Intel makes some weird packaging choices.

I’ve tried playing the Flickr Photo a Day for 365 Days challenge a bunch of times and I’ve failed miserably every time.  At the risk of jinxing things I have to admit that I started once again on September 1st and a pic I uploaded today was #119.  I started to think of how many times I’ve crashed and burned, and have I ever gotten this far before.  The answers are six and yes.

Attempt #1 began 2/9/16 and made it to day 136.
Attempt #2 began 10/1/16 and made it to day 58.
Attempt #3 began 1/1/17 and made it to day 54.
Attempt #4 began 8/1/17 and made it to day 76.
Attempt #5 began 1/1/18 and made it to day 154.
Attempt #6 began 1/1/19 and made it to day 99
Attempt #7 began 9/1/19 and is at day 119 and counting.

The idea behind this challenge is supposed to be artistic.  For me it’s more about not forgetting to do this stupid thing.  There is no art to be found in any of these.  99% of the pics are just iPhone shots of whatever I happened to be looking toward at the time.  Many of them are taken while stopped at red lights.  Yeah, really artistic shit.

I don’t know why I wrote this out.  I am 100% sure I just jinxed myself.

I’m not a handy man.  I’m not well versed in home improvements.  I thought this one was something I could handle though.  I was wrong.

We changed the dead bolt on our door today.  My key had been having trouble turning in the lock and Jen’s was starting to be an issue too.  We could have recut the keys but we thought it would be fun to enter the 21st century and get a keypad lock instead.  I was unsure if I could handle the installation myself, but Jen was willing to work with me and I thought maybe I was up to it.  I got as far as removing the old dead bolt, though I did kinda mangle it in the process. The space in the door itself was in good shape so I thought we were good to go.

I was wrong.

There I was, sitting in front of the door with one side of the new lock while Jen was on the other side of the door with the other piece of the lock and we tried to slide them together and…..

I guess door lock hole sizes aren’t universal.  Who knew?  I do not own the tools needed to widen the hole so Jen called her mother and it was my father in law, Sherman, to the rescue once again.

They came over, he looked at the situation, we went to a store in Salem to pick up a couple of tools.  Bing bang boom the door lock is installed.  While he was at it he also installed a new door knob as well.  It’s like we have a whole new house now.

Thanks, Sherman!

The final episode of the first season of The Mandalorian came out today.  I was thinking about watching it in the car in the parking lot at work before heading inside, but the running time for the episode was a tad too long.  I watched the first scene though.  Very satisfying.

Unrelated note: It took me three tries to correctly spell the word “satisfying.”

I want to see Rise of Skywalker again this weekend, and I think my beloved bride wants to see it again too.  Hopefully we can find a theater that’s a little more tricked out.  I want some butt kicker seats, or something similar.  Let’s make the last Skywalker go-’round a little more of a full body experience, shall we?  I also want popcorn, but I always want popcorn.

This weekend will see the end of the first season of Mando, and the end of the Skywalker saga… what do I do now?  I had started watching The Clone Wars TV show on Disney+ but there’s an episode in the first season that centers on Jar Jar Binks and it sucked all the desire to keep watching right out of me.  What the hell were they thinking?  I wonder if it was mandated by George Lucas.  Picture it, Dave Filoni having a sit down with The Boss and being told he can make the show but there has to be a Jar Jar episode.  Man… I probably would have scrapped the whole project.

There was talk of going to New York this weekend for a day trip.  It’s been on again/off again a few times.  Right now it’s off again.  We’ll see how things look in the morning.  If it stays off and we see Star Wars again I am thinking of spending some of my oddly free weekend practicing my guitar (I say oddly free only because we’ve been so busy over the last month or so that it’s weird not having anything demanding my time).  There are hints of an early 2020 gig and I do not want a repeat of the last one.  I need to practice a lot more.  A lot more.  A ton more.  My hand is sore just thinking about that last gig.  I can also start taping riffs and noodles in prep for RPM.  Jen and I were talking about sneaking away for a few days in February, destination and dates and actual plans and an actual decision to go through with it are all up in the air.  If we do something I am going to want to cram in as much RPM around it as I can.  Last year I broke the only-written-in-February rule.  This year I can do it again.  There is even a song from that stupid album-in-a-day thing I did a couple of months ago that I kinda want to re-record.  We’ll see how the ideas come along.

There’s also a part of me that wants to buy a second 15 watt 1×12 amplifier to pair with my Bassbreaker 15 so I can go two amps, and possibly wet/dry at band practice.  If I can mic everything up and record practices again it would let me split the amps in the stereo field, one hard left and one hard right, and then I can put the bass into the middle where it belongs.  The mixes I was doing prior to the last gig had the guitar on one side and the bass on the other.  It mimics the room, but I always prefer the bass up the middle.  Something to think about.  Looking at you, Vox AC15.

Anyway, it’s 9:00 AM.  Time to punch into work.  Enjoy the last Friday of the 2010’s, everyone.  May your customers give you an easy day.

Patches is hiding on my desk because we setup a new Nintendo Switch tonight and were playing all sorts of NES games on it because we’re old.

Expect lots of photos of people playing various Mario games in the future, m’kay?

Now that Christmas is over there is one main question that needs to be answered.

When do we go see Star Wars again?

While we work that out, have a picture of my cat.

Enjoy, and Happy Boxing Day… whatever that means.

It was a great Christmas. I had a lovely day celebrating with the people I love the most, though two of the most important people were with their dad for a lot of it. Good times were had.

Having said that though, I’m really glad it’s over. It was tough this year. There’s a bit of a feeling of survival here. I’m ready for things to go back to normal.

HoHoHo.

HoHoHo, Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus totally came here last night.  No pics until the kids come back from Dad’s house.  They get to see the haul before you do.