Thanksgiving Mocha Friday

November 29, 2024 by Adam in Family

It's been a generally good week.  I've made progress at work as well as being thwarted by failing pipelines as I try to follow all the recommended procedures.  I spent half a day doing my Connect, writing good things about myself and what awesome things I plan on doing in the future.  Hopefully it turned out okay.

Thanksgiving was great, from waking up lazily to play video games, make myself blueberry pancakes and a mocha, paint some minis, help a little with cooking, then wander off to mom's for a low-key get together with family.  Francis and her stories were constantly entertaining.  Robbie's beard was majestic.  The food was delicious, especially the two pieces of pumpkin pie throughout the day.

I've got three more days of kicking it.  Emma's coming over sometime and I'm sure we'll make a library run.  I've got D&D with the friend group this Sunday.  I started a pencil-and-paper solo Call of Cthulu RPG  and might work more on that - I'm currently on a steam ship to Athens with the mystery beginning to be discovered.  More and more it feels like it's the time of year to turn on the fireplace, pour a cup of tea, and do cozy things until springtime.

Witches and Super Spies

November 29, 2024 by Adam in Adam's Games

My new job came with an XBox Game Pass, so I've been digging into some of the free games that come with that, along with some of the Steam games I pick up along the way.  I've recently dabbled in Starcraft, Goat Simulator, Aliens Dark Descent, and more, but it's hard finding time to get all the way through a game.

Yesterday I finished playing Black Ops 6, which ended up being a high-quality spy shooter that felt like I was playing an over-the-top Mission Impossible movie.  Yes there were motorcycle jumps and casino infiltration levels, but it was a short and entertaining experience.

On the other end of the spectrum was The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, which was a Spanish-made magical realism game about witches, fate, and friendship.  It was almost an interesting Rorchart test of who you are - I ended up sacrificing my immortality for saving the universe and my friends.  Seemed a good trade.

Mushroom Hunting Weekend

November 25, 2024 by Adam in Family

I had wanted a low-key weekend and generally got what I wanted.  I was a little under the weather Saturday but Emma and I managed to make our weekly library pilgrimage and hit up The House of Records afterwards for Christmas presents.  I managed to finish the first volume of a graphic novel collection - Gideon Falls ended up being a sci-fi horror dimension hopping story and right up my alley.  I also worked on some little web application side thing making planets appear in the browser for my D&D game.  It's satisfying turning ideas into code in a short period of time, unlikely my real job which moves at a glacial pace at times.

Sunday started with a hearty breakfast of hash browns, eggs, bacon, veggie sausage and french toast, ending with sipping a mocha with Data on my lap demanding pets.  I had more energy that day and did a bit of basement cleanup and tried to fix the coffee table down there a little.  Eventually Emma and I went on a final mushroom hunt for her mycology class, scouring Hendrick's Park for anything interesting.  We found a couple and upon returning home Victoria across the street found more for us, but alas it looks like none of them expanded Emma's collection in the right way.  I think it's like Pokemon Go.

I'm back at work, really hoping to get my big PR wrapped up soon so I can move on to the next thing.  I've also got the new Alien movie to watch as I run at lunch - scifi horror really helps me get my pace up.

It lives!

November 22, 2024 by Adam in Family

I've sorted things out with Hunter Communication and my web site should be on the Internet again.  They made a change on their end to save some money (going from NAT to CGNAT), so apparently I needed to make grumpy noises before they switched me back.  Duncan was needed to do some Minecraft server things for a video, so he should be happy too.

Is There Anybody Out There?

November 22, 2024 by Adam in Family

This website is still offline - I submitted a ticket finally but have yet to receive a response.  I'll call today if I don't hear from them.  Work has been all-consuming this week but I think it's finally settling down.  I'm certainly learning a lot about working with giant amounts of code and hundreds of people making constant changes.  I've given up trying to understand the bug I've been assigned, but instead using a fancy "guess and check" method that tries to narrow down which change broke things.  It's super tedious, but I think I'm finally narrowing down the culprit.

