Y9 D219

Last day of the year, decided to sleep in a bit. Why the heck not. I actually did quite a bit yesterday and I want to see if I can remember everything. First I finished watching season 4 of Black Mirror. Not bad since it was release Friday. I posted this on Twitter already but for those of you who don't follow me there, here's my ranking of the season:


1. Black Museum (E6)2. Metalhead (E5)3. Hang the DJ (E4)4. USS Callister (E1)5. Arkangel (E2)6. Crocodile (E3)
I especially loved the little touches in Black Museum that brought all six episodes, and the prior seasons, together. I started the day with Crocodile and was worried because it was meh. I had really enjoyed USS Callister and it wasn't getting better with episodes 2 or 3. Thankfully Hang the DJ took it back in the right direction. Some may disagree with me on Metalhead, but I really enjoyed the black and white filming but more I liked the whole lack of context. What happened? Why are there robot 'dogs' everywhere? WTF? Don't care. Just going to go with it and enjoy the episode. By not asking questions I was really able to get into it. And then Black Museum. Well that was just the shit. 3 stories in one plus all the easter eggs you can handle? Hell yes. One of the side stories was actually based on a short by Penn Jillette which I thought was cool. In the end, 4 strong episodes, one okay one, and one meh. Not bad. Now to wait another year for season 5.

Other things from yesterday included ordering B a birthday gift. I got her a 'Retromini' handheld ROM based game. It plays GB, GBC, GBA, and NES roms. She saw it and had to have it. It will be here in about 2 weeks and that makes it a perfect birthday gift. I already have something in mind for Valentines Day and I need to order it soon. It takes 2-3 weeks to arrive as well.

Did we leave the house? Hmm. Shit, did we? Wait, yes, because I realized I was low on gas. Went to the store around 4 to get some riced cauliflower to go with the slow cooker stew I made. Ha. Memory you be the thing. I wonder what a doctor would say about me writing like this for so many years. Have I helped to stave off memory loss or other things? Regardless, I have a chronicle for when the memory loss starts seeping in. I am old this year you know. Past the point of no return. Sigh.

That's about it, may you all have a nice NYE. I am going to take some advice I saw recently. I plan on being in bed normal time so I can start my new year refreshed, clear headed, and full of positive energy unlike a number of people out there. Try it, might work for you. Better than waking up with a fizzy tongue and a headache I would say (and trust me, I have way too much experience on that front).

See you in 2018 people.

Y9 D218

I feel horrible this morning. I have been tossing and turning since 3 with the worst stomach problems. Throwing up in my mouth kind of problems. All to blame is our dinner last night. We went to this asian place that was just god awful and made us both sicker than shit.One of our goals for next year is to eat at one if not two new restaurants per month. This is what that gets you. Throwing up in your mouth at 3am. Fuck that noise.

Didn't do much on anything yesterday. Watched the latest episode of Happy! and started Black Mirror. Only two episodes in so no spoilers please. I will probably finish it today. But that was about it. Not much else going on except dying from food poisoning.

Oh duh, I went grocery shopping in the morning. Got enough food for 10 meals already planned out. Tonight is mexican chicken crockpot stew. Starting it at 1pm. We are trying to eat more planned meals and I have the next two weeks lined out. Managed to get everything on my list without any problems.

So today, not much. We are going to home depot to find a shelf to hang in the laundry room but that's the extent of our plans. Obviously if we find one, we will hang it up. Look out world! I can't believe it's NYE weekend. This year is almost done. Crazy shit.

Y9 D217

Woke up to like 10 emails this morning. Nothing bad or evil, just a lot going on. End of year statements, bills, etc. Just a lot happening overnight it seems. Had to wade through and delete the garbage and filter out the good.

Our big adventure yesterday was going to a local crystal shop. B kept some of the bullet casings from when she went to the shooting range with the intent of turning them into jewelry. She had seen where others took the casings and added crystals to them. We spent a good hour in the shop trying different crystals. It's a nice little store and the guy who works there was a big help. I ended up buying a selenite lamp for my desk since everything was on sale.

Other than that brief sojourn outside, we didn't do much. I cleaned a bit including vacuuming. Made pasta for dinner. Worked on some stuff for the marketing team.

Today I am going grocery shopping and paying bills. Such is my life. Last weekend of the year. Farewell 2017. What a fucking concept. 2030 is only 12 years away. WTF? Time keeps on slipping...

