2023-11-30:

Fri:
Weather wasted no time. It's snowing. Yay. Didn't really stick around, just a short preview of what is to come.
Checked sites.
Back to swift. Huh, this learn to code module is very similar to the first one I did. Seems inefficient.
Okay, turning the sound off didn't help one bit. Still just as crashy. Neat! This program sucks Apple, FIX IT.
Completed "learn to code 1" which honestly didn't help me learn Swift at all. But it was probably good to have the refresher? On to Part 2.

Looks like we are doing game tonight. Oh, right, have to get out the laptop again.

Remade the pdf and epub for beating the system. I found an error in it, I missed a whole stat when redoing Olaph's lifepath when he went away from being a chosen of Heaven. So silly!

Did a little remote Christmas shopping and actually got a gift in for a certain someone who is a family member. Nice.
Finally went through my "to shrink" folder, crushing down some big videos with handbrake. 60+ I need to do that more often so it doesn't build up. That's being done on the downstairs machine, may as well have it do something (and warm the whole house up.)
Ate dinner.
We did game. It was a flashback, so something a bit different, and it didn't go too long, and then I went to bed.

Sat:
Put up the tree. Mice have gotten into the christmas stuff. Sigh. There were some casualties. Little felt man my mother made years and years ago is completely MIA. You'll be missed, little felt man. I also had a santa puppet that's now just a face.
That basically took the morning.
Did more swift learning in the afternoon.
Made more notes about the Isekai story in case I want to write it. As it gets longer the more likely it looks.
Ordered more medicine for Oliver. Who is happily in the house again, now that I moved it into the corner. It's his little spot anyway in front of the heater, where I put his pad. So maybe location really is everything?
Parents came for movie. Finished up the Fairies series.

Sun:
Did a bit of outdoor work, just cleaning up some stray leaves there's still a few on the back tree I'm not doing the whole back it's not that bad.
Took a kitty walk as it was fairly nice out.
Got my christmas music on the ipod.
Ate lunch.
Checked sites, did my reading.
Dusted, moved a few things around.
Did Sunday stuff. I know, I should have been doing swift stuff. I know.
Got a message about Oliver's medicine. It's not available because of "manufacturing delays." Huh? I still have maybe 2 weeks left but come on. This stuff costs like $8.00 it can't be that hard to make.
One call over the weekend, about buying or building a gaming pc. Dude, I don't know. Research it yourself, I do PC repair, not PC help you build a gaming PC. He was going to try and get more info from his son, about games and equipment and whatnot and call me back in an hour. It's been an hour and forty minutes. Any bets on him calling in the next twenty minutes? Spoiler: he did not.

Not looking forward to tomorrow. I got the dreaded "complete your 2023 full-year performance review" email on Wednesday.  "Meet with your manager!" Oh, sure, that guy I never see or talk to, and has nothing to do with my day to day work because someone else is in that role? That person? Sure, I'm sure I'll win him over with my style and charm. People are always telling me how personable I am, and that I don't sound sarcastic all the time and how much they enjoyed talking with me! It's true. You could ask them. People. That I talk to. There's lots of them. Somewhere? They must be somewhere. Am I thinking of mice again?
Anyway, no idea what to expect with that whole process, and it's pointless anyway. Just let me do what work comes in, and don't make me BS how I'm going to grow as an employee or something. It's stupid.

Mon:
Got a great haul, so at least it was a good start to the day. Not quite as good as the hauls of old, but everything had been taken out of the fridge. Recently too, it wasn't last week stuff was still cold. The salad would have been liquid too if that was the case. I'll bring salad and a few things to my parents this afternoon, as well as do the shopping and go to the bank like I forgot to before. It's on the list, so hopefully I won't forget this time.

I didn't.

Spent two hours doing the first of the review process. I had to make "goals" because I didn't have any, then rate myself based on how close I came to meeting the goals I just made up. Sweet. Then I had to ask Christina "This part seems to be some kind of evaluation but surely I'm not supposed to fill that part in." But wait, I was wrong, as that's exactly what I'm supposed to be filling in. Anyone that puts either above or below the medium "doing fine" value is asking nay begging for trouble. You better be able to back it up with reams of data if you put exceeds and it's just sad if you're putting below. I mean, come on. She did reveal usually they are pushed from above in the mid year, that's why I didn't have them. But they are stupid, like "grew revenue" or something. Which we don't do? Not directly, anyway. The whole process is dumb.

Now do I have to set up the appointment to see my "manager" or does he do it? I wonder. Well, I have until January so we'll see what comes of it not that part 1 is done.

Oh right, as for the goals? I just broke down what I do already. "write test plans" "execute test plans" "write bugs" "verify bugs" "assist lab manager" "update VMs." 8 of them. Then I was just like, "wrote so many bugs to date." "Verified so many bugs to date." See how stupid this is?

