Friday, August 31, 2018

Y10 D97

Long, but okay day yesterday. I left here pretty early because I wasn't sure where I was going or where to park. That's always a tricky one with stuff like this. There's no visitor lot and two out of the three places they said were okay to park in turned out to be by monthly pass only. I ended up parking in a garage which turned out to be cash only but then it was so late when I left, there was no one manning the gate and I ended up leaving without paying because the arm was up. I don't expect the same 'luck' today because it's only a half day.

Did two sessions with 25 people in each session. For the most part the groups were engaged, fun to work with, and no real issues. I had two of my co-workers there for support including my boss and things went off without a hitch. I am hoping for the same thing today. We have one more session of another 25 people.

After class we walked to their hotel where I left my stuff. Then we went to Roy's for dinner. Oh man dinner was good. I had their Classic Four which included Hibachi Grilled Atlantic Salmon, Misoyaki “Butterfish”, Blackened Island Ahi, and a Roasted Macadamia Nut Mahi Mahi. Shit was good. Some of the best fish I have had in a while. I was quite pleased. For dessert, pineapple upside down cake. We went through two bottles of wine, of which I had 1 1/2 glasses. That was the tough part for me. I could have easily sat there drinking more, but no. I still had to drive and get back here. So nope. When I left my coworkers they were heading back out for round two. I can't wait to see what shape to 40 year olds who don't go out any more will be looking like today. Me? I'm fine thank you very much.

It was about a 40 minute drive back to the hotel and I didn't get back here until almost 9. I was full and tired and was in bed by 9:45. 

Last day then head home tomorrow morning.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Y10 D96

Whoever designed this room is an idiot. They put the cabinet with the fridge and other stuff right in front of the path of the AC unit. It completely blocks all the air coming out. I am so tempted to rearrange the furniture in this room. If I were staying longer, I would definitely do it. People don't think sometimes. I hate humans.

Speaking of humans I hate, I nearly lost my shit in class yesterday. 10 people and 3 were keeping up and actually deserved to be in there. The rest of them just were causing my blood to boil. I dislike these people. I have been bitching about them since our first interaction back in March (April?). They need to go away.

Got back to the hotel around 4:45, had dinner, relaxed, went to bed.

Now today and tomorrow I have to drive to Pasadena and do joint workshops with sales and marketing people. Just stab me in the eye with a sharp stick. With the number of people that are going to be there, I have no idea WHY I am going to be there. They don't need me. I could just go home. But that would be logical.

The only upside to all this is I get to go to Roy's for dinner tonight. The company will suck, but the food will be good (hopefully).

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Y10 D95

What a day. I was so on edge all day without my phone. I did get things sort of resolved despite roadblock after roadblock. First I tried using google's chat support line. Explained what was up and after troubleshooting a bunch of things, they decided it was definitely hardware and told me to contact Best Buy. They have a 24 hour chat as well. That person told me I would have to come into store where they would attempt to fix it. I was a bit dubious on this as it is a sealed phone. I was finally able to talk to someone at the store at lunch who essentially told me the exact opposite of what chat person told me. No, they don't do any in store repairs and given the age of the phone, it would have to go back to Google. I then tried to figure out how to call google. They do not make that part easy, let me tell you. I finally got a number and called them at break and at 2pm got an RMA number to send it back. Assuming no issues, 5-10 business days from them receiving it, I should get a replacement phone in the mail. Thank goodness. After class, I found a FedEx and a Walmart. FedEx to send the old phone back, and Walmart to get a temp phone. For the record, don't call them burners at Walmart. They don't like that term. They are 'pre-paid family phones'. Sure, okay. I have a little baby phone with a 3gb plan for 30 days. It is slow, the screen is too small, but it's a phone and I once more have gps, text, email, alarms, etc. It will last me until I get my real phone back. I set it up with a new phone number too just to make sure there were no issues.

I did all of that by the way, while teaching a class of 12 people. I know that I let too much of my personal drama enter the classroom yesterday but it was a big deal for me. I needed resolution dammit. I did manage to get through class. There are two students who don't belong in the class unfortunately and we are way behind as a result. That part sucks. I am hoping to make it back up today. We shall see.

All of the above took me until 7pm when I finally got back to the hotel. Luckily they brought in pizza for lunch and I was able to take some slices back with me. It wasn't the best dinner, but it was dinner. It took me until 9 to get this phone configured after which I went to bed.

Day two with this group today then three separate workshops the rest of the week filled with sales and marketing people. Oh boy.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Y10 D94

I am extremely stressed out this morning. My phone is dead. Not like battery dead or anything simple. No like it's a fucking brick that won't respond to anything. Dead. Useless. Big black shiny piece of nothing. I cannot function on the road without a phone. I need to text/call clients. I need to get maps. I need to reach B. I need my boarding pass. I NEED AN ALARM IN THE MORNING. I kept waking up every hour because I was so stressed out I wouldn't hear the tiny alarm clock in this room. This is some grade a fucked up shit right now. I bought the phone 12/6 so it is still under warranty, but how are they going to handle it? Are they going to swap it? Are they going to try and send it in? I won't know any of this until 5pm when I can leave the client and get to the nearest Best Buy. It's just a little too far to go at lunch too. Especially in the traffic down here. I can't make it there and back. There is no damage to the phone so they better cover it under warranty. I am not in a position to buy a second phone. $1600 for two phones is not going to be on the plate today. I had to write down directions to my client for this morning. Then directions to best buy. Of course all this happened at 8:51pm last night. Too late to get to Best Buy. These fuckers need to stay open until 10pm. Or be 24 hours. Worse case I will go to Walmart and buy a burner. There's one next door to Best Buy. I need something. I need some way of being reached. I can forward my phone number from Fi at least. FUCK I am so stressed. And I have to deal with one of the worst clients ever today.

