Yes, the question is: Where have I been!? During Covid, I was running out of ideas to write about. I switched jobs and I’ve pretty much become lazy about writing.
COVID Aftermath
Why did covid feel like we had been locked down for 5 years? It seemed like so long, but it wasn’t that long. It has only been 3 years since we started going to restaurant drive thru. When I go out, I don’t feel like covid is a concern anymore. I do notice people wearing masks more than I have pre-covid. I have lost the fear about being outside my house and in public places. My only concern is my boy and his nasty habits. I’ve lost count at the number of times he’s put his hands in his mouth after touching hand rails. What the!?
We only had covid once. We have been through many tests and tried taking precautions, since we live with a immunocompromised individual. She didn’t get it that bad when she was sick. I’m hoping that we can continue to keep it away from her.
New Job
I am now working for a local company that is a startup. Several co-workers all came over, with big dreams to all work together, but that has since died. We are down to two of the six, but we won’t talk about all that drama here. If this were a private blog, I’d delve into that.
Summer is coming
There are only a few more days left of school. I’m hoping the boy can stay active and happy during this summer. I’ll be working, so I’m leaving it up to the wife to keep him busy and out of trouble this summer. I’m hoping this will be easy!
I have officially been slacking the last several weeks. We have discovered this game called Minecraft, that has probably heard of. My boy has been playing it a lot. He loves the game, because he can do pretty much anything that he wants. We love how creative it allows him to be.
I actually purchased the game, Java version, about 7 years ago when I heard about it. The first person nature of the view made me sick! I also spent like 5 hours trying to find diamonds one time, and after that it felt like a huge waste of time! It was a fun 5 hours, but what did I accomplish? Just an appreciation for the developer and the awesome game he created.
Discovery again..
As my boy started getting older and bored of the games he was playing, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce him into Minecraft. This is when I discovered you can’t just buy one version of the game. My computer had the Java version, but if you wanted to play it on the iPad, you have to make another purchase. I purchased another copy (ugh! I’m a cheapo) and he didn’t quite understand it. It sat there for several months with no one playing it.
Youtube
Somehow the Minecraft videos started showing up on his Kids YouTube and I think this sparked another interest. He watched this girl who would narrate her adventures. She has this voice that is hard to listen to for very long. Unfortunately, her voice didn’t bother him, just his parents! The boy has been playing everyday for about 2 months!
Funny thing has happened though, minecraft has replaced his Kids YouTube addiction. He hardly ever watches it anymore, so we don’t get the opportunity to listen/watch the girl anymore. (so sad)
Multiplayer
This is where I come into the picture! I thought it would be awesome if we could play together, but we didn’t know how to do it. How we figured this out escapes me, but I downloaded the game on our other iPad. When the game loaded his name showed up under the “Friends” tab. WOOHOO We were stoked to be able to play with each other. If you want to play with someone else, you have to be on the same network and it has to be a Pocket Edition.
We have found out that our wifi has some issues or one of the iPads has a problem with the WiFi, so we are disconnected from the network a lot. This is a huge point of anger in both of us!
Survival vs Creative
Another lesson we had to learn was what Creative and Survival mode was. We found that Creative allowed us to have everything, fly, do what we want, and the big plus: There were no Zombies trying to kill us. We loved this, because we could literally do anything and the boy had a ton of fun!
I made the mistake of trying Survival mode a couple weeks ago. It was super fun not having everything and trying to fight to keep your belongings. The boy wants to switch back to some of the old Creative maps we played in the past, and it isn’t fun anymore. He always wants me to play his little games and I try and comply it’s just not as fun anymore.
Bonding
This has become a crazy addiction and we have wasted a lot of time, but the bonding we have done has been worth it! The boy has had a blast and always wants me to play with him. We talk a lot about the game and discuss ideas we want to try. There have been many How to Videos watched on YouTube. We even spent one day creating a Gold Farm from a YouTube video we watched. This turned out to be a daunting task and an 8 year old isn’t as patient as he should be. We had a hard time creating said Farm.
I get a little frustrated with him breaking my stuff from time to time, but I’m learning to let it slide. The fun he is having and the time spent is more valuable than my digital creation 🙂
Downside
The one downside to this game that I don’t like is killing animals. In creative mode, you can create a bunch of animals and then torture them. The idea of survival is to kill those trying to kill you. You also kill animals to use them as resources, etc. My son likes to build cemeteries for his animals that are still alive. He likes to torture the animals. The last thing I want is my boy growing up to think that is fun :). Yes, I worry too much.
Good times
All in all it has been a great game and we have spent a lot of good time playing. I’m looking forward to play many more hours with him and discovering new mini-sections of the map we can explore.
Thanks for reading my boring post, hopefully more exciting posts will come.
This last week was met with a lot of changes and uncertainty. The first week of homeschooling for my wife and working in an office with only two people in it. Using the hour lunch time to get away from the office to socialize and let steam off. A freaking EARTHQUAKE. That is just a few of the changes.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling has been so crazy. We have a boy that apparently does a lot better when someone else is teaching him. He gave my wife a lot of trouble this week, but things got a little better the end of the week. I think they are getting use to it and I’m hoping this week will get better!
The teachers are doing a good job and keeping the kids going and there is plenty of work for them to do and some are complaining it is too much. It’s rough
Work Environment
Everyone showed up to work on Monday a little curious at how things were going to play out. We all met to discuss our plan and what people can expect. There are 8 of us there in the office and we all have our own room. We decided that if anyone wanted to work from home they could, but everyone decided they were fine working secluded in their offices.
