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Ghost Office

I had a really bad start this morning and ended up getting to work about ten minutes later than usual. Fortunately I didn’t feel too sick after that, so the day went fine. Janice and Tyler were the only two upstairs, and Tyler ended up leaving at noon, so things were super quiet all day. I talked to him early in the morning and showed him the animated dashboard I made, and then he shared his with me so I could try and get it onto a server for remote access.

I ate some more of the leftover beans and rice with the others for lunch, and then it was an even quieter afternoon when Janice left a couple hours early. I had been fighting traffic all week long, so I made sure to leave right on time to try and get home quickly. That was only marginally successful after getting stuck behind a couple super slow groups.

I started to take Muad’Dib on a run, but we just did the block and then came back to see Summer arrive. She went in for a bath and we continued on our usual run. Lots of people were out doing stuff for Halloween, which was neat. We visited my parents, and Mom made me a little bowl of spaghetti squash with beef jerky.

We made it home before dark and I cleaned up my mess from the tire change. I should have started a load of laundry, but I completely forgot until super late. That kept me up a couple hours past when I wanted to go to bed, but I needed my Halloween shirt.

Legend of Collection

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BandwAIgon

I didn’t think I slept as poorly last night, but I woke up and couldn’t keep my eyes open. I just wanted to pass right back out. I got up and crawled around, but it was a struggle to get out the door. FSD worked the whole way in, and I don’t know if it’s due to cooler weather or just luck, but it still has me nervous.

Things were fairly quiet at work. I messed with PRTG some more, and finally figured out the limitations I was fighting. I didn’t feel great leading up to lunch, but I persevered. It actually got pretty late and I never saw anyone going for food, so I went to make a plate for myself and then everyone else walked in right behind me. We still have a lot of leftovers, but most of the meat was gone. I had a good plate though, and there’ll still be more tomorrow.

By the afternoon, I had to jump on the ChatGPT bandwagon to see what it could do for me. I decided to push it for an animated dashboard that could read my SNMP data directly instead of relying on PRTG, and it actually built something that looked really nice. That was when I realized that Tyler had been using ChatGPT to build his entire dashboard. That made me feel like a bit of an ass for coming up behind him to do this, but the graphical representation of the mix tanks was pretty cool.

Things were fairly quiet when we left. Traffic could have been worse, but the offramp was clear. We got home and I got right to work putting the tire on my Onewheel. I thought I might pre-patch it, but ended up just running with what I had. I figured if anything got past the cord, I’d be in trouble anyway. It was mostly difficult to install because I didn’t have a proper workbench, but I got the thing together after Summer got home. She made herself some dinner as I finished up, and then I ate some before going for a ride.

Julie wanted to come get some banneton baskets that I had around, so I did a test lap to figure out what tire pressure I wanted. She and Kevin showed up and she picked up her stuff while we were just coming back around the block. Then we did a proper run with a great feeling Lil Duro. It held air and felt about as nimble as my stock GT-S tire. Something must have been up, because I just barely missed three different toads in the middle of the street.

We visited my parents and then came back home to get ready for bed. Vine was dropping some pretty hot stuff, like Samsung gaming monitors and a full size E-bike, but I had sleep to catch up on.

!four eye toaD

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Please Advise

I woke up in the middle of the night with a racing mind that kept me up for a while. At another point I was dreaming a bit. When I finally got up, I was super tired and couldn’t get things moving. I crawled around and finally got into the shower. Summer had a call-in, so she had to get up to go to work as well. We made it in, but I was highly frustrated by the intermittent nature of my failing repeater camera. I drove most of the way, and I can’t even remember if it actually died on the way in.

Things were pretty quiet with the training happening off-site. I finally got a resolution on a couple issues I sent to Ashton, and it ended up being SSL/TLS inspection by the Sophos EDR. I let Tyler know, and then ended up spending much of the day tinkering in PRTG again.

I also finally got a response on our check printer, and it seemed as though the bank would allow mobile deposits, but Tammy indicated that someone at the parent company didn’t want that. I kicked an email back to them to express my own desires, but never heard back.

I just happened to walk by downstairs to find the ladies eating leftovers, so I sat down to eat too. Then it was an even quieter afternoon until quitting time. Traffic was incredibly stupid, with people locking up the passing lane with variable speed, unwilling to accelerate to pass quickly. It wasn’t until well after Atkins that I broke through, and then ended up getting caught in the wrong lane to get directly home.

We eventually made it, and I decided to dig right into the Onewheel tire replacement. I got the wheel off before Summer got home, and then had to clean up the hub while she ate. I later decided to try and patch the inside of the tire just in case the spot they circled became an issue. I’ll have to go by and get some kind of patching material tomorrow.

