Y12 D97

Yesterday was not a good day as you might have guessed. I was just so tired of being here and the same old shit on the news and Chadwick Boseman dying and people being shot in the streets and idiots without masks. I just am done with all of it. I was annoyed at B for no good reason. The cats were pissing me off for just existing. It was not fun to be around me.

But I worked through it. B and I even came up with an idea that we both can live with. I am staying at a hotel Thurs night through Sat morning. A hotel all of 3 miles away. She needs a day alone at home, I need a day AWAY from home. I won't be doing anything exciting, but it won't be here. That's it. It's not ideal but it's better than nothing. I can be all by my lonesome. Eat dinner in a hotel room. Get my free waffle. Pretend like things are okay for a day. I need it.

This week I am laying down more video, teaching for two days. Then it's a holiday weekend. Summer will be 'over'. Bring on fall.

Y12 D96

Not in a good mood today. I slept too long. I feel like I have wasted the morning.

Watched tv, did laundry, made dinner. Rinse repeat die.

Y12 D95

Today's post is coming from the new machine. Woo! I spent all day yesterday setting her up. My god is this thing speedy. I ran userbenchmark on it and the score was in the top 71st percentile. Video though is where it shined. As expected of course. 3D benchmarks were 266% above the baseline. Yeah, is good. I loaded Horizon Zero Dawn on it, everything set to Ultra and wheeeee! I also did a test video for work and it rendered in about 1/4 of the time as the old machine. More importantly I didn't have random fans kicking in while recording. ONE small nitpick. I have had laptops as a primary machine for so long, I didn't even think about this. I went to hook up my headphones and no bluetooth. Huh? Nope. Not built in to the motherboard. Wireless either. That was expected and the system included a USB wireless dongle, but I didn't even think about BT. So I have a dongle on the way. Should be here by Monday. Not upset about it, just didn't even think about it. I wasn't worried about the wireless issue as all of my machines down here are hardwired. But BT is kind of important for me for recording.

That really was how I spent the bulk of my day. Configuration, testing, and playing. Watched a little tv, had leftovers for dinner, went to bed.

I did work a little on my hair. I am trying to strip the purple out before I switch to blue tomorrow. I did baking soda masks which really helped lighten the purple up. It's completely gone in some areas. Now today, I will use a bleach kit to get rid of the rest and then tomorrow turn it blue. I know some of you think I am nuts, but I am still not leaving the house for clients and there won't be any video of me for online classes, so fuck it. I am trying to see if I can go until March without cutting it. It's been 17 years since I have had long hair. One last hurrah if you will. Took about 2 years last time for it to really "grow out". I don't think B will let me go that long with it, but we can try.

Laundry day today. House cleaning. You know, typical stupid Saturday shit.

Y12 D94

It be stormin' outside big time. We even had a brownout at around 5. Been resetting things. Good times.

So finally a day with some real updates. First off, the beast is turned on! I started setting it up last night. It's obviously not fully cnfigured yet so I am still typing this on the old machine. That's today's plans. Get it configured and ready for work. But first, pics:

The specs on this thing are:

• i7-9700 overclocked at 4ghz
• MSI Z390-A Pro mb
• 750W PS
• 64gb DDR4 3000mhz RAM (it came with 32gb, I ordered 2 additional sticks)
• 1TB SSD, 2TB regular, plus the 4TB WD external
• Liquid cooled
• 5 of those 60mm glowing fans (2 in front, 1 in back, 2 up top)
• So many USB 3.0, 2.0, and C connectors
• And the big part - RTX2080 Super 8

The way I figure it, right now this is a DAMN good machine. In 2-3 years it will be a good box, in 4-5 it will be OK. After that it will be ugh. If I get 3 years out of a box, not complaining. Not everything can be like the macs and last for 10 years. I was thinking last night about my upgrade patterns. Same as cars for me; every two years:

2008 - first iMac

2009 - December so almost 2010 - first macbook pro

2012 - replaced iMac

2014 - upgraded macbook

2016 - upgraded macbook

2018 - windows laptop

2020 - windows desktop

7 machines in 12 years. All but one are still in use and functional. Add to that the 2 mac minis I still have around. Which we may donate to B's sisters if they need a home computer at some point for virtual school. If I can recycle old machines to help people out, then even better. 

Man that rain is just not stopping out there.

