Tag: work

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Badges?

Teachers were back, which meant breakfast and lunch was provided at work today. I got there a couple minutes early and made a plate to take back to my office. There was no way I could have done anything important, because I had visitors all day long. I made an ID badge or two, and suddenly word got out and a I practically had a line of people wanting their picture taken. We’re almost out of RFID tags too, so I’ll leave it up to the next guy to figure out what to order.

We had El or La Something for lunch, which was pretty good. There was a mountain of chips and salsa left, but it all got cleaned up before Kim or I could go back for more. We had our fill though, and I made it through the end of the day with more food than I’d had at work since probably last year.

Just before I left, I snagged “Possum” on his way out the door, and mentioned my grief with the superintendent. I raised the concern about lost devices and how I had been wronged, and he basically said he just does whatever the superintendent or board president want. What’s the point of being on the board if you don’t use your own thoughts and considerations?

I made it to the old house to take care of the fish, and then got home to check on the dogs. Summer took them in for castrations this morning, so they were still drowsy when I got there. Muad’Dib was hiding under the shallow part of the porch where Chani died, which only had me a little nervous. He came out and let me feed him a little bit by hand, and I pet them for a while before going in to eat some leftovers for dinner.

When I came back out later, the dogs were feeling well enough for a walk, so I took them to my parents’ house. They did really well, but Stilgar kept getting distracted and wanted to do his own thing. Muad’Dib was the one that was feeling more affected by the drugs anyway. We made it back home and I ran a bath for Stilgar, because Summer didn’t tell me that he wasn’t supposed to get wet for a week or two.

I gave the dogs lots of attention until bedtime, and then I actually made it to bed on time, fairly exhausted. I haven’t even had the energy to do any more job searching since last week, so hopefully one of the leads I have now will lead somewhere.

You don’t need no stinking badges!

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Unintegritous

I ran a little late this morning, guilt-free. I even got a burrito on the way in. Good vibes only.

My morning was eaten up by people stopping by the office, and about a thousand phone calls from Denice. She seemed unsympathetic when I finally told her it was the next guy’s problem. Then I spent the afternoon packing up most of the rest of my things. I even had the maintenance guys smile at the cameras while I carried out a Dell box full of my crap, just to have some evidence that I wasn’t stealing anything.

When I came back in from the car, they mentioned that they were having a called board meeting tonight, so I ended up sticking around for that. It was pretty quick, with an unshared agenda and a motion to pass it all. Among those things, were staff changes, and then one specific item that they did call out, which was a flat pay rate of $50,000 for the Technology Coordinator position. Of course, before that was the recommendation to hire the guy from Western Yell County School District. I had no say in the matter.

The best I could do was one-up them on integrity once more. After they concluded the meeting, I waved to the president of the board and thanked him for the opportunity to serve his district. He came over to shake my hand, and I mentioned expressing a desire to speak with them prior to all of this. He went on about a military background that dictated he should follow the recommendations of their superintendent.

Afterward, I had Harry sign my timesheets for July, and he apologized and spoke words of validation for my feeling slighted. Then he basically blamed it on the board in saying that he couldn’t tell me what happened in executive session, or tell me what he was “directed” to do. Everyone’s pointing at someone else, and they’re all guilty of being idiots.

In the end, I asked what he wanted from me, and Harry said I could continue working on into the first couple weeks that their new guy starts. He acted as though he was helping me out, and even offered to write me a glowing recommendation for my exemplary professionalism against all odds. I’ll even get paid at the new hourly rate for the $50,000 stepless salary that the new guy is getting. Bully for me.

I went home, fed the fish, and picked up some fries from Arby’s and a sandwich from KFC since Eaddie brought home pizza, but not enough for me. Then I wanted to take the dogs out for a therapy run, but they were on the absolute worst behavior they’ve ever shown me. They were both constantly pulling on the leash, and Stilgar was constantly running in circles around the stop signs, getting tangled up. I kept having to kick him back around the correct direction. The coup de grâce was when I had to stop and pick up the third poop of the night, and Stilgar pulled on the leash and tangled me up enough that I dragged it across the open bag of poop. From then on, they were dragged behind me on a short leash all the way home. From now on, it’ll be short leash discipline runs until they straighten out.

I’ve had it up to here.

