Tag: work

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Switch Things Up

I got in to work a couple minutes late this morning after traffic was backed up a quarter mile up Fairway. I have no idea what was going on, but we actually cleared through the intersection relatively quickly. As I suspected, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of conversation about work going on. When we finally did split up, I volunteered to help Zach and Amanda hang a TV for the resource officers at the high school.

I ended up hurting my leg just barely above my right ankle when I tripped over a rolling chair. Zach caught me and kept me from face planting, and luckily the damage didn’t seem to be on my ankle itself, but it definitely sat me down for a little bit. We finally got the TV hung though, and then went to the field house to help Ben, Allen, and Brice remove a bunch of old equipment before they renovate the place.

Gary, Heather, and I went to a new Latino restaurant called Zona K-Tracha that was super good. Gary had most of a 14-inch burrito that looked amazing. My fajitas were great, and it was probably the first time I’ve eaten at a place that had a noticeably different flavor of seasoning in their meat. I was a little disappointed by the quantity of vegetables in my fajitas, but the flip side was that I had a lot of meat instead. The restaurant had more of a polish than most of the others in town, which made it that much stranger to see so many mistakes or inconsistencies in the nicely made menus. It just made me want to fix it all for them.

After lunch, I went to the junior high to take care of a few things. Summer was out at a meeting all day and didn’t get back until around the time I finished working. When she did finally show up, she took Autumn and I took Eaddie home with me for a couple hours. My Blue Yeti shock mount and my Switch screen protectors came in, so I spent my time setting those up while Eaddie watched her last episode of Arrow.

Eventually we loaded everything up and headed to Summer’s for dinner. She made some chicken breasts encrusted with French onions, along with a mixture of some vegetables and some mashed potatoes. I think Eaddie ate more than all of us, but she just couldn’t behave at the table and kept aggravating everyone. After we ate, Summer frustrated herself even further trying to peel some hard boiled eggs, and I had to make her take a break for a bit.

I tried downloading some games to the Switch, and got a few things going that we could do, but Autumn was so tired that she went to bed early, and Eaddie eventually got dishes done, then played computer games until bedtime. Summer and I finally got the eggs peeled and deviled, and it was off to bed with her. The storm riled her up for a little while, but for the most part it was over pretty quickly.

Of course it’s 70 degrees outside with a thunderstorm and tornado warning. Why wouldn’t it be, on the first day of December?

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Would you mind holding for two to three hours while my system updates?

I spent my entire morning trying to create Chromebook recovery drives for five out-of-date devices at Oakland. I didn’t crack it until right before lunch, so I got one device done and two more started.

Allen and I went to KFC for lunch, where we ran into an old coworker of his that we invited to eat with us. Right at the end of lunch I remembered the esports presentation that I wanted to attend with some EAST kids, so I dropped Allen off and headed straight to the junior high to meet up with Summer.

I was lead to believe that at least one of them would be an excellent public speaker, but they were all so nervous they sounded like they wanted to throw up. I remembered being exactly that way in school though, since I didn’t really learn how to communicate with organic humans until my mid-20s. It was probably more disappointing that they didn’t seem to take any of Summer’s advice at all about their presentation. She and I kind of took over for a little bit of it, and I think it really helped to build the picture for Matt. Hopefully this goes well when he brings it up with the athletics director.

After that, I ran around and finished a few things I had at the junior high, and then stayed late to finish up the last two Chromebooks at Oakland before heading home. I didn’t really have anything else going on for the evening since the girls had a late night.

At least I didn’t spend any more money.

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Afternoon Social

I stopped by the shop this morning for some help with LanSchool. Ben pointed me at a couple things that I missed, but in the end it didn’t matter because my setup was already working and I just didn’t know it.

My FedEx package came in just before lunch, so I headed home then to get it. I grabbed some Burger King nuggets on the way so I could have them with leftover mashed potatoes for lunch. While I was home, I saw an article that Project Fi is rebranding to Google Fi, and opening the doors to other previously incompatible phones. They also changed their (ultimately) half-off Pixel 3 promotion for a full-price Pixel 3 with an equal-value travel gift card, plus a $100 referral credit. I had to stop and think about that one for a while.

