Tag: work

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Gossip Girl

I woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm this morning, to the sound of my security cameras going off from the lightning outside. I never heard it storm overnight, but it was mostly clear the rest of the day. I squeaked into work and spent about an hour answering questions before getting into much else.

I ended up going to Oakland before lunch, and then took lunch to go home and finish up some leftover grilled hotdogs from a couple weeks ago. It was actually kind of nice to have a quiet lunch to myself.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet as well, until my phone started going off with all the gossip chatter of our Facebook group chat. I never cared for the gossip, and said as much. I didn’t expect that to be particularly well received, but I wasn’t planning to hold it back either. That got Travis on the defensive the rest of the evening, but at least he quit going on and on.

I finished the day at Oakland, working a bit late to try and figure out a SMART board. I figure the controller went bad or something, so I gave up for the day and went to my parents’ house for some leftover phở. Once Eaddie was done with karate, I picked her up and we went to my house so I could change before taking her home.

Summer was winding down. Autumn came in late from after school events. I watched the schoolboard meeting just out of curiosity, but didn’t learn much other than that the general public seemed overwhelmingly in favor of spreading COVID. I had Eaddie read our group chat just to see if I was the asshole, and she finally concluded that I was, but just as I had said, that didn’t make me any less right. She just seemed to think that what I said didn’t change anything, but it did at least serve to change the direction of the conversation, which was my entire goal in the first place.

We finished the night with an episode of House before everyone made it off to sleep.

Don’t be silly. If anything, I’d be solar-lighting you.

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Hyper Extensionism

I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep last night, but this morning wasn’t too bad once I got home and ready for work. I actually made it in a few minutes early and got to settle in, then spent a good portion of the day helping others as they came through. It was a Carly Rae Jepsen kind of morning, and I was surprised to find a new album waiting for me.

Zach, Gary, and I met Greg at McAlister’s for lunch, and I struggled to get cellular data and their app to cooperate. Eventually I was able to redeem my 30-day tea pass from the free cup day Autumn and I attended, but the subscription never showed up on my account. The girl at the counter took care of me, but I’ll have to see if it shows up on my account tomorrow, or at least next month when I return for the BOGO-next-month deal. It was really the only way the $10 baked potato would be even remotely equitable.

After lunch, I tried digging into a couple of deployments that took up the rest of the day. My phone continued to ding as Travis relayed stories of things he had learned of his wicked ancestors after his mother passed recently. That continued through work and into the evening.

I stopped by the shop to see Summer briefly on the way home, then continued with my final two loads of laundry to complete t-shirts and empty out the new hamper for restructuring. I’ll be glad to get this old floral loveseat out of here. I just wish I had a better place to store my shirts.

Eggscellent.

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Going for Broke

Thomas and Gary were both out today, and Zach texted me before work to say he was getting donuts and would be late, which meant the shop was extra quiet when I got there. We all gathered for a really relaxed meeting and mostly talked off-topic for a while until a couple groups left to work on some stuff together. I was left in the shop all alone for a while, since Tammy and Kelsea both had a meeting to attend early in the day.

Everyone came back around for lunch, and we went for something completely different – Cracker Barrel. I actually thought I’d eat a pretty light meal just because I never remember getting filled with their portions, but then our waitress brought out cornbread and biscuits and gravy for us all to share. I ended up getting the Friday Fish Fry, which was a pretty good sized plate, too.

After lunch, I had to call Arvest to try and figure out why my mileage check was returned and I was charged an $8 chargeback on my account. The kid I talked to left me on hold for a really long time and then came back completely unable to help. Then I had a quick conference call with Nanoleaf to review something new before running to Oakland to finish up a couple more work orders.

On the way back to the shop, I decided to stop at the physical bank so I could talk to someone face-to-face. He found, as I sort of suspected, that the mobile check deposit had truncated a part of the check numbers, so the system couldn’t complete the transfer. Upon calling someone, they advised him not to negotiate the check because I would need a new one from the school. I argued that, since the first one was only a picture that technically had different numbers on it, then the original check I had given to him was technically a different check and should still be valid. He basically winked and slid the check back to me, and I went on to fight that another day.

When I made it back to the shop after school, I chatted with Tammy a bit until it was time to fill out time sheets and go home. I tried on some more clothes I got in and put together a new hamper, building up an intense headache along the way. That continued to radiate through my entire skull and neck all evening even as I made my way up to Summer’s. I laid in bed with her for a bit, and then got cleaned up for bed so I could crash.