FML.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Y10 D93

I wasn't going to get up until 2:30 but I woke up on my own at 2. Was having an intense dream about some alien thing and I was in France trying to figure it out as it was an ancient civilization kind of thing. Weird.

We had a fun day yesterday. Took what will probably be our last ride to the coast. Went to Astoria and Seaside. Bye goonies. Fed the seals, visited the fishies at the aquarium, bought some candy from the candy man. Was an all day adventure for sure.

B napped when we got home, had leftovers for dinner, then I went to bed at 9. So other than the day trip, not much else.

I am leaving here in 2 hours, Get to SoCal at 9, but then I have to kill a 1/2 day as they can't get me into my hotel room early unfortunately. Should I just go to Disneyland? I don't know. I would spend way too much money. Even if I just went to DTD, plus the traffic. Ugh. No. I will find something to do in Monrovia. Even if that is taking a nap in the lobby.

Five days of classes and workshops, back home Saturday. We are about 1 month away from sending B back to MI. We have been watching the market very closely and things are looking to our favor. We saw one yesterday with 3/4 of an acre that had been dropped to 188. We have a couple we are watching that have been sitting for 45+ days and watching them drop. It's becoming a buyer's market out there. Good. If all goes well, we will be there before the end of year. I am going to ship my motorcycle in advance and store it at B's mom's place. One less thing to worry about. I wish I could sell it here, but it's such a pain. I was so close on having a buyer but that fell through.

Time to shower and leave at 4.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Y10 D92

Woke up 'naturally' this morning. Was having some pretty intense dreams all night long. Demons, battles, all sorts of weird shit. Woke up from the first one at 2, went back to sleep to have round two. Ugh.

More errands in the morning, followed by fish tank cleaning, lunch, packing stuff, relaxing, video gaming, bed. Uneventful day.

It rained at one point which was awesome. Missed the rain.

Have to check in for my flight and hotel. Taking a drive to the coast today. Probably the last time we will do that. Going to miss some things.

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Y10 D91

Big news first! I am no longer beholden to Verizon! 9 years ago I switched to Verizon because I wanted off AT&T because, well they sucked, but more importantly it's what I had with X2. I wanted to distance myself from anything she had. I was so happy then because it was new and exciting and not AT&T. Then Verizon became even more evil than them. At the end of the day I have come to terms with the fact that all telecom companies are evil entities and that's just that. But it feels like Verizon is truly evil. How many of you saw that they recently throttled the data speeds of firefighters to 1/200th of their expected speed? This is a fact, not urban legend. Verizon has admitted it. They say it was the case of a bad employee (aka a non-US call center employee) not understanding the situation. I, and the 22 attorney generals filing a lawsuit against them, say it's pure evil. In the middle of a fucking fire they demanded they upgrade to get their data back. Fuck. You. This is the result of net neutrality repeal. Welcome to your world. But you know, her emails. Oh and while we're on that topic, apparently South African farmers are being destroyed by evil black folks. Oh yes, that's his latest conspiracy. Even though that came from a white supremacist group originally. Yeah so great when the leader of the country is an old racist white guy. Good fucking job. But aren't we Great Again?! Woo look at how great.

Sorry, I digress.

Back to the main evil of this story, Verizon. Do you know how much we paid for our Australia trip? Our phone service cost us nearly $400 for the 'privilege' of having phone service while overseas. Yeah. And I didn't make a single phone call. That's just text and data. Bastards. I have wanted off for a while, but where do you go? Telecom #1, #2, or, oh wait, that's it. Darn.

Not anymore bitches. Let me introduce you to Google's Project Fi. $35 flat rate for 2 users for calls and texts, then you pay $10 per gb of data. With a fucking cap at $100 for 10gb. At 15gb you will see a reduction in speed. Pay for what you use. We average about 2.5gb per month. Our bill should drop down to about $70. On average we will save $50-$60 a month. Service shouldn't be impacted as far as call quality or data network. Why? Because they are essentially piggy-backing off everyone else's towers. No need for their own. Exploit what's there. This also includes international. SAME plan no matter where I am in the world. I could go back to Australia tomorrow (which might happen, no, not tomorrow, but before the end of year), and there'd be no change in cost. No more 'do you have the deluxe super duper international plan?'.

Look, I am not an idiot (I know, debatable), I am now beholden to Google. But I would rather be attached to a tech company than a telecom. Small, stupid distinction, sure, but in my head it's better. One is actually interested in technology, the other in making old white men rich.

The downside? It only supports a limited number of unlocked phones. We are fortunate to have Google Pixel 2 XL phones which are by default unlocked and work perfectly. Took me about 15 minutes to switch over via an e-sim. B's phone proved a little trickier and I needed to call support. Which btw was professional, in the US, and actually knew what they were doing. Had to reset some settings and clear the cache and update her to Pie. Once that was done, bam, phone numbers transferred, service started, done.

Suck it Verizon.

Other than that, paid bills, cleaned house, packed boxes, did a webinar, answered emails, made tacos, ran errands. A full day for sure. Today should be a lot of the same. The heat has broken which is nice. The weather is finally at a point where we're not dying. Windows open and a breeze a flowing.

Two more days until I leave for SoCal and deal with that hellhole.

Friday, August 24, 2018

Y10 D90

Happy birthday to my buddy who is also getting a text right now whether he wants it or not. He is not the type to acknowledge his birthday so deal with it. Also a belated birthday to my sister. I knew it was there and I totally spaced on it.

Had to go out last night around 7 and buy a new monitor. Mine decided to take a major dump. Fucking sucks but it is what it is. I got a Dell of all things. Highest rated, best color. It's really bright. The first time I might need to turn the brightness on a monitor. I am shocked. 27", does 3840x2160. Native is 2560x1440 but it's nice to know I can crank it up if I need the real estate. Taking the other one to goodwill today. It will work for someone. It goes fine for a while then starts flickering under heavy graphics usage. If they are just using it for office type stuff, it will probably never happen to them. But the minute you load a game or movie, you get artifacts and flicker. This new one though, damn. Blue never looked so blue. I had some best buy gift certificates too and managed to get it for a decent price. I had the other one for 17 months which isn't bad. Not great, but for the price it lasted as long as I would have expected it.

