I go to an online university to get my BS in IT. Not that I need a degree, I already have a job in the field I want, and have had it for 7 years. I really don’t need that piece of paper. But dang it, I want it. I have the option to walk at Disney World, but with the virus I’m going to just forego that bit of ceremony. Plus I’d have to travel across the country, screw that.
Since it’s an online university without a campus, all testing is done remotely. Schedule a time, open a GoToMeeting session, they have you show the room with your webcam and they enter the access code, you take your test, and end the session. I find it super awkward just knowing someone is getting paid to just stare at me while I take a test.
The Test
Today, however, was an absolute nightmare. The last time I took a test I had a bad experience, but this one really takes it.
I logged in early to get the screen share set up because that part takes forever, the proceed button shows up saying a proctor is ready, I click it and nothing happens. I think that maybe I have a pop up blocker on, I turn it completely off and reload the page so it’ll show up. Nope. Now when a proctor is available the button just doesn’t appear.
I think that maybe Safari is broken, so I move over to Chrome. Sure, it’s slower on this old computer, but now I’m 5 minutes past my start time and rescheduling is impossible right now with testing interruptions from the virus. Same thing in Chrome. Okay: panic. I email the exam company with a screenshot, keep trying to get in. I close all the way out, try Incognito mode, nothing.
More panic, email my mentor and the instructor. More trying the same things. Keep getting server errors. Finally email the assessment department and am just like look I tried. I give up after 30 minutes of trying to take my test.
Then get a call from Maryland. Lies, it’s from India. But it’s the exam support team. Got connected. Did all the normal webcam stuff (check ID, check the room, check my work space). Proctor is taking longer than normal to enter the code.
Athena is on the bed behind me eating chili or something, I don’t know, because all I hear is SLURRRRP SLUUUURRRRRPPP SLLLUUUUUUUURRRRRRPPPPP
I yell at her to stop being so gross, proctor thinks someone is in the room with me and has me do another room check. I’m like no dude it’s just my cat, see?
20 minutes later passed the exam.
Tried to schedule my other exam for this class but the first open slot is in 5 days. I’ll keep trying to reschedule, hopefully another slot opens that isn’t at like 2 in the morning.
Daily Reflections
Much of my morning was spent getting ready to take this test. Reboot the computer, make sure the Turnip Monster was fed so he’d leave me alone, open the windows to take advantage of the warm day. I tried to open my bedroom window but the neighbors decided to have a screaming match on their deck. Seriously, they just need to break up. They’re not good for each other. But that’s none of my business.
After the test I decided to treat myself to some No Man’s Sky. I spent another hour trying to find that first ship I found (Artemis’) to no avail, so I picked a spot and just built a base. When you play NMS, you’re always looking for an Earth-like planet: no storms, good resources, good environment, no Sentinels… well I found mine. In the second star system! I’ve only found one cluster of Sentinels, but they were guarding a depot station, so that’s fine I just won’t steal stuff from there. Trying to convince myself to keep playing the story, that I can always come back when I’m done, but I can’t bring myself to leave the system.
Turned on DS9, I’m on season 7 which I think is the last one? Too lazy to check right now. Made my deconstructed shepherd’s pie, and here we are!
My life is glamorous and I know it. Not boring at all. I completely understand why I even have a single reader.
Hide yo kids, hide yo wives, it’s Friday night and I’m logging back onto No Man’s Sky.
As appears to be a common theme these last three weeks, I had no idea what to write about. I talked with my sister for a while, she didn’t take me up on my offer to FaceTime and play Jackbox or CAH while getting drunk. I was going to do a Wikipedia hole but couldn’t get past the first page. So I went onto Google Trends for ideas. I went back a couple days and what do I find out but not only is the revival of Will & Grace in its final 3 episodes, but they did an homage to I Love Lucy?! Here is the article I found from Hollywood Reporter.
I Love Lucy
Anything I say about I Love Lucy would just be redundant at this point. If you don’t love that show, you are seriously lacking and/or are wrong. Maybe you don’t love it, that’s fine, but you have to at least appreciate the show and Lucille’s impact on television.
I’m trying to think, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t have cable/satellite until like 5th grade for me, so I was restricted to whatever was currently on the air. So when I went to stay with my cousin (who had cable) would be when I got to experience the magic that was more than 5 channels. My aunt and uncle would either have TV Land or HGTV on the TV. My cousin and I would stay up late to raid the pantry for frosting, so if we turned on the TV it was usually TV Land and at that time of night they’d be showing I Love Lucy.
I was absolutely enamored. The situations Lucy got herself into were genuinely funny, even to my young mind. Thus, my appreciation for the show was born. I’ve re-watched the entire series at least 3 times in the last 5 years, thank you Hulu.
