One of the perks of my job….

Yes, I have a paid vacation. Paid sick leave. Performance bonuses. Supervisors who’ll let you step away to take a leak when nature calls. And more importantly, supervisors who know when your blood sugar is low, it needs to be taken care of right away. And my employer has also made deals with other companies, so I can get discounts. For example, I get 25% off of my bill at Sprint for working here.

But there is one fringe benefit that my company offers. It doesn’t matter what company health plan you’re on, or if you’re full or part time. My employer offers free flu shots. Which is actually more profitable for the company, when you think of all the lost productivity from sick calls during flu season (like when I called out last year, most likely due to the flu).

I got my flu shot today. For free…

To Judge, Or Not To Judge, Part II…

<Note: This is my second attempt at writing this post, hence ‘part II’…>

The Good Book councils us to “Judge not, that ye be not judged”. I try to follow that. Who am I to sit in judgment against my fellow man. Even when people are accused of heinous crimes, I can let the judicial system run its course, and let them decide a defendant’s guilt or innocence (in a related story, I take my jury duty very seriously). If they are guilty I let the courts handle it. If they’re found innocent, then I rejoice in fairness of the judicial system. There are occasions when someone is obviously guilty gets off free, but I would rather a guilty person go free than an innocent person go to prison.

But events of late are putting me to the test. I just want to tell people to their face that I can see through their maskirovka. But what if there wasn’t anything nefarious? So I give the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps there are facts & circumstances that I’m not privy to. So I hold my judgment. Sometimes, like with very recent events, it’s very difficult to not jump to conclusions. Other times it’s really easy.

Having said all of this, I can say, that it is far easier to not judge someone when they’re just a defendant that you see on TV. When they’re detached from you it is far easier for me to let the judicial system runs its course, and let them have their day in court. When it’s people you know who are playing the games, or are being played as part of somebody else’s games, then it becomes really difficult not to judge. But you have to take a look at yourself, and ask if you’re really any better than they are. And who are you to judge?….

Way to go Seahawks….

Ok, the Seahawks finally won today. Shutting out the Chicago Bears this season. 26-0. Though it was done for the most part without Beast Mode. But here’s to a speedy recovery.

The Science Channel has been showing Dirty Jobs reruns recently. The series was cancelled some 3 years ago, but I still find it entertaining. Especially the word ‘poo’.

Since I’ve installed Windows 10 on my tower, I’ve discovered that I can use my keyboard and mouse to control my phone, when I pair it with my tower via Bluetooth.

I should also add that this wasn’t my first experience with Windows 10. About a month and a half ago, I installed Windows 10 on my laptop. It makes for a pefect back-up when my tower is down. It’s also prety handy to reset the lexmark printer (which being normally setup for network only, is set up without a compter nearby)….

My younger brother is away till Wednesday. Which means I’m watching TV out in the living room. On his TV. Yes, I have a bigger set in my room, but there is something about watching football from the living room couch….

Screw it!

So no more of this upgrading straight from Windows 8.1. I'm just going to do a clean install of Windows 10. And I'll just pay the $15 for the Microsoft DVD player. But because I bought the 8.1 Pro Pack and upgraded to 10 from that, I'll still be able to install Windows 10 Pro.

The time has come to go with the current operating system. If I have software that won't work in Windows 10, I still have the Windows XP disk that my previous computer had. And I've already made the Virtual Machine for it. And I made sure that is big enough to accommodate all of my old games...

Just like my last post, I'm doing it just because I can...

Because I can

I really don't know why I did it. Windows 7 was working so well. But I discovered that I can resize the Windows partition in windows 8.1, and I can delete the oem recovery partition. So I can I can do a factory reset on my tower, which reinstalls 8.1. I can then upgrade with my pro pack key, which installs 8.1 Pro and Windows Media Center. I can then delete my recovery partition (which I don't need since the first thing I did was burn the recovery set to DVD), and resize my windows partition to allow space for Linux. Which I've done. And now I'm upgrading to Windows 10. I could've done just a straight install (I have the flash drive with the installer),  but since I'm upgrading from 8.1 Pro with Windows Media Center, I'm getting the Microsoft DVD player in 10. Of course, I also have Nero,  but this defeats the point:

I'm doing this because I can....

So I went to HR recently…

For those of you who were fasting a while back, Eid Mubarak. Yes, it’s a day early, but I don’t think I’m going to be near a computer tomorrow…
I’ve been full-time since last fall. And that’s normally meant that I had to have open availability. Which means I can be scheduled anywhere from 6 am to 10 pm. That was the trade-off, but it was worth it, so I took it. And I’ve always made sure to be there on time for my shifts. There were some times when I couldn’t make it, but that’s what sick leave was for. This spring, management called me into the office when it was realized what I was going through to close one night and open the next day. But that was the only compromise that I asked. My official position was I will work when I was scheduled.
Anyway last week, I was going over my schedule, and checked my hours of availability, and I realized that they had been altered. Certain days had been given fixed availability. So, yesterday, I asked HR about it, and they confirmed that my schedule was being fixed. Because they needed someone with my skills who was dependable (which I’ve apparently demonstrated).
So, no more changing schedules. And I’m full-time still. But who cares about that? It’s football season. And I now have Sundays off…

I’m only going to explain this once

I’m only going to explain this once, so listen up:

‘Black lives matter’ is irrelevant. ‘White lives matter’ is irrelevant, too. It is ‘All lives matter’. All life is precious. Your skin color is irrelevant. You have a life. Your life is precious. Your life matters.

All lives matter.

Any questions?

Back to work tomorrow….