Oh look, reminder on my phone to wish someone a happy birthday. Yeah, yeah I am ahead of you calendar.

Hmm. My phone is down to 23% percent. I should probably charge it. Haven't done so since Monday. Heh.

Did day two of my class, finished around 1:30 and took a nap. Then made pasta for dinner. We then went out to the store.

Just paid bills. Ah good times. Luckily I am gone for a full week this pay period. Less spent. I am taking today to myself since I already worked 38 hours and need some time. Plus I lose next Saturday and get my holiday weekend messed up. My goal for this weekend is 30 boxes. Let's see if we even have 30 to pack. Might not. I have to go get more bubble wrap and peanuts this morning. A lot of what is out is small fragile knickknack type stuff. Need to get it all packed away. We are about 1 month out from when B will go back. We have $13,000 in the account for the down and move. We should only need $9,000 for the house part depending on what price we come in at. I think we can do this finally. I am a bit numb to it to be honest. Once it happens, then it will hit me. Once we have an offer in I will be like holy shit, it's happening. We were looking at one last night online with a 1/2 acre lot. 1/2 acre. As a Californian I never thought I would ever have more than a 5000 sq ft lot. A half acre is 4x that. Amazing. And it was $220. We're coming up on winter in that area which shifts it to a buyer's market. We have been watching a couple that have been out there 30-45 days already. I would like to stay under 225 and I think we can do it.

Got a few errands to run and do this morning. Time to make the donuts.

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Y10 D89

I don't know what to say this morning. Nothing exciting or interesting happened yesterday. I went outside at one point. That was a mistake. Fucking smoke covered wasteland. Did you know the other day we had the 7th worst air quality *in the world*! Not in the state, not in the us. No, in the world. It's because of the fires. Everything is covered in a layer of smoke, ash, soot. Combine that with heat and you get hell on earth. Neither of us has been able to breathe well for days. But this is the new normal! Hot isn't hot! Her emails! Hey, as long as that twat keeps spouting that, so will I. Oh, don't believe me? He was just saying that same rhetoric at his rally the other day. Has any other president spent as much time having rallies after they were already elected? I would love to see that data. He has to keep reminding people he's the president. Fucking idiot. How about doing your real job? Oh wait, you've never had a job so you don't know what that means. My bad.

Taught my one student. She's okay. We started early and finished early. That's what happens when there is only one person. Took a serious nap after class.

Made fishsticks and tots for dinner because we're adults dammit.

Locked ourselves in the bedroom with the air and played video games. Went to bed around 10.

The heat should be going today. Hopefully the air clears too. We are supposed to have a few days of relief. I can't wait. Just need to make it through today and I get 3 days to myself. Thank the heavens.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Y10 D88

Yesterday was rough. I also finally managed to piss off someone at this client. I have taught almost 500 employees over the last 3 years at this client and it finally happened. Statistically speaking I was due. I had two students in my class both named Frank with *VERY* Italian last names. So I made the comment "Hey look! I gots two Frankies from Jersey on here!". One of the two Frankies did not like someone making fun of his heritage apparently and whined. Douchebag. The other took the joke and ran with it. So yeah. Humans.

Horrible class overall. 15 students and like four interacted. Six actually belonged in the class. I feel like at this point the've opened the classes up to everyone because they already paid for them but have run out of people to train. I still have like five more sessions with them before the end of the year too. Shoot me.

Finished at 2 and ended up doing more work. Follow up with the Australian folks, cleaned the kitchen, prepped dinner (baked chicken with homemade mashed), cooked dinner, garbage, mail, etc. So while I wanted to nap, no napping occurred. I was exhausted and cranky most of the night.

Went to bed around 9:30. I am up early today because of my next class. One student, two days. Joy. I still need to pack for next week. I have to do laundry. Does it ever end? Can I take a break? Ever?

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Y10 D87

Hurting so much this morning.  I am working on about 3.5 hours sleep. I didn't want to get up when that alarm went of at 3:30. Let me tell you.

I wish I had something exciting to write about this morning but my day was spent mostly working. 14 hours. I did my first class at 10, finished right at 1:50, started my next class at 4 and finished at 11:45. I managed to get into bed by 12 at least.

Group 1 was YAWN. Plus there were technical issues. There's always issues with these people. And it always looks like it is my fault but in reality it's their IT department locking things down so tight that nothing works right. I mean these people in 2018 don't even have real machines. They have to VDI using dumb terminals. What a load of crap. I hate companies like this. From now on, we should be doing these classes onsite or at least making students take them from home so they can be on real machines. Today's class is with the same folks and I am expecting more headaches.

The second group while more lively and enthusiastic had it's own issues. Namely the entire infrastructure of Australia. AUS has one of the worst internet backbones. The fancy people are lucky to pull down a 5mb connection. I had almost 20 people on a horrible connection. Most of them ended up tethering their phones and using that as it was faster. Made for some fun times let me tell you.

Today, 6-2, then a bloody nap.

Monday, August 20, 2018

Y10 D86

I hope when I am gone, someone reads through all this. Grandchild, great-grandchild, etc. By then I will probably have at least another 10 or 20 years captured. Imagine all the world history reports that would have been made so much easier if relatives or even just like regular folks kept more detailed daily journals. Sure you have to sort through the chafe to reach the wheat, but it provides a snapshot of daily life in one individual. Especially when this becomes a police state and all media is controlled by the orange furher. Dystopian future next stop, all aboard.

