Ramblin' Man

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The first half of the drive to work was downright annoying as f$@k (like some people I know). The back half was better, but not without some minor annoyances (again, kind of like some people I know).

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I do have two meetings scheduled for today. Well, one meeting and one webinar. The meeting is in the afternoon and depending on how the day goes I might not stick around for it.

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Nice try phishing email. However, (a)the Arizona Board for licensing has a very specific email address, and (b) they don't have a portal for me to log on.

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Just as I suspected, those jackasses in the IT service the company hires are slow walking my request to get the latest software from AFT. This is what happens when you let IT people off the chain. Things get needlessly complicated.

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It's quiet. Not too quiet though. This is the kind of quiet I like because no one else is here.

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Woot! Webinar time!

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This one is about constant spring pipe supports. Exciting!

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Mmmmm...surprise BBQ.

Smoked turkey and brisket.

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That's on top of the red beans and rice I had for lunch.

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Happy Friday!

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I think it will be. Especially with the whole "don't have to drive to the office" thing.

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I've even shown a bit of restraint this morning. I've been awake for about an hour and only just now finished my first cup of coffee.

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Normally, when I'm going to the office, I start my first cup of coffee about an hour after I get up. That's only because I'm getting ready for the day and driving to the office. And I typically take about 1 to 1.5 hours between cups of coffee.

When I'm home, however, I usually go through coffee like a hot knife through butter.

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Now there's a phrase I'm surprised might still be allowed. The crazy people have been banning certain words a phrases all my life. Not sure why they missed this one.

Or maybe they did, and I just didn't notice.

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Not much going on as far as work goes today. At least, not yet.

There probably won't be a lot going on for me. Maybe for some other people. The day is young, however, and that could turn differently. Sometimes they come up with an emergency where someone else either screwed up or didn't do what they were supposed to do. Then I'm expected to clean up the mess.

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The boy was not awake when I came up to the guest room/office. That was surprising. Maybe he's still not fully recovered from his trip.

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That's weird. I received two email notifications for deposits to my account. The first was the usual direct deposit of my pay from work. The second was....also from work, but for a weirdly small amount.

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Could it be I received a bonus for something?!? Not sure what that would be. Unless maybe for a project that got finished early.

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Either way, it's almost time for my second cup of coffee.

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Just saw an article about apparent confirmation that Warner at one point tried to lure Kevin Feige away from Disney. I'm guessing this was just right around the time of Endgame being released, when Disney was riding high on success.

Considering how the MCU has gone downhill since then, I'd say that was a bullet dodged.

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And it seems Disney cut a deal with some big streaming service in Europe to share content across their platforms. I suppose they've got to do something to try and salvage the money sink that is Disney+.

Still, it seems to me they're just kind of copying Netflix. They've been streaming non-American stuff for years. And a good bit of that stuff is awesome!

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I might have mentioned, but the boy acquired a new nickname on his Northern Tier trip - Pierre. So now I've changed his name in my phone's contacts list. People were amused.

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My coworker who got me back into playing Hogwarts Legacy has now been left in the dust. I quickly overtook him and am now progressing much more rapidly. Partly because I've beaten the game before. Partly because I'm just that f@$king awesome.

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SEE?!? I did have something unexpected come up with work. Questions on using sonotubes on a project. Unfortunately, the company specs we have don't cover them. There were some details in two drawings, but the pipe size was limited to a max of 12 inches. We have a bit larger than that.

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My only problem with questions like that - Sonotubes are basically a concrete form around pipe supports. Concrete is really more of a civil thing. Not the kind of question I should be answering. The licensing boards hate when engineers do stuff like that.

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Stupid dog. The boy and I went off at lunch time to run and errand and get food. We weren't gone even a few minutes when she snagged one of my wife's slippers.

I got the slipper back when we got home, and she's been punished in her kennel ever since.

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Have I mentioned how much I hate IT and how much they complicate something that should be very simple? All I need is software updates, and they're making like it's some super complex issue.

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And now these IT jacknuts seem to be installing the software, but not very successfully. I had more luck a few weeks ago myself. I installed some software updates with IT approval, and didn't have any problems.

That's really all I was asking for this time: to install it myself with just their approval.

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And the wife checked in to see if I could go pick the daughter up from her art class. I told her if this idiot finishes up in time, but I don't necessarily see that happening.

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If it did, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

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Happy Saturday!

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Ugh! It took another 45 minutes from when I last posted yesterday for that damnable IT dude to successfully install two very simple software updates on my computer. Keep in mind, this was the same software I myself have successfully installed updates for - in about 10 minutes.

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The evening still ended on a high note, however. I had some smoked turkey from the BBQ place, played a little Hogwarts Legacy, then watched The Witch: Part 2 - The Other One on Amazon.

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And I got a pretty good night's sleep.

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Still, today won't be entirely "Happy". The boy and I are attending a funeral service for one of the Scout Troop parents. This was the father of a scout who's a year behind the boy. Very young - only 48.

F#$k cancer!

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The funeral is for 11 am. So I'll be able to do my usual grocery store run this morning, but my comic book store visit will be delayed until the afternoon.

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Going back to The Witch: Part 2....

It was okay. Nowhere near as good as the original. The story is a bit convoluted and kind of all over the place. It sets up for a third movie, though. It's been a few years, however, so who knows if they'll ever finish the story.

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It's a bright, sunshiny day so far. Probably going to be hot. I was saying to folks this week (in light of current events) that this is probably the wettest summer we've had since I moved here 12 years ago.

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Speaking of current events....

It never ceases to amaze or disgust me how ghoulish people can be. Especially the ones who claim to be loving and tolerant of others.

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Kind of reminds me of the trope that the best villains always see themselves as heroes.

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Ooph. Running around is done for the day. Now I’m relaxing with some coffee and maybe a bit of reading.

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And miracle of miracles! The wife actually did some cleaning. Swept and mopped downstairs. Hallelujah!

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Now if only I could get her to call the tree trimming dude……

If I want that done, I’m going to have to get the number from her and call him myself. I’ve only been asking her for a month or two now.

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Happy Sunday!

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Most of yesterday was bright and sunshiny. However, in the afternoon we did get some rain storms pass through. That seems to have become quite typical. I won't complain too much, since every time we get even a bit of rain is a time I don't have to run my sprinklers.

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We shall see if the aforementioned weather pattern continues today.

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I have been debating, however, taking advantage of the sunshiny mornings to give the dog a bath. Or, at least, have my son give her a bath while I supervise. Although I'm also debating waiting until her current round of mass shedding is over and done with.

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As I type, I'm watching/listening to music videos on YouTube. Oddly enough, it's a K-pop music mix. Yes, I know how weird that is. What can I say? I have a widely varied taste in music. Everything from classical, to jazz, heavy metal, classic rock, 80s pop, old country music (back when it was good), and now k-pop.

Anyway, in between videos YouTube likes to show ads. The last day or two, the ads have been primarily about something watching your browser activity and something else that provides security. An article I read this morning reminded me of that. It was discussing a new censorship law in the EU that has the potential to inflict its authoritarianism on our 1st Amendment loving people here in the States. Sad, but not surprising.

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Anyway, the ads are kind of annoying, but most of them can be skipped after a few seconds. That's nice.

Over the years, I've come to see the ad business as right up there with lawyers, insurance companies, and government bureaucrats as one of those necessary evils the human race will probably be plagued with until the heat death of the universe. Oh, and beat poets.

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Or until a vastly superior alien species decides to wipe us out before we escape our planet.