Recorded 5 videos for youtube yesterday. I have 8 more in this series to get laid down. I might do some of them today. This will get me off video duty for marketing for a while. We did have an old video bite us in the ass again yesterday. I kept telling people we need to re-record the old stuff I didn't do because it isn't up to standard but everyone keeps telling me how low a priority it is. Well, it's a low priority until someone complains, now isn't it?

Made sloppy joes for dinner. Played games with B. We have been working together in ACNH lately which has been fun.

Then I spent two hours rearranging my desk for new machine. Don't worry, she will get a name soon enough. But first, I have to make her useful. And that's how I will spend my day today.

Y12 D93

The new phonebooks are here, the new phone... wait...

My new computer is here, my new computer is here!! That's better.

She's so purty. Unfortunately, I haven't set her up yet. It will be an all day project and I have other work to do today. I promised the powers that be that I wouldn't work on it until Friday. I could work on it at night on my own time, but no. Not going to happen. The majority of what I need to do is work related so it will happen on work time. Period. It's out of the box and sitting here on the floor. Once it's all plugged in and shiny I will take a picture.

Taught all day. 8:30 until a little after 5. Made pasta with italian sausage for dinner. Played video games with B. Went to bed. It rained a bit which was nice. Suposed to rain tomorrow and saturday which will also be nice.

Not much else going on. Well, you know what I mean. Black people are still getting shot in broad daylight in front of their kids, the people in charge are blatantly lying about everything, the ignorant masses are walking down the street with guns shooting people. You know, the usual. One of my students told me I could come live in Ireland. Don't think I wouldn't right now. But unfortunately, can't leave because of the idiots here. We're not welcome anywhere else because we have the cooties. So yeah.

Y12 D92

More good sleep but still problems with my ear. Worth the trade off in my mind. Couldn't get motivated yesterday. Got things prepped but didn't do any actual recording. Was just having a major apathy day. The more ridiculous the task, the harder it is to get going on it. Cest la vie. I will get everything recorded tomorrow and make the people happy. Today though I have an actual class. So heck yeah!

B had a zoom doctor appointment at 4pm yesterday and when that was over we went grocery shopping. Didn't mean to go shopping. B needed a couple of things, but we were both hungry (big mistake) and we ended up doing some real grocery shopping. Luckily we went to a less crowded store than normal and it wasn't too horrible. But we did get food for the week which is good.

Came back home, made dinner, played video games together which was also nice. Went to bed around 10:30.

New 'puter is supposed to be here today and of course I am teaching and it is raining. Lovely combination. I am excited about the computer. I have dedicated Friday to setup day so I will stare at it for a couple of days, but still, it will be here.

Big deer in our backyard yesterday. We haven't had any big ones in a while, just the baby. Since the world sucks ass, enjoy these pictures of deer.

Y12 D91

Had a good night's sleep but have water on my ear from the humidifier. This really sucks as I have to record today and will get a weird echo effect in my ear. I need it to drain. I will be spending today and thursday recording the new class I finished last week. Handing it off to B in the next week or so for compilation. Work for all.

That was about the extent of my day. Planning out recordings, sat through a horrible webinar, made dinner, watched a little tv.

The world is still falling apart slowly. Nothing has changed outside these four walls. B and I were talking last night about how we're both tired of food. Not like eating it but neither of us want the same thing but we at the same time time don't have the energy to make anything new or different. We just have reached food apathy. When you're like us where we regularly eat at different places, it's just becoming so annoying at having to think up a meal and cook it. Especially for me when I used to eat on the road and have the thrill of eating at different places. Running out of ideas of things to make. Going to start living off crackers and cheese.

Y12 D90

Really bad night. It was hot yesterday and is supposed to stay that way all week. Low to mid 90s. As such, the AC is working hard. Which means I am drying out. I woke up at 3 unable to even gasp for air I was so dried out. I need fucking humidity people. I need wet climates. I am moving to HI. Where I can keep my windows open 24/7/365 and just suck in ocean air. Fuck this dry shit. Bring on winter so there's humidity mixed in with the heat.

Ugh.

Did more laundry. Cleaned the house. Ate food. Went to bed. Same shit different decade.

Happy birthday to my buddy. You already got an email from me so there.

