Author: alohawild

Working backward, we just got home, Susie and I, from the Spaghetti Factory. After watching the real fun and even intellectually interesting movie Free Guy at our local Regal Theater, we went there for dinner. I was not expecting Susie to like the movie, and I had to describe some of the ScfFi artificial intelligence called out in the movie to Susie over dinner. Machine Learning is a current hobby for me.

Before this, I was reading and checking in off and on with the data conversions at the shoe company. I helped get some clarity that we have already lost two days in the schedule. So So I cannot comment much more here other than to say that the obvious is often missed. I am frustrated.

I did slip out for an hour to Powell’s Book to get Susie’s book, Vortex. We ordered it and had a copy of Ms. Coulter’s newest book sent to Cedar Hills Crossing Powell’s location there for pick-up. While there, I also found a nice history book by one of my fav authors, Ross King. This new book, The Bookseller of Florence, had me with just the title. These are my fav type of stories. I was shocked at the $30 price, but I like to read the footnote and references and I cannot do that on a Kindle version (which is likely on a few buck cheaper too), so I payed the going rate. The bookseller saw my shock, I usually find used copies, and explained to me that new books are in this price range now. For those who love history, I recommend a used copy of Brunelleschi’s Dome by the same author. It is a masterful telling of the history.

I started Friday with the french toast cassrole that I made last night getting put in the oven. I also made some links. Both in a hot oven. I had it backed and ready before 7:30ish and so was showered and shiny for my first meeting.

The hours of Zoom status is started again at 8 now for the new data conversions.

On Thursday night I went to bed after making the french toast cassrole. It was just above average and needs some rework.

Still going backward, we met Mariah at the pizza place. We were the only gray-haired folks there. As we were there late, dinner at 7ish, we found ourselves in the bar with lots and lots of young unmasked and well dressed, if not scantily glad, folks. Social distancing was being a bit ignored, but as Susie and I counted as old folks in this crowd they avoided getting too close. Less afraid of catching Covid-19 than getting scolded by their elders.

The staff, the usual folks, had not seen us in a while and all but gave us hugs (very strange to be touched by someone in a N95 mask). We had dinner with Susie having chips and dip (she had a late lunch because I forgot to make her something until she reminded me), me a hamburger, and Mariah a pizza.

Our waiter told us to limit any complexity on our orders as the cooking staff was still learning how to make a burger or a sandwich. We had noticed, like many local places, that the menu was reduced. My burger was good and well prepared even with a bit extra pink. I had been warned. All the rest of the food and drinks were well done.

Before this I was working at home, as usual, on-line in hours of Zoom calls. More status calls and alignment calls. I did have to take a few breaks and rest. I tire easily.

I started the day about 6:30ish. I started on all my new pills and processes.

Well I am running late again. I think I will stop there. I hope you enjoy the story.

 

 

My doctor has new prescriptions and plans and told me not to panic. I am dizzy and tire easily, and my labs match this. There are simple treatments and side effects to be mitigated. I wrote a message to my doc, and he replied today. We agreed in the last appointment to operate this way, by message.

Returning to today, I started at 6:30ish as usual and was very tired and got the coffee going. I read the initial emails and Slack messages to get a feel for the day.

I was clean and shiny for my first meeting at 8, a stand-up. This was followed by a status meeting and then a planning meeting.

The planning meeting started with the leaders of the meeting thanking everyone for all the hard work and acknowledging that it was not getting easier. Our work is harder, and there is more and more while we live through re-orgs and the pandemic. So it was really nice that someone said that and said, in fact, we know it is hard, and we will keep going; we have to.

More meetings and lab results. I ordered lunch in including all red meat in my lunch to help.

Susie got going, and I got her started with breakfast and coffee.

I was dizzy and tired by the afternoon. Eating is now hard work. I read a bit and sleep a bit. My phone is with me and will wake me if anyone needs anything. I check it every hour or more often anyway.

