Tag: work

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Workin’ Truck

I took the Murano in to Orr before work this morning for an oil change and brake fluid recall. I missed my time to catch a ride to work with Summer, so I got Zach to come pick me up. Then I took the work truck to the junior high and worked until lunch. Summer and I grabbed a quick Thanksgiving lunch in the cafeteria, and then I met everyone at the shop so our Belkin rep could take us out for Fat Daddy’s.

After lunch, I helped Gary and Zach clean a bunch of stuff out of the server room before heading back to the junior high. I got several things done to be ready for testing tomorrow, so I don’t anticipate much trouble. I am however still aggravated with another reported 25 missing headsets in my computer labs. It’s insane and unnecessary.

Orr called a couple times throughout the day. First was to ask if they could service my in-cabin air filter. I noticed some foam blowing out of my air vents over the summer, so I had them go ahead and do that. Then I got another call to say they had to order a part, and wanted to know if they could keep my car overnight. Since I agreed to that one, and Ben couldn’t let me take the other work truck home for one night, I had to get a ride home from work. Daddy to the rescue. He picked Eaddie and me up at Gardner, dropped her off for karate, then took me to the high school so I could snag Summer’s car while she was at a quiz bowl scrimmage.

I ran home to change before picking her and Autumn up, then dropped them off at Karate and the gym before heading home to do dishes so they could eat here tonight. I guess I spilled some rinsing agent in the dishwasher the last time I filled it up, so I started to get some suds leaking out of the front and had to get the carpet cleaner out to suck it all up. Once it settled down, I went to karate to see if Eaddie wanted to go shopping with me. She didn’t, so I went to the Neighborhood market for some rolls, picked Summer up from the gym, then picked the girls up from karate and headed home.

We watched the ending of Scooby-Doo while we ate the leftovers, and then the girls headed home for bed. I decided I’d rather ride the bike to work in the cold than lose an hour of sleep. Then Julie called to talk about black Friday deals, and we ended up talking for over an hour before bed. She said she was working nights for the outage and offered to take me in to work in the morning after she gets off, which worked out perfectly for me because I don’t fit into any of my leather any more.

Look, I’m a man of substance. Dorky chicks like you turn me on, too.

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Get Lost

This morning was kind of slow because Dell sent a tech out to replace a power supply for me. I didn’t want to leave the shop if he was about to give me back my machine, so I stuck around. It didn’t fix the issue though, and in the end he thought there was a problem with the CPU or motherboard, so I didn’t even get to return the computer. I read up a bit on Lanschool – just enough to remind myself that I hate things, and then went to Quiznos with Zach and Sara.

I spent the afternoon at the junior high, mostly tracking down missing peripherals in one of the labs. It’s super annoying that teachers just let the kids do whatever they want, and I’m really only support for the equipment they do have, not the equipment they don’t have. They should never have missing equipment. It’s ridiculous.

Nearing the end of the day, I finally ran an HDMI cable for Matt and hooked his docking station to his TV. I couldn’t test it without his laptop, so hopefully it works right. Then the girls and I waited for Summer to get home from her trip so we could go eat at my parents’ house. We had to run by my house for some batteries first, and then we made it for bún bò Huế. Autumn had some leftover chicken alfredo, and Mom ate some seaweed.

I had forgotten again about my Murano service tomorrow morning. I never did hear from anyone after I scheduled it online, so I’m going to be upset if they don’t get me in. I didn’t want to leave my car in the freezing rain overnight because it would slow me down even more in the morning, so I dropped the girls off at home and then came home myself to clean up and go to sleep.

Can we just donate our tiny bonus to the PAC instead?

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Miranda, the Hacker

The veterans day assembly was this morning, so we didn’t have a meeting. I wonder when the rest of us will get an assembly for getting real jobs out of high school. Without any other group projects planned, I spent my time imaging a laptop for Sheri so I could set up a docking station for her before lunch.

Kevin called me before I got out of the shop and said they thought Matt’s account had been compromised. I told him to just reset his password, and we could investigate afterward. Not even five minutes had passed before they called Heather for help. After almost no research, I found out that Matt had used a Google Form last year for computer lab issues, and though he stopped pushing it on the staff, someone else had bookmarked it and used it. This created an email from him to Miranda that she responded to, making him think someone had emailed her from his account. Somehow he felt it more likely that he was hacked than for someone to use his form again.

Crisis averted, I headed to Oakland to set up the docking station, and then met back at the shop to take a load of people to Buffalo Wild Wings. Afterward, I went back to Oakland and finished some work orders. Before I left, Sheri told me she needed help finding her circle. I had no idea what she meant until she pointed at the Start button on her old Windows 7 laptop. I got her pointed in the right direction, and taught her some two-finger gestures to use, then headed back to the shop for the end of the day.