After giving up on the tire for the night, I ate a couple brats. Then Muad’Dib was anxious for a run, so we went straight to my parents’ house and back. I got cleaned up and cleaned out while Summer went to sleep, and eventually got to bed myself.

Respectfully,

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Black Magic Box

Full Self Driving has been failing so early that I’ve been afraid to use it, so I drove myself to work and back today. We arrived and jumped right back into the tasks I had yesterday, but didn’t really feel well accomplished for anything. I continued to get new things from the guys as they were there, and I was able to fix some dumb things, but our check scanner still wouldn’t work.

Fairly early in the day, the guys were out on break while I was downstairs, so Muad’Dib and I went outside to chat with a couple of them. I ended up getting the Pint out of my trunk and let the three of them try it. Kaleb had tried one before, and took off down the road like it was nothing. Eric did okay, but ended up having to bail. Greg had a harder time, but he was also exceptionally large for a board that size.

Summer was going to stop in to have lunch with me, but as time approached, it seemed like I would be too busy to leave around that time. I ended up staying and working on some things, and then just happened to run into the girls while they were eating leftover Colton’s downstairs.

After eating, I ran back and forth some more, fighting one puzzle after another, feeling busy, but never satisfied. Shane wanted me to sit in on an AI presentation from Greg, but then forgot too let me know when they started. I caught the tail end of it just to hear him talk about how Sam Altman says we’re going to reach AGI soon, and I just don’t know if I’ll ever convince any of these guys that they need to slow down and act with some real intention with this stuff. They’re chasing that exponential growth again, and I just don’t think it’s going to happen like this.

We ended up leaving a little late, and I was frustrated to see that my camera never died on the drive home, even after I had driven it all myself. We ran into heavy traffic as we got close to home, so we got off early and ran into even more. Summer was heading out on a run just as we got home, so I took care of Vine packages. Eaddie walked in and talked to me for a bit while I did that, and then we picked through some leftovers when Summer made it back.

That pushed my run with Muad’Dib long into darkness, but we had a good run. I still desperately miss my GT-S, so I think replacing my wheel is non-negotiable for this weekend. We visited my parents and then came home to do some reviews and get ready for bed.

🙄

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100k Dog

I tried to get out of the house a little early today since we had the whole sales team in town from all over the country. I didn’t get out as early as I would have liked, but we weren’t really needed anyway. Full Self Driving failed on the drive in, which was surprising given the cool air and lack of sun. It’s pretty upsetting that one bad camera kills so many of the safety features of the car.

It wasn’t long before I started to get busy. From looking at a television to see a cable was plugged into HDMI 1, and then to an inability to upload attachments to ChatGPT. The second one ran me around a little bit, but I think I narrowed it down to our Sophos endpoint protection.

Later on, I had to help Amanda with her check scanner, but this time I could never get it working. I was down there for most of the afternoon, failing to resolve the issue. No driver or service changes helped, and my last guess was an issue with old, improperly or unsigned drivers. I’ll have to pick up on that again tomorrow.

I had a break in the middle of that to eat some leftover catered fajitas with Janice, Elizabeth, and Amanda. Then we got to chatting about our UPS invoice process, and though I understand a desire to confirm quotes to invoices, I’m still not sure of the best way to do so.

Late in the afternoon while I was still downstairs, Kaleb came down and started playing with Muad’Dib in the floor. He asked if I’d take $50,000 for my dog, and said he was a good dog that would be worth it. Then he asked if I’d take $100,000. My initial thought at 50 was that I’d have to think about it. By the time he got to $100, I had decided that even that amount of money wouldn’t make any meaningful difference in my day to day life, and I’d rather have my good boy.

I drove the entire way home, since Full Self Driving was likely to fail immediately. We got home and left on our run since Summer had to close. Muad’Dib did really well, and then we stopped at my parents’ house to eat. Mom had shrimp soup planned, so I called Summer to stop by on her way home. We ate, and then she left while I visited with Dad as he and Muad’Dib finished eating. Then we made it home in the dark.

It was too late to do much else, but I put away my new Vine stuff as I got ready for bed.

Besides, you can’t even say his name!

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Four Outta Five

I woke up surprisingly early this morning. Muad’Dib must have gotten hot or something, because he slept in his own bed all night. Of course he came and laid in my spot as soon as I got up, though. I had several things I wanted to accomplish, and overall I guess I did more than I expected. First up was grilling pork chops at my parents’ house for a noodle lunch. Summer eventually got up and went to the gym, so I started some laundry and got cleaned up and ready to go.

Summer was later getting back than I expected, so I was headed out the door when she finally showed up. Muad’Dib and I went over to get the charcoal started. Dad got home from church, and Summer eventually made it over with some brats to grill, after also receiving some surprise ribs from Autumn and her father. It felt like it took longer to make our bowls and eat than it did to cook.