A few more status and alignment meetings. Many the same subject over and over. The last meeting was chaotic as we are now starting the real work of data conversions after getting the systems built. It is always a strange moment when the work goes from being something you have planned for months to the actual execution. I am excited to see it start again. Slack channels are burning up with updates!

I finished the last meeting at about 5ish. I made Schwann’s Porkchop (with bone) with little red potatoes and the last of the frozen Schwann corn niblets. I boiled the taters for about 30+ minutes and then added them to the pan I fried the Porkchops in. I cooked the chops in butter with herbs. I then put the pan with the red potatoes into a 350F oven for 15 mins. I should have stopped there. I put them back in for 5 more mins after salting the taters. I should have salted the taters and stuck to the 8-10 mins. Next time!

After the cooking and cleaning up, and serving, I was exhausted, and the house temp rose to above 75 (AC is off). I was dizzy and falling down tired. I need to be more careful!

Lastly, I put out the trash and found the ants had located the trash. And there was the biggest silver dollar-sized (including the tiny legs) spider apparently pick-off the ants. Not my fav type of ant control. I let her, Charlotte–yes, we have a name for the giant spiders that appear in our garage, alone as I did not want to chase her while dizzy.

I plan to clean the garage, but I wait until the rains start. Unfortunately, I usually find two or more Charlotte spiders when I do that. So I try to get them outside alive.

I will pick up my meds on Thursday and start the recovery process and side effect management. I have also ordered more groceries delivered. I am cutting my exposure to crowds again.

That is about all the time I can give for this today. Thanks for reading.

This Tuesday started with me ignoring the shoe company and headed to an early doctor’s appointment. I have some issues, and more appointments and more tests are required. It is also troubling that my labs are getting worse; I was hopeful that some practical changes would improve my status. No.

So the morning was spent getting up and have breakfast, and then driving to the doc’s office. There I enjoyed more blood work, and more appointments are now planned.

Everyone was masked, and my doctor never took off his mask and carefully washed his hands after the exam. Everyone had eye protection too. This is an upgrade, and I was happy to see it.

I drove back directly in Air Volvo and returned to work. A few crises of the moment and required meetings flowed. I tried to catch up and then help.

Susie was awake, and seeing that my calendar was oddly clear around lunch, I offered lunch and a visit to Powell’s Books in Cedar Mills Crossing Mall. That got Susie going, and we managed to make it to Powell’s before noon.

Again, masks are required. The statues of owls and cats are also wearing masks again. The staff was all carefully masked, most double-masked. Social distancing was followed by staff and customers. We had KN95s on. Doc recommended that we use those now that delta-variant is back and so easy to catch.

Susie was looking for Vortex, a new Karen Coulter novel that just was published. They were sold-out. We managed to order a copy to be picked up later in the week.

I found the huge, nearly three-inch-thick Radical Mycology by a local author, Peter McCoy. This book is an attempt by the author to present his knowledge and learnings on growing and understand mushrooms and their like. Susan’s father was a published mycologist, so she is also interested. I have always liked this area of study, but I love it when someone creates a carefully thought-out work and not just random links on the Internet. This book is meant to be the go-to book for working in fungi.

We had lunch at the Italian chain place nearby, a fav of mine, but today the food was not as good. Usually, it is a step above generic Americanized Italian, but not today. Pastini’s was not that great.

Back home and I spent the rest of the day online working for Nike. The last meeting ended at 5ish.

Susie’s new Nike shirt came today. I had to pay full price to get it. It is a Just Do It with Bugs Bunny. She loved it.

I did receive a Kickstarter game today: Empire of the Stars. This is the second edition of an older game, and I have been waiting for it for a year. The pandemic and the snarl that is logistics from China delayed it by more than six months. This is another 4x game (EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate) that is a bit between the monster empire-building Twilight Imperium and the extreme mind-numbing-low-level detail of Eclipse. All of these games are in new versions in the last few years. All are improved.