We don't have any big plans for the weekend.  I'd love to do some cleaning and sort out some projects, plus start getting a little more organized for Christmas.  Thanksgiving is at mom's this year.  I'm also really looking forward to taking some time off work - I haven't taken off any since I started so I'm itching for some chill days.

Still Offline

November 20, 2024 by Adam in Family

This blog still isn't connected to the Internet, so I guess it's more of a personal journal now?  It's annoying and I think I need to call Hunter Communications about it, or at least carve out some more debugging time.

It was a good weekend, with back-to-back D&D games again.  The family game had a couple sidequests along the way to the main heist - chasing an owlbear and visiting a magical unicorn, followed by a heist to save children that almost immediately went off the rails.  We'll see if they manage to pull it off. 

The friend game was mostly focused on mood and ambience, with a big fight at the end.  The absolute best part for me was handing out secret notes on 3x5 cards that made each player suspect the other.  In the end they turned on each other, casting spells and pushing each other around.  That's when I struck with the true villans which ended in Emma's character using a spell to light a "candle" on a pillar that ended up being dynamite.  Everyone survived, but it was a fun comedy of errors.

As for the rest of the week, I've been fighting a touch of a cold.  Work got slow and frustrating for awhile, but I finally got myself unstuck this morning and can get my work moving ahead.  It's funny how what seemed initially simple has spiraled into months of work.

Emma called last night and her mom has a couple extra kitties looking for a good home.  Jamie's dad fell and broke his hip, so they've trying to rehome the kitties since it's such a long recovery.  If I ever get this blog back online, maybe someone will read this.

Screaming Into the Void

November 15, 2024 by Adam in Family

They say that in space no one can hear you scream.  Well it turns out that no one can read your web site posts if something is blocking access to your website from the outside world.  I've been fiddling with router firewall settings with no luck. Hopefully I can find some time to do some more drastic things, though I'm not sure when.  I guess I could invite everyone over to the house and show them my latest posting, though that kind of defeats the point.

Yesterday was an everything-is-falling-apart kind of day.  Work had various development tools stop working, my personal web site died, and as I was cooking dinner the oven decided it was cleaning itself and locked the door.  That trapped the dinner I was cooking inside and so I made exaspirated screeching noises until Jo rescued me by trying the door until the food could be rescued.  They also replaced the toaster oven, though I'll kind of miss the weird eldritch script the LED display turned into and the fun "turn the dial and get a random temperature" game.

I've got back-to-back D&D this weekend, so I'm girding my loins and trying to get ready.  As usual, I'm going a little overboard - I made up some custom downtime handouts that turned into a city management mini-game.  Hopefully it's more fun than frustrating.

Dungeons and Dragons and Birthdays

November 11, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was a fun weekend, with Saturday being very chill and Sunday full of D&D and Seraph's birthday.

Saturday morning I fed the kids pancakes and tofu scramble while Jo went off to have breakfast for her friend's birthday.  Emma, Yvonne and I went off to the library, stopping at the library book sale to pick up various goodies, including a Buffy book for Seraph's birthday.  They had an entire section including a Spike puppet and the complete DVD session, but I kept it safe and stuck to a tv episode review book.  The kids and I mostly read all afternoon, though I snuck in some DM planning time for Sunday's game.

Sunday was the whimsical Wild Beyond the Witchlight game with the family group.  Since it was Seraph's birthday too, we had presents and cupcakes and sang a little song.  Mom stopped by to offer birthday wishes and watch a bit.  The game itself was fun and silly, ending with a plan to rescue children captured by a hag in a zany heist.  We'll see how it turns out next week.

Emma and I went for a stroll around the neighborhood in the afternoon, looking for mushrooms for her mycology class.  We didn't find much until the last block on the way back, ending up with multiple handfulls of weird and cool mushrooms that Emma went off to identify.

Today is Veteran's Day so the kids don't have school.  Sadly the same isn't true for Microsoft, so I'm working away at my big and complicated feature.  I'm at the getting feedback phase, so I'm doing a lot of rework, but hopefully the end result will be at the appropriate level of quality.

Mocha Friday

November 08, 2024 by Adam in Family

It's been a week.

