Y12 D158

 Up early for groceries. Passed B on her way to bed. Sigh. I am getting tired of this mixed schedule shit. I saw her for like 2 hours yesterday because of it. It's annoying me. 

Just under 190,000 new cases in the last 48 hours. Mission Accomplished. Couple thousand dead in 48 hours. Good times. Yet the outcome of Tuesday is still "up in the air". How? How does any sane, rational person look around and want four more years of this? Are you just fucking stupid or what? Or are you white, rich, and looking to protect only yourself? Fucking racist cunt. May death find you swiftly. I am scared to to the teeth of Tuesday. Violence. Lies. Riots. I fear it all happening. These do seem like end times. If you think I am exaggerating, then you are part of the problem. Go fuck yourself.

Had a good meeting around curriculum yesterday. Made some progress on things. Didn't do much else.

Did laundry. Ordered out because I was too annoyed to cook. Leaf guy finally came. Lawn doesn't look like a hellscape any more. That makes me happy. 

Oh yeah, Happy Halloween. Go read the news. Have a nice scare. Fuck this world. I should have dug out a bunker when we moved in here. Go underground and forget the world. Live my life as a hermit in a cave. But with all my computers dammit. Maybe that's why I have been loading my Steam library so much. Ready for the inevitable collapse of society. I will at least have movies to watch and games to play. 

Y12 D157

 Oh boy, it's bill day! Whee! Time to keep a roof over my head, the heat on, and the wolves at bay. Because that's what it's all about, right Charlie Brown?

Spent the first half of the day recording, then a webinar in the afternoon. We ate leftovers for dinner. I introduced B to Inside No 9. She has been watching The Crown which isn't my cup of tea, all innuendo intended. 

My lawn guy was supposed to be by Wednesday, still hasn't come. The neighbors across the street have the entire street jacked with trucks for some concrete work they're doing. Noise, trucks everywhere. Thank goodness I am in the basement. 

Recording more today, laundry, meeting at noon, then I am done for the damn week. Going to rearrange my office this weekend. May also work on my closet. I have this idea of moving the rods in my closet to give me more space but I don't know how well it will work. I want to double up on one side then put a new bar on the other. Effectively giving me 50% more hanging space. This would also allow me to mount a couple more shelves in there for folded stuff and shoes. We shall see if this is even feasible. It's a big project and I was thinking of holding it during my end of year time off, but maybe I will start this weekend.

Interested to see how tomorrow plays out. We have no candy or decorations but I may buy a bag at the store tomorrow just in case someone comes knocking. 

Okay, time to feed the machine.

Y12 D156

 Yesterday turned out to be pretty good. B got me two very cool things:

She did mess up and get the year wrong for the 'traditional' gift. She accidently looked at 5 and got something made out of wood. But I don't care, because both gifts are cool. The wood thing is a cheese serving set that collapses back up into a 'wedge' for storage and the other is an artist's palette serving tray with 'paint cups' for sauces and the like. Very cool gifts.

We had italian for dinner last night opting to use her new fondue set on Saturday. We want to do both a cheese and oil course so we need time to clean out the bowl in between as well as enough time to eat, prep, etc. I am going to go to the store on Saturday early and get all of our supplies. I did go to the store yesterday morning and get veggies in case we decided to do the cheese yesterday. They will hold until Saturday.

Puttered around with work stuff. Helped out a former student with some stuff. Caught up on some e-mails, did some marketing tasks.

We drained one of the tanks last night. It's been causing B trouble with fungus so we decided to just shut it down for good. We will consolidate two of the axies into a different tank. I don't mind because it's one less tank in the house I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Not much else. Got a webinar to deliver today, going to do some recording this morning, but that's about it. Friday is almost here and with it, the weekend. 

Y12 D155

 Woo! It's our anniversary! 6 years! Wow. We've been through so much in six years. Lived in four different places together. Been to Australia. Drove across the country. Bought a house together. Animals galore. Been a very filled time. Pretty damn amazing. No major plans unfortunately because you know the world.

Speaking of the world, what just happened on the court is a disgusting shame. For everyone who didn't vote or threw their vote away in 2016, fuck you. YOU are part of the reason why for the next 30 years, shit will be fucked up. The outcome of this election has just been put into serious peril thanks to you. 

PLEASE can we have an adjustment day?? PLEASE??

Taught a decent group yesterday. Minus the one who logged in and then walked away. They were reported to their superior. I know they walked away because I finally ended up dropping them and they never reconnected. I also had one of their coworkers quietly pinging them on the side with no response. So this ass connected to the meeting, 45 minutes late I might add, then walked away. They probably had me on mute and just zipped away. I can easily check the IP logs too to see if they did anything on the server. Hard guess of no.

B's friend came over last night. We had burgers. It was nice to have company even if it wasn't for me per se. 

Curious to know what B got me. Find out soon.