Made some more notes for the next story. I really should finish the current one before doing too much for the next one though. I did finish the next chapter. Olaph finally has his new magic.

Did four things after work. Gave stuff to my parents, went to the newly renovated bank, went shopping, and picked up some black spraypaint and more tape. I ran out of it taping the electrical cord down to the floor. The paint I want to use to paint a pyramid black. I made it many, many years ago as a sort of custom Apple II but it's just sat around ever since. But now there's a game with an inverted black pyramid and this is a perfect fit for it. But how to hang it, that's the real question. Well, get it painted first I guess.

Finally back here, it was gray and yucky when I left and it was that way now. A few snow flakes.

Checked sites, ate dinner. Made one call, keyboard lady from before is still having issues. Odd, she didn't when she was using the external keyboard was it simply coincidence? I wonder. I'm going there tomorrow to check out the dell website with her and see what they have she might like. Shouldn't take long, and it's right down from work so it's fine.

Also got Oliver's bloodwork results back, they said everything was fine so that's good.

Tues:
Had to do some work today, not sure how that happened. The developers came back and said it was my email port that was making the machine say there were not enough resources. And you know what? They were right! I changed the port and the problem went away. Perhaps... some better error messages, fellows?

So I tested the NTLM stuff, surprise surprise it worked, and told Don the good news.

Otherwise wrote a chapter, not much else exciting.

Went to see laptop lady, got her a similar laptop to the one she owns now, so she should be  fine. I'll have to go next week and set it up.

Then back here. Why do I have three calls? I haven't done three jobs this entire month. So why do I have three calls all of a sudden? Did I give offense to some spirit? And this is their revenge? Three calls on Monday would be fine, or even Wednesday. But why today?

Okay, first lady was eating dinner and said it was acting okay? She'll get back to me.
Second lady had her browser change (stop doing this MS, really, stop it. Thank you) I changed it back.
Third lady is the wi-fi lady from a little while ago? The one that blue screened? Remember? I'll go over there tomorrow, it's not that far.
And get Oliver's meds! Yay! They came in.

Wed:
Crap! I forgot to get them! I even had it written down on the sheet. Unbelievable.

Well, anyway, we did xbox after that last night.

Work wise, not much. Tried to reproduce the error message when emailing from a few days ago. But as the machine had been touched by someone else (downgraded and then upgraded again by me) I couldn't. Sorry dude.

Wrote most of the next chapter, I have like a paragraph or so to go, just to close it out. Also expanded a section of the notes for the other story. When our two main characters take over the booths after inventing the hot dog bun, the corrupt city guards use it as an excuse to hassle them and write them lots of tickets. It'll be hilarious, trust me.

Went out to see laptop lady, and not get medicine!!!! Same thing. I reset it again, if it happens a third time I'll just pick her up an external unit. Who knows, is it windows? The motherboard? The stupid card? Screw it.

Back here, checked sites, ate dinner. No calls.

Got ready for tomorrow, and went back to doing Swift code stuff. Why can't I just download it into my brain yet? It's 2023, where is that stuff?

Almost through the current lesson. Just have arrays to do. Why... is it so huge? Not the array, the lesson about arrays. I feel scared.

Thurs:
Some work today, and not just the meeting. Tried a few more things to get that busted machine going. I won't say I succeeded. I could perhaps say I made things worse? Now it completely doesn't know what it is, just xxxxx for the model name. I followed the directions closely, but it keeps complaining about the SIM card and now won't change the model number at all. Sigh. I'm not sure what to do with it.

Got a test task in by Joe late in the day, I'll do that tomorrow I guess. My suggestion about an extension cable would be far, far easier than what they're proposing. I mean, really.

I did finish the chapter, and made more notes for the other story. Figured out the jobs I want her to do in town. Oh, and gave the main character a name! Figured it was about time she had a name.

Got the medicine, no trouble there though it is a different substance? The name is different. It's "unflavored" so I hope he still takes it. Then went to good will. Got a few things, and a certain something something I hope to sell. I seem to recall selling these at one time? So they may again? I hope I didn't just buy this for nothing.

Back here I took a kitty for a walk, just as it got dark. Great sunset on the way home. Super pretty. It's going to rain by the looks the next few days so I wanted him to get one in when he could.

Checked sites, ate dinner.

One call, some rambling nonsense. No idea. It turned out to be that he just moved the thunderbird preview pane up a little. That's all. What a tragedy.

Looking ahead probably game tomorrow. No reason we can't. It's December by the way. It's coming up fast don't you know. You know what it is.
Shopping, seeing my parents. No bank as I just did that.

On the list for Saturday is painting the lego blocks black and vacuuming the floor. Yup, good stuff. I'll have my parents over too. Maybe try to come up with gifts? I got one thing in, but it's not exactly what I wanted. It's more like part of what I wanted. So I have to order the other part. Oh well.

So that's it. I'll probably do a bit more swift stuff tonight and bid you all goodbye for now. See everyone next time!