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Three Blind Eyes

Today was a short day at work. I got in and immediately started tinkering with the router’s VLAN settings. I thought I had some of it figured out, and connected to a guest network, and even got the captive portal working for guests. That was when things started to break. For some reason, all of the access points dropped off of management, and a couple of the custodians came in to harass me about the wireless being broken. I was able to get everything back to “normal” again, and then sent a long email to the superintendents informing them of some changes and the fact that I was leaving after lunch.

Summer got home before I did so she could get ready, and once I got home we loaded up for a trip to Rogers. We stopped for a snack and charge in Ozark, and then got to the Walmart Amp where we had dinner at Chuy’s just down the block. This ended up being perfect parking for the concert. It wasn’t much more of a walk than we usually make, but there weren’t any hills or stairs to climb.

Arizona was an odd band. I thought I might like them, but the more they played, the less I was into it. Yellowcard was my favorite. I got one of their shirts. The girls both got Third Eye Blind shirts. Eaddie really liked their part of the concert. They put on a great show, but I didn’t know most of their songs.

After the show, we actually got out super quickly and hit the interstate without stopping in any traffic at all. We did have to stop and charge in Lowell and again in Ozark because I misunderstood what the app was trying to to tell me, but we got home without any trouble. The dogs were sad and staring in the back door when we walked in, so I fed them but had to get to sleep.

Smile big for everyone, even though you know what they done.

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Rogue Tech

It was kind of a weird and quiet day at work, feeling like I’m caught in limbo with zero oversight and literally no administration present. I’ve been a little bit concerned, or at least cautious after being told that people might have tried to throw me under the bus somehow, but I’m really working on my own terms right now. I could potentially even rack up a bunch of overtime and they would be stuck paying for it. I did see where Samuel had logged in to some of our systems, and given the lack of trust I have for Todd, I don’t really know what to think. I’d left his accounts active just because I wasn’t sure if I was sticking around, but he really has no business in my stuff while I’m there.

I’ve sent a steady flow of applications out, and gotten a few automatic rejection letters. I think only one of them was from a place I was excited about, but there haven’t been too many exciting places either. Other than that, my biggest accomplishment was getting my USG-Pro-4 to successfully re-adopt to my network. Now I’ve just got to figure out how the heck to configure the VLANs for it again without breaking everything else in the process.

Summer made shredded chicken tacos for dinner, so I fed the fish and stopped by the Neighborhood Market again for some slaw mix. It wasn’t really necessary because I think I was the main person to eat any of it. The kids were being numbskulls, so I stepped out with the dogs and a beer while they ate. After I came in to eat, they went out to walk the dogs. Noah disappeared to the guest room after Summer upset him when she pressed him to apply for jobs making more than minimum wage. We’re not running a charity, but she hasn’t told him that to his face.

When Eaddie and Eli got back from walking the dogs, they said Muad’Dib still had some energy, so I took him for a run on the Onewheel to my parents’ house. I picked up some baking dishes from them, and then took a long route back. By then the dogs were pretty tuckered out and quiet for the rest of the night. I wrapped up as quickly as I could, and then it was off to bed.

I’d walk with my people, if I could find them.

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Conspiratorial

I ran a little late to work, but who cares? Muad’Dib lost his collar, but I couldn’t crawl under the deck to get it until I got home from work.

I kept pretty busy, and even ran down to the elementary building a couple of times. Jill came through and was about as helpful as usual. Todd passed through and was uncharacteristically quiet. Becky stopped in and behaved cryptically, suggesting that I had been thrown under the bus somehow. I don’t even know what they could have against me, but given the lack of response I’ve had during my entire time there, and the behavior I had already witnessed, I’m not going to fight to stay for the same rate of pay. I made my stand clear to everyone, for better or worse.

I must have fifty applications out in the wild by now, and Indeed makes it so easy to apply to a dozen more every day. There have been a few that got me properly excited, but still the vast majority have been remote. I’ll need to clean up my office space for that to work.

I left a little late after fighting my USG-Pro-4 again. Summer chopped the leftover rotisserie chicken up with some fruit and stuff, and wanted me to pick up some more lettuce. I fed the fish and then ran through the Neighborhood Market on the way home. Eli was there to eat with us, and then we sent him and Eaddie out to walk the dogs. Evidently they ran into Noah on the way out, so they all went together.

I followed up with some more applications, and pressed Noah to apply for a custodial position at the school. I’d do anything to get him out of here.

Appreciation in lieu of compensation, but sometimes not even that.