Y12 D154

 OMG yesterday morning was insane. At around 6:30am ALL of the smoke alarms went off. All of them. Of course we freaked checking the house. No fire, just a faulty alarm. I called an electrician and they gave me some troubleshooting tips on how to figure out which one is bad. Narrowed it down and now need to replace one unit. But holy hell if that wasn't an adrenaline kickstarter in the morning. But wait, it keeps going. When B finally is calm enough to go back to bed, she checks her phone. Her grandmother, the one who broke her ankle, wants her to come over and "wear out this puppy". 

But wait you say, what puppy? Seems that B's uncle the POS that he is, decided on a whim to get himself a puppy, then conveniently forget he has to go in for some sinus surgery, and dumps the puppy on the grandparents. That's how she broke her ankle. She tripped over the damn thing on the stairs. So now of course B is feeling guilty. She did hold her ground a bit. She didn't go over at 7am. She went over at like 11am. But she spent most of the day there helping out and even spent the night to be able to walk it in the morning. Motherfucker. She tried at one point to bring it back here and I put my foot down. Nope. Ain't happening. No dogs in this house. Cannot tolerate that right now. 

THEN while all that was going on, I am getting work emails wanting changes to a class that make no sense, need to do custom work for another client with no delivery date, and getting a list of inane changes from a salesperson. 

It was way too much in too short a period of time. I was massively overstimulated and overwhelmed. Finally calmed down around 9am. 

Had a 2:30 - 4 meeting with the team where the new COO sat in. That was interesting to say the least. Who knows. Head down. Do job.

Had soup and sandwich for dinner. Was acceptable.

Tomorrow is our anniversary. Six years. Damn.

Y12 D153

 I woke up at around 3 something because of B talking and making noise in her damn sleep. Not a horrible thing per se, but I got very confused because I thought it was Sunday and I could go back to sleep for a long while. Nope. 2 hours later beep beep beep. Son of a bitch, it's Monday. It's another week of 2020 shit. Another week of staring into the void and hoping something isn't staring back. Good times.

I spent the day pretty much playing Outer Worlds. Not much of anything else. I did a water change for B on one of her tanks. She's trying to cycle it and now we're out 12 hour water changes to get the levels where they need to be. Other than that, I didn't do much of anything. I did make myself a steak as planned. Baked potato to go with it. 'Twas quite tasty 'twas. Man I love confusing spellcheck sometimes. That's a valid word you digital piece of shit. We all worry about Skynet, but all we have to do is throw it a few weird words and all the robots will be having a ducking great time. 

Watched an episode of Inside No 9. Meh on the one I watched. It was done in iambic pentameter and they were trying to be "clever" but it never caught my attention. 

I did do some dye touchup. Mostly the new color is holding, but it's such a light color I have to be careful. The darker ones are more forgiving. 

This is my exciting life. 

This week I have a couple of days of training, couple of meetings, and some recording to do. Not great, but will keep busy.

Talked to my sister via email. She got a new cat and sent me pics. I like it. Is good.

Y12 D152

Been up for a while. Trying to deduce a network issue on the other machine. I think this week will be reformatting week. It's just acting flakey. Been almost 2 years since I got that  machine. Time to wipe clean. That's one thing I miss about the macs. You don't have to do that kind of shit. 

Did a bunch of shit yesterday. Went to the grocery store in the morning, took the cat to the vet around noon, cleaned the house, made a lasagne for dinner. A filled day. Nothing exciting going on either which is nice. Sometimes you want the boredom. I wasn't happy taking the cat to the vet at noon on a Saturday. They close at 1 so it was like way too crowded. Plus I like the crew that works during the week better. The weekend doctor is meh. Luckily it was just for vaccines so the time the cat spent in there was minimal.

No plans for today. B is going over to her friend's house and they're doing a pot luck fajita bar. I will be having a steak. I was thinking about this last night. Some people might wonder why I don't get upset at B going over to her friend's place without me. Why don't I go too? A few reasons. One, I don't like the house she goes over to. It's a dump. I know that's a rude thing to say but it's true. The guys that live there are growers and not the best in terms of housekeepers. Every time I've had to go there I feel like something is going to crawl out and bite me. Like Ross that time he dated the messy girl. But that aside, it's more I really don't have much in common with these people. Their idea of fun is sitting around getting high and watching cartoons. Hey, nothing wrong with that if you're doing it on the weekend. But that's their hole life. It's like watching Pineapple Express in real time. Plus they have the kind of house where people are always coming and going because, well, it's that kind of house. It just isn't my scene. I also think it's important for us to both have our own interests. I have observed that there are two different type of people when it comes to this and in some ways it's an age/maturity/background thing. See, older people who have been together forever recognize the need for space in a relationship. I don't go for the whole let's take separate vacations where one goes to HI and the other FL but I do think it's good for people to be able to have their own space. The older you get, the more you see that. Today's younger people also seem to be more in tune with that concept. It's the middle tier that doesn't get it. Or the insecure. The kind where they feel they need to be attached at the hip to their partner. Meh. But there's other people at that house! Yeah and? My wife is an adult who knows how to handle herself and I trust her. Period. It's taken me many, many years, but I am over the abuse of X1 and can be free of the doubt and insecurity she put on my shoulders. It's freeing. So yeah, I'm having a nice steak tonight.

