Work, Boredom, Bacon, PDF, Essentials, Halo
By Derek | March 28, 2020
A great Saturday. (28th)
Regular work day for me. I was able to get a host evacuated and maintenanced. This one had a bad stick of RAM. Of course, we use ECC RAM in all of our servers, but still, I wanted to get it replaced ASAP.
A new level of boredom. My next door neighbor — wait, let me start at the beginning.
Jill was cooking up some bacon downstairs, she had it ready, and called me down to get some.
When I came down, though, it sounded like there was a lawn mower going right outside our front door.
I unlocked the door and stepped outside. Yep, it was my next door neighbor mowing our grass. I asked him what was up, and he said he was outside because his work was making him take a week off. He didn’t have anything to do, so he was going to cut all the lawns on the block to the same level and make it look really nice.
I said, carry on, and thanks! We just had our grass mowed a few days ago.
I was asked by a family member for some PDF editing software. I ended up recommended either LibreOffice Draw, as it can load and save PDFs without adding a Watermark, or Mac Preview (my family member already has a Mac).
The task was to take a PDF of scanned images, and break them down into smaller files (under 15MB each).
With Mac Preview, to remove pages from a PDF, you could…
- Make a safe backup. Move it somewhere other than your working directory.
- Duplicate the original PDF into X number of parts.
- Keep the first X number of pages, then remove the rest from the first duplicate.
- In the second duplicate, remove the first X pages, keep the next X pages, remove the rest.
- Rinse and repeat.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202945
If you already have a Mac, this doesn’t cost you anything except a bit of time.
I made a trip to the Essential Store. I mean, you can’t really call it a convenience store any more if it not under county lockdown, right?
Literally my first time out of the house in four days. Well, except for the gardening stuff.
When I got home, I decided to play some Halo. I bought the Halo: Master Chief Collection on Steam yesterday, and got it installed. I decided to start at the beginning, which according to Microsoft, is Reach. So, I played through Halo: Reach tonight. I completed it. It took maybe 6-7 hours. Great story, it’s an origin story, which is why it’s a prequel. I won’t spoil it for you, and tell you who’s origin it is.
Time for bed.
Topics: Apple, Entertainment, Family, Food, Friends, Games, Linux, Me, Photos, Technology, Work | No Comments »
Work, Groceries, Garden, TV
By Derek | March 27, 2020
A great Friday. (27th)
Still tired. Slept in until I absolutely had to get up for work.
Regular work day for me.
Jill went to Costco this morning, and had to stand in a super long line to get in. She got there about 10 minutes after 9 am.
Line 
Distance 
People
Costco opened at 9:30 am. At 9:38 am, while she was still in line to get in, a Costco employee came out and let everyone know they were already out of toilet paper.
She was able to get some paper towels, a case of water, and some dog food for our next door neighbor.
She left again, to see if she could go find some more kiddie pools for the garden. Four stores later, she finally located some, at an HEB. Three different Walmarts were completely sold out.
Exercised after work, watched an episode of Phineas and Ferb with our younger son.
Our younger son and I helped Jill put in the two new pools, with river rock in the bottom and planting soil on top of that. She then planted all the sprouts that she had been growing in the seed starter.
After that we all watched an episode of Star Trek: Picard.
Watched an episode of King of the Hill before bed.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Health, Home Improvement, Me, Photos, TV, Work | No Comments »
Tired, Work, Garden, Zoom, TV
By Derek | March 26, 2020
A good Thursday. (26th)
Got up tired today, went to sleep too late last night.
Regular work day for me. I was able to complete testing on the issue that I got solved, in our staging environment, so I started deploying to our production regions. Of course, I found another issue that needs corrected in the first region I deployed to.
Jill put in our garden today. It’s something she had been planning for a while. It looks really nice.
We have three pools, but they don’t look like they’re enough for the amount of vegetables that we want to grow, so we’ll have to get more.
Exercised after work.
Our younger son had his first martial arts session via Zoom this evening. He missed attending the Tuesday class.
Watched a few more episodes of Jessica Jones season 2, nearing the end. It gets weird. Still good, but weird.
Stayed up too late again.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Health, Home Improvement, Linux, Me, Technology, TV, Work | No Comments »
Health, Work, Neighbor, Banana Bread
By Derek | March 25, 2020
A great Wednesday. (25th)
Exercised first thing. Watched an episode of Knights of Sidonia season 2.
