Tag: work

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Ye Olde Frands

The junior high was testing this morning, so I spent most of the day trying to stay busy there. I actually got a few things taken care of, and there wasn’t a single testing issue, so it was a pretty stress-free day. Ben and Gary came over around 9 to meet with some kid from Tech about the robotics tournaments and what they needed from us to make their equipment work. Unsurprisingly, Gary was the smartest person in the room by a longshot. It was almost impressive how quickly everyone else’s eyes glazed over, and I was proud to have mostly kept up.

Dale called for lunch, so I met him and Bryce at Wendy’s. One of the maintenance guys walked in and spun some more tall tales for us as well. It felt like a really short lunch, but it was good as usual. Then it was back to the junior high until school let out. Then I ran by Oakland on the way home to replace a projector lamp.

I had to get gas when I finally left work, since I’d been skirting empty for the better part of a week. On the way back home, I stopped by AT&T to chat with the guys there. They were super dead and overstaffed, but still joked about me coming back. It’s definitely tempting, but I really would like to start out at a higher hourly rate. I left just as an area manager pulled up so as not to disturb anyone. Then it was home to start some laundry.

Summer brought all the kids over after a little while to help with the leftover barbecue from last weekend. They watched an episode of Emogenius before heading home for the night. I cleaned up and got on the computer where I saw Jack sitting online. It wasn’t much longer until Johnny showed up as well. I was a little annoyed that there wasn’t ever any chat about playing tonight, but it is what it is. We played some Overwatch until one by one they left.

Get up off my feet and stop making tired excuses.

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Chattin Among Folk

I slept really well last night, but I still woke up pretty tired. At least I managed to work my way out of it without too much trouble. The day started with a surprise 10 Chromebooks for Oakland. Once I got those going, I ended up chatting with Ben for a quite a while before delivering them. Then it was a quick lunch with several of the guys at Taco John’s.

After lunch I talked to Ben some more to confirm my Oakland printers weren’t printing pages in reverse order. Then I headed to the junior high to finish the day. I met up with Gary over there while he was making some changes to our switch configurations. I got a few work orders done and increased my skill in locksmithing by +5. Right at the end of the shift, Gary helped me run through the computer labs to check for missing mice. We counted a total of 10 missing, so I fired off a pretty lengthy email to Matt just as I left.

After work, I headed to Summer’s to finish up some leftovers with her since she wasn’t feeling well. Before I even got there, Matt had responded that he knew where the mice were, but evidently it didn’t occur to him to let his lab manager know, which was more than a little annoying. Several episodes of Parks and Rec helped to calm me down though.

Once the girls got home from karate and dinner with their father, I headed home for bed. Testing is back again tomorrow, so I’ll really get to sink some time into anything.

I wish Google would get their messaging shit together.

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Hangin with the Big Earners

We had a bunch of projects for today. I was sent off to Sequoyah with Brice and Allen. Allen was in a mood and didn’t want to go with us though, so he tried to break off and go with Zach and Jason. Then he was basically a jerk all day when that didn’t work. When we got there to hang a touch panel, it looked like they already had a newer projector and I wondered if it was actually still under warranty. Without much of a plan or direction, we ended up cutting and removing some cables to pull a new HDMI cable, but it ended up not working. We needed nearly 70 feet of cable for the room though, so Brice will just have to go back later to swap it out again. We left with a shorter cable across the floor for temporary use. We also had to run an extra audio cable to replace a group of four-plus extensions that were feeding some nicer speakers. It all seemed a little silly, and I wasn’t too excited to be the only one up on the ladder all morning.

I had called out Old Post BBQ for lunch when we were still in our meeting, and though everyone seemed happy with that, nobody else met us there. We did run a bit late, but nobody else even said anything about going anywhere else. Allen refused to sit in a booth with Brice and me, and he weirdly sat at a group of tables with a couple other ladies. I saw Nicole working there, and she helped me identify and order something I saw in a picture frame called The Dagwood. She said if I finished it in under 30 minutes I could get my picture on the wall. It only took me 20, but I declined the photo and we went along our way.

After lunch, I resolved an issue with my HSA for payroll, so hopefully I’m not out anything there. Then I helped Allen run an HDMI cable to resolve a video issue at Center Valley. That likely could have been fixed with software and drivers as well, but he and Jason couldn’t figure it out, so we ran the cable. Then I was on my own, so I finished up a rash of work orders I had gotten from Oakland.

When I finally got home, I was so exhausted but had to clean up the living room a bit. I managed to finish before the girls got here, and even set up Catan because Autumn wanted to play. Eaddie was rowdy and completely uncontrollable all night, and I ended up sending her to bed before we finished the game. I think I got my new network storage box reset, but I’m still having trouble completing the setup, and I’m too exhausted to continue messing with it.

Kids these days don’t even know who Dagwood was.

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+1 to Security

I slept in a little bit today since I was to work late with Zach. I got the bare minimum done around the house before heading in toward work. I sat in the driveway for a while trying to coax Sonic’s app into working. While there, a murmuration of starlings came through the neighborhood and momentarily stopped in front of me. Eventually I got my food ordered, and I headed to the junior high to eat with Summer.