Reviewing the rules of Empires of the Stars, this game has fewer moving parts than the above-mentioned games. It also has a different turn structure that seems to fit a fast-moving game. The two-hour reported length of the game is a surprise for 4X. It is also very colorful but uses tiny plastic ships and other markers. The trend is larger. They have also removed the technology tree structures in many space games and added some random card events that feel like Scythe, another recently made 4x game. The game feels like mixing only the best parts of these other 4x games to produce a faster game.

A flaw, the game has no storage solution built-in. So I will have to stuff it in bags. I decided not to punch it today as I did not have enough good bags to hold the different items. Now games come with a storage solution built-in or at least some plastic bags. No bags. That is already getting comments from reviewers, not happy ones.

I think the game will be fun. As you play, you get chits for doing something that you then deposit in a box in the shape of a throne appropriate for the ruler of the galaxy. This is kept secret until the game ends when someone runs out of open chits. An interesting rule I have not seen in a 4X game. The unique turn order will also have all the players keeping their attention on the other players. No playing Candy Crush on your phone while you wait!

Well, I am out of time and have a migraine headache, and as I said, lab results have depressed me.

I hope you enjoy the blog and like my little review

Susie had some trouble getting to sleep, but I did manage to sleep once she got settled. It is always hard to start at 6:30 with only five hours of sleep, but that is a typical Monday now. So off to get the work week started by reading emails and Slack channel text messages. I was able to get breakfast and cleaned up in time for the first meeting.

I was late for many of the following meetings as there were many crises of the moment and also wrote an email on my Apple computer about the risk of the delta-variant for my church. I summary of the facts as I understand them. All of this had me late for status meetings.

The project is getting hotter, and I see some panic. This is usual as we are just a few months from the final build, and there are many issues. This, too, is normal, but we have many new people, and leadership seems uneasy.

I ordered out for lunch. No more going out to lunch with delta-variant exploding in Oregon. Instead, I had Grubhub bring me a Monta Cristo sandwich from the French place, La Provence, at Orenco Station. It was lovely.

Susie was up in the early afternoon, and I got her breakfast, water for her pills, and coffee.

I had a few discussions online at the shoe company. Finally, the crises of the moment stopped, and I had a quiet afternoon. I rested a bit.

I also called my health care provider to explain why my doctor’s appointment for Tuesday is not covered. The doctor’s office called me to check my insurance was still the same. The agent said that should not be a problem and would call the doctor’s office. I told them I need to see the doc and please stop the shenanigans. I see doc early on Tuesday, and I hope this is all fixed by then.

I made a salad for dinner, a chef styled with many veggies, cheese, and some lunch meats. I made cold roast beef and swiss sandwich for Susie.

We tried to play a new campaign in Roll20 today, but the material is not working. The maps, the most important part for the players, are completely dark. Roll20 has a new lighting system, and somehow this content is set to be dark. I will see if I can fix it. But, we could not play much today. A waste.

I called Dan Gray, and we talked about the choices for our church. We feel in our hearts we want the truth to be different, but the facts suggest that it is more dangerous now to have the church open than before. So the path forward is hard.

Today the skies here are clear and the light white again, not yellow with smoke. The temperatures are lower. We left the AC off and opened the front door to catch a little breeze.

My roses are still blooming even in the dry heat. You can see the photos a bit of fade, but still, they are nice.

This is a Japanese-styled rose that is nearly indestructible. Even salt tolerant.

This rose is bleached almost white by the heat and sun and is about 1/2 sized but still nice. There is also a tiny garden spider hiding in it that is not in the photo.

I will see if I can recover the Roll20 content or ask the Roll20 to refund (that usually gets their attention). We may try the Call of Cthulu role-playing game in Roll20 if the Dungeons and Dragons content is not an easy fix.

I have hit my time limit. So I will stop there. I hope you enjoy the blog!

I started Saturday with not being able to sleep and was up in time for a meeting for the shoe company and did the dishes and laundry that had stacked up for a few days.

The light was yellow again Saturday morning from the fires. The smoke also covered the coastal mountains as a small fire started on the coastal forest was also burning over the weekend (it is out now).