Semi-busy week ahead. Anniversary on wednesday.

Almost forgot to share this:

Y12 D151

 Well I officially have cotton candy pink hair. I am not sure I like it. It's almost too light. I got very used to the blurple. We shall see how it does.

Finally finished a doc yesterday that has been giving me big troubles. The problem were the demos. I just couldn't come up with feasible things that could be done in a group setting. Plus a lot of things I am discussing in this class have to be done on a server and not on a desktop. This is where I kept running into problems. I am not proud of this class compared to others, but it's done.

I also did an internal training class from 2-4. That was enjoyable. Like having a tooth pulled or catching your hand in a car door. Plus as a result, every Monday in November, I will be doing 6 hour internal trainings. Oh boy! Lucky me.

After all that, made some dinner, did some laundry, and did my hair. I had to bleach it hard this time. Then run it through with purple shampoo to cut the brassy tones. Finally at 9pm I was able to do the pink. As such, I was up until midnight. 

Going to hit the store this morning for some things, but other than that, no major plans. I might pick something up for dinner. We shall see. 

Y12 D150

 So guess what? B has another rescue. Sigh. This time it's from a person about an hour away who found themselves in over their head with a baby. They have like 5 adults and someone gave them a baby axie and they had no idea how to deal with it. So yeah, we have another baby. But this one will be going back to the original owner in like a month or two when it has grown large enough that they can handle it. Good times. 

Another FULL ass day of teaching. 10-6 almost on the money of 6. There were no problems with the students or anything. Just a long day ya know? By the time I sat down to eat dinner it was almost 7 and the next thing you know it's time for bed. Not much time to do anything else. 

I setup fall and winter services with my gardener yesterday. Between now and March 2021 for $500 he will come twice to do full leaf and gutter cleaning (plus disposal which is a big part of it) and then from December to March I get a minimum of 10 snow removals. Any time the snow is over 2 inches, he will be out to do the driveway and the walkways. One less thing I have to worry about now for the next six months. I started adding it up yesterday too. While $500 may seem a lot, first off, it's billed per service so not a single hit. But, if I were to try and do all this myself? Lawnmower, leaf blower, snow blower, edger, scraper, shovels - add all that up and then put my time, effort, back pain, etc. on all that and it would take at least 5 years for me to have spent the same with him. In five years I sure as hell wouldn't want to do this and now I would have a pile of equipment being unused. To all you DIY folks, good for you, but don't be hating because I choose to go another route. 

Webinar today at like 2:30 - 4:00. Internal run through for public one next week. Boring shit. Late in the day too. But when it's done, I am done for the week. My new hair color came yesterday and I will be doing that this weekend. Otherwise, no obligations really for the weekend. Laundry and house cleaning are about it.

Oh, almost forgot - B's mother is pulling some shit again. For whatever reason she won't let B see her sisters. She says it's because of COVID but she lets them go to the grandmother's, the dollar tree, school, and all sorts of places that are much more dangerous than our house. We don't know what bug has crawled up her mom's ass this time but it is really upsetting B. We had a whole halloween thing planned for the girls too. Bitch. 

Y12 D149

 Update on the house next door, DTE was back again. I ran into the neighbor on the other side and they told me there was a realtor there taking pictures. We may soon have new neighbors. We shall see. 

Taught all damn day yesterday. When it's 10-6 that's pretty much my entire day. Not enough time in the morning to really do anything and by the time I am done with dinner, no time to do anything at night. Really sucks. Students are okay. One is at least, the other two not so much. But hey, it's work. I had a dream I was being offered a new position. But told no more money. Yeah wrong. I remember saying that if they want 3x the work out of me, it's not coming free. 

My laptop has been acting wonky lately. Doing a scan on it right now but I may need to reformat it this weekend. Fun times. 

Another day of teaching and then a webinar on friday and it's yet another weekend. Joy.

Y12 D148

 My ears are bugging me today. Time to turn off the humidifier again. The heat has been kicking in lately so I can turn up the whole house one instead. I might wait another week or two though. It's not quite cold enough. Getting there, but not there yet. 

Taught yesterday. Helped out some people with questions afterwards. Next thing you know, it's 4pm and I am done. Had leftovers for dinner. Watched a little tv. That was about it. Hey, not every day is a whirlwind of excitement.

Although there was one interesting thing; some action at the house next door finally. For weeks it has been sitting empty, no power, no nothing. Well guess who finally got their power turned back on? I just happened to be upstairs when I saw a DTE truck in front of the house and watched the power guy put the meter thingy back into the box for them. I would wager in the next week or so we see either a for sale sign on it, or someone moving in on the first because they rented it out. Damn, it's been really nice having no neighbors. Although if someone moves in this time of year like we did, we don't have to worry about them being in the backyard or anything. So there's that consolation. 

Two full days of teaching. 10-6 each day. Yes, I know I am up too early for a 10am class. Whatever.