Packed about 5 or 6 boxes yesterday. Did a lot of wrapping. The boxes we packed were mostly small knickknack type stuff. Again, we're focusing on things we can live without. I don't care if I see my bathroom chicken between now and the end of the year. We're leaving some wall artwork because no one wants to live in a sterile plain house. Okay, maybe some people do, we don't.

B went to her group yesterday. It may be her last one depending on timing so she was emotional over that. She made the organizers one of her signature blankets which they apparently loved.

Went to the grocery store for ice cream at night because it got hot again. Leftovers for dinner.

Today I have my long day. 10-2 then 4-12 then 6-2. Oodles of fun. But hey, my boss is finally back from Hawaii so maybe we'll here from him today. Ha.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Y10 D85

Tra la la, la la la.

I slept in! I slept for 8.5 hours. Bwahahahahaha. So much sleep. Sleep good. Sleep friend!

When was the last time I wrote in here that I am waking up with a hangover? Has to be at least 3 years, yeah? Sick sure, but not hungover. Nice.

It's been three years this weekend I think since we moved in here. Wow. Time, flying like a banana.

Yesterday was rough. I did finish all my stuff around 4:15am. Too late to go back to bed without screwing up the whole day. Instead I went grocery shopping. Then when B woke up around 7, we went and did some additional shopping. Pet store, U-haul for packing peanuts, stuff like that. We have packed close to 50 boxes already. Stuff we just don't need on a daily basis. Board games, knick knacks, winter clothes. We are focusing on small to medium sized boxes as they're the easiest for us to move and store. We've been making some good progress. I will probably work on the kitchen today. Excess glasses, things we don't need over the next couple of months.

Right before we went out, I started a rack of baby back ribs in the slow cooker. 8 hours of slow slow cooking. 

I want a munchkin cat. They are awesome. Go look up munchkin in the hall of the mountain king on youtube. You won't be disappointed. I promise.

Around 2 B got a text that her prescriptions were ready so we headed over to Target. When we came out we noticed something about the car - a piece in front had fallen out. Yep. The piece of plastic that covers the eye bolt hole popped out. I was livid. We don't drive over rough areas so what the hell? I drove to the dealer to talk to them only to find out I am the 3rd person in six months that this has happened to. See the piece is used to hold down the cars when they deliver them and that piece of plastic comes in a separate bag. It is then installed at the dealer. Seems one of their guys isn't putting it on all the way or correctly as they keep popping out. Awesome. They are ordering it for me and it will be here next week, but what a pain in the ass.

Got back home and had my ribs with sweet potatoes and left over johnny cake. Not too shabby.

B worked on a project of hers while I dyed my hair. Around 9:30 I gave up and collapsed. Bye bye. I did wake up at 2:30 having to pee so bad I was in pain. But luckily I feel back to sleep. And here it is, 7am and I haven't done shit. Yay me.

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Y10 D84

Yes, that timestamp is correct. I am writing this at 2am. Why? Because I have been working since 9pm and still have at least 90 minutes to go. Sigh. What happened? Glad you asked.

With my boss in Hawaii, everything this week from him has been 3 hours behind. It was almost 5pm when he emailed me to tell me that the client we have been doing the CBTs for needed a redo of one of the classes. Oh and they wanted it by Monday. Fuck me. In order to do recordings you might recall, I have to shut the window completely, make sure there is no fan noise, and wait until there is the minimal to no traffic outside my window. Yeah. So that means I wasn't able to start anything until after 9. And it's taking forever so I won't be done until like 3:30. FML.

The day was okay. Did a webinar, took care of manuals for the end of the month, and other assorted admin tasks.

I did make my johnny cake and souse for dinner. I really enjoyed it. Four hours of cooking, but it was worth it to me. I didn't hit my goal of boxes today, only got one done. But I did take apart 3 bookcases so it balanced out. Today I want to get through a number of boxes. I plan on working in the laundry area where we have all of our board games. That will open up some room.

Okay, back to my recordings. No sleep for me.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Y10 D83

First the californians moved up here and fucked up the job market. Then more moved up and fucked up the housing market. Now the gas market. When we first moved up here three years ago gas was anywhere from .75 to 1.00 cheaper a gallon. Now? I paid $48 to fill up my tank yesterday. I now understand why Oregonians for years were so angry with people from CA. We fuck everything up. Kinda the same way us old white men do. Everything we touch turns to shit. Just go read the news if you don't believe me on that one.

Got sign-off on my new material for SoCal yesterday! Yay!! Now to have manuals printed and be sent and then two days at the end of the month and I never have to deal with them again. Thank goodness.

Packed 7 boxes yesterday. Originally this week started out as 3 per day, then it became 5 by Wednesday. Now it's just however many I want. But I am honestly running low on things to pack. There's more, but it's random stuff. Not sure what to do next. I am down to a basic amount of clothes, no books on the bookcase, etc. It gets tougher at this point. I think the kitchen should be next.

Made pork chops for dinner. Tonight I am making souse and johnny cake. Looking forward to that.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Y10 D82

Tired again. Want to sleep. Too much to do though. Maybe tomorrow I will sleep with no alarms. But not today.

I got through quite a bit of the work I needed to do for the SoCal people. Sent them over a first draft around 2pm yesterday. Let's see how many changes they want.

Packed 5 boxes. That's my goal for each day. At that rate we should finish packing sometime mid September. Trying to get down to just the bare essentials. We are putting boxes in the closet and out of the way as to not overwhelm ourselves. Also trying to make room in the garage. I posted the treadmill for sale on Craig's List yesterday. Let's see if I get any bites. I may end up donating it and taking the tax write-off. It's all about weight. The big one to deal with is the motorcycle.

Speaking of motorcycles, our neighbor idiots have apparently added one to their collection of 900 cars and noisemakers. One that doesn't run well. He was sitting under our bedroom window starting and stopping and revving it for like 10 minutes yesterday until I shooed him away. Dumbass.

