2015-12-24:

Fri:
Day went pretty well. Don't think I wrote up much, though. Oh, I did learn that this version isn't going to customers after all, version 3.1 is. This one is being used in some sort of validation for the payment services or something. Not sure. Somewhat of a relief, actually.

And I guess they found out what was causing jpgs to fail to print/preview, so that's good.

The cute developer from India left to go home again. Bye! Why did you even come here?

Some are coming in tomorrow. Me, I have other work to be about.

Then went shopping and over to my parent's house. Enjoyed a nice dinner with them and came back here. Bit of snow on the way home, but 60s on Christmas? I'm dreaming!

Two calls, but no new work thank goodness. In fact I lost my current Monday job. Oh well. My Sunday seems to be free, free! FREE! Apart from my mother's party, I mean.

Which doesn't really count.

Not much time before bed, I'll finish off a pony episode or two.

Sat:
I loathe PC repair. Have I said that previously? I do.

Four hours. That's how long my first one was. You know, the guy who's always got a list a mile long of different crap than he's ever wanted to do before. "Tell me how to use this program you've never even heard of." Yeah, sure.

Well, I got his first item done, reloading paperport because that's so important. He wanted his machine rebooted. Fine. I rebooted it.

And it went black. It just sat there, grinding the hard drive away, and did nothing else. No cursor on the screen, no welcome message, just a black screen.

Of course he had updated to win10 so forget getting into safe mode in a reasonable and sane manner. No. You have to crash it out three times, then go through 4 different layers of menus until you get there.

Now I thought it was the update that had caused it, because in another brilliant flash of logic, MS doesn't let you restart without doing the updates anymore. So once in safe mode I tried getting out of the update. And restarting. And crashing out three times, and restarting, and crashing out three times.

Superb engineering MS, my hat (if I wore one) would be off to you.

Came to find out, this is not an isolated problem, and the solution (get this) is to let the machine boot, (for about three minutes) listen for the chimes, wait (about another minute) and put the machine to sleep. To sleep! With the power button.

When you wake it up, boom, the screen is there waiting for you.

Seriously, that works! There is no 10 support listed for his machine, so there's no newer video drivers or anything I can try. Just throw up my hands and say "you're stuck with it that way."

So I finally got to leave a little after 12:00. (I had gotten there at 8:00.) With my good old $50 fee. I could have banged my head into a wall for four hours, had a more enjoyable time, and I wouldn't have been out that much!

So I get home and eat lunch for fifteen minutes before my second lovely appointment of the day, book guy.

Who has of course erased both of my messages where I sent him the file to look over, meaning I'm going to have to go home and get it, because here was me thinking even he wouldn't be THAT MORONIC. Oh, how wrong I was. Of course he denies ever doing this.

But wait, the day is saved BY HIS OWN STUPIDITY. He actually tried (4 times, no less) to download it, so it's sitting in his download folder waiting for me. Hurray! But he insists it'll take too much time to look over, so guess what? I get to go back YET AGAIN! Because do you think this man will be able to send me this file after he's looked it over? If you've been paying attention, you know the answer.

Oh, and don't forget that he wants 15 more copies of his earlier book, like I'm some kind of print shop. And I had to stand and argue with him that $55 is only enough for 11 copies. Because FIVE times ELEVEN is FIFTY FIVE. Finally had to punch it into a calculator and he gave me the extra $20. And he says he's not losing it.

SIR I BEG TO DIFFER.

Sorry about all the shouting this time. It's not because I'm FURIOUS or anything.

Do you even know how long it'll take to print 20 freaking copies of these "books?" Good thing I got a toner refill I guess. I can finally get rid of some of this paper too, I've got stacks of it.

So I was early to my 2:30 (because I allocated extra time for him to look the thing over so I didn't have to come back AGAIN) and that one went fine. I gave her the pictures of Tinker I had printed and she was just all aflutter(shy) about how well he was doing. Set up her new machine, had a hunt for her router (on her bedside table) and was able to come home for like an hour before I had to leave for Sean's.

Got the replacement SSD, so I can do that tomorrow.

Had a good time at Sean's, got and gave some gifts. Mizzy made me a very nice scarf I used immediately when I went to get the food.

And Neil got me a bunch of pony stuff, and a new bag. I'll use the bag for transporting my laptop and books to Sean's. The glass I guess was custom made for Anthro-Con, Anthrocon? Anthro Con? Anyway, and the mug and flash drive (that's what the little one is) are both super cute.