Y9 D216

Finished my document yesterday. 12 pages and 8000 words. And although I sent it off to the desired recipients, it's going to sit for at least a week. The minute I sent it, all I got back were out of office messages. Back Jan 2, back Jan 8. Well fuck me. Meh, at least it's sent and done. No going back now. As I put in the email I sent, if I didn't care, I wouldn't have written it. Which is so very true. When most people are frustrated at their companies, they don't write 12 page manifestos. They just start looking for a new job. The simple fact that I took as much time as I did to analyze all these things shows that I am sincere in my desire to make things better. Let's just hope it gets seen that way by the people who are supposed to be reading it.

That was pretty much my whole day. Didn't do much else. We had Indian food for dinner which was quite tasty. During dinner we also made a decision on what to do with the car. We have pretty much decided we're going to keep it. Based on what we owe, the residual value, the condition it's in, etc, it's in our best interest to just hold on to it at the end of the lease. If we're able to keep it in good condition then we will be able to have something to use as a good down payment in 2021. Man that sounds weird. We both like the car, we like the features. Let's make smart financial decisions for once, ya know?

Watched some tv, played some games, went to bed around 11. Not much else going on.

Y9 D215

Our stomach sagas continue here. Stomach flu maybe? The tail remnants of our being sick? Regardless, neither of us is doing well at this point. B tried going to group but ended up coming right back home. We did have a veggie lasagne last night which isn't helping. Go fiber? Ugh. Getting old sucks.

I spent from 5:30 until 2 working on my 2017 in review document. It's currently at 8 pages and I have a good 3-4 to go. This thing is covering everything; where we did good as a group, where we could improve, gripes I have about salespeople, but the real kicker is the last part where I am asking for a raise. I am backing it up numbers of course. $745k in generated revenue for me personally. An average of $34k per client. Dealt with over 680 students.

That last metric got me thinking about both my positive and negative feedback I receive from clients. I was thinking about how the average consultant at our company deals with maybe 2 or 3 clients in a year. Some only deal with 1. When you look at the number of people they have direct contact with on a daily basis over that time versus the sheer amount of time I spend with people, it's only natural that there will be some who don't get along with me. It's okay. Some will some won't. It's human nature. The other employees will talk to someone maybe an hour a two a day over the course of months where as I am in these people's faces 2-3, even 5 sometimes, days straight for 8-10 hours a day. The sheer volume is a magnitude difference. Therefore it's only normal that I would get both a higher number of compliments and respectively, complaints. Perspective man, it's a bitch. Anyway, I have about 3-4 more pages to go today and then I will send it off to key people and sit back and wait. We shall see what happens.

That was the bulk of my day. I started making dinner around 3. It was a lasagne, they take a while. B left at 6, but was back by 7. I was about to start watching the Doctor when she let me know she was on her way back. I waited for her to get back and she ended up watching it with me. The end of 12. It was an extremely emotional episode. My Doctor is gone. Let's see how you do 13.

We got like 5 packages in the mail yesterday. Ended up with our own little boxing day celebration. Stuff that didn't make it in time for Christmas because Christmas Eve was a Sunday. I got a new vape battery and B got some boots we ordered her off eBay. She loves these boots she bought earlier in the year but the stitching was coming apart. We tried finding them in the original store but no luck. We did however find a pair on eBay for $12. Score. Unworn, brand new, no box. Done and done. We enjoyed our little second Christmas.

Time to finish my manifesto. Such fun.

Y9 D214

Been up for a little while but have spent most of it in the bathroom. Not doing too well in the old tummy region this morning. Not sure why, didn't eat anything to out of the ordinary. We ended up eating fried chicken for dinner but it was from Popeye's and that doesn't usually bother me. Weird.

So Christmas. I got some cool stuff including a new mini-projector, five or six books, some socks, some PJs, and some jewelry. B was overwhelmed as usual. I tried my best to not cause her grief but it didn't work. She gets up too early to try and please me, then gets to tired and ends up sleeping half the day away. It's okay, while she slept I hung my new shower curtain rod. You know you're old when shit like that gets you excited. It's a dual rod design and curved. I like it.

As I said, we went out for dinner, watched some TV, and we both were exhausted and collapsed around 9.

Today I have some stuff coming that didn't make it in time, and we get to celebrate Boxing Day basically. No complaints here. Otherwise, I am writing up my end of year assessment for my boss on everything we all did good and bad and I will be asking for a raise. Let's see how that goes.

Y9 D213

MERRY CHRISTMAS BITCHES!!

I've only had 4.5 hours sleep but who can sleep on Christmas??? Apparently, my wife. She mad me promise I wouldn't wake her before 8 or 9. Sigh 8:01 would be okay, right?? Nah, I will let her sleep as long as she needs. I'm not that mean. It's not like we have a lot of plans today other than open presents. I did also make one sacrifice for her. She feels guilty eating out on Christmas and I said we could eat at home. We have a veggie lasagna in the fridge I was going to make tomorrow, but we can have it tonight. I do find it interesting she doesn't like to eat out. Working class guilt? My white privilege is showing when I do want to go out today? Especially to have Chinese food? Probably. Years of conditioning I need to break. Hence why I am not going to throw a fit. She wants to stay home, we stay home.