Made butter chicken for dinner. It was okay. Used a jar instead of from scratch and it was less creamy than I would have liked. Found a recipe for scratch for next time.

Went to bed around 10 and fell right asleep. It was hot and sticky all day so being in the AC knocked me right out. Today is supposed to be significantly cooler thank goodness. Maybe I won't need AC for the first time this month. Hahahahaha. Yeah, right.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Y10 D81

Did not want to get up this morning. I could use about two more hours of sleep. I don't have to be up this week at any certain time, I am doing it to be able to get work done, but the urge to stay in bed was strong today.

Made good progress yesterday by getting up early. Started working at 5:30 and made it through quite a bit before I called it a day at 2pm. I am hoping for similar results today. The goal is to have Friday to myself where I can sleep in with no alarms.

We went out to dinner with a friend last night. It may be the last time we see him before we move. We've got two more people we need to do the same thing with as well. Got to see everyone before it's too late. Had a good time but we were out 'late' for us on a Tuesday. Didn't get home until almost 9pm. Went to bed shortly after getting home.

Not much else going on. No major issues with anyone or anything. Boring is good.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Y10 D80

Yesterday was rough. I had to wait until 10am before I actually could start any work. As a result I didn't finish until after 5. Today I am not at the client's mercy thankfully and can start in early. This is good seeing as we're looking at 99+ today. I did get very frustrated yesterday because I had things coming at me from multiple angles. People acting like they are the only thing in the world that mattered. It's also hard as my boss is in HI and not really engaging with any of us. Of course he's allowed to take a vacation, but when he's the only one that can make certain decisions or answer certain questions, it's a challenge.

Had a baked potato for dinner last night as I didn't feel much like eating. Was too hot for food.

B got us more boxes and I managed to get some of the office packed. We are being very meticulous in our labeling this time. Keeping full track of everything. I know it's still technically a few months away before we even start looking, but she knows I will be out of town, then she will be out of town, and it just needs to get done. Once we put an offer on a place I will start contacting movers for quotes. I need to put together a couple of craig's list ads at some point. Need to sell the treadmill and the motorcycle at a minimum.  They just can't come with us. We have to keep the car items to a minimum and the weight of the moving truck as low as possible. We already have a bedroom set, fridge, grandfather clock, and some other heavy stuff going.

I can't believe this may happen. I say may because until it does and everything goes through, I am still being cautious. I don't want to get my hopes up, you know?The universe likes to screw me and I am just waiting for the shoe to drop. When I have keys in my hand for some place, then I will acknowledge everything. The nice part is if for some reason we are delayed, it's not like we have to move out of here. We technically have this place for another 2 years if needed. Yes, everything will be in boxes, but we won't be homeless. Find the bright side.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Y10 D79

And so begins a real pain in the ass week. As of Thursday these stupid people still didn't have my access set up correctly. You know the problem with technical people at non-technical places? Especially medical? The bar is pretty fucking low. You don't have to impress other technical people. You just have to impress a bunch of bean counters, doctor type people, etc with your computer skills. Think about that for a second. Think about how impressed your non-computer friends are when you make their computer work again or show them some simple thing. Same principle applies. But then someone like me comes along and I expose that in all honesty, you have no fucking clue what you're doing. You have no knowledge of how security works, you don't understand the applications you're supposed to be managing, etc. Sigh. Let's see what happens at 8am.

Got the car washed yesterday, put gas in, ran to the grocery store for B. She decided to try and make chocolate covered potato chips. They came out looking good. She's on them, but I think they look good. I don't like chips like this in general and that makes me not a good choice to be judging hers unfortunately.

Made steaks for dinner. I hate our little BBQ. Mostly I dislike the patio area it's on. Soon. Soon I will have a backyard of my own. Get away from the ghetto neighbors with their seven cars yesterday parked on the lawn and driveway. Get away from the idiots racing up and down this street with their exhaust systems.

I just want away. I wonder how my sister is. She was supposed to close escrow on Friday. I should email her.

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Y10 D78

Some of the neighbors around here are such assholes. I am pretty sure one of the downstairs units is parked in what they think is an empty driveway. Buttholes.

So Josh Brolin made some good career choices in the last few years, eh? Not only has he been quietly collecting a paycheck for the last 10 years as randomly popping up as Thanos and then BAM star of a movie, he also managed to score a 4 film deal as Cable. And let me tell you, damn good idea. We watched DP2 last night. The Super Duper Cut. His Cable is pretty good. Cable has had a varied history. From the future, not from the future, powers, no powers. It's been all over the place. The DP2 version is a pretty canonical version and while they included his telekinesis they didn't over emphasize it which was nice. They handled it slyly. As for the rest of the movie, Yep. Happy camper. Some good shit kids. 11/10. Especially the final credits scene. Won't ruin it for you, but there's three including the very very end.

That was obviously our night; during the day we want every errand that needed running. Mall, groceries, pet store, you name it, it got done. Now hopefully I can stay inside today. Yesterday was the first cool day here in over a week. It's supposed to be close to the same today but takes a turn for evil again next week. Fuck summer and it's fucking heat. Speaking of that, our friends in Australia sent a video to B last night. They made a drive and got to see snow for the first time in their lives. Yes, it does snow in Australia, just not near them. Grown ass adults and they just saw snow for the first time. The video was hilarious I might add.

On the topic of grown ass adults, the kid is now on her own phone plan. She switched off of mine and is on her own. I am proud of her. Did you know she has over $5k in her savings? I didn't have that at her age. She keeps going and a couple more years she will have a good down payment. Not where she lives of course, but for the rest of the world. Okay, not the whole thing, but you know what I mean. Regardless, I am proud of her. But this also means B and I can switch off Verizon finally. After 10 years, I am done with them. We are switching to Project Fi. Yep. We will let the google overlords control our phone too. Why the hell not. I should save anywhere from $50 - $70 a month in phone service.

