Tag: work

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-7 to Efficiency

Today was a bit drizzly, but it was still warm enough that it wasn’t miserable. It felt more like spring than anything else. I spent all morning and most of the afternoon trying to learn some PowerShell so I could fix the same deployment I’ve been working on all week. I took a break to eat my Thanksgiving lunch in my office, which was super delicious, if not a little shy with the cranberries. Then after school let out, I gave up and went to the junior high to hand-load the testing software for Heather.

When we finally left, I went straight to Walmart to exchange Summer’s defective TV. Everyone I dealt with was excellent, and they had a newer version of the same ONN 50″ 4k TV, so the swap was pretty straightforward. A guy named Dustin insisted on walking me out with the new one, and I guess he’s going to school for some flavor of IT because that’s what we chatted about the whole way.

I went home for a little while and waited for Eaddie to get out of karate, then picked her up and headed to Summer’s for a little dinner. I caught up on the Tesla Cybertruck unveiling, which seemed more awkward than previous product launches from Elon. Then it was off to sleep for the last day before break.

Sometimes you’ve just got to sink a couple days into something to save yourself an hour of time.

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Tying up Loose Ends (To Throw Them out to Sea)

It was a little warmer this morning, and I should have taken the bike. We finally started testing, and I immediately got called down to the opposite end of the campus for a non-issue that was resolved before I got there. I had a bagel for breakfast and couldn’t find a toaster anywhere. Asking around didn’t turn up a lot of suggestions, and ultimately Lee seemed to really want to go for a walk down to home ec, so we busted right into a full classroom and I bashfully asked to borrow theirs. Then I spent a bit of the morning catching up on some things that needed catching. Being an excellent multitasker, I was able to make a few calls while I was working so I could verify my benefits for next year, get back into my old retirement 401(k), and even get bounced around to a third and fourth customer service contact for Summer’s failing ONN TV that I got from Walmart.

I wanted to go to Ruby Tuesday for another $5 salad, and I should have just gone by myself, but Brice, Allen, and Jason all wanted to go to Long John Silver’s for a $5 meal coupon they sent out today. I was nervous when we encountered a sign on the front door asking customers to call a number to report if the restaurant was not open during its posted business hours. The guy inside even seemed a bit sketchier than usual, but we all made it out in the end with free drinks and an extra side of fries for Allen.

Jason wanted to come work with me at the high school in the afternoon, so after milling around the shop for a bit, we headed up to my office. I had him hunt down some Adobe stuff for Macs while I poked at another issue I was having. Then we took the trip across the campus to install Daniel’s software and set up Tina’s new computer. Jason had to leave just as school let out, and I kept tripping over myself trying to reconfigure the switch that Tina’s computer was plugged into, but at the end of the day Gary was able to save the day. I stuck around late trying to figure out why my test software deployment kept failing, and finally gave up so I could make it up to Summer’s for dinner.

She had stayed home sick today, and made spaghetti mac(?) since she didn’t have proper spaghetti noodles. It turned out really yummy though, and then we watched an episode of Parks and Rec with Eaddie before I headed home for the night.

Don’t you know what happened to the little boy who cried, “wolf!”

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Huttin’ for Food

I slept really well last night, and all I wanted to do was stay in bed. It was a little chilly out, but it warmed up nicely. My morning went by pretty quickly as I caught up on things at the high school. Then Allen and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch. I saw Robert and Grant there and learned that they’ve both gone full time with their BBQ business, so I feel doubly obligated to visit them sometime soon.

After lunch, I spent a bit of time at the shop getting a computer ready, then headed back to the high school for the day. I ended up staying a little late because some student data wouldn’t migrate for me, and I eventually just had to give up and go home. Once there, I cleaned up a very little bit and milled around the house for a bit until bed.

Plenty of memories down Ridgewood…

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The Long Hunger

We were supposed to start the first day of testing today, but I’m not sure that actually happened. I kept busy with my own little projects until Ben showed up unexpectedly to chat about what happened yesterday. I really hope he actually takes some kind of meaningful action this time, because it definitely feels like nothing ever works.

I had one Soylent to last me the whole day, and then I stopped to see Summer on my way home to stay up late playing video games to stave off the hunger. I was definitely allowed to eat today, and my belly wanted to know why I didn’t. I should be fine tomorrow with enough other stuff going on to keep my mind off of it. The cat is starting to look pretty yummy though.

I played a couple short rounds of Overwatch arcade matches with Jack before he went to play Call of Duty with the others. Then I made the mistake of starting a two-hour update on my computer, so I laid in bed watching some short extras on Disney+ that I finally got access to from Julie. Once my computer was finished, I dove right into a multi-hour session of Oxygen Not Included until about 5am.

23 Hours Later….

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On the Subject of Hierarchy

It was super cold and rainy this morning, and I was super sluggish getting into my office. I just sat in my car, cozy in my seat for a while, not wanting to go in. When I finally did go in, I mostly worked in my office all day without wandering about too much. I started digging into Group Policy to learn a little more about how objects are linked together, and the order in which settings are processed. I sipped on one Soylent through breakfast and lunch to try and cut back hard, and it worked pretty well. Lee came in for a bit to ask for some speakers, then stayed to chat for a little bit.

Near the end of the day, I went to the shop to get a couple things. I chatted with Zach and Gary for a bit, then went to the graveyard to dig around for some speakers. I was so focused on what was on the tables or in the piles of junk, digging for scraps, that I didn’t even notice Jason napping in the corner until I walked right up on him, practically within arm’s reach. It got super awkward after that, with him making brief, but quiet sounds of laboured movement the way one would in that kind of situation. He never said a word to me, and I just started digging in a box for some speakers. It took him a few minutes, but I think he left. I didn’t actually pay attention to where he went, but I didn’t see him again the rest of the day. His car was there when I went back inside though, and gone before we left, which was a bit before quitting time on account of my not taking a lunch break.

Brice has an interview tomorrow, so maybe all the pieces are falling into place for me to take a step up into leadership. One could dream.

After work, I went to my parents’ house for some rice soup. It was pretty soothing, and I peppered it enough that I couldn’t even taste that Mom had burned it. Then I went by Walgreens to pick up my prescriptions, then Walmart to pick up a few more things that I ultimately should have just gotten from Walgreens for convenience and time’s sake.

I refuse to let myself feel guilty for doing what’s right by reporting what’s wrong.

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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.