We've been putting out leftover Halloween candy for the people who deliver packages all the way up our stairs.  It's been vanishing pretty quickly, which I thought meant it was serving its purpose.  Soon enough we discovered torn up wrappers, half-eaten M&Ms, and the squirrel hanging out by the bowl.  I now envision a plump squirrel in a tree somewhere, mouth covered in garish food dye colors, hopped up on too much sugar.  It seems an ill portent for the next four years.

I've been focused on the smaller things around the house - making dinner, going to work, painting minis, and playing the occasional video game.  Jo and I finished A Way Out which was a fun co-op experience, though the end turned pretty dark and emotional.  D&D was rescheduled to this Sunday, so we get to do a combined Seraph birthday and nerd fest.  I've been frantically painting minis in preparation, though we'll see how far they get.

Emma and I went to the eye doctor yesterday and I picked up a backup pair of glasses.  Since it was emergency only I decided to keep it simple and low-cost - it's amazing how expensive glasses can be these days.

Work continues on, half writing code and half coordinating the varied interests of others.  I did a pretty good job troubleshooting an issue way outside our typical area which ended up being entertaining and educational.  Now it's time to get my usual work done.

Hang out Weekend

November 04, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was a generally chill weekend.  Saturday after a hearty breakfast of hashbrowns, eggs, muffins, bacon, sausages and mochas I took Emma and Yvonne to the library and later Smith Family Bookstore.  Emma's back in her nautical phase so we scooped up an old book on the wives and mistresses of sailors around the 17th century.  Yvonne found one on marine biology.  I love how they think they ended up with a treat while I feel I've tricked them again into learning something.

I finished Detroit: Become Human, which turned out well for most of my androids.  I did have one bleak ending, so I just wanted a YouTube video of the good ending and pretended that's how it actually happened.  It's like when I was a kid with a Choose Your Own Adventure book and I'd just go back any time things went too badly.

Emma saw that a game on my wishlist was on sale - The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.  We played a tiny bit together and then she immediately dove in and finished it over two days, making her own Tarot-like cards as a divination witch and changing the fate of the universe.  I only played the first little bit but it seems interesting and different so far.

Sunday Emma and I headed to the orchard near her mom's house to find mushrooms for Emma's class and see if there were any acorns we could find.  Sadly there were very few, though Emma found a few cool mushrooms.  After that we drove to the farm.  Blackberries continue to take over and quite a few of the trees we planted on the north side of the property didn't make it, but down near the stream was cool and fresh.  I completely forgot to plant any of the acorns I found, but Emma found more cool mushrooms.  My favorite part was drinking tea and hot chocolate in the spooky shack as the rain began to fall.

The rest of the day was equally low-key.  I painted a ton of minis and printed a few more.  My dad's printer does some amazingly detailed work with the right settings.  It's a little noisy where it is in the living room, but I find I prefer printing to it over my older one as the end result is such high quality.

Rainy Mocha Friday

November 01, 2024 by Adam in Family

It's November already as the steady patter of rain on the roof reminds me regularly.  Halloween was low-key as is often the case, a horde of kids coming through and keeping us on our toes.  We tried to foist the last of the candy on the polite group of teenagers that came in the last wave but were generally unsuccessful.

Work has been a little challenging this week as I start in on unit tests, trying to figure out how everything is structured.  Hopefully today I can make some progress.  I also finally uploaded all the necessary documentation to get my HSA card unstuck - long delayed due to the social security card kerfuffle.  It'll be nice to feel fully transitioned into my new role.

While I haven't had a lot of downtime this week, I have managed to play more of Detroit: Become Human.  I'm trying to be nice to the humans, but it's hard when they keep murdering my fellow androids.  I'm prepping for the next D&D sessions, warming up the 3d printer and getting more minis ready to go.  One of Emma's characters gets a robot companion and she wanted it to look like Mr. Handy from the Fallout games.  I think it turned out relatively well.

Jo has some school work to get to this weekend.  Duncan's going to get back on his trike to get to an appointment today, his arm feeling mostly better.  Emma and I hope to visit the farm as she wants to find mushrooms for her class and I want to see if we can find and plant some acorns for oak trees.