Will & Grace
I can’t remember when I first watched Will & Grace. I’d like to think it was at my cousin’s house, or maybe over the air earlier than that, but what sticks out is when I had my own TV in my room. I didn’t have a real antenna, so I had to make my own with a paper clip and some creative tin foil work. I only had a handful of channels available with my janky little setup, but I remember watching Farscape and Will & Grace in my room because nobody else really wanted to watch those shows.
Jack, of course, was my favorite character at the time. He was energetic and funny. For a while my MySpace name was JustJoe. I think I even tried getting JustJoe.com but it wasn’t available. Maybe for the best, I barely know what to do with this one that I’ve had for coming up on 9 years now.
I don’t really know what to say about this show except that I just genuinely enjoyed it. I’ve seen the original series twice and am a couple episodes behind on the current one.
Will & Grace Love Lucy
Without having seen the episode I linked at the top, I have several thoughts. Firstly, I’m very sad that this revival of W&G is over so very soon. I had hoped for a couple more seasons to see how they both raise their kids. Secondly, now that I’m older I relate to Karen a lot more. With the drinking all the time. She’s still a terrible person. But referring to boxes of wine as juice boxes? I actually do that. (“Big boy juice” is what I write on my shopping lists)
From reading the article, and again not having yet seen the episode, I’m filled with such joy that parts of that beautifully crafted series are being recreated for current audiences. And the fact that Debra Messing was taken aback at the thought of portraying Lucille Ball… truly a testament to her impact on entertainment.
I guess the takeaway from this would be I can’t wait to watch this episode, and I associate my love of both of these shows to my aunt and uncle. I’m smack dab in the middle of my DS9 marathon, but once it’s over I’m going to get caught up on all my shows. I have the time. I can’t work for 5 more weeks.
Daily Reflections
Woke up late, had a weird dream that I don’t care to share but just know I VERY LOUDLY GASPED as I woke. Almost like from a movie. Better than the one a day or two ago where I elbowed the pillow, thank the heavens Athena wasn’t sitting there when I did.
Spent most of the day just futzing between different apps. News, game, Facebook, more news…
I wanted to take one of the tests for my database class today, but I forgot that most of the world is stuck home, including the proctors, so testing space is limited. Got a slot at 12:30 tomorrow for the first, requested approval for the other so hopefully that gets approved. The next open slot was the Saturday after next. No thank you.
Opened the windows for the second time this year. Didn’t make it onto the porch (still in shadow most of the day) but it was nice to feel the breeze through the house and smell the fresh air.
Also entering into the “BO!” season, as I like to call it. Neighbor lady can’t control her dog, also needs to be on her meds, but literally all she does is scream at her dog. He growled at me a couple weeks ago when he got out (regularly) as I went to retrieve my trash bin. Lady, get rid of the dog. You obviously can’t control him and it’s not a good situation for him to be in. Save what’s left of your mental health and get a rabbit or something that can’t go anywhere. I guarantee more to come on psycho neighbor lady.
Warning: extremely nerdy post ahead. But first, catching up since I last hit “Publish”
The Time In-Between
After I put up yesterday’s lengthy monstrosity, I got up and went to put the last of the groceries away. ONLY TO FIND OUT that Turnip, that furry little asshole, bit through the plastic and ate THREE SLICES OF BREAD.
He is on a special diet, and it DOES NOT INCLUDE BREAD. YOU. ASSHOLE.
And it wasn’t even the first three, it was like right in the middle! Asshole. I have been saying for a long time that I wish I could buy half-loaves, and with where he ate it was about half a loaf. So maybe he did me a favor, I can’t eat all that bread fast enough. He’s the reason I bought a bread box.
Come to find out, he also got into the little thing of hamburger fat from when I made spaghetti last night. Bad cat. Also bad Joe for leaving the fat out overnight instead of throwing it out when it finished cooling. Couple of bad boys over here.
Too Advanced for Your Basic Questions
That paper I turned in yesterday that I phoned in? Passed on the first try. Either I actually hit all the points in the rubric or the evaluators are equally just phoning everything in. If I turned that pile of garbage in in high school my teachers would have just laughed at me. Whatever, a pass is a pass is one step closer to getting that piece of paper.
I took the pre-assessment for my next math class yesterday, need to do a lot of work there but we knew that. Took the pre-assessment for the other class today. They call it “Data Management – Applications” but it’s really just Intro to Databases. Unrelated to the content, but I took this same class in-person at the community college and slept through most of it and still passed. I like data, what can I say.
To make a long, boring story even longer, after tests I always check the report to see what I got wrong so I know what to review. Even ones that I do well on. I like being right (but if I’m wrong I’ll be the first to admit), so I really just have to know. Out of 58 questions, I missed only 1 of those marked as “Advanced SQL” while I missed at least a quarter of the ones marked “Basic SQL”! There were a couple different categories, so all-in-all it wasn’t that many wrong questions. Still passed each area with at least a “Competent”.
