2025-04-03:

Fri:
Some work came in! What is this, work or something?
I guess it was done several days ago, in fact, but I was never told. Because why would I be?
Anyway, it's just the PJL stuff, the follow on patch to the original because we didn't do everything they wanted, and while I had to get creative because no one could tell me how to get something into the macros directory, it looks like it works fine. Tested two models. (The wrong model at first, why does this patch only work on the version of this device without the scanner? Is it really that much less work?)
Otherwise I checked out the dungeon stuff, seems good. Put in a few notes for upcoming adventures.
Left for wi-fi guy. So apparently explorer just hangs when it boots. It just doesn't proceed, and so you can't do anything with the task bar. Neat. Works fine in safe mode. Turned everything off, (not MS services) Still no dice.
Finally after half an hour I took the dang thing. It's the biggest tower I've ever seen by the way. Not fun carrying that around. Why do you have such a big tower anyway? I guess we'll see what we can come up with at home.
Went to see my parents, Dad was running late (selling well?) so he wasn't home.
Decided to skip the shopping for now, but I did get Oliver's meds.
Then back here I checked sites and ran game. We didn't actually get into the dungeon. They were running around after changlings and stuff. Suits me, it's less work.

Sat:
Got up early to get my kitty to the vet.
He was very good, got praised by the tech. Also saw a dog named bear that lived up to the name. He probably weighed more than I do!
Got test results back too, negative. Sigh. So we still have no idea what's wrong with him. He did gain some weight, and he's been acting better. I don't think it was the surgery that did this, but increasing his dose of medicine. If things are passing easier that probably means he's hungrier. They've been pretty good lately about eating thier whole meal. Except when they don't, of course.
He seems fine, content to not wear the cone anymore.
Worked on the PC. Even my adapter can't get it online? It can ping 192.168.2.1 but not google.com? What? And why does it work fine in safe mode? I'm going to try an in place upgrade first... and it can't be copied to the USB drive? Thanks MS, your FAT32 is really forward looking I tell ya. It was 6gb and thus too big for the filesystem. UGh. Found an old USB drive that was big enough, (my vista one, to be exact) and formatted it ExFat. That allowed me to copy it. Don't think I'll need a vista boot drive any time soon. Right? I mean right?
The in place install seems to have calmed it down. It's working fine now. Ethernet port is still busted. I also cleaned out the dust. It has some giant fans, a water cooling system (that was totally stopped up with dust by the way) no wonder it weighs a million pounds.
Did more First Descendant. Just leveling up my newest character and doing missions from the backlog. There were a lot of them. At least, a few with many parts I should say. I did the ones that clearly said "go here and get this part, here for this part." There are others that just say "Yeah, figure it out youself and somehow own this weapon." Sure, no thanks.
Didn't get it quite done, took a break to eat dinner and such. Then did Xbox with Sean. Almost finished It Takes Two.

Sun:
Busy day to make up for yesterday.
Fed my parent's critters first.
Cleaned up the kitchen. No mouse activity in several days. I think the war may be won, or at last the enemy is in retreat for now. Let's hope 14 mice don't get in here again! Put the stove back (after cleaning) and put everything back in my drawers. Naturally the stove cleaning wouldn't be to, say, my mother's standard but another bachelor like myself would probably accept it as good enough. Vacuumed the place. It looks like a real kitchen again. That I can actually do things in. Put the traps over by the cat food, just in case. They're not in the way there, and I can watch them easily enough so it's fine for now.
Cut dead leaves off my plants. I need to move them away from the window I guess. Even the winter light is too strong for them? It's the same plant I have at work, the one that just keeps growing and growing. The leaves on that don't die like this. And it's barely getting any light from the overheads most of the time. So I guess it likes a more shady environment. I could put it against the back wall, see if it likes it there better.
Picked up the parts in FD. Still more to build! Did more missions to get the rest of the pieces I needed to finally complete the backlog. As much as I care to, anyway.
Did the weekly reading.
Did not do the gutters. It was raining. It's been raining, actually. They'll be fine for now.
Got ready for tomorrow.
Made the food for the week.
Picked up the parts in FD. Still more to build! Sigh. No FF7 this week.
Two places to go tomorrow, both near work.

Mon:
Don was asking about a new project, and our network. In looking into it (by both myself and Christina) I don't think we can fully test it. The customer network is doing something ours doesn't do.

Otherwise, not much work wise. Did writing, got the next chapter done, and by the way the last chapter turned out to be much longer than usual, and this one was slightly longer. Then there was still a tiny bit of content for the next chapter. I need to proofread all this but I'm over 80,000 words now.

