the high school running a video cable for a troublesome display. I didn’t leave with an overwhelming feeling of confidence, but I guess we’ll see what happens.

Summer had me get the girls from the junior high, so I dropped them off at their house because they didn’t care to have me around. I went home to clean up a bit from all the ceiling dust. That’s when I spotted something new in the Imagitarium!

I finally have baby shrimplets! They were so minuscule that I had to get out the magnifying glass just to see any detail on them. Some of the bigger flatworms rival them in size. I’ll never know exactly how many shrimp I have ever again, because this is just the first of many population explosions. I’ll need to get some other tanks cycled soon for my genetic experimentation.

Mom called me over for dinner, so we sat and had some soup together. Dad had already left on his trip, but left us some fresh banana bread for dessert. Then I headed up to Summer’s where everyone had pretty well split up into their rooms. Summer and I watched an episode and a half of Battlestar before she passed out. I’m super happy about having a long weekend myself.

Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man, with my three wishes clutched in her hand.

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Just give me the damn password, Bob!

I forgot my phone at home this morning, which wouldn’t have been a huge deal any other day, but I was expecting a support call from the sign company. I hoped he would call sooner than later, but I guess his day went by quicker than mine. I spent the morning catching up on a few things, then met Allen, Gary, and Zach at Wendy’s for lunch. Wesley and a couple of his guys were there too, so we sat and complained about our absent coworkers.

We got some new work shirts in after lunch, and I ended up spending more time there than I had anticipated. It wasn’t a big deal though, since everything I really needed to do had to wait until the end of the day anyway. That’s when I finally got my support call. I had just gotten back to the high school and started to settle in when my phone rang. I had to run all the way across the campus, and then spend over an hour on the phone while this guy remoted into our sign computer so he could show me first hand how little he understood about what he was doing. On the way there, I encountered a brand new brick wall blocking my path, so I had to get creative and walk around the stupid place.

As he started digging into things, I kept telling him to upgrade the firmware. He kept getting his head stuck on version numbers that seemed impossible, and kept installing and uninstalling different versions of the software to get around it. All I wanted was the stupid admin password, which he finally provided, and I could have resolved the stupid issue in under five minutes. Instead I was stuck there, unable to do the other work I had planned for the end of the day. We did finally get the sign going again, which was only partially a relief. The real concern is how long it will last until it breaks again.

That wrapped up my workday, so I headed home to change before going to my parents’ for dinner. We cleaned up some super old burrito stuff and I sat there for a while messing with my phone again. I’ve about given up on fixing it, and I’ve made peace with just wiping the whole thing and starting over. Next Tuesday is the new Pixel announcement, so worst case scenario I can just get a whole new phone.

Get in there, Bob!