Made tacos for dinner. Steaks tonight. Tuesday having dinner out with our friend. Today I am planning on doing a whole lot of nothing. Go me.

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Y10 D77

I wrote something up yesterday while sitting at the airport. It's an interaction I had with one of my students on Thursday. It took a while to write up which is why I didn't include it in yesterday's post. I will add it on to the end of today's post for you all to read. I already posted it on twitter so if you saw it there, same thing.

I don't know if I am glad to be home or not. I know that sounds crazy but I got home to more heat. But just remember, climate change isn't real. Fucking idiots. It was insanely hot here yesterday. Some reprieve today, but right back it the rest of the week. High 90s. Fun times.

My first flight was okay. Even with the delay, I still landed with a good half hour until I needed to board my next flight and for once it was only 8 gates away. Thank goodness. That's always my stress point in Dallas. Which terminal? In this case I came in at A20 and left from A28. That is reasonable and okay. It's when I come in at A and have to haul ass to B or D. There's the time killer. No upgrade but I did have a decent exit seat on the way home. Was able to stretch out a bit and get to my bag without incident. That was nice.

Landed at 11, B picked me up, and we headed home. Took the back way and didn't deal with one ounce of traffic. Love it.

Unpacked, dealt with some stuff, and B took a nap. I waited for maintenance to show up. One side of our sink was leaking. When he came he told me he has had to do this same repair in multiple units. Something about the original builder not using enough sealant putty and over time it leaks. Good job cheap ass builder! This is why I like older homes and buildings. They tend to be more solidly put together.

We had Italian for dinner, came back, relaxed. B has been packing and we are going to go get more boxes today to keep that momentum going. I also need to go grocery shopping this morning. We're out of a lot of things.

I paid bills from the airport yesterday while waiting for my flight, but I still have timesheet and expense report to do today. Fun times. Here's the story I was mentioning at the beginning. Enjoy.
________________________________________


The Day I Destroyed a Soul

So Thursday after class I got to talking with one of my students. The conversation turned to businesses like Amazon and Walmart. The student brought up Jeff Bezos and how they think they can be worth as much as him one day. Here’s where the evil in me came out. Me, the lowly data science and analytics teacher decided to crush their spirit a little bit. Why? Because reality, that’s why. I began the conversation with the things all of us hear are used to saying and hearing:

“You know you have more in common with a homeless person than Bezos or any billionaire for that matter, right?”

“Oh no, I can do it. I can work hard and earn that kind of money, well maybe not that much, but close!”

(Insert evil glint in my eye as I prepare to lay down some math for this poor person)

“Okay, well how about we do some math and see what it looks like on paper? Let’s start with some assumptions:

Assumption #1 - You make on average in your lifetime $100 an hour at a job
Assumption #2 - You take two weeks of vacation every year and work 2000 hours (40 hour week * 50 weeks)
Assumption #3 - You pay no taxes and have no other expenses and can keep every dollar you make

Okay?”

“Sure….”

“Your job is paying you $200,000 a year. Would you agree that by most standards that would be considered a good job?”

“Heck yeah!”

“Alright then. After 5 years, you’ve made $1,000,000. Good job!”

(Some hope returns to their poor face)

“Cool! Now I am set!”

“Not yet. You want to be in Bezos’ leaugue, and we need to keep going. To reach $10,000,000 you will need to work how many years?”

“um.”

“The answer is 50 years. If you’re 25 now, that means at age 75 you will have accumulated $10,000,000 in wealth. A decent retirement for sure. But you want to be a billionaire so you have to keep going (Insert dramatic pause) for another 450 years just to hit $100,000,000. That’s 500 years TOTAL. For your sake I hope they make advances in science! But wait! I forgot, you wanted ONE BILLION dollars. That’s 10x more. You will have needed to work a total of FIVE THOUSAND YEARS to hit that first billion. And that’s with what you said before was by today’s standards an outstanding career and job. Let that sink in for a minute. 5000 years. For one billion. He has THREE HUNDRED billion. At your current salary, that’s an additional amount of time. Want to know how much?”

“(sadly) No.”

“Too bad. One point five MILLION years. That’s how long you’d have to work at a GOOD job without spending a single dime, never paying taxes, and never taking more than two weeks a year off to have as much money as he does right now. Still seem realistic?”

“(sigh) I guess not”

“Good. Because I am going to ruin it more for you. Let’s look at the average worker. If they do well and can get a decent job, then they may average an hourly wage of $50 an hour. Using our 2000 hour assumption from earlier, they now make $100,000 a year. But unlike you in our example, they pay taxes and have bills. On that much salary we will use simply math and say they pay 25% annually in taxes. Their net is $75,000 a year. They have managed to get a home with a 30 year loan and 5% interest. Their average mortgage payment is $1500 a month for the next 30 years including their insurance. Annually, they are now deducting $18,000 for a net of $57,000 a year. From there they have a monthly health insurance premium, car insurance premium, and life insurance premium totaling another $600 a month for another deduction of $7200 a year. Brings them to $49,800 a year. Let’s say they never marry and never have kids. Their monthly expenses for utilities, cell phone, food, clothing, car payment, vacation, entertainment, etc is roughly $2000 a month. There goes another $24,000. Total amount available for savings at the end of the year? $25,800. Do you know how many people out there would kill to have $25,000 each year in their savings? We have not accounted for unexpected expenses like illness or auto accident. Even if they do manage to save that 25k per year ,in order to reach $1,000,000 in savings they have to work 38 and 3/4 years. Again, you’re 25. You will be almost 64 to hit that first million. Of course you’re home is paid off by this point, you’ve made interest, and maybe you sell your home to something smaller you pay off in cash. Being generous, maybe you have $3,000,000 in the bank. Only $997,000,000 to go. You can do that, right?”

“I guess not.”