OH! I finished the main storyline for Horizon last night. Damn. Really good stuff. I was very impressed. Now to finish the DLC and move that off to my finished folder. Booyah.

Y12 D147

 A few things to discuss this morning. Surprising as I thought yesterday was looking pretty uneventful. Ah, the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley. (Read a poem every now and then people. Open your bloody minds.) 

So I was originally only scheduled to teach today and then do a webinar on Friday. Well, we had some last minute signups and now I have full days of teaching on Weds and Thurs as well. Not complaining as this is a pricey class and even with 3 students we turn a profit. More than enough to cover my costs and put a little in the books. It also fully books me for two days. Gee, it's almost like it's 4th quarter and everyone is scrambling to spend their training budget. Gosh, not like this happens every year starting in October all the way up through December. If only someone had mentioned this and we could have seen it coming. Aye, the sarcasm meter is high on this one today.

I am witty today as I slept really fucking well. Like I woke up only once at 1:42, but that was from a solid sleep. I immediately fell back to sleep until 5:30. Weird ass dreams, but hey, good sleep is good sleep.

Second on the ol' agenda today is I got a flu shot yesterday. My first every in 50 years. I don't seem to be suffering any side effects other than a light headache yesterday a few hours afterwards. Why did I finally decide to get one? No, it wasn't B's encouragement. It honestly was because I am starting to wake up to the fact that my actions should geared towards how can I as a person have a more positive impact on the world around me. Look, when I was younger (relatively speaking), I swallowed the whole capitalism, work hard and succeed, consumerism bullshit hook line and sinker. Even though the rational side of my brain knew it was bullshit. But there was always a part of me that thought maybe, maybe I could be one of them. As I get older I realize that's just not reality. I don't have the white, I mean right, connections that get you into the inner circle. I'm not going to create the next SuperIndieAltPlatform. I'm a regular person whether I like it or not. I can work hard and enjoy a decent life, but man, that's about it. Sorry, but it's true. I truly am Jack's wasted life in some ways. But you know what? I'm okay with it. I am coming to terms with the fact that life isn't about some of the stupid shit they try to sell you on late night television. There's nothing wrong with wanting comforts. There's nothing wrong with having a nice house or a decent car. I'm not buying a fucking Prius and moving into a yurt anytime soon. BUT I am more reflective of how my behavior impacts those around me. Like wearing a mask OVER MY FUCKING NOSE in public. Like getting a flu shot since I am around people with weakened immune systems. Between B, her sisters, and her grandparents, I don't want to cause them problems because I was a self-centered, spoiled prick. It doesn't hurt me to spend five minutes getting a shot that if I didn't could literally cost them their lives. That's just fucking selfish of me. So yeah, I got a flu shot.

Got through a bunch of demos yesterday. Still have about six to go. I have a half day class today and want to try and get at least 3 more demos done. Then I can wrap it up on Friday I hope. That's the plan at least. And what did we say about those?

We had Qdoba for dinner since neither of us felt like cooking. Relatively cheap and they do curbside. After dinner we hit PetSmart for some stuff for the goobers. Was nice to go out and pretend things are okay. We were very limited in our outside time, but it was still nice to be out doing something together.

Started a new British show last night - Crazyheads. I like it.

Okay, time to get ready for 15 students and a half day of teaching. Oh, and go get a flu shot. You never know whose life you might save. And WEAR YOUR MASK OVER YOU FUCKING NOSE PEOPLE. This has been a PSA for being a decent human being. You're welcome.

Y12 D146

 Another month and we'll be at the halfway point for the year for writing. 

Didn't leave the house yesterday because, you know, the world sucks. How many days has this been going on? Too many is the short answer. Getting very tired of the world being the way it is. I have made it past crucial plot point in Horizon and let me tell you, I see a lot of parallels between what happens in there and what is happening outside. Funny too how one of the logs you find even says "150 years of science fiction prepared us for this but we still screwed up". Sounds about right. We are a great society when it comes to seeing giant writing on the wall and going, meh, they must mean that for someone else. 50,000 new cases per day still. Look at that number. Want me to be more exact? 52,774 on 10/17. That's the size of a moderate town. An entire town of people. Hey but only about 700 people died yesterday! So there! 

What the hell did I do yesterday? I don't even remember. Oh yeah, I moved my plex server. That was the majority of my day. I reduced my machine count down by one. But more importantly, I moved plex to a physically smaller machine and hooked it up to the same monitor I am using for this. This monitor has 2 DP and 2 HDMI which makes it easy to switch between machines. More desktop room. I was able to reduce my footprint down. One less machine running, one less giant screen on my desk. But yeah, that took most of my day. 

My new microphone arm arrived too. I am very impressed with Blue. They had it approved in three days, and in my hands 5 days from my first email to them. That makes me very happy. Now my mic is solid again. That's something.

Racoons have been cleaning out the food bowl every night. I had to put a cover on it last night to make sure there's something left for the other creatures. I love you tiny hand trash goblins, but leave some for the next guy! I feel bad not letting them have any food, but if they're going to stuff themselves it's unfair for all the daytime critters. Balance. Must find it.