We stayed in the house pretty much all day. She was low on meds and around 11 I told her this is your one shot for me to go to the store. Now or ever. Of course this prompted her to add like a dozen things to the list. Okay. We had a big ol' plate of nachos for lunch. I had made pancakes for breakfast too. A day of eating it was.

Around 7 we started in on the Christmas watching:

- Year Without Santa Claus
- Charlie Brown Christmas
- Grinch
- Always Sunny
- Die Hard

That took us all the way to midnight. I annoyed a couple of people with texts and went to bed.

Can I open presents yet??

Y9 D212

This is it! The final hours!! Only 19 hours to go and it's Christmas!!! WHEE!!

Didn't do much yesterday. B is just about shaken off the cold she got when she came home. Took her about a week, about as long as me. But I didn't want her pushing herself and made sure she still took drugs and stayed in the house. I went to the grocery store in the morning followed by the kitchen store in the afternoon. We needed new potholders and I took advantage of Christmas sales to get some. The store wasn't too crowded either. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes.

Just took care of my timesheet so no one yells at me. On Tuesday I will be writing up my 2017 manifesto where I ask for a raise and point out some of the issues from this year. One of those is timesheets. We don't bill like the consulting side so to ride my ass for a timesheet is stupid. I should be able to do mine when I do it, if at all. My boss knows when I am scheduled to teach so that should be enough. Whatever.

We watched a movie together yesterday called Bright with Will Smith. Not bad. I could see it turning into a series. I recommend it.

Made fajitas for dinner. They were pretty good. Not great because I used pre-packaged steak for convenience and it was okay. Overall they were good but not like the best ever.

Played some video games and went to bed around 11. Nothing planned for today except counting down.

Y9 D211

We're in the Christmas home stretch!! Only 43 hours to go! Woo hoo!

So B and I went and test drove two cars yesterday. She hated both. We have three more on the list. If she hates all of these then I am just going to make a decision. I am trying my best to let her have the final say but she doesn't like cars for one reason or another. I think it's her subconscious not letting her accept the fact that she deserves a new vehicle. She is so used to buying used pieces of shit that the thought of driving around in a new car stresses her out. She nitpicks little things. Whatever. I am trying.

Other than that excursion out of the house, not much was done yesterday. Thank goodness. We had some really good veggie tacos for dinner, watched some tv, played video games, and went to bed. I went to bed around 11, her around 2. I do like when she goes to MI because it helps to equalize her sleep schedule. For the first few days when she gets back she goes to bed closer to me. Not that it's important, but it makes things easier.

Today I have to go to the bank and activate my new card, then spend like two hours making sure I have changed everything that has my old card as a default payment method. This is the part that sucks.

That's the big plans for the day. Yay! Just two more sleeps and it's time. Oh and it will be time for THE DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS EPISODE! Yeah, that's what I really care about.

Y9 D210

I made it through! Thank the gods both old and new I am now officially done until at least Tuesday. I am not teaching again for 2 weeks, but I am under no expectations at least for the next four days. It was rough but I got through it. Finished around 2 and was happy as a clam.

Why are clams happy? Do they know something we don't?

After class we had our date night which was really awesome. We headed down to the train station around 4:30, got right on the train, and we were downtown by a little after 5. We first stopped and picked up our tickets, then we went to Powell's. B needed a new book bag as she tried to wash hers and it ended up shrinking. It now holds one book please. Powells was pretty busy but we had time to kill so it wasn't stressful for us.

Got back to the theater and sat at their bar where we had dinner. B had a steak wrap and I had a pretty good burger. I have to say, this theater is perfect for someone like me. Small theaters (only 50 seats in ours), a bar area with food, a TV that shows when your movie is starting to seat, in chair delivery, and just a real relaxed vibe. Loved it.

As for the movie? It was good but not great. We saw the Bill Nye movie. The problem with it was that it felt like four movies in one. Was it a documentary on his life? On his work as Science Guy? On his work with climate deniers? On his work with the Planetary Society? All of those were showcased but it didn't feel like it spent enough time on any one topic. I could have used another hour. But then no one would have sat for a 3 hour Bill Nye movie. It might have been better as a mini-series. It was good, just not enough depth. We got home around 9:30 and went off to bed shortly thereafter. A really nice night.

Today I am going to the Walmart for some final final gifts, then we are driving a car at 11, then nothing, sweet glorious nothing, for a while.