2024-10-24:

Fri:
Nothing much at work today. Did a tiny bit of work on the adventure.
No haul.
Did look at a bug, the string changed and I didn't realize it. It still seems wrong to me. The string is something like "incompatable card reader" but it's the reader we always use. It's supported. The message is wrong.

Went shopping, saw my parents.

Did game, but a little late Sean wanted to try and see a comet.

Game went until 11:30. So the content I had was just exactly enough! Neat! They went exactly where I expected them to so I had everything ready. Nice. They know who the enemy is, now it's just a matter of reaching them and putting the smack down on them.

Last episode next week!

Sat:
Vacuumed the breezeway floor. (I mean I say that, but I can't vacuum the ceiling.
Cleaned the basement floor of cat litter. They don't use that box down there very much, only the two on the breezeway or in the garage. But they do still use it, so I replaced the litter with the wood pellets. Much cleaner, I think. So they still have a box, it's just not a the dust factory it once was.
Did some sewing, now that I have a working machine again.
Checked sites.
Had lunch.
Alyx got me the proof copy back, so I put the changes in and made a new PDF. I'll order the copies once I can order these and the other ones I want at the same time, save on shipping. It shouldn't be long now!

Did some quantum break. Near the end. I'm now trapped in a lab with about a million guys who come at you from all sides, I haven't figured out a good spot to survive in. Sigh.

Went over for game. My build proved very effective, in our first combat with 6 shadow imps I killed half of them by myself. I had 3 other party members. So that worked pretty well. In our second I disguised my spirit as one of the shadow imps so it could walk right up to the boss and attack from surprise. My action killed her, making her summoned spirits vanish. (Or at least they left right after, so it's hard to say if she was controlling them directly or what.) So yeah, pretty pleased about how it went. Of course some of it was in the dice, I got some good rolls in.

Sun:
Did the daily reading.
Checked sites.
Ate lunch.
Sculpted 1/2 of Mizzy's gift.
Okay, it's mostly worked. 3 of them stand just fine, 3 of them needed a bigger base. But you can't "overbake" them so I'm using my hair drier to hopefully harden the extra material I put on the bottoms. Looking at the available space on the display I'm actually thinking 6 will be plenty. I may have just done 90% of the gift. I still need the "centerpiece" but if so, I'm in ever better shape than I thought.

The hairdryer thing did not work. Sigh. Maybe some "air dry" clay will serve the same purpose. I'll see about picking some of that up. Thanking about it even more, what about just a small measure of concrete? I already have that, and I know it can be worked with at this scale. I think. I don't need much, just to make a thicker base. I'll have to look into it. I was also thinking the wood filler stuff, but that's pretty light. I need more weight at the base. Maybe wood stuff if I could fit another magnet or two in the opposite direction it falls over? Be a strain though...

Got ready for tomorrow. Did some proofreading of Alyx's story. It's pretty good!

One call. Trying to print from google timelines, which of course can't be done. I showed her that she could copy and paste the info out though. It'll have to be good enough.

Called the lady about the trackpad, as I got that in Saturday. I'll go over there tomorrow.
Got past the room in Quantum Break. Was actually pretty surprised at myself for managing it as quickly as I did. Weird. I could not get through it before and this time, hardly a problem. Almost to the final boss there.

Mon:
One meeting, just to see how the progress of the emergency feature is getting on. It's fine I guess.

Otherwise just writing. Did 2.3 chapters, finishing up the latest content. Probably only 1-2 more to go!

Went to second work. Wouldn't you know it, the piece I ordered doesn't have the trackpad buttons. And of course all the components are screwed into it. I originally through the problem was the broken plastic pieces on the old one. So I still changed it. But no, it's the switch on the tiny board. So I get to order another part, and go back in another week when it comes in. I didn't completely screw it together so it shouldn't take 1.5 hours this time but still.

Back here checked sites. Ate dinner. One call. Going over there Saturday. Strange to want to wait when you have "a virus" but whatever, dude. It's not too far away.