Made coconut chicken for dinner. Been watching The IT Crowd with B. I was afraid she was going to hate it, but she loves it. Whew. This is my third or fourth time watching it, but it's a show I love, so no issues there. 

Light week this week. Teach tomorrow, internal presentation on Friday, doc writing the rest of the time. Which means I will be bored and distracted most of the week. Lucky me.

Y12 D145

 Managed to get a decent night's sleep. Slept for 8 hours. Was pretty wonderful.

Did a lot of little things around the house yesterday. Went grocery shopping at 6am and managed to get everything on the list. Was nice and empty. People may think I am crazy doing that but as I was leaving, the number of chin diaper wearing white folk going in was amazing. Thank goodness I was done and out of there. This is why I go at 6am. Before the idiots awaken. Came back, put everything away, then did a water change on the big tank. New water, cleaned, etc. Did some more laundry. Then I headed to the vape shop. Got there right as they opened for the same reasons. First in, first out. Less chance of running into any stupid people.

I then worked on a big project. Moving our Plex server from one machine to another. Over 60gb of library information has to move over. Took forever but I got the library copied. Now today I need to configure, move hard drives, set IP addresses, and should be good on a new machine. We shall see. 

Started another new (to me) anime last night. Erased. Really good. Had fish tacos while watching the first two episodes. Got farther in Horizon. Almost through the main questline but it decided to lock up on me because why not. I am hoping it saved at a decent place. I will find out today.

Weather is switching. When I went out yesterday it was 33 in the morning. Got up to a whopping 53 during the day. Supposed to be cold and rainy all this week. Good times.

Haven't checked the state of the world yet, but I am sure it's in the toilet.

Y12 D144

 Goddamn cats climbing on top of fish tanks. Driving me nuts. 4am and something not quite right about them. Yeah, I am up early. I was planning on getting up at 4:30 to head out to the grocery store, but B woke me up when she went to bed at 3:45am. Good times. Meh. I will take a nice nap at some point. 

My day was teaching. All day. With follow up questions and the like, I was busy from 8 until 5. We ordered pizza for dinner, did laundry, worked on fish tanks. Next thing I know, it's 10pm. Whee. Off to the bed. Such is my life.

Y12 D143

 Finally Friday. Last day of teaching for the week. I can get through this. Four days in a row is tough. New group yesterday. Much larger class, not all as sharp as the Tues/Weds group. More novices. Nothing wrong with any of them per se, but the class definitely moved slower and I repeated myself a lot more. But got through it. 

Made pork chops for dinner. Haven't had those in a while. 

I don't really have much of anything else going on in my life. 

Y12 D142

 Another day.
Another death.
Another sorrow.
Another breath.
No remorse, no repent.
We don't care what it meant.

The world is falling apart. Rome is burning. 

Let it burn, wanna let it burn, wanna wanna let it burn.

Smelled like Lou dog inside the van...

My head is... not here right now. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be in this timeline anymore. I want people like Mitch McConnel to not exist. I want my freedom. I want the world to be different.

But it won't be. Not anytime soon.

So let it burn. Maybe we will get it right the next time around.

Y12 D141

 Had a mishap yesterday evening which is a major problem. The new legs for my desk came yesterday which is a good thing. My desk is now about 2.5" taller and is working out much better for me. I can type more comfortably and push my new chair completely underneath. These are the good things. The bad thing is in the process of moving everything off the desk my mic arm went BOING!. One part of the arm decided it wasn't going to hold tension any more. I ended up having to put a hook on the wall and tying the arm portion up to keep it in a place where I can use it for work. Not ideal. I did open a warranty claim with Blue. They responded positively and asked for some clarification, but unknown if they will be sending a new arm, asking me to have it repaired, or what. Obviously a working mic is important for me. We will see how today goes and what challenges I face.

First day with this group from PA went okay. They were supposed to have 8, 5 showed. Gee thanks. Good people, no issues, but I'd like it if people actually showed up. I wasted 10 minutes in the morning stalling to see if they were going to show. Meh. Their loss. We finished around 4:15 and called it a day.

B made chicken and rice for dinner. It was acceptable. Not my kind of meal to be honest. A little too midwest for me. But it was food. Watched a couple of episodes of Inside #9. One was good, one was okay. I did finish One Punch Man. LOVED that show. Saitama is my favorite superhero ever. Man I would love to see a live action version of that. But I don't think there's any actor apathetic enough to play him. 

Day two of this group today. No other plans on the horizon.

Y12 D140

 Yesterday was death by 1000 papercuts. I was trying to get something finished but every time I turned around, it was just a flurry of distractions. Emails from this person, this admin task, that admin task. I was just annoyed by 3pm. I did however manage to complete the docs I was working on, take care of 2020 open enrollment, and make marketing people happy. So goals accomplished I guess.