Y12 D89

Rougher night but not as bad as the other night. Had trouble falling asleep but had a really cool dream when I finally did. It was a super powers kind of dream. Fuzzy on the details, but I remember a bunch of us had super powers and we were hiding out. You know, typical modern day tv fodder. But it was still cool. I definitely remember flight, body stretching, phasing, and something else. I awoke from that at like 1:30am and wanted to go back into it so bad. Alas it would not be.

I was a little annoyed at B yesterday. I know it was Saturday and technically we had no concrete plans, but she stayed in bed all day reading. During the same time I went to two pet stores (one for her stuff), Target (mostly stuff for her), vape shop (all me), cleaned up the house, dealt with cats, got dinner (BBQ), did a load of laundry, and managed to play three different video games. She read a book. Hm. Meh.

Yes, I played three different games. ACNH upstairs, Wolfenstein and HZD at my desk. Sometimes you just need to kill nazis, ya feel?

Unknown what the plan for today is, but I've already started more laundry so I have accomplished more already. Go me.

Y12 D88

Slept much better. Found a compromise to keep B happy without destroying myself in the process. End result, no snoring, everybody sleep happy. Whee.

Started a third new class yesterday. I now have one done, two in progress. Keeping myself useful. Name of the game right now. It really sucks because in September I have some classes to teach and at least two of them I would have been doing onsite. I read an article yesterday how for people like me, the lack of travel is really fucking us up. It's true. I broke down crying yesterday listening to Steve Miller. Guess what song? Yep. Jet Airliner. I know the point of that song is about going home, but the thought of getting on a plane I miss so much. You never know what you've got until it's taken away from you? Something like that.

Made tacos. Watched some TV with B. Killed some Nazis.

No plans for the weekend other than going to buy some worms this morning. New computer arrives Tuesday hopefully. Can't wait for that!

Y12 D87

I had the worst night's sleep ever. I tried some things to make B happy and they didn't work out well for me. I know they worked for her, but I got up at 3:15am and went in the other room. It was horrible. I don't even want to talk about it.

Read all day yesterday on creating time intelligence using DAX. Yawn. Also not worth going into.

We played some ACNH together. Revamped our whole island. Looks good. We're both really happy.

Had Indian food for dinner. Yep, we ordered out. DoorDash. First time we've had that in months. I enjoyed mine. B's was too spicy for her. She asked for mild and if this is their mild, jfc.

More reading and doc writing. Then it's the weekend. Thank the gods.

Y12 D86

I slept in the guest room last night so we could both have a decent night's sleep. But what pisses me off is she didn't go to bed until 3:30am. I could have had the majority of the night in my own bed. But no. Regardless, I did have a good night's sleep as needed.

Spent the day finishing up the first of two new classes. The second emerged as an off shoot of the first. There was stuff I wanted to put into the first but it was making things too complex and I decided it should be it's own half day class. Plus it gives me more to work on. Especially now since we apparently just hired a new COO. I don't trust the guy. Seems like a hatchet man to me. We shall see.

Made salmon for dinner. After dinner I went to the store to get some stuff and was disgusted. 10 out of 12 employees impromperly wearing masks. Either below the nose, on the chin, or just not at all. One did fix theirs but not until she realized I was staring at her with a look of disbelief. THIS is why we still have thousands of cases being added every day. THIS is why hundreds of people are still dying. This shit isn't over people. Almost 44,000 new cases with 1400 deaths YESTERDAY. Grow the fuck up people. Think about someone other than yourself for 30 fucking seconds.

Oh and most of CA is on fire. I have friends and coworkers surrounded by wildfires right now. For once that doesn't include the kid thank goodness. She's holding in there doing her thing. She's been producing some great artwork lately. So damn proud of her.

The rest of the country? You can all go fuck yourselves.

Y12 D85

Rough night. I must have dried out from the fucking AC because B kept yelling and smacking me every ten minutes. Do you think I am doing this on purpose? Seriously. You having a bad night equals me having a bad night. Just send me to the other room or go there yourself. Constantly hitting me isn't going to solve the problem. Sheesh. It just puts me in a lousy mood when I get up.

Anyway. I have two demos left to do in this stupid class. I should finish it by like noon today. Get it off my plate. Spent the day working on it. Made pancakes for dinner. I am getting tired of eating in. But unlike my fellow morons, I will just grump about it and not put other people's lives at risk.