Pain, pain, go away!

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Just Like Being There

I burned most of today fighting with Jazz’s lab again. I just couldn’t get those computers to run the Autodesk deployment. They either had bad cache, or just hadn’t retried the installations, and I ended up having to remote into them one by one to start the installations again. I might as well have just walked into the room and copied the software over from a flash drive.

I met Brody at CiCi’s for lunch, then continued with more of the same in the afternoon. I did get another deployment made for the same lab, but otherwise I didn’t get up to much else. The only thing I felt really good about today was sending something to Gary with a useful suggestion, and then finding out that he actually implemented some changes. Hopefully now we’ll have a bit more clarity when some of our automation scripts don’t work as expected.

After work, I went home to change and then went to visit with Mom. The pool had a bunch more sediment in it again, so I spent quite a while trying to research their new pump model and how it should be set to better filter their water.

When I finally got home, I picked up a little bit but didn’t really get deep into anything. I struggled to wind down very well in spite of how little I slept last night, so hopefully tomorrow isn’t too much of a drag.

I never liked only having one speaker of the house. That’s why I’m always shopping for more.

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What kind of overalls does Mario wear?

I took the car to work today on a whim, and out of nowhere we had a downpour in the afternoon. It wouldn’t have mattered though, since it only rained briefly while I was inside, and everything was basically dry by the time I left.

Jacob spent some time asking questions in my office first thing in the morning, which lasted for much longer than I expected. It went on for so long that my calendar alert went off and reminded me of the CPPC meeting I had completely forgotten about. I ran across the street not really knowing what to expect, but the meeting went pretty well. Judy was mostly running the show again, and had the second draft of the salary schedule ready for us to review. We went through all the columns, or at least by department, and discussed what changes were made and why. I got the impression that almost everyone felt like they were getting a good raise, but it surely won’t be that way. I just don’t know who all is being cut.

The meeting carried on until just before lunch time, and I took Gary and Zach to BFD where we all got the same Lizard Lunch. Evidently I was charged double for the addition of fajita vegetables, which highlights the glaring inconsistency we get there since I never see the owner any more.

The afternoon went by more slowly as I struggled with Autodesk some more. I hardly saw anyone else the rest of the day, except for a brief moment when Thomas came back to ask for help. I was excited to flex my knowledge for him until I realized he just wanted help moving furniture. Kelsea got a new desk delivered from Burris, which must have cost a fortune because we bought it from Burris.

I left a bit late to go home and change. I had to chase Bác Vân down to find a package that was delivered and then scooped up by her and Doug. Then I went to my parents’ house to help vacuum the pool. It was so humid that I was juste absolutely drenched in sweat through the whole process. Mom continued to direct my work while I did my best to ignore her through my earbuds. It was all just sediment that never got stirred up, so I think the new pump just needs to be turned up higher.

After I finished the pool, we went in to clean up some leftovers. Then I got the pump running again and added some shock to the water before heading home. I thought it was going to be a quick night to bed, but Old Navy had me trying on pants and shopping for more deals before I could sleep. The problem with buying all of your jeans at the same time is that they all wear out at the same time.

Denim denim denim!

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Stop Buying Things You Don’t Need

I went straight to Oakland this morning for the first time this year, and got in just a little late. It felt warmer and more humid all day, which had me looking for an escape from my mask more often. I feel like the buildings need to be showing some solidarity with so many people stuck in them all day long without a break.

After running around a while and fixing what I could, I ended up back at the shop until lunch. I didn’t have a whole lot of really pressing stuff to work on, so it was finally a bit more relaxed. Our new guy, Jacob, has started reaching out with questions, but it’s a little odd since I haven’t really worked with him at all yet. He’s always just at the junior high by himself.

I went home for lunch and had some more leftovers, then took some to Summer since she wouldn’t get out for a break. Then it was back to Oakland for a bit longer. As I pulled up, Darla was unloading a big printer from her car, so I helped her bring it into the library. I don’t think she should be allowed to buy those things with any kind of district funds, since she’s one brick wall away from a giant copier, and across the hall from a multifunction color printer. There’s just nobody filtering that kind of stuff from happening, so we’re left stuck trying to decide how much we’ll support it. Imagine that, a lack of accountability.