I didn’t really do anything after lunch, except sit and socialize with Gary. It was mostly work-related chat though, and I got some more insight into the inner machinations of the technology hive mind. I spent a little more time chatting with Ben, then bounced around until the work day was over.

From there, I headed straight home to bring the Nintendo Switches inside, that had been delivered a couple hours earlier. At least the UPS guy delivered them to the front door. FedEx only rang my doorbell after he saw my note requesting it. I still have screen protectors on the way, so unfortunately they’ll have to stay in the boxes until those arrive.

When Summer finished at the gym, I headed over to pick everyone up, and we went to CiCi’s for dinner. Noah and Eaddie wanted to go to PetSmart with me, but Autumn had homework, and Summer had exactly what you would expect to have after an evening at CiCi’s, so we compromised and went straight home for the evening.

To wrap up the evening, Summer agreed that signing up for Google Fi would be her best option right now, so I sent the referral, checked the credit, paid sales tax on a phone, and now we’re playing the waiting game. I’m so jelly.

What’s the deal, yo?

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What are the Chances

Janie freaked out this morning when all of her desktop icons weren’t available on the new computer I set up for her yesterday, so I spent the first couple hours of my day setting it back up for her. It actually went pretty well though, and I think overall it helped improve our working relationship anyway, which is something that hasn’t come as easily for me at the junior high.

I got onto a little bit of a roll and didn’t take lunch until about an hour late, and then just grabbed some super cheap Wendy’s to take back to my office. Kevin came in for some help recovering files from an old laptop while I ate. Then I hit a brick wall after lunch and just wanted to sleep.

Somehow I survived the afternoon, and dropped the girls off at karate on the way home. As I checked my mail, I happened to pick up a FedEx door tag up out of my front lawn by the street, and though it was completely blank and didn’t look like it was for me, something still drove me to look up the number. Sure enough, it was for me. I wish I could get those guys to ring my damn doorbell. It doesn’t do me any good to have a video doorbell if they never even get that close to the house before they turn and run.

I warmed up some leftovers and had a pretty crummy dinner, then headed to Summer’s for the evening. A call in to FedEx proved useless, so I’ll have to figure out a way to get the door tag to stick on my garage or something in the morning.

Why do I feel weird about accepting a free cheese dip after all that?

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Tough Pill

Just after I fell asleep, I was woken up by a call from someone looking for pills. It took me a little while to fall asleep after that nonsense, but I managed. I seem to remember having a few weird dreams though.

We didn’t really have any group projects today, but Ben wanted to go over some phone documentation with me so I’d have a clue what’s going on. Nobody else is at all interested, and I’m still trying to sponge up everything I can. Brain to marshmallow fluff, that got me almost to lunch.

Dale, Zach, Jason, and I went to Morelos for lunch. That made two days of Mexican in a row, but it was good. I had the chili verde lunch special, and it was awesome even if I missed having the salad extras they include with fajitas.

I spent the afternoon at Oakland fixing a few things, but mostly socializing before everyone left for Thanksgiving break. Then I wrapped up with about half an hour at the shop with everyone before we left a little early.

Once home, I had a couple beers and watched my Rocket League solo rank drop some more. Seriously, those silvers are pulling off some crazy moves. I feel like things have changed since I last played competitive solo very much. It wasn’t too long before Summer was home and wanted me to pick up some chicken strips for dinner, so I ran by KFC on the way up, and we wrapped up the night with an episode of Stranger Things, followed by a couple odder episodes of The Office.

Huggy time!

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Ensurance Racket

I had to babysit more testing today, but it was more of the same not needing me. I left a little early to go to the shop and sign up for some supplemental insurance. I avoided the $400/year dental plan, but opted in to the Luxottica vision monopoly. I figure for a year’s worth of payments, I can renew my prescription and get some new glasses and contacts, and then cancel again.

Gary, Heather, and I went to Las Palmas for lunch, and then I went back to the junior high to finish up a few things. I didn’t make it to Oakland like I wanted because Summer wanted me to run Autumn home. We stopped to get her some Wendy’s on the way, and I came home and had some leftover ham and stuff.

The rest of the evening was pretty well wasted in the cold, but at least I won’t have to fight the frost in the morning.

What a pianist!

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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.