Regular work day for me. Work went well, I was able to complete testing on the issue that I got solved, and move it into our staging environment, where I was able to start testing it there. I didn’t complete that before the day was up, so I’ll have to get back on it tomorrow.
Found out that our neighbor is fine from the accident last night. Apparently, his truck hydroplaned in the rain, and he lost control, jumped a curb, broke the axle and put the passenger side of the truck through a fence. His truck (Ranger) is demolished. We didn’t see the accident, but we saw the truck being towed away, and we were worried that it was his, and he was hurt or worse. Good news, he’s walked away from the accident, he’s fine, and no one else was in the vehicle with him.
His son takes care of our yard, came over and mowed our grass today, we got to chat with him outside, and found out the details of the accident.
Jill made banana bread today. It was her first time, and it was very yummy. I think maybe she used too many bananas, cause it had to cook for a long time. The outside got a little crispy, but still tasted very good. Fresh baked banana bread is one of the best things in the world. My mom used to make banana bread when we were kids, and it was something I always looked forward to.
Jill went to take our older son to work herself this evening, we’re trying to abide by the stay home order to the best of our ability, so our younger son and I stayed home.
Got a few things done before bed, but just stayed up late talking and reading the news. I finally crashed about 1am.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Food, Friends, Health, Linux, Me, Photos, Technology, Work | No Comments »
Work, Costco, Supplies, RedBox, Dinner
By Derek | March 24, 2020
A good Tuesday. (24th)
Regular work day for me, I was able, with our engineers’ help, to get my issue I’ve been working on solved! It took me three full days, but I have a much better handle on our container software, CI (continuous integration) system, packaging system, image build system, and dev environment. All things I hadn’t worked with much before last Friday.
After work, we took our older son to work, then went to Costco to buy gas. While we were there, we noticed there was no line to get in. There was, however, a “scoreboard” at the front of the store, detailing all of the staple foods they were out of. Milk, TP, etc. We went ahead on in anyway. I should have taken a picture of it.
We were able to get some more essential supplies for Jill’s step-mom, then played a little Pokémon on the way back to pick up our older son from work.
I almost forgot to return yesterday’s RedBox rental before 9pm. I made it with a few minutes to spare. I didn’t end up renting any new ones, as the county-issued stay-home order went into effect at 11:59pm, and I wasn’t sure when I might be able to return it easily.
Back to the house for dinner, some lounging, and then bedtime.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Law, Linux, Me, Movies, Technology, Work | No Comments »
Work Schedule, Stay Home, Prepared, Family, Movie
By Derek | March 23, 2020
A busy Monday. (23rd)
Today is my first day at work this week, since I’m working a Mon-Fri schedule temporarily to mirror one of our systems engineers schedules, who’s departing the company.
Worked with him, and the other Ops engineer who’s doing training with him this week.
We read that Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff ordered Bexar County (which includes San Antonio) to shut down all non-essential businesses and shelter in place by 11:59pm local time Tuesday, tomorrow.
So, I read the list, and there are actually very few businesses that aren’t considered “essential” at this time. Churches, bars, restaurant dining rooms, anywhere large gatherings take place. Of course, it also prohibits home gatherings with people outside the household. But you can travel to work if your work is essential, and you can travel to essential businesses to utilize their services.
We think we’re fairly well prepared for a few weeks (maybe longer) of stay at home, but we’re still trying to help our local extended family get what they need.
Jill was on the road most of the day today, as well, visiting stores to gather essentials for them.
We took our older son to work and back, then watched a movie, Employee of the Month before bed. It has some funny parts, but it’s a bit slow starting. It’s worth a watch if you can stream it free for sure.
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Health, PC, Game, Groceries, Delivery
By Derek | March 22, 2020
A good Sunday. (23rd)
Got up a bit late after building the exercise bike late last night.
Did my exercise first thing. Watched an episode of Phineas and Ferb with my younger son while I pedaled. The new bike is different, and sits up quite a bit higher, for a recumbent bike. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Jill left the house to try and get a bunch of supplies that either we or our San Antonio family need.
Our younger son and I stayed home, to minimize the amount of people already out and about.
I spent some time working on a system for head tracking for games on my PC. I got it working, finally.
Our younger son and I played some Star Citizen. We spent a good amount of time doing some mining in space, and filled up the cargo hold of the mining ship we were using (the Argo Mole).
