Tag: work

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Pinafore Your Thoughts?

We started out today, as we’re often wont to do, with a racist remark and story from Allen. That guy’s got more than a screw loose. We didn’t have any group projects, but Jason hasn’t really gone out of his way to make up anything, which Zach was super proud to do during his moment in the sun. I spent the morning wiping computers to sell and chatting in the library. Eight of us met at Brangus for lunch, and most of us made it back in time afterward. Allen and Jason t-boned some lady that tried to make a turn across traffic at a yellow light, so they were behind by like half an hour. We half jokingly wondered how long it would put them both out of work even though everyone was fine afterward.

I spent just a half a moment at Oakland to make a delivery, but left after they brought a couple cops in to supervise a couple crazy parents. They were short handed anyway, so the extra craziness was just a little much for me. Ben came out of his office and back to the shop area to chat with me for quite a while after everyone else had gone. It’s looking like I’ll be making a move this summer, so I really need to pick and choose what I want out of my office now while I still can.

When I got home, I found that I had received an unmarked, hand-addressed mailer with no return address on it. Inside was a white apron with my name embroidered above a flowery heart. Tracking shows it originated in Pottsville, but I couldn’t find anyone that would own up to it. Perhaps more investigative work will follow, but for tonight I was happy with a little mystery. Summer came over to shower and then went to pick up some Taco Villa while I tried out the new electric mower. The grass wasn’t very tall yet, so it didn’t have any trouble covering the front and back yards. I’m sure it’ll be a different story once we’re in full swing, but again, for tonight I was happy with what I had.

My sinuses had been at me all day, and mowing didn’t help. I coughed up what I could before sitting down to eat with Summer, and then we ended the night with an episode of Battlestar Galactica.

That’s why it’s called hay fever!

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Autumn in April

It felt quite a bit cooler today with clouds and wind pretty much all day long. It really felt like fall again, which was pretty nice after having a couple hotter days. I just can’t wait for the summer heat to roll in and make everything miserable. I didn’t really have anything going on at work, so I spent pretty much all day cleaning up. I met Zach, Gary, and Ben at Morellos for lunch, and then continued on with the same all afternoon.

After work, I came home and messed around with the fish, then put one of my electric lawn mowers together. It took me a lot longer than it really needed to because I read all of the instructions and maintenance guides. I’d like to keep it really clean, but we’ll see how long that lasts. I put the battery on the charger for tomorrow after work since it’ll be cooler.

Can I retire yet?

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I Have Reservations About This

It was more bike weather today. I started off at the shop and got to spend some time in a room with Gary, and I felt smarter for it. I hope I’ll have some time to hang out with him over summer projects, because there’s still so much I want to learn. The trick is to be around for his projects and not the busy work that I normally get assigned to because I’m actually willing to work.

When I finally left the shop, I spent some time at Oakland taking care of a few things before heading back to go to Chick-fil-A for lunch. It tasted better than average, but it was still expensive. I’ll take a deal at Wendy’s over full price at Chick-fil-A every day of the week.

I spent the afternoon at the junior high trying to clean up a bit, but I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished. I did get to flex my math skills a bit by using known component measurements to find the unknown angle of a TV that Jessica wanted to mount outside the library. After that, I got to use Google Assistant with Duplex to make a dinner reservation at Pasta Grill for Mom’s birthday. The assistant asked everything from how many people were coming, to what name and contact number she should give the restaurant. Ronda said it seemed like it would have been faster just to call myself, but she missed the whole point of not having to talk to people myself. A robot did all the work for me. The only thing it lacked was a transcript or recording of the call. I would have loved to hear the transaction. About 15 minutes later, I got the notification and an email that my reservation was confirmed!

I finished up at the shop, enrolling the Chromebits Jessica got for her TVs. Then I ran home to clean up for dinner. Summer and the kids beat me there since I stopped for gas, and then we headed to Pasta Grill.

Julie beat us there and confirmed that the reservation was made. I couldn’t find anyone that knew anything about the call, so I guess I’ll have to try again when Erica is working. I’m glad it worked, but I want to experience the other end of it so badly. I’m such a nerd.

After dinner, I came home and started some laundry while I messed with the fish a bit. I don’t want to move Blue since she’s built a bubble nest and is actually floating her eggs, but I did get some snails moved to the kitchen. I want to clean up the 55-gallon, but I’ve got too many other things I need to do this weekend. I’ve felt exhausted for a few weeks now though, and summer is only going to make it worse with the heat. I just have anxiety about feeling behind all the time now.

Too many things!

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Updating….

