Jack's Diary

Hmmm...I'm kind of down on the boss right now. I just get the feeling that somehow or other he doesn't like me that much. It's not a good feeling. It could be just his style, but, that still doesn't make it good. The unfortunate thing is that, technically, I'm working for two bosses, and I really like the other one. But it's the first one that signs my paychecks and seems to actively manage me.

People don't leave jobs, they leave bosses. The last thing I want to do is move to another job, but maybe it will be a better situation. Anyway, my contract is up on Jan 15th, they might not even renew. The product I'm working on is being sunsetted, and they've never made an indication that I'm going to work on the new product. I dunno.
 
Sounds like there are benefits to either staying or going, so either way you win!
 
I like your attitude, Marsia. It's true I kind of like the place. Everyone's pretty low key and easy going for the most part. The boss actually acknowledged some work I did today, so that was nice, took the edge off a little.

My wife has bought the Halloween candy and it's in the house, somewhere. She's gone for the evening, but I've gone through the house top to bottom and haven't found it - yet.

I did notice while I was hunting the vast amount of shoes, sandals, heels, and boots she has. A quick count was over 130 pair, with 75+ handbags. That seems excessive - where / when did she get all of those? Oh, well, not much I can do about it now.
 
Wow, that's some hunt you went on. Sorry you found that your wife secretly emulates Imelda Marcos along the way! I was just watching the Netflix show Petal was talking about, Minimal, and it is about giving all that stuff away and freeing up your life. I got really inspired. I have all this inherited stuff I think I will give away soon.

Hopefully you don't find the candy, but do get a little exercise while searching! Happy hunt!!
 
Lol, Marsia, no I didn't find them. It turns out they're just M&M's anyway, which I don't even like. I bet she figured that out.

Minimalism suits me in theory, but in fact, I have difficulty figuring out what to let go of. What if I need it someday? My wife will never get rid of any of those shoes and pocket-books, though. She's really got a stylish bent. What can you do, it's just her thing. It's not like I didn't know about them, but there was this whole wall full of shoes in the basement that I never actually took much notice of. Actually two walls, but it's more like a very large closet than a room per-se.

So, I lucked out at work today. I figured out a way that we could use the open Java by using an open source version of Java FX. I was sweating for a bit there, but a guy on Stack Overflow pointed me to a site, which turned out to have exactly what I needed. I just had to figure out how to install it, which took a little trickery.

Looks like the Haloween rush is over. There were a ton of kids who came through in a very condensed period of time, from maybe 6:30 to 6:50. Seems like they're already done. Lots of cute costumes. Now I'm stuck with the M&Ms.

Tonight is a good night to actually do something productive. There are no games on, after a pretty extended streak. I'm really bad. I will do something productive. I'm so lazy.
 
Your mention of the leftover M&M's reminded me that the office today is going to be overflowing with everyone's remnants...thanks for the heads up!
 
It wasn't too bad at the office, Mols. There was just one bag of snickers, which I didn't really partake of until well into the day.

I actually got the gym today, weight-lifted, first time I've been there during the week for quite some time. I hope to make it a more frequent occurrence.

Last night, I was getting into guitar a little bit. I'm trying to not be so astoundingly lazy. I've never been an over-achiever, but I've really gotten bad recently. I started reading something about how to achieve your goals or whatever, and they said, just think of the thing that makes you smile. For me, it's definitely guitar, so I picked it up and played for a while. I'm trying to get better at soloing. I'm pretty much strictly a strummer at this point, but I was getting better as the night wore on.

The other problem is I've really gotten into a bad routine, going to bed later and later. Last night I went to bed at around 2:30 am. With the short commute, I can get up at 8 or even 8:30 and still be at work on time. But it's just a bad idea. I've been watching this Spanish language (with subtitles of course) series called "Undercover Law". it's about this group of undercover agents fighting the drug lords in Columbia. To be honest, a big part of the appeal is that the secret agents are mostly women, and quite good-looking. But there's enough plot and character development to keep things more than interesting. It's not badly done at all. One of the girls absolutely reminds of the admin at my last company. She was an absolute knockout, that's one thing I miss about that company.

Anyway, I'm going to be back at guitar again tonight, while watching the Celtics. And try to get to bed by 1, or 1:30 at the latest. I'm going to trying moving the time back to say midnight or 12:30.
 
Hi Jack, nice you get trick or treaters. We are out in the countryside where there aren't any. But we live in an artsy town, and downtown is full of drum troupes and musicians and people in costume all parading around, so it was really fun dancing and walking around in costume with everyone.
With lack of sleep, it stresses the body and makes it harder to lose weight, as I am sure you already know. I wonder if that is why you feel lazy lately? Great you are learning guitar solos!
 
Hi, Jack. Both my sister and our younger son are night owls. I used to be, but not by choice. I have gradually worked my way to going to bed about 11 & don't get up until 7. I think it's best to try to fit in with the natural pattern of night & day. Playing guitar would be very relaxing, but maybe start earlier.
 