I ended the day back at the shop, and it was just as quiet as it had been all day. I went home and just stayed in for the night. I was going to go vacuum the pool for my parents, but I thought it was going to rain. It certainly looked that way on the ride home. I guess that’ll be a job for tomorrow then.

But I waaaant it.

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WOOWOO

You just haven’t lived until you’ve been wooped by a big black guy riding a bicycle as you zip past on your Grom. He may have been making fun, but I chose to interpret it as encouraging excitement for how much fun I was having. The weather was much more mellow today, so aside from some time in a mask in the afternoon, it felt pretty good out.

I worked on some stuff at the shop until a group of us went to La Chiquita for lunch. The carnitas were smaller than I remembered, but I was still stuffed. It was nowhere near as much as Gary’s giant prime rib burrito.

After lunch, I went straight to Oakland for a while to close out, or at least investigate as much as I could for closing on the next trip. A large part of that time was spent in the library shuffling through damaged or failing Chromebooks. As the end of the school day approached, I was run off again, and I returned to the shop for the remainder of the day.

When I left work, I stopped by Casey’s for a free drink, then went by the shop to try and see Summer again. She had been in the pit all day, so all I could see at lunch was the top of her head when I stopped by. They were still busy, so I went on home to change.

I took the Grom back out to go see Mom for a bit. She was insistent that I pick up some potato salad that we left when we cooked out for Labor Day. Julie called while I was there, and we chatted for a little bit. Then I eventually made it back home for the evening.

Uno Uno Uno!

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Deadlines

The crew had a little training meeting this morning, but I just stayed in my office and continued working on my Autodesk deployment. It took me all morning, but I finally got the idea to build it on a non-domain computer so AppLocker wouldn’t keep interfering.

Kyle was the first one to ask me about lunch today, and suggested Ridgewood Brothers before we walked out and learned that the rest of the crew was going out to London. The joke was on them though, because the weather was cool enough, and the line was short enough that we were actually in and out faster than they were. Even Josh joined us at a picnic table there.

After lunch, I had to run across the street to help Judy for a bit. Then a little while later, Zach, Greg, and I went to Oakland to install a touch panel. When we got back to the shop, I finished up my deployment and just hoped that it would work over the weekend as intended.

I ran by Superfast to see Summer for a bit, then went home for a few hours before making it up to her house. She was already watching TV in bed, so I laid down with her for a few minutes before going back out to watch House with Eaddie for a while until she couldn’t stay awake any longer.

Well that’s one way to get rid of a character…

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Manualdesk

My entire day was eaten alive by a surprisingly uncooperative Autodesk Inventor deployment. There’s no reason that software these kids are using should be over 10 gigs. It took forever to download, extract, build a deployment package, and then finally incorporate that into Configuration Manager. I even stayed a couple hours late, but for whatever reason it just wouldn’t install. My only break was a lunch trip to Bocadillo for a beef chimichanga with Zach and Gary.

It would have been one thing to fight and test different things all day, but this took all day to build, and then didn’t actually start failing until the end of the day. I just wanted to shoot myself. Unfortunately I couldn’t even get it to install manually on a single device, so Monday’s deadline for such a massive deployment is no good.

At least apple pie is almost in season again.

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Wild Bus Chase

Today was a little bit weird. I spent all morning chasing my tail trying to fix something that appeared to not be an issue. I tried to go light for the day, so I had half a Soylent for breakfast and then the half grilled chicken salad at Brangus for lunch. My only saving grace was the pile of peanuts I ate, but then I spent all afternoon smelling like an elephant.

I made it back to Oakland for a bit before school let out and closed up what I could. Then they chased me out as they got ready for dismissal. The shop cleared out really fast, and I left to get some gas into the Shadow. I was never certain, but I was pretty sure the main tank died on me as I pulled into Brangus, and I didn’t want to risk running out.

When I got home, I dug out all of the old pairs of jeans I could find since the ones I’ve been wearing had all worn out and started to critically fail. None of the stiff ones I just received fit even a little bit, so they’ll probably all go back.

Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for the evening. They got home just after I got there, and then I sat and ate a bowl of roast by myself because they were all preoccupied. Afterward, Summer and Autumn went to bed and Eaddie and I watched several episodes of House. Rewatching the whole series, it’s uncanny how I let it shape my late 20s.

Saving lives is just collateral damage.