It’s felt unseasonably warm this week, which gave me some extra time on the bike. Unfortunately it’s all been spent at work. I started out at the junior high making sure esports were updated and set up appropriately after doing some re-imaging. Then I discovered that my Chromebook from Oakland would update automatically from the junior high’s network. That lead me back to Oakland to test some devices, which ultimately lead to Gary finding we were breaking updates with SSL inspection. Evidently we weren’t inspecting traffic at the junior high for some reason. At least it was a relatively easy fix, and we discovered it only halfway through manually updating all of my carts.

Gary and Zach went to lunch at Taco John’s with me, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of a few more things at Oakland before going to the junior high for esports. Matt emailed me again about the hours I’m putting and expect to put into them, so I stopped by his office to chat about it. I’m really just trying to get as large of a stipend as I can, since I know it’ll be hell trying to get it increased after the fact.

The kids were super rowdy this afternoon, and I couldn’t ever really figure out why. I had everything from kids screaming, to one kid singing uncontrollably about communism. It really had me reconsidering things for a moment. At least they all left pretty quickly after practice was over, and I could be on my way.

I tried cleaning up the cat box when I got home, but something was wrong with the control unit and it refused to do anything at all. I fought it for a bit, but couldn’t find any help at all online. I’ll probably have to just crack it open to try and find anything wrong with the controller, because the bottom half seems mechanically sound.

As soon as the girls got out of karate, I went to pick them up and headed to their house for dinner. Summer went straight home to get things ready, and we made some really delicious ham sammies. I took the “everything” French bread I picked up over the weekend and sliced it in half the long way before covering it with mayo and broiling it until just browned. Then I covered that with shredded cheese and broiled it again. Summer fried up some fancy ham and had veggies sliced up and ready to go. The avocado was annoying, and I probably should have skipped it for my own lack of appreciation. Mine was too messy to photograph, and a picture really wouldn’t have done it justice anyway. We’ve enjoyed making dinner this way.

I headed straight home after dinner to finish cleaning and reassembling the cat box. I also started a load of laundry and paid a couple bills. Still playing catch-up though. I’ve got to make this time up somewhere.

If I had a little money…

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Number Crunching

We weren’t expecting rain today, but I wasn’t going out on the bike after those early morning storms. I managed to get quite a bit done before lunch, so I was feeling good. I met Zach and Allen at Arby’s and saw Erika there. My King’s Hawaiian Sweet & Spicy Luau Chicken sandwich was way messier than I expected, and I felt like the flavor of the ham really overpowered the chicken, which otherwise would have been really tasty by itself.

After lunch, Gary helped me wipe a few carts worth of Chromebooks at Oakland. I didn’t originally think of it, but many of them are going to be returned on a lease this year, so it may not have been completely necessary. I still felt better having them updated though. Our little $1500 box for mass enrollment seemed less good than I imagined it, but I suppose for a one-man show, it would help.

Once school let out, I spent some time trying to estimate how many hours I’ll need to put into esports to really make the program what I want it to be. Matt said he was trying to get me paid, so I had to really dig in. The end goal is to come up with a position overseeing it, but not coaching every day. Only time will tell what really happens though.

I didn’t have much time to clean up at home before I had to run to Summer’s for dinner. We made some pork fried rice out of some leftover pork chops she grilled. I mostly just chopped up vegetables. It was really good, and afterward the girls wanted to watch some TV, but I had to run to take care of my own chores.

Back home, I started some laundry and got my taxes put together. I ended up with a net payment of $37, which was pretty damn close. I call that a win.

Occupation: Spy

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Getting High and Talking About Our Feelings

We had a meeting this morning, and Zach kind of took over with a CPPC vote. The board approved a new position for an Assistant Technical Director for the Center for the Arts, and they’re trying to approve a pay scale that’s significantly higher than ours. In fact, it would be a raise for most everyone in our department. As usual, I felt the need to be contrary and convince everyone to vote against approving the pay scale. There was another issue regarding creating a new pay scale for another existing employee, which I also lead the charge to decline. Later we found that every other department except the nurses voted against, presumably because they don’t feel the “classified squeeze.”

Jason came in about an hour late and met me at Oakland to try and trace back some speaker wires. I’ve had a work order open for just over a year to work on these speakers, and I was happy to finally get some help to wrap it up. I love using the lift, and I didn’t mind terribly much to be the one up and down the ladder the whole time. He did seem to question my plan and process quite a bit, but I questioned them myself anyway, so even that wasn’t too bad. We got about halfway through the project before breaking for lunch.