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Other Directions

I thought today might be an okay day. I got to work and made myself a coffee, and was able to assemble my knowledge and choose a direction for my big networking project. Then things started to get gross. Around lunchtime, Blake found me in my office and told me they were going to go in another direction with the Technology Coordinator position. He didn’t have any real answers or even useful adages. He just said they weren’t going to keep me. At that point, he didn’t even know whether I was supposed to pack my things right then and there, or if I was supposed to keep working until the next Coordinator of the Week showed up. He did know that they already had someone picked for the job, by way of Western Yell County School District, but he didn’t know when he was slated to start.

We talked briefly to no end, and then I spent the rest of the day applying for every job I was even remotely qualified to take, almost all of which were more than twice the salary. I’d already missed my best opportunity for the moment in Morrilton, so all I could do is hunt through what was left. Nothing local, for certain.

I talked to Summer, Johnny, Brody, Kim, and Ben on the phone throughout the afternoon. Ben, as usual, probably had the best advice. Brody, on the other hand, was the only one with an actual job to fill. It would be a slight pay cut, but only if I’m still working by that time.

I eventually headed home without packing too much stuff out of the office. I fed the fish and then went to get Summer for dinner. Eaddie had already eaten, and Noah needed her to pick him up across town. I’m so sick of hearing from that kid, sweating on my couch all night, burning in my television, holding a savings of three hundred dollars toward buying a working vehicle since he burned up his truck.

Summer and I went to Peg Leg for some burgers. Based on our first impression from walking in the door, it was not going to be a good experience. It was a dingy establishment with an oscillating fan in the dining room, a television playing Christian music on Sirius XM, and literally zero other customers. That was when things took a sudden turn. Our server accurately guessed both of our burger choices, and forty bucks later, we were really impressed. Takeout would probably be a better deal so we wouldn’t have to tip, but the burgers were fantastic. Way more gourmet than the Gunslingin Burger across town, and with fewer creepy people inside.

After we ate, we headed home and I took the dogs for a run to my parents’ house. When we got back to the house from our extended route, Muad’Dib still wanted some more. I ended up taking him out on a solo run, and we finished the day with nearly three miles on the board. Hopefully that will keep them quiet tonight.

Summer was in bed long before I got settled in, because I had to wait for Noah to finish his laundry before I could get to mine. Eaddie chatted with me a little bit about a band opportunity, and I applied for Brody’s open position in Clarksville. I may not like it now, but I drew my line in the sand. The lesson is that integrity shown is seldom reciprocated.

Blame is better to give than receive.

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Subgetting

I ended up taking some Nyquil last night, and luckily I slept it off by this morning. It was super quiet at work all day and it seemed like everyone was either gone or busy somewhere else on campus. I finally replaced Harry’s computer while he was gone, but otherwise I mostly documented my existing subnets for future planning. It may just be a matter of going through all of the switches to make sure everything is configured correctly.

I left just a couple minutes early and picked up some stuff from the old house, then got home just before Noah got there. I took the dogs for a quick run on the Onewheel, where I ran into Tasha who apparently lives just a few blocks away by Alisha. We stopped to see my parents and then headed back home so I could put out the trash and recycling.

Once Summer got home, she wanted to take them out again. She wasn’t hungry and Eaddie wasn’t home, so I went to Taco Bell for a quiet dinner. I was still a little hungry when I left, so I stopped and grabbed some sauced nuggets from Wendy’s, which weren’t great. The sauce was mostly just oil, and I didn’t love them. They were surprisingly spicy though.

It had started to pour down rain while I was at Wendy’s, but settled down a bit by the time I made it home. I played with the dogs on the porch some more while everyone else settled in. Then I maxed out my Amazon Vine orders again and headed to bed.

“Free”

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Classless

I had a pretty rough start this morning in spite of sleeping reasonably well. Luckily, Gary let me stop by to pick up some tech tubs they were going to throw away, so I had an excuse to roll in late. Surprisingly, Greg was the first one I saw as he was headed to the support services building. I got a big hug from him, and then Gary showed up to let me into the graveyard. Zach didn’t respond to my text right away, so he showed up as we were carrying things to the car. Then Thomas and Tammy showed up to work, and Ryan made a brief appearance but didn’t say much.

After I got everything loaded up, I actually ran into Greg again on his way back to the office and we talked for a little while. He said pretty much everyone has been on pins and needles, but figured the regime should start to change as the school board rotates out later this year. I gave him a ride around the block back to the office, and then headed on to work.