Ordered a new computer last night to replace faceless Joe. i7-9700, 32GB DDR4, RTX2080 Super 8, 1TB SSD, 2TB SATA. The video card is what makes it. It's $700 of the price tag alone. It won't be here for another 2 weeks but when it does arrive, woo doggie. B and I were discussing last night how I am grateful to work with people who understand the need for powerful machines. I feel for people who work for companies where they get $500 computers and are expected to do impossible things with them. Sure, the sales people can function off that POS laptop, but don't ask your analysts, content developers, programmers, etc to do work off some junky 8gb 1366x768 POS. Unfortunately they do because my students regularly complain about their machines. Me, I will have a system that has separate channels to handle me recording and speaking and opening up 100,000 row datasets without so much as kicking the fans on. Did I mention it's also liquid cooled? With green LEDs humming around in the case. Spoopy.

Yeah, that's the most exciting thing in my life right now.

Y12 D84

Same shit different day never meant as much as it does right now. It truly encapsulates my experience. Go to the shelf, get the can. Whatever cliche you want to use it's my life. Get up. Go to the desk, go to bed. Eat somewhere in there. I don't have anything of any substance to report right now. You all know what's going on. USPS is being destroyed. Racist QAnon jokers are being elected to office. People are losing their homes. People are protesting having to care about other humans. Dystopian nightmares abound.

Watched the first episode of Lovecraft Country. I don't understand how black people literally haven't rioted and coming seeking retribution and revenge. Especially those in the more fucked up places. Fuck white people. Fuck old racist white people. Can't wait for them all to die off. The white people are scarier than the monsters in the show. Which I think is the point.

Finished UA season 2. Plot twist central right there. Can't say anything without creating spoilers.

God I'm so tired that my only hope is escapism through anything but the real world.

Y12 D83

I'm up. That's about it.

Did laundry. Ate leftovers. Dropped off that drive at the UPS store. Listened to some vinyl. Played video games. None of that in any order. Went to bed.

The world sucks. Work sucks. Tired of being trapped in the house. Tired of everything. I tried. I gave up.

Y12 D82

I'm returning that drive. Still had nothing but trouble with it yesterday. If I had read the reviews closer I would have seen some of the same issues I was having. Basically the reviews say it's great if you're using it as removable storage. But to use it as an actual drive people had the same issues I was having. Lockups, overheating, random disconnects. Check, check, and check. For those of you looking for an external SSD avoid the Samsung T7. No bueno. I got everything copied off of it, again, and got an RMA from Amazon. It goes back to the UPS store today to get shipped back. I am just going to use the cheaper, slower, but one hell of a lot more stable WD external.

It's thundering outside. Probably raining too. Didn't look. Just hear it down here in my cave. Prety moderate weather scheduled for next week. High 70s at worst. But this morning we have thunder and rain until 10am. Good. My yard needs the water.

Did chores yesterday in between the drive moving. The cat threw up on one of the blankets, deal with that. Water change on the big tank. Water changes on all the axie tanks. Baked cookies. Made ribs for dinner. Cleaned the house. Productive if somewhat boring day. More of the same on the schedule for today.

Y12 D81

It's 8am already. I didn't go to bed until almost 2 so that's not really that bad in the grand scheme of things. I was up so late because I was doing massive data transfers and I needed to babysit it. Remember how I said I bought an SSD drive to move stuff on to? Well it was giving me fits. I didn't bother reformatting it when I got it (my bad) and it was set as exFAT which, while good for cross compatibility, isn't so great for everything else. But I already had 762gb of data on there. Over 200,000 files. I first had to move them off the drive into a holding area, did a deep format on the drive to make sure there were no issues, then copy all the files back. Took me like 9 hours total. But it's done and I shouldn't have any problems now hopefully.

While I was doing all that, I powered through Warrior Nun. Worth watching. I won't spoil anything but it's a good little romp. Angels, demons, nuns who kick ass, papal conspiracies, it's got it all. Check it out.

Spent the majority of the day doc writing. Almost done. I am learning a LOT writing this material but it also means I am having to learn things. I spent an hour alone looking something up and getting frustrated with something I know works because I have seen it done on other people's demos. Was getting very annoyed that mine was working. Finally figured it out but it was a long process.

Slow cooked a roast for dinner. Came out nice. Only a little bit of leftovers which to me is always a good sign. And since I used the slow cooker, clean up was minimal too. Bonus.

Our friend came over for a visit last night and B gave us both manicures which was nice as mine was well overdue. I made sure to do it during the formatting portion of the drive adventures.