Unfortunately, when we got to the port to sell the ore, we were griefed by a “pad rammer” — someone who tries to ruin others’ gameplay enjoyment by crashing into their spaceship while they are trying to land. Jerks.
Jill got home and we all wend to unload the groceries, then left the house to play some Pokemon together. We stayed in our car, practicing good social distancing, etc. We also delivered some of the groceries to Jill’s step mom who os elderly and lives alone. She needs our help and attention right now during this.
Once we got home, we went to bed.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Friends, Games, Health, Me, Photos, Star Citizen, TV | No Comments »
Friend, UniFi, Exercise Bike
By Derek | March 21, 2020
A long Saturday. (21st)
We got up a bit early this morning to run some errands, I mean, to stay safely quarantined in our home.
Called my friend for his birthday, he’s 50 this year. We had a good chat.
While troubleshooting an issue with my media server, I discovered that my UniFi Cloud Key and controller were offline, so I reset the Cloud Key expecting to simply restore from the auto backups.
Of course, once reset, the controller couldn’t _find_ any backups. Fortunately, they’re stored on an SD card in the Cloud Key. Of course, though, the SD card is formatted EXT4, which my Mac can’t read. Good thing I’ve got several Raspberry Pi computers available that can read EXT4 easily. So, a quick copy off the card, and “scp” to my Mac, and I was ready to restore the controller.
Let the restore run for about two hours, nothing happened, so I cancelled it. Gonna have to reset the Cloud Key again and try it again. Not tonight.
Met up with the family in PHX via Zoom, to just check on everyone and ensure everyone’s healthy and happy.
Spent another couple of hours chasing down our San Antonio family, via phone, to do the same, but also offer our assistance if anyone was in need. Jill has already been helping her step-mom find goods that are sold out in many places. It’s been a little challenging getting milk and some other staples.
Spent the rest of the evening building our new exercise machine.
No, seriously, this thing took us about four hours to assemble. The first 45 minutes — I kid you not — was getting it out of the box. There are so many pieces, and they were all packing taped together. Ugh. I was physically exhausted by the time we were done.
Time for bed.
Topics: Apple, Family, Friends, Home Improvement, Linux, Me, Photos, Technology | No Comments »
Work, Scripts, Schedule, Pokemon, Funny
By Derek | March 20, 2020
Busy Friday. (20th)
Regular work day for me. Learning the package creation, addition and deployment process for my product. Essentially, I discovered some scripts that should be in our guest containers that are missing in some of the newer ones. They exist in the package, but aren’t getting deployed correctly. Even though I worked late, I didn’t get it solved, I’ll have to pick it up Monday.
Also, made the decision to work Monday through Friday next week, so that I’ll be able to spend as much time as possible with our departing engineer. As you may remember, my schedule is normally Wed-Sat. Cleared the new schedule with my boss, who actually thought that was a great idea. This also means that I’ll be not working tomorrow.
While I was working, Jill and her sister went out to play some Pokémon. While they were out, they got me a shiny Sneasel.
Once Jill got home, with her sister, we all jumped in the car and went to play some Pokémon. Don’t worry, we didn’t interact with anyone else. Tonight we’re practicing social distancing together.
Also, I renamed my buddy Pokémon. It’s a monster called “Giratina”.
Also, I have to share this, that I found on Youtube. Remember, that during tragedy, laughter is the best medicine.
Went to bed kind of late.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Friends, Games, Health, Me, Photos, Work | No Comments »
Work, BBQ, Pandemic, TV
By Derek | March 19, 2020
A good Thursday. (19th)
Regular work day for me. Still learning tons of new things from our engineer that’s departing.
Jill brought us BBQ potatoes fro our favorite BBQ place. They’re still open, fortunately. The governor (Abbot) has closed down eat-in places, for now, but takeout or drive through is still an option. I hope this panic doesn’t kill 90% of the small businesses. Tons of people can’t work right now. Stores are crazy. This is really the first time I’ve mentioned all of this publicly, but we feel for the most part that we are prepared. We’ve been discussing options with family and friends.
Stay safe.
Watched an episode of Star Trek Picard. We missed last week, so we’re a week behind. Probably for the best, as this week’s episode is a Part 1. I’m guessing next week will be the season finale, so we’ll watch both of them together.
Bed time.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Food, Health, Me, TV, Work | No Comments »