Latest Entry:

Fri:
Don wants us to "help" some other team of 35 testers by reading their test cases and "seeing if we can break it." Uh, their test cases number almost 400. If not more. It's on various tabs and I didn't get a full count. It would take me a whole day just to comprehend it, much less try to improve it. Why does a team of 35 need our help? He wants "your special way of looking at things," and I'm flattered that you think I'm the equal of 35 other people but I just don't think it works like that, Don.

Otherwise there's not much. More reading.

Proofreading something Joe worked on.

Did the shopping, then saw my parents. Mom is feeling better but isn't over her cold.

Then back here, checked sites. Ran game. We got through one dungeon, so I didn't need to work on the second one after all. That's fine. They're off doing personal sidequests now so I sort of have to wing it, but it's just talking about magic and such so I pretty much have that nailed down. We actually went until 12:00 which is not typical. But now Sean can just buy spells from the store and not have to do the dungeon method for it. I know there will be much rejoicing.

Sat:
No new mice caught.
Did some adulting. Made appointment for Oliver in May, and ordered his meds.
Email stuff. Just cleaning up the inbox.
Checked sites.
Snowing?

Did FF7. Got through the Gi cave, interesting lore for the Black Materia. In the original game there was no real indication where it came from, which is a bit sus. Materia canonically is supposed to be the "condensed wisdom of the Cetra" because they could use magic on their own so anyone using it is simply borrowing their skill. It would have been interesting to meet a character trying to do magic without such aids, I think it would have fleshed out the world a little. I know I would be trying! I mean magic clearly exists, and they figured it out, what keeps me from doing so? And what about support materia that, like, raise HP or MP? That's not a spell, so how does it work? Anyway, basically the lore here is the Gi made it to try and destroy themselves, because they can't enter the lifestream. Plothole! If they can't enter the lifestream because "those not born of the lifestream cannot join it" then how did the Cetra do it? They were visitors from another world, right? Or am I wrong and they were native to the planet too?

Did other missions in the area.

Got ready to go. I went and got the food. In the car I decided to myself "self, you should check the order a little bit." It's a good thing I did. There were 5 orders, but only 4 bags in the bag. I went back in. And of course it was mine that wasn't put in. What a world. They made it for me right then. I think I got charged twice. The original total was suspiciously close to what I calculated the total to be. Hummm. Oh well, I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.

We didn't get started on the game for some time, but we managed to stay focused pretty well when we did. Got through... checks notes... three whole rooms. Wait, that's it???? I was dazzled for most of the combats, so thanks for that. (totally unable to act) But we lived and there are no lasting wounds on our side. Shoot, I should have done my question magic to see if we were even on the right track. I mean I assume we are, it's the adventure we're on how can it not be the right track? But Orchid would have checked.

Oh and we won't play that game for another ... checks notes ... two months!? Something something "real lives" I guess. Oh well. Plenty of time to do the write-up I guess. (Of course I'll do it right away, you know me too well)

Oh, and we won't be doing the color game for a few more weeks either. More of that real life stuff.

Sun:
Did the readings.
Almost lunch time. Plenty of time to put the corrections in for Library that Alyx sent me. So I did.
Ate lunch.
Went out to clean the gutters, but found it was a bit too cold. The water I had set out for the birds earlier was a frozen block, and so were the leaves up there. Should have done it after work on one of the nicer days. Oh well, there will be another time.
More FF7. Just more stuff in the cosmo canyon area, haven't move on from there.
More reading. Almost done with Delve.
Then getting ready for tomorrow.
Made the food, but only dinners. I have muffins from the haul for breakfast, and I'm only halfway done with the soup for lunch. Didn't take too long.

Mon:
Finished Delve.
Did the server check, wow already that time again. Only one more week of March.
Otherwise, not much work wise. Don't know if we're doing the testing or looking at the test plan or what. No direction given. So no work done! I could work on test cases but the next release is still pretty far away and I don't have any specs anyway so there.

Just did writing. Finished the previous chapter and wrote the very long next dungeon chapter. More content, so I'm not done with it. Need to put in what they did after leaving the dungeon.

Went to see phone guy. It wasn't his phone. In fact it wasn't anything. There I was, trying all sorts of technical measures to restore his internet service. Finally called greenlight, oh, the bill wasn't paid. Great. Nice job.

Got back here, checked sites, had dinner.