Going to bake some cookies today. B asked me to make the hershey kiss cookies I make. Not a problem. I am happy to do it. Other than that, no big plans.

Maybe I will get mail today. Maybe not. Since the dictator in charge has decided it's his own personal mission to destroy the post office who knows how things are going. Our main hub has been hit with a decrease in almost 500,000 pieces of mail delayed and unable to process. But Hillary would have been just as bad. Am I right? Fuckers. If I hear one more bitch whine about Harris and how Biden is bad, I will stab them in the foot. Enough. This isn't a joke any more people. We are two steps away from having a full blown dictatorship. People are dying. Jobs are being destroyed. All over a tiny man's ego. If you don't vote Biden do not expect me to ever talk to you again. Plain and simple.

Y12 D80

So I was two years off for my poor sister. Sorry sis, didn't mean to make you old before you time. I'm the old fart in the family. Memory loss. Yeah, that's it.

Worked on docs all day. Didn't finish as much as I would like but I got a decent chunk done. It just means I need to go heads down today and finish no matter what. Fun.

Very stuffy in here right now. Need to find a damn fan. That's better.

Made lamb for dinner. Started watching Warrior Nun. It's okay. Too many characters, over thought plot line, but in general not bad. I got through three episodes.

I was watching it because I was copying the rest of my library over to the new drive. I am amazed at the speed on it. Not as good as an internal, but 10x faster than either of my SATA. Plus it's literally the size of a credit card. Will be very easy to travel with in the future.

I should hear back today on whether I can get a new computer to replace faceless Joe. Wish me luck.

Y12 D79

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister. If I'm not mistaken she turns 50 today. Ha ha. Welcome to the downslide. It's all worse from here. Seriously I hope she has a good day despite being in this world.

I made myself more depressed yesterday by looking at the stats page again. Let's go look again and statr our morning off right, shall we? OH BOY! 515 new cases yesterday with 9 more dead here in the state. Gee. 55k country wide with just under 1500 new deaths. Whee! Why, gosh golly we might hit 200,000 dead before the end of the month at this rate! Such pride! Florida added 8,000 new cases! Good job FL! Maybe that sheriff who said no one could wear a mask in HIS building helped! What a swell guy! And you wonder why I don't want to leave the house.

Been playing HZD. Okay, I have to complain first about the technical issues. Like a lot of people I am experiencing rough issues playing this game. Crashes, stuttering, dropped frames. I have tweaked the shit out of my machine including going so far as buying a separate external SSD drive to host my steam library. I needed that anyway as my large drive is regular SATA and the read/write rates weren't hot. But it is crazy that I paid more for an external 2tb SSD than I did for the 16tb external I recently bought. Regardless, with it on an SSD, with VSYNC tweaked, with settings adjusted, I can get it to play. It still stutters, but at least it doesn't crash when it does. They need to fix it now.

But even though it has issues, man I am loving the story in this game. I keep finding these old log files that describe the world pre-whatever it is that we're in. I think I am in the UK or New Zealand. Can't quite tell yet. The story though is fascinating to me. Especially when looked at through the lens of the current world situation. It hits a little close to home. Enough that I keep playing because I want to know the true story of this land. It also has a matrix feel in some places which I like. Machines building machines but why? What for? I expect this to take hundreds of hours to truly find everything in the game. That I like. I want to know I got my money's worth.

Spent the majority of the day writing demos. I was supposed to have a class today but it got cancelled last minute. Oh well. More demo writing for me. Whee. September is looking pretty solid with private engagements which is good. It's about the time when things pick up anyway so this is on par with my expectations. Maybe next year I will just take all of July off to minimize the pain. We shall see.

Made mac and cheese for dinner. B had a Skype session with our friends in Australia. They're under strict lockdown in Melbourne. You know what? People there are actually following orders! What a shock! That's honestly what we need here. STRICT lockdown for one month minimum. Then things might turn a corner. Until then, I don't expect those stats to change favorably.

That's about it for me for now. Time to make some demos.

Y12 D78

I did it again. Alarm goes off, I turn it off, fall back to sleep for an hour. I need sleep okay? I am tired and old. I should be looking towards retirement not getting up too fucking early in the morning. Bah. I can't do this for another 20 years.

Recorded, wrote, bored, did more. Made dinner. Soup. Was disappointed in Biden for his running mate choice. He basically lost an election that was his to win. So another four years of fascism. Good going.

