Nah, it can’t be Christmas already… (or for those of you who don’t celebrate it, consumerism day)… Guess it is. Wild… well, you know the deal by now - what went well this week? Or is cool?
I’ve had a few work related wins this week - my background check came back as ok (which is not a surprise… but still) and got some accounts set up for work on my next project (sadly this one won’t be open source ) And, since our Congress managed to figure out how to do like, the bare minimum of their job and bunt a budget fight into March I don’t have to worry about a government shutdown over the holidays and can finish getting those accounts set up on Monday. Finally, my end of year review came in very positively so that was nice.
Finally got my car back from the shop. It’s amazing how tough it is to go about one’s daily life without a mode of transportation (especially when your normal commute is an hour). Thankful for friends that were able to accomodate getting me where I needed to be.
Not only does it look like a cyber truck , the whole thing is wrapped in multiple layers of duct tape. Every year I wrap a gift for a white elephant in an inconvenient way, but this year I’ve truly outdone myself. I plan on adding some mirrors and wheels tomorrow.
Bonus: I had the idea of using zip ties for my best friend/co-captain/human player. It’s the FIRST way after all!
For me this week it was mostly just coasting through work, thankfully I have survived the holiday rush of orders we had to fulfill without to much sweat so that was nice.
My light up tuba made a return today as I went to play Christmas songs at my dad’s school where he teaches. My favorite part was when they gave finger cymbals to one of the teachers to “solo” in silent night and every time he hit it (which was like once every 4 seconds) the lunch room would go crazy. It took everything in me not to burst out laughing.
I also start cat sitting for a friend this weekend, I’m glad I get to hang out with more furry friends
My biggest win of the week was hanging out with one of my friends after his car was having issues and it needed to spend a significant amount of time at the dealership. Really a tough situation for him when his commute into work is ~1 hour but happy I could support him by ferrying him to and from the dealership!
After last week’s win of shipping a product to a customer, company faced a bit of a dilemma: our test rig was offline after upgrades (didn’t get finished).
After some pushing poking prodding and “I have that, let me install it”, it’s at least moving under its own power, and can be mechanically complete relatively quickly. SOME upgrades are finished…
Now to survive one of the most hectic weeks of my year…
Massive win of the week:
got to spend a few days with the wonderful @bigbossg13 in Spokane, WA together. He is my best friend and it was really nice to see him again after not seeing each other for a few months there.
There was many adventures, from winning a concerning about of tickets at the arcade via claw machine, to wandering around downtown Spokane together, as well as watching cheesy holiday movies and wrapping gifts for, among others, @flamingIce. While it was a BLAST of a few days, im sad to have to leave, but hope I will return, as his family was great hosts.
Me too. 4 days to figure out that the message that was appearing on my touchscreen meant that the battery needed to be replaced. Fortunately my wife and I were going to the same places this week.
For a real win: The handbell choir that my wife directs got to play at Meadow Brook Hall. I got to go along to play percussion on a couple places. We got to see all the decorations they have set up for the season.
This week we got a last block of teams registered to reach 192 FRC teams in Türkiye, which is super exciting. We grew so much this year. We are only a couple teams short of catching Canada for the number 2 country spot. We also are running our FTC national Championship today which is a new thing for us and very exciting. And one of my friends is about to play the Kemençe (Turkish folk instrument, similar to a violin or fiddle), to make the students dance, I am excited to see that. He’s a really good Kemençe player
Finally re-did the cable management under my desk to integrate my new KVM Switch so I can finally use my Desktop. Perfect? No, but still much better than it was.
The Wife and I have also been 3D Printing a ton of Funko Pop stands to add to the shelf in our bedroom to display more of our collective ~100 pops (after downsizing somewhat ). Which frees up some space in our living room, and takes some out of storage, because if you’re gonna have the pointless collectable plastic, may as well display it, lol. We just gotta figure out how to display the 18" All Might Pop…
Open House was successful in getting at least 4 new team members, possibly more we’ll see at Kickoff.
Season 8 of the ‘Super Fan’ version of The Office is out and I’ve been binging it at night to see what scenes I haven’t seen before. It feels like a whole new show in alot of ways.
I got access to the ChatGPT Sora video generator this week. It’s been fun making ‘archival’ match footage. There’s obviously some issues with the final results.
Some of these hurt my brain to watch
Had our work Christmas party/white elephant exchange yesterday. Lots of funny gag gifts and a great BBQ lunch. I was able to push a good software change and test it before we all went home early.
I fixed our freezer door handle which came loose this morning. I spent more time than I should have trying to book an appointment with Best Buy customer service first to try and do it ‘properly’ than it took to diagnose and fix it myself. So maybe that’s only a half-win.
The snow has been coming down, but it’s the pretty kind that you see on trees, the grass, but it melts before you have to shovel any sidewalks or driveways. Hopefully it’ll stay around for a White Christmas day.
) And, since our Congress managed to figure out how to do like, the bare minimum of their job and bunt a budget fight into March I don’t have to worry about a government shutdown over the holidays and can finish getting those accounts set up on Monday. Finally, my end of year review came in very positively so that was nice.
). Which frees up some space in our living room, and takes some out of storage, because if you’re gonna have the pointless collectable plastic, may as well display it, lol. We just gotta figure out how to display the 18" All Might Pop… 