Tues:
Some work stuff, but not much. Had the Joe meeting.
Then set up a versalink device, after some annoyance, to not send an email. Despite encryption not even on the menu to turn on and off, the device insisted "encryption cert not available" when I went to send one. This was the incorrect way I wanted it to not send an email. Finally figured out that if I turned smime on, I could then see the encryption menu, and turn it off. Then the email would try to send, and I could get the error page in the two ways I was requested to get it.

Nifty.

Called the vet, they had not called in Oliver's prescription, they needed to know if this one should go to Wegmans. Yes, yes it should. Taken care of.

Otherwise finished up the content from the pony game, and a bit more besides. Answering some questions for Gianna.

Came back here, checked sites, had dinner.

Proofread the pony stuff, mostly so I could send the bottom part to Neil, to get Gianna's questions answered.

No calls.

Got ready for tomorrow.

Wed:
Caught two more mice last night, that's bringing us up to 14. Did not bring them, it's kind of nasty out today. Looking ahead it's not great either, not sure if I should put them in the big tank for a few days or just let them go.
Had a meeting with Joe, did a cert thing for Don, and found more haul! Yes! Nature is healing. Odd stuff, a ton of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Odd. But a brownie, a few meal type things, keep it coming.
Had a Tim meeting too, a new quarterly thing Xerox is making everyone do because they love busywork.
Wrote more of the pony story, as Gianna had more questions for me. Then moved on to Emberhaven. Got that mostly done. Just another scene with Liv energy draining the guy. Shouldn't take long.
Did not get the call for the RG&E meter. Called at 4:30, as they hadn't come by 4:00, oh he was there at 1:20 or whatever. Sigh. And she can't reschedule me until tomorrow? What kind of system is that? A stupid one, that's what.
Oh, got a letter for the previous occupant of the house. A fireman's thing the "west webster volunteer fireman's association." Dudes, she hasn't lived here for 20+ years. You're reaching a bit too far back.
Oh, another thing I didn't do- get Oliver's medicine. Apparently Wegmans needed to order it adding 1-2 business days before it can be fulfilled. I wonder if I'll ever feel fulfilled. (KIDDING!!!)
Anyway, here at home I had some trash food, checked sites.
Good news for Oliver. Not cancer! His blood test can take 21 days... uh, okay?
Did First Descendant single player stuff. It's a long series of missions. Didn't get through it.

Thurs:
Called the RG&E people before I left for work. The next time they can come is... May 28th. Sheesh. Hey, maybe if you actually did your jobs and called beforehand, people wouldn't have to reschedule thus making more work for everyone? Just a thought.
Brought the mice out. It's going to be cold but sunny today, so I figured it might be best if they just headed out now. Is keeping them in a cramped cage or in the cold outdoors the more moral action? I'm not sure.
Worked on OneDrive stuff with Christina in the morning.
Loaded a D8.0 R25-04 build and verified some bugs for Joe, despite them not being my bugs and already being verified by others. Sure, why not.
Worked on the rest of the chapter, it turned out to be a long one. Did the proofreading.
Had the usual meetings.
Varma showed me that I was using the wrong Yubikey for the test I was trying to do. Whoops, my bad.
Went to Good Will. Had to really scrounge to find any goodies. I think I did find a frame for my attempt at the friendship crystal. I did take a few things for the game but it's slim pickings.

There was no mouse activity last night? I checked the camera and there was nothing! Astonishing.

Ah, Oliver's meds came in. I can pick them up tomorrow.

Three calls today? Why? Just... why? No calls at all this week, and then on the worst day I get three? Why?

It wasn't too bad though. The one guy just up the street, he's promised to look for the piece of paper (I made him) with his passwords on it.

One person was fine.

The person right across from work has "unknown network" he's the guy with the PC I tried to get on ethernet but it didn't work (the guy that lost his machine to some kind of reset like a week ago or whatever) so kept him on wireless. Not sure what that's about, but I'll stop there before doing the shopping and seeing my parents.

Finished up the First Remnant stuff, thank goodness for Bunny.

Looking ahead not sure what I'll do work wise tomorrow. Will do the shopping, see my parents, then return home to run game. Haven't looked at it in a week, but it should be all set with the combat maps and such. I'll look it over tomorrow but it should go fine.

Saturday I'll have to get up early to bring Oliver in for stitches removal. Otherwise, clean the gutters if it's nice enough. No game, that's for sure. Have my father over for more Dr Who perhaps?

That's basically March. The year is 1/4 over. Sheesh. See you next time.