Category: Career

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Random

Two straight days of playing tabletop sports games (Red White & Blue Racin’ and Ball Park Baseball), I would love this to continue.

We’ll see.

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Let the record show that I made it almost 14 months between visits to McDonalds for breakfast.

I was lazy this morning, and impatient (didn’t want to wait in line for a bagel).

I felt kinda gross after I ate there.

Here’s hoping it’s a longer time until my next visit.

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This is the longest I’ve sat and watched the Daytona 500 in a while.

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My promotion to my current position at work has changed the way I look at a lot of things, and I’m not sure why.

I feel like a grown-up.

It’s weird, but that’s just how I feel.

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Maybe it’s because I turn 56 this week.

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Update?

What a month, amirite?

Aside from working at the office every Tuesday, I’ve been working from home every weekday.  The Tuesdays feel the most ‘normal’ since I’m at the office, though it’s weird walking the floors wearing a mask, with hardly any employees around.

I’m not quite back to playing my sports replay projects regularly, though I have played a game here and there.

I’m doing my best in utilizing home delivery for necessities instead of going out shopping myself.

I dove into yet another new hobby, 3D printing, and so far I seem to be enjoying it, stumbling my way through frustrations and successes.

I got to see my sister and niece when I dropped off a gift for my sister’s birthday.  I had also seen them when I picked up some cookie dough from the now-defunct Specialties Café.

I really miss baseball.

A crewed commercial spacecraft launched from American soil for the first time, and a first for a crewed spacecraft since the last shuttle mission in 2011.  I cried tears of joy.

June is here.

Everyone stay safe until next time, okay?  Love you all.

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Accomplishments

This is the first Saturday since the Crisis on Earth-Prime began where I feel that I actually accomplished stuff.

  • I cut my own hair.
  • I cleared out and recycled a lot of materials that had been sitting in my closet for about 30 years.
  • I reorganized and stored a bunch of board games sitting around the living room.
  • I organized my Battle Mechs into lances and printed up record sheets for them.
  • I made more Porto’s stuff in the air fryer.
  • I found a much more adorable Baby Yoda plush that the one waiting for me at the office.

And somewhere in between all this I watched The Andromeda Strain.

Overall I think this has been a rough time for everyone.  Like everyone I seem to have good days and bad days.  But I think I’ve learned how to mitigate the days.

And I saw something that was quoted by a couple of folks today:

You are not working from home. You are at home, in a crisis, trying to work.

Which is correct for me for 4 days out of the week.  That fifth day in the office is working at work in a crisis.  Which surprisingly is relaxing.  It’s as close to ‘normal’ that I think I’ll ever see in the near future, despite the lack of coworkers and traffic and places to eat for lunch.

Hang in there, everyone.  We’re in this together, for as long as it takes.

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Growth

As much as I pan the Prequel Trilogy, the one thing that was good (for me) was Obi-Wan Kenobi, and by extension, Qui-Gon Jinn.  Those two were my favorite characters from those movies, period.  I’m looking forward to the Ewan McGregor ‘Kenobi’ series on Disney+.

“We’ll handle this.”

As a 10 year old, I seemed to identify more with Han Solo, and this went on throughout the Original Trilogy, from Episodes IV to VI.  I like to think that my personality during my teen and young adult years was influenced by Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Mr. Spock.

But watching The Phantom Menace, I realized that at that point in my life I was identifying more with the Jedi, particularly Qui-Gon.  I wasn’t as reckless and cocky (heh) as I was when I was younger, I was growing more patient and understanding as my career as a sysadmin went on.

“ID-10-T error…”

As far as the Sequel Trilogy, I seem to have gone back to identifying with Solo, mainly because, like him, I’ve seen shit over the past 30+ years that’s changed my world view.  Seeing him admit that he had been wrong about the Force was oddly satisfying.

What brought this on?  Discussion with a co-worker when she brought her Batuu lightsaber around to my cubicle, and talking about the impact of a 42 year old movie on a person, or people like us.

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Titles

I was looking at a job opening that has a title that I held maybe 5 years ago: Windows Systems Administrator II.

I barely have one fifth of the skills listed for that position.

Part of it is my own fault for not ‘keeping current’, but that’s hard to do when your current job requires less than what you are (or were) capable of doing.

I don’t think it’s time for any drastic action on my part regarding my job.

Mainly because I think I missed the boat on that.

Or the brass ring was never offered.

Ah well.

Thankful that I have a job.  I guess.

/rant

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Friday

This week has felt like a kiddie coaster compared to the roller coaster ride of the past couple of months.

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POI

A couple of years ago I introduced Dad to Person of Interest.  He liked it right away.  We would watch a couple of episodes every few weeks or so, maybe every two months.

We got to the introduction of Shaw in season 2 before Dad passed away.  I wish he could have seen the rest of season 2, when the finale actually took place in Hanford, Washington’s  nuclear plant, where he worked while he and Mom lived up there.

Today I got to Season 3, episode 9, where I experienced the biggest TV shock since Marie Warner shot her fiancée on 24.

And I cried. Mostly for what happened in the story, but also a good cathartic cry for my Dad.

That cry seemed to clear my head and shook me out of a funk I’d been feeling for a couple of weeks now.

And I came to a decision about something.

I’m not going to move to Sacramento.

There’s a position open in our agency’s office up there.  I was supposed to go up there these past couple of days to check it out, but a sore back stopped me from going Wednesday, and Thursday I didn’t feel well in the morning.

Maybe this was a sign.

I figured stress was responsible for both days, and once I sat down and made the conscious decision to no longer consider the Sacramento move scenario, I felt a great weight lifted from me.

I have enough to deal with around this house, disposing of so much of Dad’s and my own stuff, I don’t feel that the added stress of moving was needed.

I felt that I needed to move out of this house ASAP, partly because of the constant reminder of where I found Dad on the steps, every time I walk by them.  But over the past couple of weeks that feeling has lessened.  I’ll always have that painful memory, and the time will come when I will move out of here, but that time is not now.

For the moment, I feel less stressed than I’ve been in a couple of months.

I still need to go see a therapist to cope with grieving, but I think I made some headway on my own.