Gave the guy his PC back.
Then went to the nearest guy. So he couldn't print, and I finally figured out why. He had two wireless networks in the house now. The airport, and some google nest thing or something. Of course both had the same name, so the printer was trying to connect to the google thing and couldn't. I tried to get into the google thing (use the app! I so HATE USE THE APP. Let me control things manually) but I could not. So I unplugged it. This revealed that his wi-fi extender was missing. Where did it go? Who knows? So he's hardly getting signal to the laptop. Please stop your son in law or whoever from making random changes to your stuff. I do things for a reason. It worked fine. There was no need for the google thing and messing his network up. Also, don't have two wi-fi routers next to each other. That's called interference.

Pass interference, # 34, first down.

That's a sports reference I think.

Finally got back here (Oh and I renewed his plates too) ate dinner, checked sites.

One call, a "quick question." 40 minutes. Yes. Forty. Minutes. Because MS "change the background every day" got stuck (great job MS, you cannot make the simplest thing work) and of course we don't know what a website is, what our browser is, how to go to a website, and on, and on. The different set of instructions I followed didn't solve the issue, because why would it? I did the "bing" desktop which supposedly changes the image once a day. We'll see if it works. Because why not have two or three official ways of doing the same thing, MS? Why not go for four? You're slacking.

Did some FF7. Got out of the canyon and into the next region. Let's climb some towers, beat up some unique monsters, follow some birds, catch a... hang on haven't I done this already?

Tues:
Two Joe meetings in the morning. A new meeting about SSO test strategy, and the usual one about everything else.
Then another meeting later in the day about onedrive, going over the new specs. This project will literally never end.

I did the proofreading. Then went back to an old story, I recalled I came up with the idea for the "love getaway" (though I didn't call it that) back in the Lysanias era, specifically my Hotel Transylvania / Lost Girl crossover. Forget how much fun he was to write. Even that early he had so many powers. He was great.

Did the shopping, finally.

Then back here, had dinner, checked sites.

Finished It Takes Two. Good game.

Then a bit of Descendant.

Wed:
Ugh, we knew it was coming. When I got that jury thing a few weeks ago. I mentioned the fact did I not? The survey I got? What a shock to now get called. I'm A192, so who knows if that's good or bad. The week of the 21st. Neat. At least we're still not that busy at work. Say, could I just pay the $1,000 penalty now and not have to worry about it? That would honestly be less painful. And I love this: "parking is limited." Maybe stop doing it where there's such limited parking then, you think? Why do you do something where you know there is a limited resource? Does that seem smart to you?

Got the color table final release stuff, so I loaded that on 3 devices. Made the printouts.

Then finally got back to Library. Yes, I finished the latest chapter in that. I know, there was worry about Oliver (still doing great) and other works, and work stuff, but that's all excuses. Finally got back to it. The characters can't find the guy they're looking for with the easy magic and have to use more indirect methods. Whatever will they do!??!?!? Don't worry I already know, the outline was written long ago.

Oh, worked on the next dungeon too. As it's not as complex it should be faster to go through. Made some changes to the final location too. So that's a good feeling.

Rained all day I think. It was mostly a light hail when I left work. Going to rain a bunch in the next few days.

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

Did FF7. Got halfway through the area, at least according to the dots. It's almost like I've climbed these towers before and whatnot.

Thurs:
Another chapter written? I'm on a total roll here. And a pretty funny one too, I hope many guffaws will be had while reading it, if anyone ever does.

Had the usual two meetings, no surprises there.
Told my manager about the honor I had been bestowed, jury duty. He wasn't sure how to put it on the timecard. Thanks.

Warm today. 70 on the dash in the car. Huh.

Looking ahead it's going to be a busy weekend. I have a few things to do, like the gutters and  clean the kitchen floors now that I hope winter is mostly over. A few quick things, like start the process of getting my site away from powweb. But then Sunday the taxes with my mother. No game. Oh right, paperwork I guess.

Tomorrow I'll probably do more writing. Gotta keep up that momentum. Do the shopping, see my parents. Run game. The usual stuff. Giant's Castle, finally got to it. I doubt we'll get to the gem dungeon but you never know. I'm ready for it I think anyway so it's fine.

Oh, and crying about the stock market. Only down 1,679 points on the DJIA, sure feels like winning to me. Bet those egg prices are down now too. Gotta be, right?

Well, I'm visiting Alyx tonight, gonna work on a RAM wreath with some mini-ram because I have tons of it now. Getting things ready to go and I'll be leaving soon.

See you next week. Stay dry, supposed to rain around here a bunch.