B had to run a quick errand around 4 (prescriptions ready at Target) and while she was out, I had her pick up KFC. Sometimes, you're just craving the KFC, feel? It was both awful and wonderful at the same time. Mostly because I wasn't in the mood to cook at all. 

Although I still have two episodes of One Punch Man to finish (which I will probably finish today), I switched gears and started watching a BBC show. Inside #9. Wow. Just wow. I only got through two episodes, but those two episodes were incredible. Sardines and A Quiet Night In. Just fabulous to watch. I would highly recommend the show to anyone who likes good short stories. Well done.

87% done with Horizon Zero Dawn as of last night. Yeah, I switched back to that. I needed to play something visually appealing. I like older games sometimes, but sometimes I want to see what my machine can do. It did not let me down. This is a screenshot I took last night:

Not too shabby eh? Sometimes I want all the details. I may end up going back to FFXV for the same reason. Get the deets yo.

And what's going on with the world you might ask? Same shit, different liar. Quotes being taken out of context, big fat liars doing some big fat lying. Supreme Court nominee being shoved down the throat of NO ONE WHO WANTS IT. That's the part I find amazing. Like no one likes this person yet Emperor Palpatine, I mean Snokes, I mean McConnel keeps trying to say how she is the voice of the people. What people? Ed and Hazel Whitefolk of Topeka Kansas? Who are 90 and shouldn't have a fucking say anyway? Because no one with any ounce of brain wants this cunt to be on the bench for the next 40 years. I am so scared of what's going to happen in November. I fear riots and some nasty shit. You want to stockpile food for something, election day is the key. I will be buying some extra stuff at the end of this month, believe me. god bless america. 

Y12 D139

 My new chair got here at 6:45am yesterday. The delivery guy I think was surprised when someone opened the door as he was walking away. I don't think he sees many customers at that time on a Sunday. There were no assembly instructions in the box but luckily they have a YouTube video showing how it is put together. Took me about 30 - 40 including unboxing to get it all setup. Here it is:

Not too shabby, eh? The back lumbar part has been helping the most. Plus the stiffness of the cushion is much nicer than my old chair. It's forcing me to keep my back straight which is what I needed. I can still slouch, but I am slouching better if that makes sense. Downside? It's a little taller than my old one even on the lowest setting. I had to order some new desk legs to raise my desk up a few inches. Just like 2 inches taller. Right now I am "hunching" slightly to type. I also had to raise the monitor arm a bit. No biggie.

That occupied my morning. From there I did some house cleaning and swept leaves outside. The lawn guy will deal with the rest, I just wanted to sweep them off the patio. I went to the grocery store in the afternoon because B wanted a particular cheese on a grilled cheese sandwich. Yeah, I'm a nice guy. I wrapped all the anniversary presents too.

That was yesterday - a lot of little things all day. Had leftovers for dinner, watched some TV in bed with B, kicked her out and went to sleep. 

Have four full days of teaching this week. Two days each for two different companies. 10-12 people in each session. So real work again finally. Of course these would have been onsite in PA and NJ but oh well. Today I have a lot of admin stuff to do including open enrollment. Fun stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and Happy Indigenous People's Day to the rest of you. Fuck Columbus.

Y12 D138

 My new chair is out for delivery already. I am very impressed. 2 stops away. They got that shit out the door early this morning. Of course I have something else scheduled to arrive today so that was kind of dumb of them. But it looks like they may be coming out of two warehouses so it makes more sense. The fact that I am getting deliveries on a sunday is pretty amazing in its own right. 

Worked on fishies yesterday. Did a big tank clean. Went to Rite-Aid to get some back things and some wrapping paper. Two weeks until our anniversary. Got to get things wrapped up. Watched some tv, played video games, swept outside, fed the outdoor critters. Mostly a lot of little odds and ends type things yesterday. Nothing major happened. Had tacos for dinner. That's about it. I am pleased to report nothing. Means for once I am not angry at something or someone. But I am sure once I read the news today that will change. One of these idiots will have done or said something that will piss me off.

Nothing planned for today either. Whee.

Y12 D137

 Worked on a client problem the first half of the day. Didn't get it solved unfortunately but made some progress. Second half of the day spent teaching. Good group. I miss teaching these folks in person. Finished up around 2:30 and called it a day.

What the hell did I do after that? Oh, I remember now. Did a curbside pickup at Ulta because B had ordered some stuff. So I got to leave the house for 30 minutes! Woo!

Ordered dinner in. Had Happy' s Pizza. Acceptable.

Watched some One Punch Man, played some video games, went to bed. 

Back is STILL hurting but now it's down to one spot. What I need is someone to crack it. Free up whatever is pinching. Might cave in and see a chiro. Ugh.

No plans for the weekend thank goodness. Can just sit and relax.

Y12 D136

 Slowly getting better. Took drugs yesterday. Helped. I don't know why I wasn't taking anything otc before. I guess I just didn't think about it. In other words, I'm an idiot. But hey, what else is new?

Spent the morning recording only to be told I can't record that class because of internal politics. Even though I literally have someone who wants to buy it. Whatever. Their loss. I then spent about 4 hours on a workshop hosted by a different company. Took away some very useful notes from that. Things we can be doing much much better. It was a good use of time. 