I think where I was going with this was I missed far more of the basic questions than the advanced, and that’s just crazy to me! Guess I need to get back to basics. Thanks, Megan for that groaner…
Reflections
I’ll be taking the actual assessment tomorrow. Didn’t take a shower today and slept weird so my hair was funny. I know the proctors don’t actually care, but I care, damn it.
Crap. I had more stuff to go here. I have Deep Space 9 on in the background and it’s the episode where Jadzia gets hurt and Worf abandons the mission to get her to a hospital. That made me think about my surgery last year and how excited I am to share my story about that on its anniversary. I’m especially excited to tell you my favorite thing I said to the nurses (SPOILER: “I’m bleeding”).
Anyway, all the reminiscing about my amazing nurses took far too much time and if I don’t post this right now it will be after midnight.
Didn’t play any games on my phone for once, spent the day testing and reading news/Reddit/Facebook. Also made dinner, but I think the meat I bought yesterday has already started to turn, it was just weird. Played a couple hours of No Man’s Sky, too. Still haven’t gotten my old worlds and progress back. Oh well. Now I can start anew knowing what I know, like if a Sentinel is near you DON’T DO ANYTHING. That’s how I died the first time.
As a Millennial, it’s kind of my job to be always online. As an IT guy, that’s literally my job. Here’s a history of my initial forays into computers and then some Internet things I’ve done recently.
A History of Joe Online
I think my love of computers and initial Internet introduction is all thanks to Nonnie, my paternal grandmother. I may be mis-remembering, but I’m almost certain my first introduction to a computer was at her house. Windows 95, Minesweeper/FreeCell, dedicated armoire for the computer, WordPerfect. Could be a toss-up with my Uncle Bob, but I’m going to give Nonnie this one. I’d print custom cards pretty often. Not just like “Happy Birthday!” but “Welcome Back Home After You Went To Town For An Hour!” I was a weird kid. But it was fun and new. I also bricked a computer and couldn’t figure out how to fix it. One of my cousins button-mashed and somehow got it to work again, I’m still trying to figure that one out, 20+ years later.
My first Internet experience I’m almost certain was with my mom at home. Windows 98, dialup AOL, and the awesome defrag interface. This was 3rd grade, and I think it was either then or in 6th grade I got into NeoPets. I should probably check on them, it’s been like 18 years I hope they’re not all dead.
My first AIM screen name was jodrre1. I then got a Hotmail, jodrre2. My Yahoo was jodrre3. As you can see, I’m still not very creative when it comes to screen names. All those accounts are closed now, sorry hackers.
Anyway. 3rd grade-ish, first foray into early Internet from an AOL lens. 4th grade, same thing but I got a PlayStation so I didn’t really care much. Plus I spent a lot of time at the local library, so I got my fix there. Built a fair amount of websites with free hosts (omg), this was the time I learned how to write HTML. So many websites created by hand and hosted locally for the stupidest shit. I don’t even want to get into the things I built or how excited I got when I could change the text color mid-sentence.
5th grade I know we still had the computer but I can’t remember where it lived in that house so more or less I didn’t have access then. I was also super into Scouts and band so there wasn’t a lot of time available for computer usage. Plus, I had access at school with their stupid squid proxy. NETSCAPE. That was a thing. Hated it even back then when I didn’t know better.
When we moved to Central Oregon for reals in 6th grade, my school district had better access available to students, so then I started getting really into it. More HTML code, NeoPets, and just in general trying to figure out how the Internet worked. The computer in my 6th grade house was in its own room (the craft room) and we still had dial-up AOL.
Moved one last time, the computer had its own area in the family room, and this house let us have two phone lines so we could be online and use the phone at the same time. This was when MySpace was a thing, and I vividly remember staying up late talking with my friend while editing my page and also chatting with her at the same time over MSN Messenger.
After a year or two in that house with dial-up, we got a new computer (I got the old one for my room, more HTML and nonsense) and then WiMAX service. Finally! An always-on connection! Since my room was the closest one (besides the master bath) to the radio dish, I got the router in my room. This might have been the beginning of my love of networking. How do I get the new computer talk to the old computer because the old computer can’t talk to the router? My family hated it, I’m sure, but I loved poking around that router and trying to improve speeds. Almost certain at this point I originally registered this domain name.
There’s a lot of little other stories I have, but once we got broadband at home then I really got into the guts of how the Internet worked, did lots of things, and now here we are. Ya boi’s a giant nerd, and always has been.
Recent Internet Things
This post is already far too long. Sorry. I’ll make this last bit short, even though it sounds advertise-y.