[[image file="2015-12/scarf.jpg" alt="Mizzy Scarf" ]]

[[image file="2015-12/otherstuffpony.jpg" alt="pony stuff" ]]

I need a shelf or something for my mug collection, it's getting out of hand. I want to display them, they're all so cool.

Hey, there's a birthday present idea for me, some kind of mug tree. It's coming faster than I would like.

Anyway, won some and lost some games, talked about new RP we could do, and generally missed Other Sean who was again absent. Watched the latest Mission Impossible movie, and played a bit of WiiU. Good times.

Sun:
Woke up around 9:00, and got to *shudder* work.

Reloaded win10 from DVD onto the desktop as my flash drive apparently doesn't have "pro" built into it like the DVD does. Really MS? You're still pulling that crap? How does any company put up with it?

Cleaned up a bit around here, called the lady who didn't answer once the thing was done.

Made the book guy's copied CDs, because that's so hard to accomplish.

And it's only 11:30!

Made Christmas candy for mom.
Typed up notes for the game I want to try running with Sean/Stan/Mizzy.
Started printing out the 15 copies, did 4. Ugh, takes so long.
There's no sensor or anything at the top as I hoped, so it just keeps pushing the pages out. They were all over the floor. Guess I have to watch it every second.

Watched my shows, or the one that's still showing that is, Supergirl. Watched the first episode of The Magicians. I think I read the book, at least it seems very familiar. Just as boring as I recalled, mainly because it's a world of magic that doesn't seem to use any magic.

Like at the end. Guy busts into the classroom and blasts the big bad with a single spell, which big bad shrugs off, then murders Guy. The question I have to ask is- would big bad have shrugged off a couple of pistol rounds to the chest? Somehow I don't think so. But that's really the only impressive magic we see, it doesn't work, and the person that tried it gets killed. Some world of magic.

Went to my sister's house, gave my mother her gifts. Hope she liked them. Meow!

Came back, made my stupid calls. The Tinker lady is complaining Facebook won't work right. Dentist guy got his new crappy machine which I doubt is any better than his current one (if his current one had an SSD instead of buying a whole new machine that still doesn't, and so will still be incredibly slow) and Ellen my friend who somehow changed her background picture. That one, at least, was easy.

It is now 9:30, and I am going to bed. I don't know how long I can keep this up if it's going to be this constant, and this sucky. I really don't.

Anyway, going to set up the new machine, and probably have to come back the next day after the copy finishes, because he has so much crap on his machine. If we're even able to find it all, because he's got some adobe stuff, some weird PDF reader, office, some sync manager because office doesn't sync with google calendar and he wanted it to, plus more I'm probably forgetting. Gonna be so fun!

Mon:
Coming into work today I saw one empty parking lot! Probably even worse tomorrow, though I can't see how. It was almost completely empty.

Having a mini-meeting tomorrow, we'll see what that's about.

For actual work I chose the document that hadn't been looked at in the longest time, which turned out to be Scan to Dropbox, and started going through it. Didn't find too much, though I did get through most of it. A lot of the time at the beginning was just getting things int he right order and getting it ready to have data entered. I do enjoy a pretty spreadsheet, after all.

Then to Mr I bought a computer no faster than the one I already have because it has a spinning rust core instead of SSD. Started the transfer, answered the other insane questions he came up with in the meantime, and left at 7:00 with the transfer still going. I get to go back tomorrow, yay!

Mrs Tinker Lady is sick I guess, so she's canceled Wednesday. That was the only call I got today, so maybe it'll slack off a little?

Still warm, for this time of year. Heck, first day of winter is tomorrow and they're calling for 50s. And getting, if you can believe it, warmer as the week goes on.

It's always the way. You get a cute hand knitted scarf and the temperature soars!

Worked a little on the game, coming up with ideas, just in between doing stuff.

It's now 8:30, and I'll probably try to get to bed a bit early tonight too. So maybe a pony episode or three and done.

Three more days!

Tues:
Found some interesting bugs today, and had the mini meeting. I guess 3.0 is done, long live 3.0? Work on 3.1 the cleanup release is ongoing and work on 4 has begun as well. Not much to do until our first release of either.