Had leftover parm for dinner. Watched a little tv. Went to bed. Not much else going on around here. B's grandpa is sick. Actual flu, not anything evil. But I am glad I stayed away from him the other night. Sorry buddy, I will wave at you across the room.

Have a six person class to teach today from 10-2. Then it will be the weekend. Whee.

Okay, time to check the news to see what the fly covered, shit spewing, evil overlords are up to today. 

Y12 D135

 My new shirt came:

2020 in a nutshell, yes?

My back is slowly getting better. I got some icy hot patches for it finally and that has helped. Not 100% but it's helping. I ordered a new desk chair last night which should also help. One with massive amounts of cushion, a headrest, lumbar support, and a footrest. I know that part of the problem is how much I have been sitting these last six months.

I heard from an old friend recently. They were reaching out to see how people were doing. They're in NY and had to live through all that insanity. Fun times.

I finished another set of materials yesterday. Worked solid on that all day. B made chicken parm for dinner. Was really good.

After dinner we went to her grandparent's house. They have been up at the cabin and brought us home bags of corn for the critters. 80 lbs of corn for $20. That will last us a little while. The critters thank you nice people. We also helped unload their truck for which they were grateful and sent me home with a 4 pack of rootbeer. Love old people sometimes. 

Today I am attending a training but may have to switch gears and do some recordings. Awaiting direction from those who be.

Still depressed over EVH passing. Haven't checked the news yet this morning so who knows what other childhood idol has died. That's my life. Reading the fucking obituaries. 

Y12 D134

 Fuck my fucking back. Another bad night. I even soaked it for like an hour yesterday to try and get it to loosen up. I am in so much fucking pain right now. 

EVH's death hit me really hard yesterday. Especially when I read all the messages from other musicians. Fuck this year. Fuck it really hard.

Taught two people. They were very nice people. The class was good. Despite my back pain. Ate leftovers for dinner.

I am brief today because I just don't feel like typing. Believe me, there's a lot in my head but I don't have the energy to type it all out. Just let me get through this pain right now. Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take me away. Dream on. Dream on. Dream until your dreams come true. 

No wait. Not what I meant. Or maybe it is. Who knows anymore.

Y12 D133

 Back is worse again. Major pain. Woke up multiple times during the night. Having trouble sitting right now. I just need it to crack and relax. Going to soak it. Accomplished a decent amount yesterday. Got an emergency project thrown at me that I have to work on this morning. Went grocery shopping before working yesterday. Nothing like an empty grocery store at 6am. I swear I was one of like three people in the entire store. But now we have the food and I don't have to go back out for a while. A good long while. B never did go to the cider mill by the way. It ended up raining too much for her to want to leave the house. We put the heaty blanket on the bed last night. That tells you how much the weather has just changed in a short period.

What's new in the world? The idiot is apparently out of the hospital. Too bad. Maybe more of his cronies will go in though. Can always hope.

Y12 D132

 My back is a little better today. I adjusted the bed to a setting that appears to be working. I think I just need a good adjustment. Maybe after two years of living here I will cave in and go see her chiropractor. Maybe.

I'm up early this morning because I want to hit the grocery store. Get in and out before the day starts and the idiots wake up. The assholes here shot down the governor's ability to enforce things like masks and social distancing so in a couple of weeks it will be a nightmare when all the idiots can roam free. I will be avoiding them as much as possible. Americans - I am tired of thing, therefore I will pretend it doesn't exist, and it will be gone. Sorry Charlie. Doesn't work that way this time. 34,000 new cases with 232 deaths yesterday. Shit is still hitting. It isn't over just because you're tired of it. Your fearless leader is finding that out the hard way.

Didn't do much yesterday. Watched some tv, cleaned the house. Played some games. Went back to killing Nazis. Always satisfying. 

Three days of classes this week. Next week is a full 5 days. Happy about that for sure. But 8 out of 10 days teaching is pretty solid in my book. 

I need a new chair and am asking for one today. This should go over well.

Y12 D131

 I had a really bad night. My back is killing me. I woke up twice with extreme back pain. Once at 3:15 and again at 4:30. I need to find the right setting for the bed. I have been trying some different settings and this one does not work. Period. 

We put out fall/Halloween decorations yesterday. I went to the pet store for pet stuff and Ace for an extension cord for the new tanks. Speaking of leaving the house - B wanted to know if I was interested in going to a cider mill today. First off, cider mills do not evoke the same pleasant childhood memories for me as they do for her. I never went to a cider mill in my life until I met her. I don't even know of any where I grew up. MAYBE if you drove an hour into the boonies there was one, but without the traditional concept of seasons that other areas experience, it just wasn't a thing. So they don't do anything for me like they do her. To me it's a bunch of standing around in line to order something I don't like the taste of anyway. But this year there's a spin. I have been really trying to only leave the house for essential stuff. The things I went out and got yesterday were absolutely essential. The idea of going to a place where in the past it was close contact with other humans standing in line? Um, pass? Look I am just as fatigued by this shit as you are woman, but I won't risk my health for cider. I should also point out MOST of these places are not pumpkin patches. That we did have and that I do have good memories of as a child. These are literal farms and mills with apple trees and a cider making section. MAYBE they have a corn maze or a hay wagon ride. Again, things I give zero fucks about. 