Hi Marisa & Cate - so nice of you to drop a word. Marisa, sounds like a very cool town you're in. Nice you had fun hanging in your costumes out and *dancing*. Cate, 11 to 7 is perfect. 8 solid hours. Can't go wrong. Actually, I did better last night, got to bed at 1:30 am and slept till 8 or so. Tonight I'm shooting for 1 a.m. or bust.

Also, I'm gradually breaking my wife down on the hummus front. She has a whole routine around the cooking and really doesn't like anyone to mess with it. But, I've been casually bringing the subject up, and I told her that tomorrow, my goal was to buy some chickpeas. I'm going to to make it happen. She said, ok, but it has to come out of my "blow money" i.e. money in the budget I'm allowed to blow off on whatever I feel like, and not the grocery budget.

Marisa, I think the hardcore laziness has to do with discovering free sports channels on the internet. I can't not watch the Celtics. Also, starting the new job was really a rough patch and I wasn't up to doing much during off hours. However, I'm 10 months in and that's no excuse anymore and hasn't been for a while. Heck, my 1-year contract is up January 15th and I honestly don't know if they are going to renew me. I think I've done a good enough job, but the software they assigned me to is slated to be sunsetted, and the new version is being rolled out the first of the year. I don't have a ton to do right now, either.

So, I really have to get my ass going. I haven't added anything useful to my resume in this job, it's all stuff I've done before. Maybe maven, but everyone knows that. The flash stuff is completely useless, it no longer has browser support, the last holdout is ESL Firefox and that ends in 2020. Same with the outdated source code repository, Perforce. It's not even supported by Jenkins. It's almost like I'd be better off not putting this job on my resume - bug fixes, Flash and Perforce on a legacy software? Maintenance developer? Hmmm.

Anyway. At least tonight I went jogging at the beach. It was nice and warm, 66 degrees. It got dark, but they're turning the clocks back this weekend. Heck, I might just go for another jog tomorrow.
 
Great you went jogging, and hope you get to tomorrow, too. Sounds like a good plan! I really need to do that, too. I was to the point where I could jog a half hour and be ok, but now I have to work up to that again. Darn!

With your job, isn't it better to show that you were employed for the last year rather than have a gap in your resume? If you learn the new skills you may need for the next job on the side, then you really can't be faulted for the job not being cutting edge, could you? Maybe there is a way to show that your job is hard because you are trying to make outdated code still work in new browser platforms? It sounds like it is just as much a pain as figuring out new coding languages!

Happy extra hour of sleep!! :sleeping: :) :sleeping:
 
Hi Marisa, thanks for the well-wishes. As for the jogging, for me it's a lot easier when it's warm outside. Hows the weather where you live? If you can just do five minutes at first, you can easily work your way up to 1/2 hour, then it's just maintenance.

Well, not much going on sleep-wise tonight. I'm trying to make a go of it without my usual sleeping aids (cold medicine and a sleeping pill essentially) and it's not going well. But if I don't try it now, I never will. I came back downstairs and started fooling around on the guitar. I am just thinking about how to never get lost on the fretboard. I've been so lazy about that. What I'm trying to do is always understand where what I'm fretting fits on the major scale - even if it's actually in a different scale. That way, the numbers are constant. The tricky part is when you have a different root then the major scale. So, if it's in a minor key, the root is 6. If it's in something they call myxolidian, the root is 5. The hard part is not calling the root 1. Good musicians master the different scales, so they can think of the root as 1 even when it's not major, but I'm not even close to that. And conceptually it's much easier, because you only have to know one single scale, the major scale, so I'm running with that for now.

I've been playing along to some blues tracks. Blues is good to practice soloing to because the chord progressions are pretty standard. Also, you usually play a minor scale, so that's good practice playing in a non-major scale.

Tomorrow I have to do a few things. Get the chickpeas. Do some exercising. Check out my mom's new phone setup, see what they did. I tried to get her on a VOIP solution called OOMA for her main phone, but there were too many times when it didn't work. If someone bumped it, or the internet was out, I don't know why there were so many issues. There was too much traffic in that area. Too many links in the chain. Router, the Ooma device, the power for the router and the device, power outage, if the internet went down if someone touched anything by accident - that happened three times for sure. We have it so my wife's mom can call, and my wife never really had a good cellular phone going on until recently.

There's more stuff I gotta do, I'm just not remembering it right now. Maybe I'll try going to sleep again.
 
A few todos:
1. Fix my iPhone. The touch screen keeps flaking out on me.
2. Chickpeas.
3. Check my mom's phone.
4. Exercise.
5. Change my health plan to something cheaper.
6. First, find out if they'll pay for my wife's hearing device. It's expensive, like 4K, so if insurance covers it that would be good. They did last time, but it's a different plan from the last one.