But bing-bing-bing I found three bugs in a row and couldn't believe it. Like having a total made of four numbers instead of three moved the buttons down in the window. How? So weird. And I could get a free scan by putting it a folder with exactly 190 characters. What?

So yeah, I guess there's still bugs to unearth. I was testing scan to dropbox, which my contemporary tested previously, about a month ago based on the date of the spreadsheet, so I suppose it's no wonder they went unreported. I haven't looked lately to see our current disparity. Ah well.

And finished up with the dentist guy. Another near two hours of crap. And I got a… bottle of wine? Super. Sean/Stan drink, maybe they'll enjoy it?

Got home, made yummy soup which took about a half hour (worth every minute) and then checked my sites and such. No calls toady!
Unless I get one tomorrow I may actually be able to come right home after work. Wow.

Warm today, 53 at one point, or even 56? It was raining pretty hard in the morning but the sun came out in the afternoon on the way back home for lunch. So nice now. Even warmer tomorrow.

Made more notes on the game, came up with a few good ideas I think.

Printed 2 more copies of the book and got ready for tomorrow. Last day before the break! While they printed I wrapped the gifts for the game. Well, all but one. I had brought down enough paper for everything but that.

Wed:
Somewhat boring today, wonder why? Oh, and when I left at 5:00 there were exactly two cars in the parking lot. Guess who one of them belonged to?

When I pulled in it was bad enough, never seen it so empty. Anyway, most of what I did was just verifying fixed problems. Closed one thing as fixed, wrote up the new bug that fix created. Fun!

And speaking of bugs, looked up the current stats. Leading the pack is the person with 236 entries. Trailing slightly behind are two people, neck and neck with 235. (Photo finish!) Then there is myself is 167. Next is the supervisor of us all with 119. Somewhat down the list is the person with 69. And a distant last place, my contemporary, with all of 32. Yes, 32. I have written 132 more bugs up than he has. I have worked there 41 days, meaning about 4 per day. He has done lass than one per day. But yet he's always there when I walk in, and only once has he left before me.

Makes you think, huh? What's he doing there? Not writing up bugs, or eating yummy toast.

Here's a shocker, I think Kirsa still works there! "Who in the blue blazes is that?" I hear you thinking. Well, you may recall seeing that name once before on this site, if you've been around since the beginning. And I mean way back, when I did the Robert's Randomness Room sprite comic. (Which was the style at the time.) Way back when I worked there first there was this super cute girl that hurt her foot, and I let her into the building one time because she had forgotten her badge. This was back when they had actual people manning the doors, may I remind you. Sent her a get well card, as I recall.

Just on a whim I typed her name into the address book, and it was still there! I think she's survived there all these years, and works there still. What an accomplishment. Kirsa, I salute you.

She has absolutely no online presence. No Facebook page, no photos on the web… I mean, that's what I've heard… okay I admit I looked. Weird. Maybe she's some kind of robot or something, who doesn't have a Facebook at this point? Huh. I have a good excuse, I can't recall what she looks like due to my Prosopagnosia. I could have walked past her in the hall and never known it. Wonder if she remembers me at all?

Nah!

"Ah," you think to yourself, "but if you wouldn't recognize her, how do you know there aren't photos of her on the web?" For the simple fact there are no real photos of anyone with her name, that's how. I mean you put my name into google image search and you at least get pictures related to me. Like… me. Or my book covers. Or stuff Sean has drawn that mentions my name. Or my relatives. But her? Nothing.

Left work at the normal time, did the shopping just so I didn't have to tomorrow. Good thinking, me. Then started in on those Mission Impossible movies Sean lent me.

Thurs:
So nice and sunny today! Warm, even. Who needs Florida?

Babysat the printer for like six hours while it printed all 20 copies of the book guy's stuff. Never doing that again.
Watched the rest of the mission impossible movies Sean gave me, which I wanted to do anyway, but still.

After that was done, and by the way I got up at 7:00 and finished it about 2:00, I got ready to leave. Wrapped the last game gift. Typed up the game notes I had.

Viewed my daily websites. Made the 6 CDs for the ladies that believe CDs are still a viable audio transfer device.

As I have to leave shortly, I will end this here. Have a good Christmas everyone, warm or cold, as your local weather dictates.

I will see you all next week, just in time for the new year, and what will no doubt be a new set of challenges, triumphs, and things to complain about.

Bye for now!