Watched some tv, had pasta for dinner. 

Y12 D130

 I write my morning posts before I read the morning's news. Mostly because I don't want it to be influenced by stuff that happened today or while I am sleeping. This is supposed to be a reflection of yesterday so I like to come into it clean. I mention that today because I am so curious right now to see the status of the walking cheeto. I have never wished harm on a single individual as much as I do right now. I want him to feel exactly what the 200,000 other Americans, and the over a million people worldwide have felt. I want him to really experience this supposed hoax. Oh and fuck that stupid bitch rep who tweeted 'golly gee, does this mean China tried to assassinate our beloved leader?'. Seriously? Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Cunt. Maybe now all of the chin diaper, masks do nothing crowd will wake up. Just fucking maybe. 

I did odds and ends yesterday. Helped a potential new client out for a couple of hours. He was one of my students this week and he needed some serious after help. Then I had a two hour company meeting. Believe me, it didn't need to be two hours. I could have gotten through all of their shit in 30 minutes. Old white people. Bah.

Worked on fish tank stuff after dinner. Dinner was grilled cheese and leftover soup. I need to get groceries soon. Probably will go out early tomorrow and do some shopping. Watched a little TV, helped B with more fish related stuff. Went to bed.

No plans today. Have to hit the pet store for critter feed, but that's about it. May hit tractor supply co to save some money on this shit but it's like 35 minutes away. I don't know. I'm too lazy. But I am also cheap. Battle.

Okay, let's go read the news.

Y12 D129

 There's something satisfying about waking up one minute before your alarm goes off. Waking up 30 minutes or more is annoying because depending on how much you can either go back to sleep or be frustrated that it's not enough time to go back to sleep. But when it's one minute, oh that feels good.

Bill paying day. It flows in, it flows out. As quickly as it comes. Such is life. 

Got info on open enrollment yesterday. What a load of shit. I feel like they push it earlier and earlier and give us less time each year. This is one thing I hate about having an outsourced HR department. But then again, when they changed the name from Personnel to Human Resources, that about summed up what companies truly think of employees. I have to review it today to see how much they're going to increase my premium this year without any new services added. Of course everyone will use COVID as their excuse. Woe is us, our overhead costs are so much higher. Piss off.

Speaking of COVID, South Park of all people hit the nail on the head with their Pandemic Special the other night. If you haven't watched it, they have it up streaming uncut for free on their official website. Search South Park on Twitter to find the link. The episode captured all of the feelings. Good, bad, and indifferent. From the boys being locked at school, to the folly of trying to have zoom meetings, to chin diapers, they got it right. Best episode in a while. Was very impressed how they can still hit relevancy after 24 years. The Simpsons on the other hand debuted S32E1 on Sunday and it fell flat. An undercover boss gag. Okay. The difference is animators and writers who are still involved in the process versus ones who write scripts six months in advance. SP managed to reference the fact that it was literally October in their episode. Simpsons felt like something that should have aired 10 years ago. 

Taught all day. Have a follow up with one of the students this morning. I am doing it because he was really patient while the other two students ate up my time. One because of technical issues, the other just plain ignorance of the general technology surrounding what we're doing. They weren't horrible as a person, but they kept asking questions irrelevant to what we were discussing. That throws off my groove. It was an exhausting day for sure.

Dropping off our ballots this morning. They have been done for a few days, but I am taking them in directly to make sure they go in the right place. I trust not the postal service right now. I am walking these bitches in the door. 

Made soup for dinner last night. Broccoli cheese. Was tasty and there are leftovers. We had to run to the pet store after dinner for worms too. Ended up being a long night. I did manage to finish Parasyte. REALLY good ending. I strongly recommend the show to anyone looking for something different to watch.

Company meeting from 3-4, exterminators back at 4:30pm. Fun times. But hey, it's almost the irrelevant weekend, right?

Y12 D128

 Happy Halloween 1st!

Look, just trying to find some normalcy in an otherwise fucked up world. Take what I can get ya know? Time to pull out decorations after work today. Speaking of work, yesterday's class went okay. Two of the students are great. One is annoying as fuck. She doesn't mesh with the rest of us and isn't interested in what I am teaching. She keeps asking completely unrelated questions. Technically they are all on the ball and smart, which is good, but let me get through the material people. 

After class I made salmon for dinner, watched Parasyte, went to bed. Honestly that was it. Nothing else going on. It did get cold enough in here for me to have to turn on the heater yesterday. It got down to 63. I hate this weird time of year. One minute you need a sweater, the next you're putting on shorts. Make up your damn mind. 

Just a little over a month before we find out if democracy is dead or not. Should be an interesting four weeks.