He didn’t want CJ’s, but Dale, Zach, and Gary came out just as we got to the shop, so we left to go eat. There was a bit of a line when we got there, but that was only the start. We got our orders placed relatively quickly, but being last, my order got held up waiting for fries. It was about that time that a bus full of high school girls pulled up and unloaded on us. Brice showed up just after they all finished lining up, so he ultimately had to get his order to go. I got my food so late that I had to scarf it down pretty quickly, which didn’t settle too well and left me gurgling the rest of the day.

After lunch, Gary helped me finish up the sound system, but we were still only using the wall speakers and had removed the ceiling speakers. I knew I’d want to come back to reconnect everything, but they literally started having an awards assembly while we were on the stage, so we slid out the side exit and headed back to the shop. I stuck around for a while there before going to the junior high to take care of a couple things. I didn’t get a whole lot done though, because it seemed like most of the teachers even beat the kids out of the building.

I went back to Oakland to finish cleaning up from our morning there, and finally got everything hooked up to my satisfaction. I hate that it’s not a true stereo sound setup, with only a mono amp, but it still sounds way better than before. Luckily I also remembered to get the serial number off of the projector before I left.

I got home from work late, and Summer dropped Eaddie off with me while she went to the gym. Autumn had a band event, followed by a church lock-in, so it was just the three of us for the night. Eaddie watched Supergirl while I worked on the aquariums. Then we went to their house where Summer beat us to grilling the pork chops and making fresh mashed potatoes. She didn’t feel super swell though, and went straight to bed with a headache after dinner. Eaddie went to her room to practice her flute and then likewise went to bed early, leaving me alone with the internet. I took the time to chat with Google Fi for a while about Summer’s Travel on Fi promotion, and got her case escalated so she can get her promo gift card.

Executive Director and Game Master of Esports, Emperor Supreme of All History, and Assistant Technical Director for the Center for the Arts

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Reverse Midas Touch

It lightly rained most of the day today, but I spent it all inside at the junior high. I was going to wrap up a bunch of work orders, but I ended up spending a while in the front office because everything I touched just broke even worse. I started with a printer connectivity issue and ended up replacing the whole computer.

I met Allen and Zach at Firehouse for lunch. They wanted to go to CJ’s first, but said there was a line out the door. I’ll never really understand why that place gets so busy when it rains. Or even when it’s dry. It’s just a mediocre hamburger.

At the end of the day, I took Eaddie to karate before getting Autumn a subway sandwich before going to her band event. I didn’t want her to eat in the car, and she didn’t want to eat in the park because of all the homeless and drug dealers, so we went back to the shop and I had her eat in the break room. Once she was done, we picked Katie up and I dropped them off at the Performing Arts Center. I ran home for just a minute before picking Eaddie up at karate and going to my parents’ house.

Mom made mango soup, which had Eaddie squiggly with excitement. Summer met us there after her workout. After we ate, she went to get Autumn, and I went home for the evening.

Some men like to hear – to hear the cannonball roarin’!

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Evasive Tax Form

The weather was supposed to be nice again today, but it was still super cold on the bike in the morning. I went back and forth between Oakland and the shop a few times trying to fix some issues before testing season arrives. It was still a mostly mellow morning though. I did run into Michael, who asked about borrowing my home theater speakers for a Dancing Through the Decades dance in a couple weeks. I just didn’t feel comfortable loading them up and bringing them out for use in public though.

I met Zach and Allen at Morellos for lunch, where I vowed to eat too many chips. I had been hungry all morning, and I absolutely loaded myself with fajitas and chips. Allen left us super early as usual, and Zach and I both still got to the shop separately, and well before our lunch hour was over. I really don’t know what his anxiety is about.

I tried to get some tablets reset at the junior high before school let out, but I didn’t get them all done before Jason wanted Brice and me to help Amanda mount a touch panel. At first I thought we were all four going to be there, but evidently he helped Amanda deliver the touch panel, and we were to swap it with a previously mounted television and then bring that back to the shop. I got pretty annoyed at Brice, because Jason emailed us early in the morning with a scheduled time of 3:00, so I left my tablets unfinished to meet at the shop. Brice took an extra 30 minutes to get there, and then we still had to drive to the middle school. On top of that, Gary seemed to be bored at the shop, and Ben was going to be at the middle school to continue his walkthrough. It just felt like everyone was either already there or available to help, and I was annoyed that I couldn’t get my work done. It didn’t help that I was mad at myself for forgetting to complete a work order yesterday, but I really didn’t get any heads-up for that one anyway.

After work, I came home to gather some things before going to Lowe’s to hunt down some light bulbs. I didn’t even see a compatible LED like I’ve been getting from Walmart, but they had one single-pack incandescent for a little more than the LEDs cost. Hopefully it won’t burn out after just a couple days though. I wish I knew what the problem was. I went ahead and picked up a new fluorescent bulb for the 35 gallon bow-front tank as well since it’s been out for years. There were only a couple cashiers, and after waiting in line for quite a while, my guy couldn’t scan a gift card correctly and I ended up getting out of line to check the balance. Once I confirmed what I knew, I got back into the next shortest line and checked out without incident.