Depressed. Sad. Disillusioned. Time to call it. Bleh.

Y12 D77

Holy shit I slept in this morning. I woke up at 4, turned my alarm off because fuck it, and went back to sleep for three more hours. Apparently I needed some sleep. I could probably go another hour or two but that's pushing it.

Did some good work yesterday. Finished up the foundation for one new class and prepared to record another video for marketing. I should be able to get the recording done today. I had my weekly meeting which was good too. No issues.

Made a pork roast for dinner. Watched UA2. B started watching Buffy finally! She watched two episodes and enjoyed it. Can't ask for more than that.

Today will be more of the same. Nothing really different until Thursday when I have another class. Whee.

Y12 D76

Sad news first. My buddy had to put his dog down last night. She wasn't that old either. She had recently been diagnosed with lymphoma. She had been responding well to the chemo but it must have been too much for her. She had back to back strokes and was just hurting. He texted me last night right after he brought her in. I feel so bad for him. They were together at least 8 years. I have been trying to remember how long ago he got her, and it was sometime between 8-10 years ago. Horrible situation for anyone.

Nothing so exciting around here. B cleaned her office. We watched more UA2. I played HZD. I have to admit, I am really enjoying the story on that. My friend here played it on PS4 and when I asked how he liked it, he said the story was weird to him. For me, I am really digging the story. It got me thinking about games and their history. I spent like an hour reading about Carmack and Romero and how with the release of Doom they eschewed story only to have it bite them in the ass later for Quake which had like no story. It was a big fight during the Wolfenstein days over how much story was needed. At the same time, people like Ken and Roberta Williams were 100% story driven developers. While both companies had very successful products, I feel in the end, story wins out. HZD being a good example. I mean would anyone play Fallout without the story? The Witcher? I mean, I guess the answer is yes because of all the war games out there bang bang shoot shoot, but to me, I feel I really get my money's worth when there is a rich environment that lets me understand my actions against the main storyline. To each their own.

I made seafood crepes for dinner. Was quite pleased at how well they turned out. Crab, shrimp, spinach, mushrooms, with a homemade raita sauce. Quite tasty.

Light week this week. Only one day of classes. Need to take B in to the doctor this morning for some blood work but otherwise, nothing major on the horizon. Both good and bad. Last week went quick because I had clear things to do. Not so much this week. Oh well. Just keep on trucking.

Y12 D75

Oh, hai. Sorry I had this window open and was just sitting here staring at a blank screen for no good reason. I guess I should type something in this big empty box.

Okay, yesterday. Got up super fucking early. Spent $300 on groceries because we were out of a ton of shit including things like laundry detergent and the like. Went to best buy (online pickup thank you) and got a small travel drive to move my steam library on to, freeing up a ton of room locally. Had carnitas tacos for dinner. Went to bed.

That was it. Watched some tv in there too. As in me and B binged through 4 episodes of UA2. Good season so far. I'd like to get through at least two more today.

That's it. Got distracted again. Okaybye.

Y12 D74

I hate the fact that the only way to supress my grocery anxiety is to get up at the butt crack of dawn so I can be one of the first (and only) people inside a grocery store. But this is the world we live in and this is what I must do if I don't want to have a panic attack in the store. Fun times.

I slept well but sporadically. Solid REM sleep but awake every two hours. Sucks butt.

FULL day yesterday. Went from 8am until 5:30pm teaching. It was a small group of people and we were able to be very casual but it was a long day.

Made a new chicken recipe for dinner. Brown sugar garlic chicken. B said it was her favorite way I have ever made chicken. Nice.

By the time we were done with dinner and cleaning up it was 7:30. Played some animal crossing, downloaded a new game off steam for this weekend (Horizon Zero Dawn) and by the time that was done, it was bed time. I need to pick up, or dig out, a small external drive. Nothing big, like 2 or 3tb. I want to move my steam library off my local machine. It's hit 1tb in size. Yeah, I know. Leave me be. It's not my fault things like HZD are 60+gb in size. Seriously 67GB for HZD, 91GB for FFXV, etc. I want a little travel drive for the whole thing. I can get one for like $70 so not a huge deal. But this way I can clean up the local machine for work stuff.

Grocery store, house cleaning, Umbrella Academy binge. That's the weekend plans. Let it begin!