And with that they left the classroom. A little sadder, but hopefully a little wiser to the world of our capitalistic overlords. The look of despair on their face was breaking my heart, but they had to hear it. MORE people need to hear it. Because now, that one student may rise up and try to fight against the system. Now they may explain it to their friends. Now they may learn to distrust and hate the Bezos of the world instead of trying to emulate them. Now they may try to take them down and vote for people who also live in reality. Maybe. Just maybe. 

My work was done for yet another day.

Friday, August 10, 2018

Y10 D76

Pre-written post. 2am EST.

So I wake up at 1am to a screaming alarm from the middle of a deep REM sleep only to find an email from american saying my first flight today has been delayed 30 minutes. This drops me to 30 minutes for my connection in Dallas. Not happy. Let's see if I make it or not. I may not be getting home when I thought I would be. Fucking flying. Lovely shit kids. To make matters worse, my fridge was adjusted and my fucking rockstar froze and then exploded when I tried to open it just now. Thank goodness they had a no-carb monster in the lobby.

Taught day 4. Am exhausted from all of it. Again, the students were not engaged or interested in this group. The other three groups were a little less pessimistic than this one. They were all people who had been there a while and didn't think any change will ever happen. Five of the 17 didn't even bother coming back and one more left at lunch. Well fuck you too.

Got back to the hotel at 5, ate, packed, and went to bed at 8. Am running on about 4.5 hours of sleep. On top of that the fucking idiots in SoCal wanted to do a meeting today. Um, fuck you? Get in early on Monday. I did book my end of month trip down there. Mon-Sat. Am doing two days of training then three workshops. The fucking marketing person is like "you can take an afternoon flight home on Friday!". You can suck my dick. I am not trying to rush my ass from Pasadena to Burbank on a Friday at 1pm to catch the only flight at 3pm home. You're paying for one more night. Deal with it. I did book a first class ticket too. American wanted 791 for a coach flight to Burbank which would actually be on Alaska. I booked it direct with Alaska and paid $650 for first. Double suck my dick.

Okay, time to head out to the airport and see if I get home. Tomorrow's entry will pretty much be me bitching about how hard it was to get home. Stay tuned for that!

Update - made it to airport. 3:21am EST. Fun.

HEY! This is post 3000!! Damn.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Y10 D75

I got a little pissy and ranty with my group yesterday. I knew it would happen. What do you expect when you're on your fourth session, have already taught 40+ people, and here comes group four and they basically complain the whole time telling you that what you're showing them is useless because 'that's the way we've always done it' is the theme of the day. It's basically saying to me, we don't care about your time, this is a waste of our time because we're never going to do any of this, and we think this is all stupid. Well then fuck you. Why am I here if none of you even care? I would rather be doing other things let me tell you. I don't need to spend the day with a bunch of whiny ass argumentative buttholes.

Now I just found out that a client who requested me personally is being pushed to someone else because sales people are a bunch of fucking dicks. I am not happy right now. I swear, after we move to MI, I need to find a new job locally. Or fucking retire. Yeah, wouldn't that be nice. Like I can ever retire. I will work until I am 100 and then fucking die while on the job.

Fuck all of this. I am done with everyone and everything. Today is going to suck balls.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Y10 D74

The week is catching up to me. I slept through two alarms this morning. I didn't go to bed late either. It's just the time changes and exhaustion of the week starting to rear their heads. I've reached that point. It happens. Three more days and I can go home.

I ended up having to change large chunks of the class yesterday on the fly. The material I was given for this week was not really appropriate for the students. I think there was a huge miscommunication between the people who organized the training, their assessment of the people who would be attending, and my boss not asking the right questions. I am really worried about the job he has been doing lately. He leaves for Hawaii tomorrow and I don't feel like his head has been in the right space all week. It's understandable for sure. I know the week or two leading up to Australia I was not focused on things the way I probably should have been. The difference is my actions impacted just me for the most part where as his are impacting the whole team. I was in a real awkward spot yesterday. I had to readjust the demos and material to fit the skill level on the fly. I then had to stay late to redo the class materials for the second group starting today. That was fun.

On top of everything else, I am now worried about my job. One of my co-workers told me last night our boss told her this is a make or break month for our group in terms of revenue. I don't know what that means. I don't know if that means she is going to get moved around, if salaries will be impacted, if there will be layoffs. In the dark. Now I am stressed. At the same time, if my job was in jeopardy, would they have been encouraging my move? I don't know what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Got chicken for dinner so I could have multiple meals out of it. Watched some tv. Went to bed around 9:45.

Almost done. I just want to relax this weekend but I know B is going to want to pack. Sigh.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Y10 D73

Tired this morning. Time changes catching up to me. At least I am here until Friday which means I should be all caught up right as it's time to leave. Yay. Good times.

One session down, three to go. In total it looks like I will be teaching around 70 people this week. The first group was alright. They were end users so not the most technical folks, but they did okay. Group 2 which I have a second day with today, was theoretically supposed to be more technical, but. Just but.

They did give me my own badge so at least I am not at the mercy of anyone to go in and out of the building. That's a plus. I like when I can come and go on my own. Makes it easier especially in the mornings. I don't have to wait around for anyone to get inside when I go back today. That's always nice and convenient.

Finished up around 4:30, got out of there about 4:45. Went to Best Buy to get a new adaptor I needed to connect to their projectors. I rigged one yesterday out of multiple connectors but it caused a flickering that was driving me nuts. This way I have one thing to plug in. After Best Buy I went to the grocery to get me something for lunch for today and some snacks for the group. They were at least snack worthy.

Went to the same restaurant for dinner. It was kind of awful to be honest. Even though it's close, it doesn't make it good. Tonight I might venture out a little further and eschew convenience in exchange for decent food.

Went to bed around 10. Tossed and turned a bit, but overall decent sleep.

It will be hot here again today. It was 95 + 90% humidity yesterday. Horrible, horrible weather. I still hate this state.