I finally made it up to Summer’s for just a spot of dinner and to visit. They had already eaten since I was still a bit full from lunch anyway. Summer and I went to the other room to talk about her offer from the shop, and I tried to help her calculate the value of her time. It really could go either way, depending on her negotiation. The best part is just that she has multiple options for now and in the future, so I tend not to fret too much over her choice. I spent a bit of time trying to buy tickets for Shazam, but had to give up after I met a hidden order limit that required a call to guest services to explain.

Eventually I headed back home for the evening and tried to take care of the aquariums a bit. Once that was done, I spent the rest of the night cleaning with the purpose of finding my W-2. I just couldn’t find it anywhere, and I started to get really aggravated. I felt good about getting so much stuff cleaned up and thrown out, but I was going crazy not remembering where I had put it. Eventually I found it in the living room, but didn’t have enough time to actually file my taxes. I guess there’s still tomorrow.

At least I got my watch shipped off.

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Self Promoting

Gary and I chatted for a while this morning, reminiscing about the days of olde. I missed not getting to see Mitch when he came to town. He said they all went to Robert and Grant’s barbecue truck to see what they had, and that it was the best barbecue he had ever had. It got me thinking and wondering, and even made me a little sad to think back to that earlier time.

Dad texted Mom and me asking for a ride home from St. Mary’s after they had doped him up and told him not to drive. I got him home and then went to the junior high for a bit before lunch. Allen was really craving chicken, so we went to KFC for lunch, and then I went back to the shop to talk with Gary some more about how to block the kids from accessing porn on the school devices. Those kids are so crafty about it, and some of the things they do are pretty creative. I guess I just can’t imagine them living in today’s world without access to that kind of thing everywhere else, and it makes me wonder why they’d do it at school.

Eventually I made it back to the junior high for esports. Rachel and Josh came by to get a few quote from some kids and take some more pictures. Josh even staged a little artistic photo as well with a mix of someone’s Razer headphones, a VicTsing mouse, and my Monoprice mechanical keyboard. At the end of the day, I accidentally remotely restarted three computers that were being used to play a winning game, and I felt really bad for causing the team to lose an otherwise winning match. They gave me some grief over it, but they seemed to brush it all off in the end since it was really time to go anyway.

I went home for a bit to clean up, and then went to Summer’s for the evening. She prepped some more veggies and I made another awesome pizza since the girls went out with their dad. Then I spent the rest of the night playing some Overwatch with Johnny, Jack, Aaron, and Clint. It was nice to have so many people on, and I was surprised at how late they all stayed on. Must’ve been kismet.

The Executive Director of Esports, Game Master, and Emperor Supreme does not 1v1 a bruh!
The Executive Director of Esports, Game Master, and Emperor Supreme sends his Legions to dispatch his opponents!

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Subway++

I didn’t think I had much going on this morning, but we eventually discovered that I wasn’t getting work order emails properly again. I bounced between campuses in the morning to take care of some older things, including discarding a cart full of netbooks so I could repurpose the cart in the library. Then I met Allen for lunch at the Subway in the old Darrell’s building. He had suggested Subway, and I was curious about their other offerings. I got boneless wings and made it a combo with two bread sticks and a drink. The food tasted cheap, but I paid $9 for the meal. They did have a mini Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, but it had a weird lever that had a really poor tactile response. The inside of the restaurant was actually really nice though. I haven’t tried their pasta, but so far I can’t recommend anything but the Subway for their corporate-y goodness. What I had tasted like frozen gas station food.

The afternoon was partly spent catching up on newer work orders that flooded in after the Web Help Desk reset. Ben came by at the end of the school day and tested out LanSchool for Chromebooks in my APUSH class. To make a long story short, it was absolutely terrible. The limitation of features and the ease of a student making it annoying for a teacher trying to keep tabs on them were just too much. Another hard “no” from me.

I went home after work and spent a little time with the fish before heading to Summer’s for dinner. She had a roast in the slow cooker all day, and the girls ate in front of the TV while we sat at the table. Summer spent some time doing school work while I read up on the Travel on Fi comment thread on SlickDeals. Wednesday will be the 90th day since her phone activation, so I’m getting really antsy about getting the $799 travel gift card. I’m really doubting she gets it automatically, and I kind of dread having to contact Fi about it. They’ve always been pretty decent, but it’s just annoying.

And I still have to do my taxes…