We got to leave work 30 minutes early for the parade I wasn’t going to, so I went home and played several losing rounds of Rocket League before going to Summer’s for the evening. I grabbed some light Taco Bell on the way, and then went to bed relatively early.

Freeto Breeto

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Network of Cards

It’s a little terrifying watching Jason and Brice mess with SCCM. I’m kind of just sitting back and hoping for the best. Hearing them talk about it doesn’t inspire the same kind of confidence I get from Gary, but I guess that’s just a whole different level.

I spent most of the day at the junior high getting things done. I took a slightly early lunch with Summer since she had the afternoon off for some training. While we were at Wendy’s, Matt called her griping her out for not doing something that she definitely did. She fussed over it, and how she had covered her bases with Joe, so loudly that the lady behind us came up and said she didn’t know who Joe was, but even she was aggravated at him.

I spent the rest of the school day at the junior high before ending my day at Oakland. I finished up a few things a bit late, then went home to change before heading to Summer’s. Nick was going to pick the girls up from karate to bring them home, so I stopped by Little Caesar’s to grab a pizza for Summer and myself. We polished that off, then binged The Office until bedtime.

Only one season remains.

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Doing Things All Day Long

I spent most of the day at the shop today. It took me half of the morning to set up a Verizon hot spot for the junior high, and then Zach, Gary, and I went to Wendy’s for lunch.

When we got back, Zach warned me about a lockdown drill at the junior high, so I killed some more time in the shop chatting with Gary and learning a few things before heading over there. Then I closed out a few more work orders before heading out.

As we were getting ready to leave, Summer asked if we could pick up a TV stand from her mother’s church. Even with only a closeup picture with no context clues, I could tell there was no way we were going to get this thing into my car, so I called Allen and asked to borrow his truck. I met everyone at the church, and from there it was surprisingly easy to get the thing loaded in spite of how large and heavy it was.

We unloaded the TV stand at Summer’s house and brought it in through the back door because it was a bit easier. Her TV won’t fit in it, and it’s a bit tall to put the TV on top, but I’ve seen more ridiculous setups. It is a pretty nice stand, anyway. From there, I went to get Allen some gas before dropping off his truck with a bowl of chili that Summer made.

From there, I had to stop by Bác Vân’s house because she called saying her cable was out. She let herself get super frustrated without television and never bothered to call the cable company or me. I couldn’t figure out what went wrong, but power cycling the cable box fixed the issue. Then I ran to my house to change and headed to Summer’s for the evening.

The kids ate almost all of the chili and I was concerned at first that there wouldn’t be enough left for Summer and me, but it actually ended up being really filling. Summer, Noah, and I watched Bo Burnham’s What, and then sent everyone to bed.

I can’t believe you’d even write that!

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One Last Call for Alcohol

I spent today closing out work orders. One by one, they fell. I got hung up for a while on a phone that I’m not entirely convinced is broken, but I still don’t know how to fix it. Needs more knowledge.

Dale, Jason, and Zach were most of the way through their meals by the time I met them at Taco John’s. Then I closed out some more work orders in the afternoon. I’m back in the teens, and ready to start closing out some really old ones that I’ve left open simply due to low priority.

After work, I went home and started boiling my Antworks gel so I could fill up my ant farm again. I’d never used it before, but the ant colony in my bathroom convinced me to break it out again. I’m pretty sure I don’t have a queen, but hopefully they’ll do something and not just die overnight.

There’s always time for Jello.

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Empty the Toy Box

Allen called me early this morning wanting help hanging a touch panel, so I left Oakland and met him and Brice at the shop. They had most everything loaded up, but I caught a couple things Allen forgot before we left. Unfortunately I didn’t catch everything before we got to London, and we were missing a driver we needed for the tool box as well as the actual mount for the touch panel. To aggravate me further, traffic was utterly retarded with what little drizzle we had for rain. I was stuck behind someone going 10 miles under the speed limit on the way back to town, and then on the way back to London I kept getting stuck by people driving slowly or not paying attention and swerving or parking at green lights.

We finally got the panel hung and it started to rain a bit more. We stopped at the dumpster to throw away our trash, and then Allen backed into someone else’s truck. It wasn’t a gentle bump either. He smashed into it with a major thud. Miraculously we couldn’t see any damage to either vehicle. We figured the trailer hitch hit the tire and just stopped us cold, but I had to assume there must be some alignment issue after that hit. Allen went inside to report himself, and then we made our way back to the shop.

By that time I was so incredibly frustrated that I decided to dump both tool boxes and rebuild them from scratch. I think it took me a little over three hours, but I got all the random nonsense cleaned out and organized. It’s amazing how empty they look when they only have what they’re supposed to have in them. I finally left the shop and was going to grab some lunch, but ended up only getting some nuggets on the way to the junior high since school was almost out. I finished the day there, and even worked a couple hours late just because I wanted to get a loaner laptop set up for Tracy since her hard desktop hard drive died this morning.