7. Resume-builder - learn Spring Boot.
8. Do a couple of unit tests for work.
 
So, I've been checking out scales again. I realized that I may be on the wrong track trying to think of the root as a different number than 1. I finally took the time to just look at a couple of scales, minor, i.e. 6-based (Aeolian) and 5-based (Mixolydian) and realized that there are only one or two notes that vary from the major. For minor, it's flat 3 and flat 6 only. For Mixolydian (e.g. Can't you see by Marshall Tucker), it's only one note, flat 7. This is a breakthrough, a huge one. When I play "Can't You See" now, I understand the notes that are available, the whole scale, not just the pentatonic, which can be repetitive. There's even one note, a flat 3, that absolutely works for some reason at times.

I've been struggling with this stuff for at least a couple of years now. I'm convinced I'm finally on the right track. Now it's a matter of practice. This might give me the motivation to push a little harder, hopefully.
 
Thanks for the tips on jogging! It's pretty chilly here now in the mornings and evenings as the coastal fog makes it very damp, but I can definitely start jogging for small intervals in the middle of the day. I am going to do it starting Monday!

My husband is an insomniac, but the intermittent fasting actually helped him sleep. Maybe the extra tennis helped, too though. Hope you find a good solution soon. Sleeplessness really stinks!

I am hopelessly confused by all the chord progression stuff. Hopefully there are good youtube videos on it now!

Hope you have a great weekend!
 
Hi Marisa, yeah I've always had trouble sleeping, I guess. But as recently as last year I went a few weeks without my sleeping pills when I was in between doctors. I just try to use them when I can't sleep, but I've been pretty steady for a while on them. I'm trying to leverage the extra hour this weekend to see how it goes, but this it's not going so great so far.

At least I had a relatively productive day. I got both weightlifting and jogging in, as it was pretty warm, almost 60 degrees. Then I had lunch and my wife came home from teaching. She had a concert and desperately wanted a nap, and anyway I was planning to go shopping and also to my mom's house. I found some chickpeas, although they were canned and I think pre-cooked, but that's ok, maybe it will save me some time.

There were a few things to do at my mom's house, set up the answering service, cancel the internet from Comcast, test the phone, work out the display issue on her new TV - it needs an updated box. So, that all got straightened out, and my wife was texting me when I was coming back because I was going to give her a ride into town. So I got back, drove into town, came back, took a quick nap and got up and had supper while watching the Celtics, life is good. She had invited a couple of her friends, and I gave them all a ride back after the game. I hadn't met one, and she was hilarious, apparently a real party girl but at the same time runs a piano-teaching school.

Ok, back to fooling around with guitar scales!
 
Hi Jack kept seeing you pop up on diaries and said I would come and have read all yours . You are doing well with your diet . Good for you .

My son is studying computer science I often hear him bandy about terms like java but I don't understand him . He is always working on projects and coding . He too loves music and plays guitar and goes to the gym . He goes to try build weight though as he is underweight.

I would definitely get some hummus or make your own. I must do so too . I have started to leave carrot sticks in little mini bags in the fridge . And almonds in the press . It does help a lot .

I understand your worries on the working till retirement age . My husband says that as long as he is able to work he will as better to get up have his routine in the day . Also our pensions took a massive hit but we are lucky as have saved some and own our home outright . But it's a worry about the future .

Have a lovely day
 
Love that you had a breakthrough on guitar. :) Keep us updated on the hummus.

As far as the sleep, if you are routinely using pills/nyquil, your body will be in withdrawal until it adusts. Hope it gets better soon.
 
ePetal - your son sounds like he really has it going on. How old is he? I wish I had started guitar early, it's easier to pick up in your teens or as a kid.

Mols, yeah, for the second night in a row I was fast awake most of the night. Finally at 5:30 I gave up and took the Therma-flu and 1/2 a pill. I did start reading "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" which I lifted from my Mom's house, but it's a huge book and I don't want to make reading it a priority.

Today's kind of free, I just have to buy leaf bags and rake the yard, and the Pat's tonight at 8. C hasn't called me for a jam, so I don't know if I'll go up there, maybe not. Oh yeah, and we're going to do the budget for this month. The auto insurance bill is due, almost 2K for both cars. Once I retire, I'm definitely going to drop one of the cars, what a money saver that will be. I think we stayed on budget last month, kept it under 4.5 k even though we paid property taxes. We don't go out to restaurants much and own the house, but if I did a lot of what I do by car by bike instead, we could save more. Mr. Money Mustache does everything by bike, including shopping, and save a ton of money that way. But there's so much traffic around, last time I rode my bike I nearly got hit by like 3 cars. My city just isn't bike-friendly. Well, that's my excuse anyway.
 
Hi Jack, do you have trouble getting to sleep or do you wake up a lot? Do you drink caffeine during afternoons or eat a large meal as your last meal of the day? Is it possible to take smaller and smaller amounts of the sleep medicine? Does aerobic exercise help at all? I am a little bit knowledgeable in this as my husband is an insomniac, so we had to do a bunch of things and now he is finally sleeping well. I think now that I am in charge of his diet, I can get him the nutritional needs that help for his particular symptoms and that helped with the last few things he needed to change to sleep well.

Happy raking. I love the smell of autumn when I rake leaves!
 
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