Y12 D73

Had a little scare this morning. Had no internet. Quick reboot and we're good. I know it was up at 3:15am as I got email, so why it die between 3:15 and 4:30? Who the fuck knows. Thank goodness it was just a quick fix. Unlike this:

Yeah. That's what I dealt with yesterday. The front of the computer literally fell off. It pulled the ribbon cables when it came off but I seem to be able to still use the machine. It's my media server and it's 8 years old so it's definitely done it's duty in the world. But WTF? Hi, I am just going to detach myself from the main body and fall off. Whoops.

Taught all day. My class started late so I was able to deal with faceless joe first. My class went from 10:30 - 6:30 and it went the whole time. By the time it was over I was too tired to do anything. B was over at her friend's house helping her unpack. She was supposed to move last weekend, but then it all fell through. Now she has an apartment full of boxes. Good times.

I made swordfish for dinner. Watched some tv, fed the not a fishes, went to bed.

Oh look, got my paycheck email just now. Whee. Now I can go pay bills before my 8am class today. Today is going to be interesting. two half day classes but same students in each (different topics). Which means if we finish the first session early, I am just going to start the second topic and barrel through. That way we can finish the whole day early if things go well. Hopefully.

Y12 D72

Don't worry, I won't do the extra "D" part every day. Just an occasional reminder of our dystopian hell. All hail the reptilian overlords!

It's August and I had to check a couple of birthdays. I've got time.

So yesterday I got a lot of work done on my new class. It was actually a very productive day. The new TV came as well. Very happy with it so far. It's bigger, but doesn't feel enormous. I think part of that is the bezel. It has a very very thin bezel so it doesn't add too much to the screen. Even though the screen is roughly 10" larger, because of the bezel on the old one, the overall size is only about 7" bigger. Nice.

Had grilled cheese and soup for dinner. Running low on groceries. Thank goodness tomorrow is payday. Go to the store on Saturday morning and stock up. Pay bills. Buy food. Rinse, repeat.

Not much else. The next two days are solid classes. Have 8 students today. A good, full class which should make the day go by quicker. I need that especially since this is a 10:30 - 6:30 day. Not as bad as 11:30 - 7:30, but still sucks. It also means I have 4 hours until class starts. Whee.

I am looking forward to a weekend of nothing.

Y12 D71 D152

Note the second D in the title. I have decided to start keeping track of how many days I have been at home. It is day 152 of when I got back from Texas and my life changed. Can you believe that? Nearly a half a year this has been going on. If you want to see why, just watch the Axios interview. "Leadership" on display. Many of his comments remind me of this: "I can get you any results you'd like, what's it worth to you?". I've seen less spin at bowling tournaments. "No, you can't do the math that way, you have to it this way that makes me look good!". Another 51,000 cases yesterday. 1265 deaths. Good times.

Worked on docs. All day.

Made cheddar potato soup for dinner. Went to bed.

Y12 D70

Had a rough night. B made the mistake of going to bed around the same time as me. I call it a mistake because all she did for two hours was toss and turn and look at her phone. She's having a rought time of it right now. I think part of it has to do with her worry about her sister's being forced to go back to school, the general state of stupidity around here, and just the helplessness she's feeling at the whole state of the world. Our friends in Melbourne got married the other day not out of desire but out of fear they wouldn't be able to later. They've shut Melbourne back down again, like serious total lockdown, and they knew they had a limited chance to get to the judge and get married. It's just shit like this that's eating at B. I mean, re-read part of the paragraph. It literally sounds like I'm living in some dystopian, zombie apocalypse war zone. "They've shut Melbourne down". What the fuck. Sadly, they've HAVEN'T shut us down and that's part of the problem. Fucktard was in FL yesterday and the pictures of the idiots standing next to each other sans masks is WHY this shit hasn't passed yet. 41,000 new cases yesterday with 505 deaths. We had 604 new cases with 6 deaths in the state. Out of 18.2m cases worldwide, we make up 4.8. 193 countries and we represent 25%?? WTF? Get it in gear people. I haven't read news yet this morning but I am sure someone else who swore it wouldn't get them died yesterday. So yeah, B is having a rough fucking time. I am too but at least I have work to distract me for once. But I am not immune. I did some impulse shopping last night. Bought a new TV. 65" 4K TV. It was on sale for $400 which is a great price, but I mean it was definitely an impulse buy. Depression shopping is what's keeping "the economy alive!" I am not alone. I am sure others are doing the same. Heck the reason I bought the TV is Saturday when we were at our friend's house, he had just bought the same TV and I fell in love with it. Especially when he told me the price. It's technically a 2019 model being closed out, but who cares. The picture is great and it has a Roku built right in. One less set of cables and plugs. One less remote too. B stresses and can't sleep. I shop. But the simple truth is we're both fucking stressed. I've never been so happy that the kid lives in the middle of nowhere. Her county has had 369 TOTAL with 9 deaths. No cases reported in 4 days. Prior to that was like 4. Gives me some peace. In March when everyone was saying this would be gone by May I said August. Well here we are in August and with the whole school thing, I am now saying 2021. February at the earliest. My friend in Canada is stressing out. They work with kids as their job and they have been calling and letter writing to see what can be done to not reopen schools. It's a death sentence waiting to be handed down.