While at the junior high, I got a few things taken care of. I thought I was supposed to meet Zach at 2, so I arrived at the shop far too early to actually do anything. He actually wanted to start after school was out, so I sat on his couch until we were ready to leave, sipping coffee and trying to stay energized.

We eventually made it to the middle school and got straight to work replacing some of the access control equipment. It took me a while to put the pieces together in my head, but eventually I was able to wrap my head around at least the bits we were servicing. Gary stopped by for a while as well just to see how things were going.

We finished with a little time to spare, so we went back to the shop and took our 30 minute breaks to cap our day. Summer was just out of the gym, so she came by with some Tropical Smoothie for dinner. She was still a little sickly, so she just watched me drink my smoothie until we left.

I headed home to clean up a bit before heading to her place. I cleaned up a couple leftover things, and then we watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica before bed.

There’s a reason why you separate military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.

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Closet Racism

Jason was supposed to spend half the day with me “in the field,” but he ended up having me cover his campus for testing instead while he went to work on some of Allen’s stuff. Just as we were discussing that, our usual Dell service tech showed up to replace a power cable in one of my teacher’s computers. I took him over to Oakland and walked him all the way to the back of the building, panting and wheezing. Luckily she was super nice about the random, unexpected interruption, and I took her computer to a nearby closet for service.

As we situated ourselves, the tech learn-ed me about the “Vietnamese Squat” he had to perform to sit in the unusually small elementary school chair. I commented back that yes, my Vietnamese mother had spent many a night squatted over a giant bowl of egg roll ingredients. From then on, it was mostly comments about how the white man had wronged people like the Indians. It was still less awkward than the OSHA presenter that joked about submitting a new hazard pictogram of a guy with a turban to warn of explosive chemicals.

I spent the rest of the morning trying to wipe Summer’s mother’s iPad that she had activation locked, since I had to sit around to babysit testing anyway. A big group of us went to Mulan’s for lunch, and then I eventually made it to the junior high to close a few work orders.

After work, I ran home to get a few things before heading to Summer’s for dinner. She made chicken salads, but we didn’t quite get to eat before her mother showed up to retrieve her iPad and finish the unlock process. I was really impressed with the proximity setup process, and even the camera authentication that would normally show a QR code was made to look more stylized and futuristic. You know, I disagree with Apple on many counts… But you cannot deny they’ve got style.

When everyone finished eating and acting up, we managed to quiet everyone down for the first half of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Evidently Noah watched it recently, and he was upset that Summer decided to stop us right before The Tale of Sir Lancelot.

Why can’t you guys settle down and obsess over your repressed depression like normal teenagers?

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PEBKAC

I had to run by the junior high first thing this morning to help with a student’s laptop for use with online classes. It’s a new thing for us there, and nobody seems to really know what they’re doing. It was still a little disappointing to work on it for an hour before having the student come down and find out she was just looking for her test in the wrong place though.

A bunch of us met at Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads. Brice joined us but didn’t like their salad bar, so he had to be different and order food. I was just upset that they got rid of the hummus and the raspberry poppyseed dressing. I loved that stuff. I had so many crackers but nothing to dip them in.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly as I stayed busy gathering up loose ends. Tomorrow morning, Jason wants to work with me at Oakland to figure out their cafeteria sound system. That ought to be entertaining.

After work, I took Eaddie to Summer’s parents’ house where she was having issues with her car battery. They had to take her mother’s car to Autumn’s appointment in Little Rock, but everything turned out alright. She took the girls to karate and then brought her car over to hook up to my battery charger.

I had a coupon for a free pizza from Papa John’s, so we picked that up and watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec before she had to head home. The girls went out to eat with their father, but would be home before too long.


I guess they think it’s cold in here.

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Only Half of Us Is Sick

Summer called in to work today, so I took a half day as well since I wasn’t sure how taking the kids to school would work. I slept in about half an hour later than I normally would and dropped the girls off, and drove by work about 15 minutes early. I could have made it work, but I had enough to do at home that I didn’t really get any time off anyway.

I spent most of my time cleaning up after the cats, but I checked on the fish and got a shower myself as well. I finished all of that just in time to run by Linh to get some egg drop soup for Summer. She was up and cleaning house, though still feeling pretty pitiful. I didn’t stay long, because I had to get to work.

There wasn’t really much going on, but I closed a few work orders. Most of what I have left are more complicated projects that will take some time and focus. Autumn had quiz bowl after school, but basically wasted time not participating. It didn’t put me out too much since I had to work until 4:30 anyway. By the time it was all over, we were all pretty hungry. We collectively agreed on pizza, and we picked up some Little Caesar’s on the way back to their house.

We watched an episode of Criminal Minds, then some Parks and Rec, and then everyone was off to bed.

I like saying, “no.” It lowers their enthusiasm.