After lunch, we headed back home and I folded my laundry and took care of a bunch of Vine deliveries before taking my car to the wash. The first stall I tried was awful, so I moved and found a really good one, except for a lack of wax. After that, I went to Splash for a vacuum before heading back home. I considered starting my Onewheel tire replacement, but it was getting later already and Muad’Dib needed a proper run. We did our full course pretty quickly, saw my parents, and then saw Mason and his family out walking and biking. I let him try the Pint X, and then we made it home just before dark.

I started Muad’Dib’s bandanas in the washing machine and then gave him a good vacuum brushing before his bath. He was reasonably accommodating for the really long bath and extra long drying. I should have vacuumed him again before giving him some cologne, because his hair was just damp enough to stick to my hand when I rubbed it in. He felt really soft and fluffy afterward though, and of course he smelled way better.

I wrapped up just about on time for bed, still without a new tire on my GT S, and the plants were looking awfully thirsty, but we’ll give it another try tomorrow.

Everyone’s thirsty.

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The Pawling Station

I slept long and hard today while Summer woke up long before dawn to get to Conway in time for the City of Colleges 10k. She made it home as I was getting through my morning routine. Eaddie had just gotten home from house sitting, and wanted Summer to go vote with her. After some back and forth, they decided they wanted to get lunch before going to go vote, but the kids had a sorority meeting first. Summer and I had a little time to get ready, then met them at Olive Garden.

My biggest problem with Olive Garden has always been the price for the quantity of food, but I think my problem was that I didn’t realize I could get unlimited soup. Unlimited salad is much less appealing, but their soups aren’t bad. I got a couple bowls with my Tour of Italy, and the then I get some salad too, since that’s what the others ordered. I don’t know if I’m technically not supposed to eat any, but the servers never seem to care that I eat both. I was happy enough with my meal, but I still would have liked some more meat to it.

Afterward, we went to the election headquarters. We parked a little ways away, but as soon as I let Muad’Dib out of the car, he ran up to the building, walked down the veranda, and then right in the open door as though he had been voting all his life. Luckily I had his e-collar on, so I buzzed him to come back. He did so reluctantly, but I don’t blame him for wanting to be heard.

The kids came along, and Summer took them in to vote. While we waited outside, one of the guys working asked about Muad’Dib and suggested that he might somehow have one of his sisters. He said they had the exact same eyes, were about the same age, and had the same build. Then he pulled out his phone and showed me a very light brown-colored dog that, to me, looked nothing like Muad’Dib. The pictures were pretty bad, to be fair, and didn’t show her eyes at all. After that, we all went across to Block City to check out the flea market. I was surprised at how many of them were just selling Amazon junk, and it seemed like a good way to get rid of some of my stuff, but I also didn’t want to pay rent on something like that.

We didn’t stay very long, because I hit a brick wall and felt a gurgle and a wave of exhaustion that lasted all afternoon. I didn’t get to start my Onewheel tire replacement, but I absolutely had to do some laundry. We lounged around a bit since I didn’t feel well enough to start a project with Summer. After a while, I tried to lay down on the couch with Summer, and Muad’Dib started pawing at me incessantly. He just sat there, staring at me wide-eyed until I agreed to take him for a run. We had walked the last couple days, so I took him for a pretty good, late run on the Pint X. We stopped to see my parents briefly, then made it home so he could go to bed with Summer. I was up a little late still not feeling the best, but I tried not to get too distracted.

Take it to the limit!

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100mph Donut

I had a better start today, but still ran a little late. We must not have been as late as the guy that passed me going 100 with an emergency donut instead of a proper rear-left tire. It was a wonder it didn’t blow up in the middle of a mass amount of traffic as we approached Morrilton. We made it in and stayed pretty busy all day.

I brought a couple wireless cameras to test on the line, so Tyler and I went out to see if they would work that close to the machinery. They actually worked perfectly, and I discovered my little security camera would work on a battery pack. I figured if something under $50 would work, we could replace it 20 times for the cost of doing it the “right” way.

We went to Sonic for lunch, and I tried combining my Sprite and my strawberry and peanut butter sundae into a float. It tasted fine, but the peanut butter was surprisingly overpowering. Things got really quiet in the afternoon. I spent some time talking to Tammy and Janice about Elizabeth’s needs for processing UPS invoices, and I think I’ve pretty well decided that it’s completely unnecessary. Then I had to help Teisha with the breakroom digital signage because it wouldn’t connect again.

All of that made the afternoon go by pretty quickly. As much as I dug into the network project, I didn’t feel confident enough in my settings change to build out anything new. I couldn’t even get printing working across the internal wireless network because I didn’t understand how zones worked with networks, which somehow weren’t subnets.

