Last Days of October

October 29, 2021 by Adam in Family

I've been listening to a lot of SCP podcasts, so I can only describe the speed of days going by as a "temporal anomaly."  My week has been full of redesigning security screens, taking kids to and from appointments, and the usual housework.  My should keeps improving and I continue my physical therapy - I can almost sleep on my right side without waking up again.  

The kids all seem to be doing well.  Emma's getting the hang of her science lab.  In biochem they apparently play either 80's music or country.  Ben's enjoying biology and learning how cells work.  Duncan's IEP meeting went well and he has some great teachers rooting for him.

As for this weekend, it'll be nice to see Danica.  Emma's having second thoughts about the Magic in Medieval Europe exhibit, so maybe we'll end up going after all.

Ice Cream and Lock Picking

October 26, 2021 by Adam in Family

Joanna and I had a lovely date night - they had burgers, I had sushi, followed by breaking out the practice lockpick kit I got them for Christmas.  It seemed a little random, but we were able to open up all the practice locks and Joanna managed a real lock we had around.  To balance our new life of crime, we also made some coffee flavored ice cream which was exceptionally tasty.

As for everything else, work has been going along nicely.  Emma's still happy about her biochem test results.  Joanna and I moved the bookcase into the hallway nook.  Duncan and Ben had bro night.  Life goes on.

Sad Monday

October 25, 2021 by Adam in Family

About 25 years ago I was teaching Microsoft Office at Omnitek to a bunch of PeaceHealth employees, one of which was Michael McCuistion.  After I moved to PeaceHealth we worked together on various projects and became friends.  Later he moved to Health Catalyst and we ran into each other a couple times.  Sadly we got news today that he died from surgery complications from what seemed like a routine surgery.  I've been thinking about him since, thinking about the time we drove to some other hospital together and chatted about parenting.  I will miss him.

The rest of my life is doing well.  Joanna and I had a productive weekend full of painting.  Ben got to extract DNA from strawberries.  Emma was excited that she did well on her incredibly difficult Biochem midterm.  I had my second physical therapy session which I hope is helping.  Work was full of interruptions, but I think progress is still being made.

Rainy Mocha Friday

October 22, 2021 by Adam in Family

It's certainly the rainy season in Eugene.  The prediction is for a winter that's colder and wetter than usual.  On the plus side, it likely means our drought will end and hopefully the wildfires with it.  Maybe next summer will be entirely mask-free.

The week has been going relatively well, accomplishing things at work and home.  Joanna wired up 12 volt outlets in the cabin, along with taking down and sanding our bedroom door so it wasn't so sticky.  Emma survived her first biochem midterm, though I think it was pretty rough.  She missed the bus a couple days this week and I took pity on her and gave her a ride.  Hopefully future terms are a little less grueling.  I pulled some unused network cable and patched up the weird nook in the hallway.  I think we'll paint it this weekend and move a bookshelf over.

Now it's off to work to look for bugs to squash and features to add.

Eternal One

October 21, 2021 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've been playing Slay the Spire for a couple years now - one of the best deck building games I've ever played.  I spent a long while trying to beat the game at the most difficult level, ascention level 20 where everything is impossibly hard.  I finally did it tonight after an excellent run with plenty of luck along the way.  I guess I'm done playing games forever now as clearly nothing will compare.

Productive Weekend

October 18, 2021 by Adam in Family

It seemed like we managed to accomplish quite a bit this weekend.  Joanna and I prepped and painted the upstairs more, getting trim and doors painted shiny white.  I enlisted Duncan and Emma to move the old orange couch upstairs into our bedroom and Joanna put on a couch cover and improved cushions.  I rearranged the basement in hopes of making it somewhat more organized.  We also managed some gardening, yardwork, and helping kids with homework.  Emma and I snuck away to the library in there too.

As for entertainment, there was the endless playing with cats, Emma and I played more of our Norwegian adventure game, Ben continued his SCP writing project, Duncan recorded Minecraft videos, and we all ate pizza and watched anime Saturday night.  I played a little more Lone Echo 2, though I can only handle an hour or so of VR before I get queasy.

Life's generally pretty cheerful.  Looking forward to seeing my physical therapist this afternoon and checking on my shoulder's recovery.

Mocha Friday

October 15, 2021 by Adam in Family

We all made it to the end of the week and I'm listening to coffee house music via Spotify after finishing up my Friday mocha.  I survived my struggles with fiscal quarters at work today.  It was an unusual enough problem that I couldn't just copy code from somewhere, so I was forced to do the math and logic myself.  I survived, but it was certainly a slog.