Finished Quantum Break. Thankfully the last boss wasn't quite as annoying as the forum posts implied or I just got lucky. Having won it I wondered how other people found it. According to forums the people that play it like a cover shooter report it's not really great as a game. The people that play it as some kind of super hero shooter have a great time. Personally I believe if a game allows a certain style of play then that style should be fun. Also if they wanted me to use my powers and not the infinite ammo pistol why did they give me the infinite ammo pistol and a long cooldown on my powers? Doesn't make sense. So I guess that's why I felt the game was simply "eh." I played it as a cover shooter, because that's safest. And the least confusing, trying to remember what half a dozen powers do. Oh, and I didn't even discover the running power until I saw a tooltip for it in a loading screen. Like, wait, you can hold the button and run, rather than just dodge? Thanks for telling me this from the beginning, game. If you're not going to include a manual, make sure the game tells me everything I need to know before the last stage. Don't know how I would have made it past the truck and closing garage door if I hadn't seen that tip. Because I didn't know I could run until then. Yes, they made a puzzle at the last second using a power I didn't know the character had. Primo design, Remedy.

Then went back to proofreading. Got to chapter 4, made a few more notes.

Tues:
The usual two meetings today. I should really start looking into that FIDO test cases I guess.

Did another read of Alyx's story. Made a few more notes.

Worked on the last adventure. Came up with a fantastic climax to the battle, if Sean will go for it. (It hits him hardest and I wouldn't be as mean as it would be without checking with him about it first.)

Good haul, brought some to my parents.

Then back here. Checked sites. Ate dinner.

Did some xbox with the others.

Wed:
Busy day today.
Finally decided I should put some test cases together for the FIDO2 test. Ugly. I don't know if I should do all the old smartcard tests too? To make sure nothing broke? I've gotten no direction at all from Joe. So that's a thing. I added everything from the spec into the test. I mean it could be as easy as like 20 tests, use the key, new SNMP value, done. Or it could be almost 200 tests. Ouch.

Helped move a machine out of my lab to scrap.

Helped find some cards. (the guy had all of them himself, so thanks for returning them you jerk)

Checked the server updates.

Sent the test cases to Sanja. Time was development made their own test cases. Now they want ours before they've even begun development. We don't like it, but we give them over.

Made some character sheets for the game.

Set up a smartcard machine so Sreyas could test a patch.

Yeah, it just went on and on.

Came back here, checked sites. Had dinner.

While I watched videos I worked on the final battleground for the game. I think it'll work. It's crude, but it gets the point across.

One call. He "lost his email" again. That took almost an hour and a half. He had a Mac so I couldn't easily see his  screen. After trying to change his password twice, I just changed it here and had him read me the code. I saw the "new password" don't know why he insisted it wasn't there. And then it still didn't work so I generated him the app password and that worked. Why do I do this to myself?

Thurs:
The usual meetings today.

Wrote another chapter of The System. So much slower when I don't already know what's going to happen. But at least I did finish it.

There's a new version of onedrive out. Why am I going to have to test it again? I'm not your QA department. What are we paying you for? To develop this product. That means test it. She wants another 80 minute test. Joy on wheels.

Got more haul too, many things to bring, and I expect more? The date on the stuff is tomorrow.

Came back here. Checked sites, had dinner.

One call. Just a scam popup, they were fine.

Played some Shantae, maybe 50% now?

Looking ahead, not sure at work tomorrow. Maybe writing. I do need to set up a meeting to get some questions about the FIDO stuff answered. I'll probably do that, if he's free.

Otherwise, shopping, no bank yet, seeing my parents.

Then running the last episode of season 1.

Weekend plans, work on Mizzy's gift. Going to try the concrete thing. Otherwise, I don't know. Have my parents over. Do the reading on Sunday. Play more Shantae?

Next week is spooky day. In fact it will be exactly in one week. See you then.