I did a quick rearranging of the office before everyone shows up for training on Monday, and then we left. We hadn’t been on the Interstate long when my left repeater camera died again. This was much earlier than usual, even though I had parked with it away from the sun again. We made it home pretty quickly through some mad traffic, and I cleaned up to take Muad’Dib on his walk.

Summer got home just before we left, and seemed to be feeling much better. She stayed home to prep for a race in the early morning, and Muad’Dib and I walked to my parents’ house for dinner. I finished up the eggplant soup and stayed through some persimmon pudding with Dad. Then we headed home in the dark again.

Summer was up surprisingly late, but I got tired surprisingly early. A big Vine drop started after being pretty dead all day, but I left to lay down with Summer for a little bit just to rest. Eventually I had to get up to wrap up my usual end of day, but then it was back to bed a little early for a Friday.

No game.

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TPS Reports

I had a surprisingly bad start this morning, so we got to work a little later than usual. FSD worked again, so I planned to park away from the sun in the afternoon to see if that would resolve my camera issue going home. Elizabeth finally hit me up to look at her shipping reports, but didn’t tell me when she would have time, so I kind of sat on standby waiting for that most of the day.

Scott wanted to get some cameras on the line for the guys to see lay lines from their stations further down the line. He, Tyler, and I walked over to check it out, and I tried to look up some options for that. I try to walk the line between what’s cheap and what’s the right way to do things, and I think I find myself going cheap too often, but then again, he wanted to get a multipack of wireless cameras from Amazon.

I finally got to sit down with Elizabeth for a little bit, and then we went to Taco Bell for a really light lunch. I ended up having to go to McDonald’s for some fries on the way back to work. The afternoon was fairly short thanks to a little time in David’s office, and then more birthday cake for Scott. We had some good laughs and I felt a little more involved this time.

The drive home was uninterrupted, likely thanks to my alternative parking. We stopped by the election commission office to vote, then cruised on home to find Summer skipping her Arkansas Tech Career Center meeting because of an ongoing tummy ache. Muad’Dib and I walked to my parents’ house again for dinner. Along the way we ran into Stan, because that’s his name, walking the neighborhood again. He wanted to stop and chat and for some reason give me a handshake into a shoulder pat again. I brought up my Fiero, so maybe one day I’ll seriously approach him to see if he wants to take a stab at it. I don’t know how good he is, but he’s always working on lawn mowers, and a Fiero’s basically the same thing, right?

We finally got to my parents and I had some more eggplant soup. I think one more serving and it’ll be gone. We didn’t stay long since it was dark, but we had a good walk back. Summer was in bed, so I cleaned up a bit and got a few things together for work before bed.

Well, ship.

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Single Points of Failure

My left repeater camera and full self driving worked on thee way to work today, which made me think it might have been heat or some other issue with the direct sunlight on the drive home yesterday. We made it to work without incident though, and I hoped it was just a fluke. I felt good about the amount of information I covered today, and I’m definitely reaching diminishing returns before I need to take action.

We went to Wendy’s a little early for lunch since I knew we had birthday cake for Joel in the afternoon. The parking lot and drive-through lines were both packed when we got there, and there was a school bus in the adjacent parking lot to boot. I parked out in a distant part of the lot and found my way in, but it was about half people eating in the dining room, and the other half were just people waiting to go since they presumably didn’t want to wait in the drive-through. The staff made quick work of it though, and mobile ordering had my food out pretty quickly.

I let Muad’Dib run the block when we got back, and we worked for a bit before cake time. That’s a tradition I hope someone carries on when Janice retires, because it’s nice to get everyone in the office together for a moment of harassment and storytelling. It also made the afternoon go by a bit faster.

On the way home, at almost the exact same spot, my camera went out again. I felt better prepared for it though, and we continued straight home driving with my own two hands. When we got there, Eli’s car was parked in my way. I called him to move his car, and his response was that he had left and was on the way to something else. Fortunately he left his keys, so I moved it and got parked.

Summer was at the gym, and it was nice out, so I decided to take Muad’Dib for an acoustic walk. I figured I drove myself today, so I might as well walk myself too. We went straight to my parents’ house and ended up staying for some eggplant soup. Summer texted me on the drive home that she was hungry, but evidently that was just an informative text and not an expression of a desire to eat with me. Mom gave me a bunch more basil, so we left for home after that.

I took out the trash and cleaned up quickly, then got to work picking more basil leaves before I could blend it all into some Thai basil pesto. This time I found some walnuts, which I thought added a really nice flavor to the cashews and peanuts that were already in there. It took me a couple hours to finish it, but I thought it was my best batch yet. Summer just felt that it was too strong. I guess I’m the only one that appreciates flavor around here.

I get no letters in the mail.