Another weekend has come to an end for me. I did as little as possible for that past two days. Other than flash a ROM to my phone (which actually took 3 tries to get it right…). The actual flash was the easy part. It was the moving in afterwards that took all day, with installing all the apps, and re-signing in to everything (for reasons of simplicity, I prefer to set my phone up as a new phone every time. Though I do have Titanium Back-Up (and the Pro key, too), should I choose to do it the easy way….

I did enjoy the Monday Night Football doubleheader last night. Both games were still games into the fourth quarter. Too bad the Seahawks lost to the Rams. That’s just as bad as bad as them losing to Tim Tebow…

But tomorrow morning, I rejoin the work-force.

And people wonder…

People wonder why I never trust the police…

Last Wednesday, I was walking to my bus stop (actually the 512 Park & Ride). I was very early in the morning (normally the Route 1 runs by my apartment, but I had to be at work so early that it wasn’t running). I’m walking on the sidewalk, minding my own business. This was a public highway. Ten minutes into my walk, a sheriff’s deputy pull up behind me and puts his lights on. Two deputies get out, one with his hand on his gun, and they ask me where I was going. When I told them where I was going, they said there was no service at that time. Bullshit. Route 574 runs from 2:30 in the morning northbound to 12:30 at night southbound. As I handed him my I.D., I asked why I was being stopped, and he said basically I was free to go. So I left. And I wasn’t even jaywalking.

Why was I stopped? Am I violating some unwritten curfew? Am I on double-secret probation because I live in Parkland? Or am I just beneath the protection of the law in general? It doesn’t really matter. According to the eyes of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, I’m a suspect. Even if they don’t have any evidence of a crime, I’m a suspect and I can be stopped at will. Even if I’m just a pedestrian trying to go to work. There has been a lot said in the media about cops killing unarmed suspects, and cops getting killed. I still say that violence is inherently evil, and I will not stoop to that level.

But the trust is gone. And it will never come back. I will no longer think twice about calling 911 if I’m a witness or a victim to a crime. I just won’t call. Period. Why should I? When I’m more afraid of the cops than I am of the crooks, it is pointless.

To protect and serve, my ass!

About last week…

Remember last week when I said I was switching to the Badboyz ROM? About that….

I use my phone as my wake-up alarm. It’s convenient. I can set a different alarm for each day, which comes in handy when you’re working a variable schedule. Unfortunatly this was also the deal breaker for me with the BadBoyz ROM. Last week, I had to open at work, which meant getting up at zero-dark 30 in the morning. Right when your alarm is going off is not an appropriate time for the phone to crash. Which it did. And the alarm never went off. So I got up almost an hour late. Fortunately, I was able to haul ass, and I made it to work on time.

Also, during that past week, I also was able to address the issue with being unable to sign on venomroms.com. Since I was able to re-sign on, I went with the Venom ROM again. This time, I also haven’t had any problems with my phone so far (thanks to flashing current firmware). When I previously attempted Lollipop ROMs, I was never able to use the Sprint Zone app.

End of the weekend

There was another shift in my schedule, and I got a three day weekend. It has come to an end. This weekend, I bought 2 pairs of shoes (hikers, not work boots), and I broke both of them in. Today I was going to take a journey. Mainly to kill time and break my shoes in, & to seek an answer. But I didn’t leave the house today. There are still some issues that I need to resolve in my head. Perhaps I’ve been given my answer, and I just need to see it. Or maybe I was just to broke to buy lunch.

Either way, I’ll learn wisdom from this….

Now to load the Coffee maker.

New feet. Again.

Once again, I had to buy new shoes. You may remember the last time I had to buy them. The pair I got before them lasted 2 months before they literally fall apart and I had to replace them. I think my problem is Wally World. Yes, the shoes are cheap, but I was getting what I was paying for. This time I went with another retailer and got something more name-brand ish. Yes, I paid through the nose for them. But I’m hoping I can put an end to the sore foot shuffle at work….

And btw, there was a sale, so I got two pairs today…

Once more, an attempt….

When I first got an HTC One (M8), I initially tried a Lollipop ROM (namely the ViperOne Series). I initially went with this, as it was what I was using when I had my HTC One (M7). It had it’s issues, and in the end, I ended up going back to KitKat and using that. It wasn’t the latest and greatest, but it worked. Recently I updated my phone’s firmware, and went to give Lollipop another try. And this time when I downloaded and installed the ViperOne, I was unable to log into my VenomROMs account (which is needed to download all the extras that the developers offer). And I decided to try another ROM. This time, I went with Bad Boyz. It’s not as customizable as the Venom ROM was, but it works. Bells and whistles are good, but the more pipes you have in your plumbing, means it’s easier to plug up your drain. I have noticed that the battery does drain a lot faster than what I’m used to, but this is also why I have a 10000 mAh external battery (though it does take a while to charge it when I use it)… I’m hoping that the phone will settle down in a couple of days (as has happened in my other ROMs/Phones…).

Did I mention that I now have Sense 7, too?

The turning of fall

Last Friday was the last hot day of summer. The rains returned Saturday. Fortunately, I was home by the time the first big storm hit, and Elmhurst Mutual Power & Light does a really good job at power line maintenance so I didn’t have my power go out. Sunday it was sufficiently stormy that I took my windows fan down, and I don’t think I’ll be putting it back up. The window in my room is still open, but I think I’ll close it tonight.
The rains have returned. They are very much welcome, with all the wildfires that we’ve had this summer. But the one drawback is that they’re reminding me of something I don’t want to hear about: I need a new pair of shoes again…

So I was going to post something today

And then I thought about what I was going to write. I’ve been thinking about this post for the past several weeks. But in the end, discretion is the better part of valor. And so I’ll hold my tongue. Words, once spoken, cannot be unspoken. Always tread carefully, lest you offend or embarrass someone close to you…