I finally got back to painting some figures. All my joints would hurt, undoubted the results of the flu shot, during the day. The pain would just move around all day. I did manage to paint a bit of the Scooby Do figures. This is the second set I have painted from Hassel Free Miniatures. I have a couple miniature companies in the UK where I can purchase miniatures that are knock-offs of a movie and so on. There is a Trojan Bunny out there I have yet to get from Studio Miniatures (that is where I purchased a Lara Croft look-a-like miniature).

Evan contacted me and let me know he would be late.

I did more painting and chores. Then, I mailed my copy of Fresh Brewed Murder to mom. I think she would like the light story. The next book in the series will be out soon.

Evan was finally here at 3PM. He took a quick shower, and then we headed to Mexican for lunch and then just one game at The 649 Taproom. The gals were running the taps, and they had a small but constant crowd. Everyone was back to masks, but I noticed that some guests did not follow social distancing. The staff was also changing their stances by guest; farther from me but closer to other folks showing less attention to safety processes.

Evan lost just by three points in our board gameplay of The Lost Ruins of Arnak. So we included my new 3D replacement parts. The game looked a bit better with less cardboard. I ordered the new parts on Esty, and they came by mail on Saturday. The mailman came to my door and asked if I was Michael Wild, and when I said I was, he then signed the package for me and handed me the mail while trying to keep our distance.

After the game, we only played one game as it was already 6:30ish. We returned home and watch the movie John Wick and then Svengoolie’s take on 1959 The House on Haunted Hill. This is one of my fav old horror movies with Vincent Price, lots of drinking, and some great lines. The ending is not that good, but the original had a skeleton fly out of the screen and scare the audience. This movie created the mythos around the haunted house that created so many movies later.

We ordered Pizza Hut while we watched all the movies. I managed to get to bed a bit early. Unfortunately, the pizza and I did not enjoy each other.

I overslept and missed the 8:30 meeting, and decided that church was not happening today. I was tired, and well, I was having some issues that made it clear to stay home. I was often resting today because of the issues.

I made cream scones, peaches, and cream styled from a mix, King Arthurs.

Susie slept late and then had caregiving that took the rest of the early afternoon. I, too, was having issues that best not be described. I had to do the laundry and remake the beds. I grilled hamburgers for lunch with corn on the side–I love corn. No buns, just a bit of cheddar on the burgers.

I ordered groceries online, and those were delivered this early evening.

I fell asleep while reading. I dreamed I was watching a movie. I did not want to sleep as I had dinner to make and dreamed of turning off the movie! Yes, I dreamed I was sitting in front of my Apple trying to stop the movie. I did awake with my hand moving on the bed as if it was a touchpad!

I made dinner using Schwann’s Chicken Cordon Blu, baked.  Schwann’s green beans were microwaved first, then in a hot pan, butter cooked some garlic and almonds I sliced up, added the beans, and wilted them. This adds a lot to frozen beans. Finally, I made rice in broth as a starch side.

I prep’d some Roll20 Dungeons and Dragons material for my Monday game (Roll20 is an online site that allows you to play D&D paper and pencil style, but automated and over the Internet). I have purchased some new material from a different source and fantasy universe. I usually stick to the standard 5E (i.e., Fifth Edition, the current version of Dungeons and Dragons). But, there is nothing left for the current power level of the characters in the standard material from the makers of 5E. So, I decided to try something from the Burning Sky campaign. This is a giant 5E campaign you can buy and play in Roll20 with revised 5E rules and settings. I can make it work with my usual approach to keep the details of gods, religions, and settings in the deep background and focus on the players instead. You know, if you, as DM, have to read and explain things for more than a few minutes, something is going wrong. I hope my players can enter the war and help the Rebel Alliance defeat the fallen empire by destroying the empire’s superweapon (why does that sound familiar?).

Well, that is about as far as I can get tonight. I am already beyond my normal timeboxing of 90 mins. I hope that these blogs are interesting and you enjoy them.