A couple months ago, I moved away from Chrome in favor of Brave. Chrome was just taking too much memory and getting bogged down. Brave blocks ads and junk by default, seems to run much faster, and has privacy in mind. You can opt-in to see some ads, and get BAT tokens (cryptocurrency) in return. In two months I’ve made about USD$2 just from viewing ads. Check it out, I’m kind of impressed.
Today I verified this site with Brave, and if you use Brave you can donate BAT tokens now. Obviously it would be awesome if I got some BAT tips, but not a big deal. Right now they’re not worth a lot, but I mean $2 for just carrying on about my day normally? I’ll take it!
20 days ago I rebuilt my website for the 10th time, this time with the goal to create actual real content, maybe I can eventually throw up some AdSense ads and make some more money. If you use Brave you won’t see them, but for the bots and click-farms maybe I can make some money off of them. Just layin’ out my evil plans here, folks. Really just want to be able to supplement my income since we’re not getting raises this year and also if the shutdown goes for longer than planned.
Another Internet thing I started doing recently is contribute to the Folding@Home project. I feel that especially right now that donating to their effort will do the most good. I have an old computer I bought from work that acts as a server. It sits unused for the vast majority of the week (all my stuff is done online, I don’t store a lot of things locally) so it was the best decision for a thing that I’d need to be able to use 24/7 but was more or less not being used. I hope that makes sense. So far my computers have been able to complete about 50 work units, and in the last couple days they’ve only worked on coronavirus units. I would like to see the data gets created through this, purely out of curiosity. How does it work!?!
Daily Reflections
Today I finally finished that stupid paper for my business ethics class. Not gonna lie, I totally phoned it in. I took a shower shortly after I got up (late) which I’d like to think helped me get productive. I also started playing the Jenna Julien Podcast through Spotify (starting at the beginning!) instead of YouTube, which also helped. I got to listen to people I consider friends (remember how I just want to be friends with famous people?) and didn’t get distracted by watching what they were doing. Here’s hoping it passes on the first try, I really don’t want to ever open that file again.
It hit 63F today. I opened my window around noon. It was glorious smelling the fresh air. Actually, I opened the window and then like 15 minutes later Googled if it was safe to do so. Yes, it is, the virus disperses with the more air there is. Plus, I’m pretty separate from my neighbors.
Spent more time than I care to admit trying to make my handkerchief into a mask. Turns out the hair ties Mom left aren’t loose enough to tie to my ears without my ears going cauliflower. About two years ago my grandpa was in an accident and I picked up a child-sized mask for funsies when I visited him at the hospital. The straps on that mask worked PERFECTLY to help cover my face. #winning
Texted my sister for a while. Some updates about the dogs that weren’t great. Stay strong, sis. Sending love. Give my love to Older Sis if she heads that way.
Little bit of an anxiety attack writing my shopping list, I couldn’t remember the order of the aisles. I didn’t want to go down a single aisle more than once so that I could get in and get out, so I wrote the list in the order I would need to pick things up. Drove to the store, turned off the car, and then no less than 5 cars pulled in after me and at least 10 people went inside without masks. Granted, I had finally made my own, but no way was I going to risk that. Drove around the resort for quite a while and came back and was only one of like 5 shoppers. Coincidentally, I was an aisle off where I thought, ramen vs. bread.
When I got to the checkout counter, she asked me how I was doing and I was just absolutely overjoyed! Buffalo chicken strips, toilet paper, and bleach! Mostly toilet paper! Down to two rolls, I was about to join the bidet train. But I got all the things I needed! (Editors note: upon arriving home, Joe was disappointed to find that he had forgotten to put coffee creamer on the list, which was one of the main reasons for leaving his home that day.)
Came home, made a bleach bucket like when I used to work in kitchens, and wiped down all of my purchases. Absolutely better safe than sorry. I live alone and have two cats. If I get sick and/or die, what’s going to happen to my babies? So better not to be sick. Took another shower, better safe than sorry. Made some spagoot, played Apex with a friend (LOVING this update, 1.33), and here we are.
And now, a dank spagoot meme.
Sorry for the vast amount of text. I had a great idea written out about my Internet origins and then a somewhat interesting (to me) day.
Today was unproductive. I got absolutely nothing done. Freaked out a little bit about the virus, watched a lot of podcasts and Hank Green, vaguely gestured at my business ethics assignment (I NEED TO JUST FINISH THAT), and really just farted around. This is a post in three parts.
The Bullshit
Full disclosure, found a new mobile game (of course) and wasted all day on that. I really should just uninstall all of them and disallow them from the app store, but I just get so damn bored sometimes. Sometimes you just need a game to distract you.