Monday, August 6, 2018

Y10 D72

Hey. How you doing? Yeah? Cool.

So I'm in "that" state. Ugh. I hate it. Always have, always will.  Some of you think my hate for this state stems from X2, but let me assure you it goes deeper than that. My dislike of the "Sunshine State" goes way back to the first time I visited back in like 94 or 95. Even then I knew this was not the place for me. I was here on business then and was just so disgusted with it. Nothing's change in almost 25 years. I still fucking hate it. I thought I saw a lizard in the parking lot but it was just an old white woman in a MAGA shirt. These are the jokes, work with me. Old white people central here. Can't wait for breakfast so I can hear how horrible everything is from the tables around me.

First flight uneventful. Got my upgrade, had breakfast, took a nap. Had 48 minutes to make my second flight which ended up being no problem surprisingly. I was worried getting off the plane since I had to get from C to B terminal. You'd think those would be next to each other but oh no, it goes C --> A --> B because it's DFW. But I was alright. I even had time to use the restroom.

Landed around 3:40 and got my car. Last time I was here was when I got stuck with that Ford Sprinter. Remember that fiasco? This time Avis did me right. 2018 Dodge Charger with a Hemi. Gets like 4 mpg but who cares. My client is .6 mile from the hotel and I won't use that much gas. It was actually cheaper than a more fuel efficient car. I guess they figure you're going to spend more in gas but in my case not so much.

Thanks to Infinity War I have rubber band man stuck in my head. Good times.

Got to the hotel with only a small mishap of getting lost. Checked in, hit a grocery store, came back, ate dinner, ironed, went to bed around 10. Acceptable sleep.

4 days,  4 groups of people. Teaching about 75 people total while here. This is going to be a lot of work. I am going to be exhausted come Thursday night. Wish me luck.

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Y10 D71

Let's hear it for getting up when everyone else is going to bed. Whee! I love travel days! Whee! Ah yeah, faux enthusiasm. Such fun.

Not too bad of a day yesterday. Nothing exciting. B treated me to pizza for dinner. We cleaned the house.

DOG SHUT UP. Fucking neighbors and their dog barking at 1 in the morning. Fucking red neck pieces of shit. Ugh I can't get away from them soon enough.

Anyway, cleaned the house, finished packing. Got B some boxes to start packing up small stuff. When I get back from FL we're going to put together an ad to get rid of some stuff. A couple of nightstands, dresser, etc. The less we have to move across country, the better. Especially if we get a nice walk in closet with shelving. No more janky mismatch dressers.

Went to bed at 8. Leave in an hour. Get to FL around 4 this afternoon EST.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Y10 D70

Heard from an old friend yesterday. Someone I haven't talked to in a while mostly because of my absence from any social media. She sent me an email randomly but I haven't heard back after replying. She is a really good person and was a good friend when we were living closer to each other. I hope she responds.

Taught day three of my class. No issues. Was a really good group. I have needed a group like this. Talkative, smart, interested. A perfect set of students in my book. I enjoyed teaching them. Unlike the idiots in SoCal who still can't get my security working right. Dumbasses.

We finally watched Infinity War last night. You have to ask yourself - Thanos, bad guy or just misunderstood genius? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Had chicken teriyaki that B made. Was pretty good. I enjoyed it.

Went to bed around 11. Have to check in for my flight this morning. No upgrades. Sad Panda. I have a 48 minute connection in Dallas tomorrow. Fun times. But at least I get into Jacksonville at a reasonable time. I land around 3:40 and should be at the hotel by 4. Not bad. Decent time to unpack, eat, etc. 5 days, 6 groups of students. It's going to be a long week. Leave here at 2:30 tomorrow.

Friday, August 3, 2018

Y10 D69

Another day where the weather was pretty darn good. Cloudy, a little overcast, it was nice. An open window, some nice breeze. Makes me happy.

Speaking of making me happy, the kid is going back home for good tonight. They got the pets back in but the place still needed some cleaning and fixing and she had stuff to move from where she was staying. But she will be back home this weekend to sort everything out. Good.

Day two, no issues. Really good group. Smart people. Finished a little after two.

Have to do laundry today so I can pack after class tonight. Leave 2am Sunday. Fun times.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Y10 D68

My back hurts this morning. I can't get comfortable in this chair. I need a good crackin'. At least when I came into the other room this morning it was almost cold. That makes me happy. I had to close a window.

Day one of class went fine, no issues. All three of my students are smart, talkative, and are paying attention. I can't ask for more than that. Two more days with this group and then FL for the week. Joy.

We had dinner out last night because neither of us felt like cooking. Just diner food, nothing exciting. Went to the store to pick B up a few odds and ends before I leave.

Watched some tv, went to bed. A pleasantly boring day.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Y10 D67

Huzzah! The heat has broke!! It's only supposed to be 85 today. Down from the high 90s. Thank goodness. I have windows open right now and there's an actual breeze. Of course everything smells like smoke because we're finally getting the residue from the fires. Yesterday morning while I was teaching B got up because she thought I was cooking bacon but much to her sadness it was just the smell of smoke in the air. Oops. Sorry.

Taught my class then dealt with those idiots in SoCal again. How do people with zero technical skills end up in technical positions of seniority like them? It's disgusting. They are some of the dumbest people I have ever met when it comes to this sort of thing. SMH. I dealt with that for like 2 hours after teaching from 6am. Fun times.

We had baked chicken with foil steamed veggies last night. Very good stuff. B started in on cleaning out her closet and had a ton of stuff to take to recycling, donation, and garbage. Too bad it was too hot out for me to take any of it. I finally got my clothes I left behind in MI so I can pack for my next trip this weekend. I finally get a break from the heat just to go to fucking FL. Bleh.

Today starts a 3 day class with 3 students. It should be okay. At least this has been a very full week as will next week. Can't complain about that.