Ben and Duncan have the day off of school, today for grading and Monday as the vaccine mandate deadline for school staff.  Hopefully the good teachers all return.  It was also Ben's half birthday yesterday and I got him the sequel to Lone Echo, a VR game where you play as a robot around the orbit of Saturn.  The first game was beautiful - there's something stunning about staring out at the rings and feeling like you're really there.

Emma continues on at school, doing well generally, though I think she'd hoped college classes would somehow be more inspiring.  The sad reality is that most classes are a continuation of high school, just more in-depth.  Hopefully Anthropology of Pirates in spring makes up for all the biochemistry this term.  At least she got to dissolve zinc nails in her chem lab yesterday.

Joanna worked more on the shed wiring, putting in a battery monitor and shutoff switch.  Next up are outlets for 12 volt accessories.

Off to a New Week

October 12, 2021 by Adam in Family

The weekend seemed to vanish in a mix of projects, hangouts, and housework.  I finished turning both my tablets into picture frames.  Ben continues working on his Trauma Team helmet.  Duncan played Minecraft with friends.  Joanna, Emma, and I all went out to the farm to hang out with the family and enjoy the amazing potluck meal.  I helped Emma with homework over the weekend, but was otherwise fairly worn out and took it easy on Sunday.

Work was full of obstacles yesterday, but I hope I can make some progress today.  I weirdly enjoy waking up and mulling over a technical problem until the solution comes to me.

Mocha Friday

October 08, 2021 by Adam in Family

We've got half-finished projects scattered around the house.  I've got a couple old tablets I'm turning into picture frames, along with the old wood computer that needs some final touches.  I'm hoping to make a static version of the web site to put on a new tablet.  Various painting supplies are still piled around various corners in hopes of getting things finished up.  Maybe I'll retire one day so I can finally get some work done.

We're all muddling through the week, slowly getting the hang of school.  I helped Ben with some health class and biology homework.  Emma had her big lab day yesterday, which generally went well.  A couple of her lab mates ended up with negative densities for a copper cube.  I guess it was the tesseract and disobeyed the laws of physics or something.  She ended up excluding the impossible data points and I suggested she add to the list of possible error sources simply "Trevor."

As for work, I'm getting really sick of stacked bar charts.  I chased down a weird bug involving adding average that made no logical sense.  Sometimes software lets you do some really dumb things.  I also ended up politely expressing to a large group of people that we're not getting the support we need for our complicated new thing.  Fortunately everyone was nice and I think I was heard.  Lots of work to do down the road.

Despite life's ups and downs, we have a couple cute and mischevious kitties that keep us entertained.  I might have enjoyed chasing Data through the house after he jumped on the counter a little too much.  Not sure he learned any lesson in particular other than maybe chase is a fun game.

Busy Wednesday

October 06, 2021 by Adam in Family

Lots of running around today, but I had a few moments to give an update.  Joanna's cabin project continues, with the wiring progressing to the point where light turns on when you flip a switch.  It was a cool milestone.

Everyone continues school.  I think Emma's to the point where she's okay with her chem lab.  Other than transportation to and from school, she's generally figured out her classes and getting homework done.  It's been fun having her around this week.

Joanna and I continue our painting and rearranging.  It's a journey and a somewhat messy one at that.  We'll eventually get things settled and organized a little more.

Endless Painting

October 04, 2021 by Adam in Family

The Friday trip with Ben went well.  I listened to four hours of zombie podcast, so it went relatively quickly.  Emma survived her first full week of school and is starting to get the hang of things.

The weekend was filled with a mix of typical housework, helping Emma with homework, and continuing the great painting projects.  Joanna and I got more walls, two coats on the entire ceiling, as well as the little secret door into the crawlspace.  We've got more rearranging to think through, but the bulk of the bedroom painting is done.  Next up is the hall on the main floor.

Work is going along well, slowly working through some complicated issues.  Hopefully I'll be done tomorrow and then on to something hopefully simpler.

Roadtrip Friday

October 01, 2021 by Adam in Family

I'm taking Ben up to Portland today, so I'll be on the road for most of the day.  Fortunately I've started a zombie-themed podcast, so I'll be adequately entertained.

It's been Emma's first week of school, which I think has felt like quite a bit between chemistry, biochemistry and calculus.  Fortunately her honor's college art class ended up being easy and fun.  We managed to get all the textbooks she needed over the Internet and they all arrived in excellent condition.  She's keeping up with homework, though it's a big change from the last couple years.

Works going along nicely, working on tricky little problems instead of finding bugs again.  I suggested we number our latest release the "2.0" version, which somehow feels like a milestone, however imaginary.

We moved our bed across our bedroom, so I slept in a new place for the first time in ages.  There's more to paint and everything is pushed around in funny places, but at least the bed's where it's supposed to be.