And quick side note, my neighbor is older (60-65-ish), as I write this at almost a quarter to 11 at night, his car has been idling for a few minutes, and I just heard him drive off. DAVE! It’s LATE! You’re OLD! There’s a VIRUS! GET YO’ ASS BACK INSIDE, THERE IS NOTHING OPEN. And while we’re at it, STOP HAVING A WOOD-CHOPPING CONTEST WITH YOUR BROTHER!!! (Brother of neighbor is neighbor on the other side)
The Actual Content
Okay, stick with me here. Coming up with ideas to write about that isn’t my entire day in isolation is HARD. Even when I’m not in isolation, my normal day is boring. Wake up late, panic-shower, get a Starbucks (50% off, bb), get to the office, do IT stuff, come home, make food, homework and video games, bed. The IT stuff is sometimes pretty interesting, but I can’t really talk about that.
I saw a suggestion to go to Google Trends and write about whatever’s trending, and while that isn’t really the feel of this personal blog, one of the trending searches was for Adele. Something about her being one of the richest singers in the UK? I don’t know, I didn’t click into it. So I want to just talk about Adele in general.
For about 6 years way back in the day I was the technical director for a small (93 seat) community theatre. A couple months after her song “Rolling in the Deep” came out, I found myself alone at the theatre either programming lights for a show or doing some sort of maintenance. I don’t know. The point is I was alone in the building, it was late, and I had a pretty big sound system available to me.
So I play the song. Loudly. On repeat. And then I decided for the first time in a long time to actually seek out the music video. So I did. I played the music video on repeat. Loudly.
It was about the 10th time through the video that something clicked and I just began to sob uncontrollably. I don’t think that until this very moment that I truly understood when someone would say a song spoke directly to their soul. And it makes no sense! I don’t date, I haven’t been hurt romantically, and at that point in life I was doing okay!
So then of course I developed a huge crush on Adele and wanted to be her friend because that’s what I do with famous people I admire, I Just want to be their friend.
Okay, that’s it, the end. I had an emotional response to a pretty deep song while I was alone playing with lights. And that’s what I immediately thought of when I saw a Google Trends result for her trending for having money and stuff.
Reflections
I started using this heading as kind of a joke and also a way to just offer a space where I could step back and look overall at the post. Less than three weeks in I don’t even care any more, it’s just always going to be the last little section. Fight me.
Didn’t eat a lot today, mostly because I’ve taken only 1020 steps so no need for a huge dinner when you burn almost ZERO CALORIES. This is sort of helping the need to stay home, because if I’m not eating a lot of food then I don’t need to go to the store. I sure can’t wait to get a hamburger again, though. Depending on how long my last box of wine lasts and the creamer for my coffee, I shouldn’t have to go to the store for another couple days. Oh yeah, I’ve had two glasses of wine tonight. Much better than before, I do want to observe the “no booze on school nights” rule, but I don’t care I waited until 11 and it’s almost bedtime.
The biggest driver for me to leave the house beyond creamer (I can skip the coffee, I have other sources of caffeine) is honestly going to be toilet paper. I’m still stymied at the hoarding of that particular product. I have a little over 2 rolls left so that will last me over a week, but if I can’t find any at the store then looks like I get to hop on the bidet train because oh my god why are you hoarding TOILET PAPER?!?!?! Lysol, I get, but TP!?!
The weather looks nice on Wednesday and Thursday, I fully intend on taking the laptop outside, sitting on the porch, and just enjoying the sunshine. Still too early to do a lot of the yard work that I need to do (plants, mow, weedwhack) but by gum am I going to enjoy being warm while outside. I may even grill if I can work up the courage to go to more than one store and get propane.
Tried making a mask, it knocked off my glasses when I went to adjust it, I can no longer find my glasses. It’s been a few hours. Help.
Actually, I can, but I still say this whenever I can’t find them.
Yesterday I laid out my schedule for today, to start treating this furlough/isolation as a job. I did like one of those things.
My day started late. Woke up at 8, fell asleep again until 9, stayed in bed until 10. Then got up, fed Turnip, made coffee. Decided that I couldn’t very well clean if I hadn’t had my fill of coffee, so turned on YouTube (I am a weak man) until I had my required two cups of coffee.
Not really sure what happened when I finished my last cup of coffee at noon (don’t judge), but around 2 I started getting hungry. Pretty sure I was working on Idle Miner and trying to get it built up before the event mine ended. Yeah, that was it. I blame that dumb game. Anyway, at 2 I started getting hungry but was feeling guilty I hadn’t done literally anything, so I resolved to clean the kitchen and then have food.
So I cleaned the kitchen. Dishes done, counters wiped down, things put away, table cleared. Threw that handkerchief I found and my eCloth towel and sponge into the wash. Had chicken wings as a treat. Note for next time: flip the wings halfway through and maybe cook a little longer than they say, the wings fell apart and were slightly soggy on the bottom. Yuck.
Kitchen all-in-all took an hour, like I planned. Ate the wings, watched some more YouTube, and then it all went to pot. I got sucked back into that game and podcasts. Next thing I know, it’s 5pm. Around this time the washer was done so I pulled those out, and since my mop head was in there now I could finally mop the kitchen; so I did that.