Summer got some chicken grilling at her house, so I ran to Walmart to get some squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and a bell pepper to skewer, and we had a pretty great dinner. I didn’t stay long though, because I still had to set up the loaner laptop. It took me practically until bedtime, and then I headed home in the fog to go to sleep.

There’s a black cloud hanging over my head and it’s pouring down, pouring down.

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League

Jason was out today, which kind of just reinforced our lack of projects for the day. That meant I got to spend most of the morning researching high school esports so I could write a reply email to the kid that contacted me about wanting to start a league. I got really into it for a bit, and kind of hyped myself up, probably too much. I’m too much of a filthy casual to be too serious, but I love the idea of it all the same, and I feel like I know more than most anyone else that will be helping these kids out.

Gary’s birthday is coming up Sunday, so Dale wanted to take him to lunch today. We got almost everyone out to CJ’s, where we spotted a Tesla Model 3 driven by a guy Brice recognized from the plant. That was a mostly quiet and not entirely awkward lunch, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon at Oakland, babysitting an imaging computer.

Ben released us at 3 on the grounds that we could go vote if we wanted to do so. I came home and cast mine into the toilet, and came out feeling like I got more out of the ordeal. Summer came over after her workout, and eventually we went to Zaxby’s to split some dinner. It was still too much food for us, but it hit the spot. When we got home, I caught her up on my esports correspondence before wasting the rest of my evening doing nothing on the internet.

Now I’m going to have to become a history teacher.

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Sensationalism

I had a headache pretty much all day today which kind of gave me a mood, and maybe a bit of an attitude at work today.

Every time I would come through the shop this morning, Brice would be sitting in a chair doing something on his phone. I completely understand having to be babysat until his background check comes in, but I swear he didn’t even move for two hours. He can’t go anywhere near the kids without an escort, but surely there’s someone he could be shadowing or something he could be reading over while he’s sitting in the shop. Maybe I’m remembering my first week with arrogance, but I seem to remember at least trying to keep busy. Maybe he just already gets it and will jump right in once he’s cleared to do so, but that’s when he opened his mouth and said he was coming in 15 minutes early and leaving 15 minutes late every day this week to build up some comp time so he could take a day off next week.

Fucking what?!

We give Amanda enough shit over using all of her time off and having to make up overtime on the weekends to earn comp that I feel absolutely confident saying that in no damn way should this kid be cleared for coming in and sitting on his ass an extra half hour every day of his first week so he can take a day off before he’s even finished training enough to do a day’s work. I mean, we basically already paid him for six days before he started coming in to work in the first place. Did I get that? I honestly can’t even remember at this point.

I holed up at the junior high the rest of the morning and all afternoon. I simply couldn’t. I left him in the shop alone. Heather was at the front desk at least. I really don’t think anyone else was even there. That’s our fault. I offered to train him.

Summer had half of a sandwich left over, so I ate it in her room on her lunch, then sat with the girls in the library while they ate their lunch. I kept busy enough. Maybe even learned a useful thing.

After work, I took Eaddie to karate before heading home to clean up a bit. Then I picked her up and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Autumn was non-compliant. Eaddie did okay. To wrap up my mood for the day, we sat up and watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show until bedtime.

If only we were amongst friends… or sane persons!

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That Time the Superintendent Took a Shit on My Lawn

During a day of unseasonable warmth, I rode the bike to work again. I got stuck in a polar vortex of doing things for the office at the junior high, which meant I started stacking up work orders from other people. I took a quick Taco Tuesday break with Dale, Zach, Gary, and Heather, and then ran home to get a helmet for Eaddie.

Near the end of the day, Ben sent us a pretty long email basically telling us that Brice was hired on a full four steps higher than any of us were allowed to hire on, which makes him one of the highest paid techs right out of the gate. I was bothered still by his start date a full week before he actually showed up. It didn’t make me much happier to see him sitting in the shop on his phone, but I couldn’t really blame him if he was just there to follow someone else around. I would have liked to see him trying to talk to someone instead though, since he’s got a lot of ground to cover regardless of how much he knows outside of our own policies and procedures. I certainly don’t remember being on my phone a lot during my third day on the job.

Demoralized, I left whatever I had going on to take Eaddie to karate. Summer and Autumn were at a quiz bowl event in Clarksville, so she and I got to ride the bike across town. I stopped by the shop to talk to Ben for a couple minutes, running into Ryan as I pulled in. Then I went to my parents’ house for dinner and to pick up some bánh bao. Zach called a couple times and we chatted about what we should do, and how we could possibly have a productive conversation without the lesser-intelligent bringing up irrelevant nonsense or flying off the handle. We didn’t have any great ideas.

Back home, I had lost power for most of the evening, so I took the opportunity to shuffle around some battery backups. It took me most of the night to fight through everything, and I guess I’m really no better for it.

Tell me again why I can’t be a part of that positive change.