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Overpromised and Underdelivered

I got an email after work yesterday asking for us to replace a touch panel first thing this morning after I waited all day yesterday with no response. We still somehow managed to get it done without running into any kids, but it was still annoying. Otherwise, I was impressed with how quickly Jason, Brice, and I were able to get the job done. I honestly don’t think I could have been any more proud of them in that moment. Jason did seem to be in a promising mood though, in that he kept offering his guarantee that she would love the new touch panel, and that Sara would offer all kinds of extended training on how to use the new equipment. It got to the point very quickly that I had to start shutting him down on his referrals.

We didn’t have any other group projects, so I spent the rest of the morning taking care of a docking station setup before we went to lunch. Nothing sounded particularly good to me, and Jason really wanted CiCi’s, so he, Allen, and I went there. We cut it really close for our clock time, but we managed. I’m really not excited about having to do it, but it seems like at least Ben is going to have our back on some of the stuff anyway, so in the end it won’t really matter.

After lunch, I took care of a few things at the junior high. When school let out, the place quickly became a zoo of kids coming in for all-region band tryouts. Autumn was a bit upset that she only made second alternate, but she’s not willing to commit to the work needed to improve herself either, so she’s just going to have to figure it out.

I went home for a while after work to do a small water change on the aquariums, and eventually made my way up to Summer’s for the evening. I picked up a dollar burrito and free drink at Taco Bell on the way up, and after eating and finishing up Bridge to Terabithia with the kids, Summer and I watched a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation. Then it was off to bed for quiz bowl tomorrow.

He shows zero initiative. He’s not a team player. He’s never one to go that extra mile. Tom is exactly what I’m looking for in a government employee.

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Batting 100% of 1000

I’ve been nailing lunch suggestions this week. Monday it was Wendy’s. Tuesday, we had Mexican. Wednesday was Asian. Today, a huge group of us went to Firehouse. It was super cold for being bike-riding weather at the beginning of the week, so I think everyone just liked the idea of a hot lunch. I shouldn’t have eaten my whole sandwich, but I was so hungry and it was so delicious. It was totally worth ordering and customizing ahead via the app.

Since I spent all morning mostly wasting in the shop, I had to get some time in at the junior high, but not before having a decently productive gripe-fest with Gary while everyone else was out. Then I just closed as many work orders as I could before quitting time. I ended up two minutes shy of my eight hours today since Jason and Allen made me two minutes late getting back from lunch.

I headed home while Summer went to the gym. We were going to go to Ruby Tuesday while the girls went to dinner with their father, but he broke down and we ended up going to La Plaza together instead. They had all-you-can-eat enchiladas for $6, so Summer and I gorged ourselves. Then our waitress offered dessert, and brought us the biggest slice of trec leches cake she could find. I really didn’t expect to feel this miserable after it was all said and done, but here I am. To top it all off, I feel a pretty big head cold coming. I just hope I can kick it quickly without too much after-muck.

Unfortunately all of the CO₂ leaked out of my first paintball tank, so I tried filling up the other one. It may leak a bit as well, but at least not nearly as fast as the other. If it loses much more overnight, I’ll just trash them for a new one.

I’m so proud that you’re disappointed in yourself.

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Getting Tanked at Home

I noticed what looked like some baby snails in my bathroom aquarium this morning. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to check them out, but I saw what I thought were at least two different ones. I wonder if they’re offspring from one of my other snails, or possibly a tiny hitchhiker from the plant I bought last. They seemed too small to have been around since then, so I’m guessing they’re new.

I stayed pretty busy at work with a few new work orders and more phone swaps. Then I met Dale, Allen, and Gary at Kob Jai for lunch. I had the chicken pad thai, which was probably the best food I’ve ever had there, but that really isn’t saying much. The waitress asked how spicy I wanted it from 1-4. I asked for 4, and she kind of super panicked and kept trying to talk me out of it, so I finally relented after my comments about being Asian seemed to fly over her head. Turns out the level 3 spice was pretty tame.

Near the end of work, I tripped over some stuff in my office and took a pretty good spill over a pile of bad monitors. I just had to sit there for a moment to gather myself. I got both ankles and hands, so I’m sure I’ll be pretty bruised by tomorrow.

After work, I ran by Airgas and picked up a 20 pound CO₂ tank for $143. I was a bit nervous on the way home with it rolling around in the trunk, but I made it and got it unloaded into the garage. I was a little surprised how dirty the tank was for being sold as beverage-grade CO₂, but it was the only tank they had anyway. I had several packages come in all at once ranging from laundry supplies to aquarium test kits to a movie poster from Into the Spider-Verse. After unpacking everything, I hooked up the paintball refill station that had come in, and I was in business.

Unfortunately the paintball tank I filled seemed to have a pretty bad leak at the base of the pin valve, so I expect it will probably be empty by tomorrow. While I had it, I filled every single pressure-holding bottle I could find, and then ran to Walmart to try and pick up the remaining clearanced SodaStream bottles. I only grabbed two pairs the other day, and they only had one left, so I was glad I didn’t wait any longer. That brought my total bottle count to 9, plus some other glass bottles I refilled from the SodaStream bottles. I thought about just dropping the tank into one of my aquariums so the plants could use it while it leaks out, but instead decided to leave it in the freezer with the hopes that I’ll have some left tomorrow.

This all seems horribly dangerous.