More time-sucks, and then at 7 took a shower, listened to the first episode of a podcast made by a friend, then played a couple rounds of Apex with my friend. Cooked some rice and Madras lentils, not really an ideal dinner for me but that’s what I have so that’s what I’m eating.
Watched a video about No Man’s Sky, got a hankering for my stupid base, so started to re-install that game since my old PS4 died (new post idea right there, Swedish Fish Theory in action). Side note: as soon as I’ve posted this, going to jump back into Minecraft In Space.
I’d call today somewhat productive. Yes, I didn’t do all the things I wanted to do, but I got one thing done that was causing me a lot of stress. Tomorrow I’ll focus on at least one half of the living area, which will help with a lot more stress. Baby steps still get the work done.
Also on an unrelated note, I was checking my Folding@Home stats page and there was one more computer listed than I have installed? Was that one of y’all? Or are one of my computers just freaking out and reporting weird? If it was one of y’all, let’s look into starting a team instead of using my name. They’re doing good work but I’d like to keep track of my contributions separately 🙂
The last couple days have felt more like a groove than before. I’m still waking up late (because I’m going to bed even later) so it feels like the day is shorter, but during my day I’m starting to get into something like a groove.
For example, I wake up, check Facebook and Reddit (staying away from news for the most part right now). Get bored after a little bit, get up, start the coffee pot, feed Turnip. Sit down in my chair. Turn on the TV and go to either YouTube (JennaJulienPodcast or VlogBrothers) or Hulu (Deep Space 9).
I’ll poke around on my phone, maybe open the laptop to pretend like I’m going to keep working on my business ethics assignment, but then I usually end up on Facebook or doing some random thing that doesn’t mean anything. Around 2pm I realize that I haven’t eaten anything and my stomach hurts. Make a bagel or a hot dog. Eat that. Go back to farting around.
At 7 I’ll look at the clock and say, “Oh, shit! I need to make dinner!” Then I’ll do that. Since it’s now late enough in the day, I’ll pour myself a glass of wine while I cook and eat. All the while still binging whatever I’m watching. 10 or 11 rolls around, “FUCK! I haven’t written my blog post for today! THE STREAK!!!!!!” and then I come up with some mediocre content to throw up onto the Internet lest I lose my streak/contest with myself.
Then once the post is up, I’ll keep binging, farting around online, feeling bad about stuff, feed both cats, drinking, etc. until it’s 2 in the morning and “OH CRAP IT’S LATE.” Bed, rinse, repeat.
How Today Went
I stayed pretty true to form until about 4, then for some reason I got a bug to boot up one of my old computers. I think I was going to add it to my Folding@Home account so I could help out that much more with their efforts with the coronavirus. For some reason that I couldn’t be bothered to figure out, I couldn’t get it to turn on. Good thing I have another computer! Moved the hard drive over, got that one running. Its old name back in the day was “Hulk” because all the fans were green and it’s just fucking giant.
Hulk, beyond being gigantic and green, is LOUD. Without giving away too much of what he used to do, he has dual power supplies (fun fact: if one of the supplies isn’t plugged in and that outlet is switched off he SCREAMS), a RAID controller that I had to figure out how to disable because I only had one drive, and is just overall a beast. Lots of fans. If this computer went down, a lot of things would have gone wrong very quickly.
Removed a couple of the fans because they were being loud/broken, moved the memory from the old computer to Hulk (DDR2, anyone?), and just in general tried to get it both quieter and faster. Didn’t work too well, even with the removed fans it was loud as hell (I blame the PSU), and was slow with 6GB RAM (again, DDR2). It also probably didn’t help that I’m running Ubuntu 14.10 with Unity.
I spent about half an hour just looking through that old drive, it was from when I was the technical director for a local theatre, so there were a lot of cool things to look through (old scripts, plots, web tools, apps). Eventually the sheer volume of Hulk became overwhelming (and I don’t have an Ethernet cable long enough to just hook it into the network and close the door to the room), so I shut it down and carried on. Looked through some of my old boxes to find a handkerchief for a mask, not in that room. I’ll clean it up later, slowly get new PC components, it’s going to be a great streaming room.
Still had a hair to find that handkerchief, maybe it was with some of my old clothes? Went into my room into my closet, after a little shuffling around BAM THERE IT BE! Couldn’t find one of the cloth napkins I know I have; figure layering the handkerchief with the napkin with a paper towel should filter out a fair amount of things when I need to go to the store soon. I’ve seen the napkin fairly recently, just need to remember what I’d have done with it.
