The Hump

Cross-Posted at Really? Seriously?

It’s Hump Day here at my office perched between two stadiums in Seattle. It’s the middle of the work week for most, but a “Friday” for me. In fact, I plan on leaving here around 10 this morning, just to get a start on my two days off.

I reached another milestone yesterday in my SQL project. I have the desktop clients ready to install on all the computers here at the Stadium property. I will then move on to Broadway and University properties to install the first module of the new system. I plan on having both Tacoma properties and our Mukilteo property set up by June. From there, I have a couple more properties to collect data on — but I will probably enlist the property engineers for that task.

Hopefully, by mid-June, I can start working on my Preventive and Predictive Maintenance modules. I need to have both of those mods up and running by October 1st, which is the beginning of our PM cycle for both our rooms and equipment. THAT is going to take some mental gymnastics, because there is a LOT of calculations and programming involved. The “logic ladder” for the Preventive Maintenance module is intensive, and I will probably go fucking insane by the time I finish it. (I almost went insane after writing the MS-Access version of this module.)

The news is a mixed bag this morning. There were a lot of headlines that I chose to ignore — mainly because I’d rather not even think about some of that shit right now. Frankly, if I could possibly ignore most of the political stuff — I would. But some of it is too crazy to ignore. So I will ridicule it instead.

Headlines That Caught My Eye This Morning

Item 1: Puttin’ on the Putin

It’s sickening that Trumpublicans actually LIKE this guy. If you were to ask me ten years ago whether I thought Republicans would ever embrace someone like Vladimir Putin, I would have considered the idea to be completely nuts. But now, with Donald Trump as the ‘leader’ of the Republican Party, I can see that I’ve been wrong all this time.

There is nothing redeemable about a Republican these days. NOTHING.

Item 2: Palestinian state is recognized by several European countries

I’ve been wondering how long it would be before nations started to unilaterally recognize the State of Palestine. It’s been a LONG time coming — going back over 100 years when the League of Nations originally started talking about setting up both an Israeli and Palestinian state in that region.

It’s LONG past time for that to happen.

Item 3: Child confirmed as first case of H5N1 bird flu in Australia

QUICK! LET’S LOCK EVERYTHING DOWN!

This time, it’s just the flu. Sure, it could kill you — so can the common cold — if you were immuno-compromised in some way. But if most of us were to catch the H5N1 virus, we’d survive it pretty well. I’m sure that it will be part of the annual flu vaccine next fall, so if you haven’t caught it by then, you can inoculate yourself against it.

Item 4: Republicans close ranks against Senate border security deal

Once again, I was wrong. I made the faulty assumption that when the Senate Democrats agreed to most of the Senate Republican’s wish list on immigration and border policy a few months ago, that the Democrats would never bring it up again. But they are going to try one more time to get the House Republicans to vote for it.

One thing I am certain of: Democrats would NEVER vote for it after this session is over.

Item 5: BUTCHER’S FAREWELL Three-DAY cross country funeral for Iran president begins amid fears of crackdown…as despot Putin ‘plans to fly in’

He’s never looked better.

Item 6: Egypt changed terms of Gaza ceasefire deal presented to Hamas, surprising negotiators, sources say

Of ALL the news today, THIS was the most interesting, if not infuriating to me…

Item 7: ‘Subpoena his wife’: Expert nails Alito for passing the buck in possible ethics crime

Alito, giving his best “anal face” impression

Item 8: In novel case, U.S. charges man with making child sex abuse images with AI

Historically, every new technology that has been introduced has always gotten its start with some form of pornography. The printing press, film, movies, videos… the internet — all got tried out by porn first.

Item 9: American Airlines blames 9-year-old girl for being filmed in plane bathroom: ‘Shocking and outrageous’

The old, “blame the victim” defense.

Item 10 Buy-now, pay-later returns and disputes are about to get federal oversight

Just in time for MY lawsuit against Amazon.

A few months ago, I bought a Windows tablet on Amazon. I went for the “installment” option where I would pay five monthly installments. I don’t know why I did it — I think I just wanted to see how it worked — but I went for it.

Well, the tablet was shit, and I returned it for a refund. The third party Amazon uses for their installment payment plan is not accepting the fact that I returned the tablet already for a full refund. They refuse to honor the refund from Amazon and are still charging me the five monthly installments even though I don’t have the computer any longer.

So I’m in court and asking for an additional $5000 for my trouble.

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