In other news, I did teach for about 5 hours yesterday. Kept me sane. Then I made Korean BBQ tacos for dinner. We watched some TV together. Then listened to some music and watched the rain. The rain didn't last as long as we would have liked unfortunately.

Next class on Thursday. Today and tomorrow are more doc writing. Fun times.

Y12 D69

Yesterday I felt like playing something different. I wanted to just run around but also felt the need to blow things up. I wanted something familiar but also looked good. I know tall order. Animal Crossing wasn't cutting it and I didn't feel like playing anything with swords and the like. So I ended up playing Fallout 4. I hadn't played in a while and I left off right near the point where you have to make a decision about which faction to follow/support. I have already decided the Institure makes the most sense. I start this quest and it says "If you do this, you will not be able to ally ever again with Brotherhood of Steel". I paused for a second and was like that is not a problem. Fuck the BoS. They are nothing but a bunch of racist, militaristic, xenophobic bullies in glorified armor. Which of course struck me because it hit me that the BoS is exactly like the bullshit we are seeing on the streets right now. Which is probably why I despise the BoS more than I should hate a video game character. I mean these aren't real, right? But my goodness, I hate them. I enjoyed shooting their little faces with way too much glee. Listen Scribe or Knight boy, you're going down. I even just sat under their stupid blimp firing rockets to see if I could knock it out of the sky. You can't, but it felt good.

Yesterday was a bit rough. Technology was not playing nice with me, I tried to do something in the attic only to discover the janky masters struck again. Not going to get into that now because I know I have to go back up there at some point, but trust me, it's not pretty. B's stupid critters were overheating. I don't know why either. The basement is just hot the last couple of days. I have two massive fans running to try and keep things cooler down here, but it's not helping. Not sure what's changed to raise the temp, but it's not good.

Had leftovers for dinners. Went to bed.

Have three out of five days this week with real classes and students. Whee!

Y12 D68

Okay, today I really did sleep in. I didn't wake up until 7:45. Crazy! I went to bed around midnight too. A full 8 hours of sleep. Wild times. Both of us woke up around 6 because it was thundering and lightning outside. B ended up moving to the basement because it was freaking her out. I mostly slept through it.

We had a great day yesterday. We were out of the house for about 13 hours. We drove to Rocky Ridge OH where we had Cane's, went to a park right on Lake Eerie, and just had a nice relaxing time. On the way home we stopped at our friend's place and hung out there from 5:30 until about 10. It was nice being somewhere else all day. We also got to see Duck Tape world hq. I know that sounds dumb but they have a giant Duck you can see from the freeway. To me it's cool because it's what the kid used to use as her handle on everything when she was younger. She was the "Ducktape" on sites. I sent her a pic.

No plans for today other than getting some worms for the critters. We're going to start breeding our own to make life easier. So says B. We shall see just how much easier this makes things. I worry.

Y12 D67

I "slept in" this morning. I didn't go to bed until 12:30 so sleeping in is relative. I only got 7 hours of sleep which for me is a lot.

Had a decent day yesterday. Got the outline for my new class decided on and completed. That was my major accomplishment. Did a water change on the big tank. Made enchiladas for dinner. Really that's about it. Not a very exciting day.

My damn DTE bill is $250. I fucking hate having AC on all day. I am sure there a number of people getting bill shock this month. Not typically home during the day and boom. Even worse than last month because it's been warmer.

Today is chicken day. I am about to drive 170 miles to another state to have Cane's. It's more about the outing than the chicken to be honest. I just want to get out of the house for a while. See some sites and do something different.

To the chicken!