The whole time I was working with Hulk and poking around my things, whenever I was standing my legs were shaking. My guess is that in the 3 weeks I’ve been stuck at home the sheer amount of time spent sitting/laying has caused my leg muscles to sort of atrophy. Granted, even while working I was spending a lot of time sitting, but at least I had the ability to walk around and get at least 5k steps in at least. Now I’m lucky if I hit 1k. I did find the missing handle for my resistance bands, so I’ll be able to get some sort of workout in, even if it’s not very extensive.
Went back to YouTube watching a lot of Hankschannel. Not a lot of food left that looked good so I had the last two hot dogs for dinner, and here we are.
Isolation As A Job
I’ve been saying this for a while, but I really need to clean my house. It’s embarrassing. Just so much shit everywhere. Like, clutter. I’m messy, not dirty. So tonight I decided to treat this period of isolation less like a paid vacation and more like a job. To wit: I will set my alarm and wake up, allocate my time to do certain tasks, and do them. No more YouTube/Hulu time-sucks.
Here’s what I’m going to aim for tomorrow:
8am – alarm
9am – be in the living room at this point to make coffee, check Facebook, etc.
Hey, take a shower. You’re demonstrably much more productive after you’ve showered.
Also get out of your slippers. Stop shuffling around like Mr. Burns.
10am – Kitchen, specifically the table, it’s nasty.
11am – Sitting area of the living room – Pick up junk, clear off desk
12pm – Main area of the living room – Pick up junk, pile paper into one area for later sorting/disposal, everything else into the guest room for later sorting
1pm – Food, can have a little Hulu as a treat.
2pm – Sweep and mop kitchen and living room, vacuum the two carpets I own.
3pm – Paper sorting. Build a fire, whatever. Just get rid of all those damn pre-approval credit card letters.
4pm – You know what? That’s enough cleaning for one day. Go forth and watch YouTube. Maybe even play some vidja games. Treat yoself.
So in short, the goal for tomorrow is to just keep moving. Cleaning up all the accumulated crap is a side benefit, will help make this place not a depression den any more.
Monday can be cleaning my room and the guest room, Tuesday I can move my desk and the dresser. Who knows. I’ll figure that out later. But moving is the main goal.
Since tomorrow is going to be a work day, I need to head to bed! Early! Create a new groove!
Yesterday I told myself I’d keep the TV/YouTube off so I wouldn’t be distracted and would clean up the house and get the guest room situated. Well, that didn’t happen. So today is going to be a short post.
Didn’t do much today. Got caught up on COVID-19 updates, saw that the CDC is recommending masks, looked for masks, and checked on my aunt who lives by herself near me. Started getting freaked out, so I decided to spend a couple hours playing Minecraft to clear my head.
Turnip’s food arrived today. When the driver dropped it off, I waited until he was well past the porch before opening the door to say thanks, but he was too far away (and it was too loud with Floof-n-Boof barking at him) for him to hear me. Thanks, FedEx Guy, for keeping the world running.
Had an all-associates call with the GM and Director of HR at work, and after hearing them I became much calmer. A lot of companies tout that they’re close-knit and a family, but my company truly embodies that. Just from the call, I could tell they both were upset about the current situation and wanted us all to be able to return to normalcy. Our management company says the same, but you can tell our local leaders actually mean it from their heart, not because they have to.
After the call I watched some podcasts, played my mobile game, and just sort of stayed chill.
Played some JackBox with an old friend over Zoom, had the last of my taco meat, and then played a couple rounds of Apex with another friend.
Which brings me to now. I’ve had a couple glasses (3 as of the moment) of wine and am ready to head to bed early.
So I’m going to bed now. An entirely non-productive day. Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just weird because usually I’m trying my hardest to stay busy.
I’ve really been digging these last couple stream of consciousness posts, it’s so easy to just save a draft and update it throughout the day. Yesterday I was in the living room all day. The day before that I stayed in my room. Today I’m probably going to stay in my room. I’m not splitting the difference very well over the course of a day, but I seem to be doing just fine if I dedicate a day in each room. It may be simpler once I fix the guest room back into an office/streaming area.
Woke up this morning with a cough, what I thought was shortness of breath, and felt like I had to puke. Oh no, this is it, I’m infected. Well, I’m not warm, I’m not sneezing, the coughing went away after a little bit as did the shortness of breath (I can still breathe deeply without issue). You know what the problem is? I’m dehydrated. For the last couple weeks I’ve gone from coffee to a couple sodas for lunch to wine at dinner. No water, and those are all diuretics.
I had an appendectomy almost a year ago, and the one thing they didn’t tell me was that I needed to drink a lot of water for a lot longer than you’d think. Last summer I couldn’t eat at restaurants more than like 1/3rd of whatever I ordered before I’d suddenly feel nauseous. It would go away after a minute or two but there’s no eating after that. A lot of takeout boxes last summer. No problem eating a large meal at home because of how I was sitting on the couch vs. a restaurant’s chair (leaned back vs. straight).