Once I got everything unloaded, I treated myself to a leftover biscuit and some coffee, and then got to learning more about subnets. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever not understood while also completely understanding it. That was my whole day, just getting sidetracked from RADIUS setup, to VLANs versus subnets, to understanding IP addressing.

I headed home a little early with a rumble in my belly, and fed the fish before getting home. Summer and Noah were home, but Eaddie was at a hair appointment. I cleaned up the kitchen a bit, and was aggravated further by Noah’s helping himself to Summer’s beer. I finally got them both to sit down in the kitchen to express my desire to be helpful but not abused. I asked him not to help himself to the beer, and within five minutes he helped himself to a soda. Message not received. I was further upset when Summer walked out and started playing with the dogs mid-sentence. They were causing a racket, but that wasn’t for her to resolve with play.

I took the dogs for a walk to my parents’ house, and was drenched with sweat. It was pretty miserable, and the dogs didn’t behave well for most of the walk, but I kept them on shorter leashes on the way home and they did a little better. It seems training needs to happen all around.

I spent some time feeding them when we got home, and Noah came out with what was presumably a peace-keeping request for help building a budget. In reality, his finances are so simple that he could have produced one in the time it took me to feed the dogs, but somehow it’s now my responsibility to write the numbers down for him. I settled in with a glass of Crown and got ready for bed.

Behave accordingly.

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I’m Free!

I was a little late this morning after having trouble sleeping all night and getting a slow start in the morning. I went ahead and stopped for a biscuit anyway, since I got hungry on the drive. I was out of the office more than usual after I got a call that Dean was printing to the check printer in the business office, so I had to go visit Nicky and then him to see what had happened.

I brought lunch, but didn’t touch it because I never got very hungry in the middle of the day. I snacked a little bit, but I just never wanted a meal. I actually tried to focus on my RADIUS project in the afternoon, but was discouraged by dynamic IPs everywhere.

After work, I went to feed the fish and found the anti-dog spray at the old house, so I took it home and sprayed all of my grill stuff on the porch. I wished I had it earlier, but the damage is done to my cardboard box. Summer was home early and had already walked the dogs, but we played with them a little more since I got some new stuff from Amazon Vine for them.

Eaddie had gone out of town with Eli’s family, so Summer and I decided to go out to Stoby’s for dinner. We encountered Noah walking toward the house as we drove off, so we stopped to check on him. Then we ate in a pretty quiet restaurant with questionable quality. It wasn’t the worst I’d had, but I wasn’t impressed by the chicken fried steak.

After we ate, we headed back home and I took the dogs for another quick run on the Onewheel. I couldn’t get Muad’Dib to wear the harness I got him, but Stilgar wore it without too much fuss. Then he enjoyed eating out of the slow feeder enough that he took off with it and left it out in the yard.

I tried to wind down quickly on account of a headache that had been growing since the late afternoon. I don’t know what’s been causing them, but they’re just relentless.

Pump up the jam!

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Dirty Volunteer Work

Burger King has been knocking it out of the park with their biscuits lately. The sausage has been pretty good, and even the hashbrowns haven’t been awful. I’ve always kind of liked their coffee. I got to work just as the boys club started walking in, and then I spent several hours trying to figure out an issue with our food service application that really should have been resolved with a proper rollup.

At some point I finally made some progress with setting up a RADIUS server, but then I discovered that the board meeting was tonight. In anticipation for a reasonable salary, I decided to stay for that, and it was an incredible waste of time. Nobody said a word to me until I asked Jill if I needed to work next week. She just shrugged and said I didn’t have a contract, so she couldn’t pay me. Next week, Harry will be at a retreat with the board, so there’s just me, being angry and unpaid until who-knows-when.

Being Julie’s birthday, the family decided to take her to Brick Oven. The girls went with them, and I showed up late and ate some of their leftovers before we left. Eaddie wanted to go to the store to get dog food, so Summer took the Model Y home while I went to Walmart with her. We stopped by the old house to feed the fish, and then shopped for a bit before heading home.

It was super dark when we got home, so I took the dogs out for a walk on foot. I let them roam at the end of the leash, and they were pulling pretty hard the whole time. I’m upset that I don’t have any one-on-one time to do any real training, but I just feel like I don’t have time for anything. Summer was asleep by the time we got back in, so I fumed for a bit and went to bed late.

What a pissant.