I mentioned to one of the managers that I kept feeling like I had to throw up and something had to be wrong with me, and she said that I was dehydrated because of the surgery. This was 3 months later, there was no way! I took her advice and got some Pedialyte, instantly felt better.
So last fall and this winter I made a concerted effort to drink half my weight in ounces, like I was taught in HS Bio. Problem is I also have a couple glasses of wine every night (before you think anything, I’m not an alcoholic, I just like to have wine.) so sometimes I’d dehydrate myself again. Pedialyte and Gatorade, feel better. At least two full Hydroflasks while at work and then half of one at home. Bam, 100oz right there, more than enough.
Well, since starting working from home and now not working just isolating, I’ve not been drinking any water. None. I’m about halfway through my first Hydroflask and I feel so much better already. I will admit that the last couple nights I’ve gone a little overboard with the wine (seriously, a couple pieces of watermelon in your sangria is the best). Last night I didn’t have my first glass until like 10, but somehow still managed to have like 4 or 5 glasses. That’s a little much.
So at the very least for tonight no wine. Just water. My body will thank me.
I used to have a “no alcohol on school nights” rule but that gradually went away. Since I don’t have school nights until the resort opens back up, it became really easy to drink like it was the weekend. Not good on the liver or my wallet. I’ve already lost like 5 pounds since I’m not eating out for lunch any more, I would be curious to see by next Friday (assume wine tomorrow and Saturday nights) how much I can lose by cutting out that sugar for just 6 days. Last time I didn’t drink for a week I lost 10 pounds. Which is scary and I don’t want to think about it.
Seriously, like 10 hours later
Well, I did the autosave thing, opened my school assignment and put a Jenna Julien podcast video on to the side, and promptly did nothing else.
Made some dinner, chili dogs, and started organizing the guest room. Didn’t get very far. I have a lot of crap in boxes. Lots of work to get things organized. I hoard papers, so I need to sift through and just get rid of everything that isn’t actually important. No, I do NOT need to keep this giant stack of credit card offers. Just to be clear, I don’t have a giant stack of those letters, but they’re just scattered everywhere, taking up space. Get rid of them.
I’ve had almost 100oz of water today, feeling better. Tomorrow before I start my weekend partying I’ll just need to make sure I’ve drank enough.
This is going to be another one of those posts that don’t have a theme, just a stream of consciousness.
Today I didn’t get much of anything done, to the surprise of exactly none. Deep Space 9 marathon continued, and given my lifelong attraction to TV I just kind of kept watching it, playing my mobile game, and just did nothing.
Turnip ran out of his prescription food this morning, I only had a little bit left. Thankfully I stocked up on Friskie’s wet food and he loved that, so until the doctor approves the shipment he’s just going to have to eat that.
For lunch lately I’ve been eating an everything bagel with chive and onion cream cheese. Chive and onion cream cheese is the bomb and where has it been my whole life?!
Trying to work on this task for my business ethics course and I just can’t seem to get into it. Maybe it’s the TV playing in the background. Maybe it’s because the topic is so dry. I just need to get this task done and then I’m technically finished with the term, only 3 months left. I’ve almost reached my loan limit so the sooner I get this task submitted and passed, the sooner I can finish the last few classes before the end of the term. I’ve been going to school for almost 10 years, I just want my Bachelor’s. I just want the piece of paper!
I made tacos for dinner last night, so tonight all I had to do was reheat a little of it. When one of my old roommates moved out, he moved in with a guy who didn’t have a microwave, so everything they needed to heat or reheat was done on the stove or the oven. I didn’t understand how you could just not have a microwave, they’re essential! But now that I’ve lived alone for 2 years (that doesn’t seem right…) I get it. Microwaves are like shotguns: they’re going to just blast through and get the job done. Reheating on the stove or in the oven is like a sniper rifle, you have much more control. That’s a terrible metaphor, I know, but I can’t think of anything else. Bottom line is if you reheat something on the stove you can tweak and make improvements to get the result you want. Like reheating the taco meat: just add a little water to the meat, stir, cover so it heats everything, stir, and add more spices if you want. Once the excess water steams away, you’re left with beautiful taco meat.
Dang it, I’m hungry again.
The only downside of reheating things on the stove is now you have So Much More Dishes To Do. I’m already terrible at doing the dishes so it becomes a problem. Though I will say that since I’m stuck at home all day now, I am getting a little better. I still need to find my groove on cleaning up the rest of this depression den, but since I started getting better at keeping the kitchen clear it’s been helping to motivate me.
Also, dang, I really need to figure out how to make my own GIFs. There’s so many that I can’t find for specific things. Like the GIF above, I wanted the one where Shin says “I’m so hungry my tummy’s gonna eat itself. Now I know why models are such bitches.” I say that all the time! I need a GIF of it!