Monday night someone reported that their sister came in contact with someone who came in contact with someone who tested positive with the virus. It’s a major Kevin Bacon situation, but he really didn’t want to get anyone sick, so he decided to stay home. This decision sparked a major scare and everyone decided they should work from home the rest of the week.
I on the other hand, have a school going on in the home and wanted to limit my distractions, so I stayed in the office. The office was so boring this week, but I was productive. I had to give a training on writing unit tests for NodeJS APIs and it was odd to do it all online without a room of people. Very interesting.
Social distancing
I love socializing and i’m going stir-crazy staying in all the time. I miss going to church each Sunday and visiting with my neighbors and all the friendships I’ve made there. I’ve been calling my friends, but seeing someone in person is a lot better. I can’t wait until things are back to normal, so I don’t have to fear being close to someone anymore. 🙂
We have tried to get out of the house over the weekend, but it is a little different. My wife was so ready to get out of the house on Friday, so we stopped at Purple Turtle to grab some food. We then drove up to a lookout and ate dinner and watched videos on my phone. After that, we drove around Alpine/Highland looking at some of the huge houses up there. It was different, but we all had a blast. The boy sat in the back playing games on the phone and checking out the houses with us.
Saturday afternoon, we went up to Bridal Veil Falls and viewed the sights. We were doing a virtual scavenger hunt that is going on, so we had fun getting pictures of various things and having a blast all while not interacting with people. The park in Provo was a bit crowded, so we had to take off.
Earthquake
Wednesday morning, I was getting my boy up for school sitting on his floor and all of a sudden, the house started to shake! It sounded like a huge truck was driving by, but we don’t live by a road with a lot of traffic. I ran downstairs to make sure my wife was OK after the shaking stopped. I ran outside to check on the gas and structure. It was small, but it freaked me out and I wasn’t sure what to do. There have been a ton of aftershocks since then, so it’s crazy. I guess it is normal, but I wouldn’t know. We are not prepared and that freaks me out.
This week
I’m going to start working from home this week and see if I can do it. I cleaned my office up and made room for me to work from home. The 3 monitors on my desk are going to be missed, but I can make do.
We missed the stores closing on Saturday, so I have to go get a few groceries. I’m hoping the numbers start going in the other direction with the infections and thins get better!
It’s been an interesting week here and probably everywhere. There are a lot of things going on in the world. Like most people, we have been hanging out in our house and only going out unless we need to. Life is going to change around here and who knows if we or anyone is ready.
Let me just touch on a few things from last week.
Monday
We planned on attending the funeral for my neighbor that passed away. He was a super nice guy, but his health has been deteriorating the last few years. I haven’t seen him much, but when I did, it was usually him coming to tell me to keep my son from messing with things in his yard, or me going over to his house to apologize for my son taking something from his house. We talked a few times about VW’s and his yard. He has some cool trees in his yard that provide a TON of shade for us in the summer. They are awesome, until the winter when I have to rake up the mess. I don’t mind it though, the shade is well worth it!
Unfortunately, that day the school had an early day, so one of us had to go pick up the boy from school and miss the end of the funeral. We went to lunch. I went to work after lunch. Nothing too exciting.
Tuesday
The cold I picked up the Saturday before was getting worse, so I decided to work from home. I have a pretty flexible job, and I’m able to work from home if I need to. The social interaction with my coworkers is one of the highlights of my day and it is definitely different while working at home. I tend to get more stuff done, because there are fewer distractions.
Wednesday
I went to work and tried to stay in my room more. It’s much easier to work on my 3 monitors vs 1- 17″ laptop screen. I also had GDG to attend that night. They were discussing the Firestore, which was very interesting. The presentation had some problems, but it was good. Here is the Stream if you are interested. Check out the guy talking about ServerApp at this timestamp. It is a super cool idea about ordering food from your phone in a restaurant. Having access to the server via your phone. It is a great idea, unfortunately during this time it may not progress like he wants if the restaurants close for dining.
Anyhow, I was pretty fired up about NoSQL databases after leaving and very curious how I could use them more. I usually work in the relational world. I can see the benefits of a Document Database, but i’m not sure how reports and data duplication work.
Thursday
I went to work again, I have been feeling much better. Who knows what I have, maybe just a cold? I had to do a training today for my coworkers. I did a little presentation on creating a simple API using NodeJS. Public speaking is not my strong point, so i’m sure this wasn’t very good. There were only 6 of us in the room and I was still petrified. I’m going to work on it a little bit more improve my skills. Got any tips?
Friday
Nothing special happened today, but we found out the schools will be closed to students for 2 weeks and we’ll be homeschooling the boy at home. This could be entertaining, to say the least. I’m thankful that my wife can stay home and help him with school. We needed some tortillas, so the Mexican market is on the way home. It was super packed with people, so it took about 40 minutes to get through the line.
Saturday
Another day of sticking around at home. After giving the boy his medication he pretty much stayed upstairs playing with Lego’s. I went to Costco to pick up a few essentials and to see the craziness. Unfortunately, it wasn’t bad at all and I made it through the lines without much trouble. I’m going to go crazy if I have to stay inside too much. A nerds life is behind the keyboard, but you need to get out every once in awhile.
I saw the best thing in my neighborhood. There was a family with a table and a pyramid of toilet paper with a sign that read “Stranded on the bowl without a roll?? Here is one on me! Pay it forward! #metootp“. I thought it was awesome!
Sunday
Today has been pretty lazy and great! Our church is canceled, so we did stuff here as a family and it went good. A 7 year old that has a hard time sitting still normally at church has the same problem x3 at home.
Be Safe
I hope everyone can stay safe during these crazy times. Facebook had a pretty epic link floating around to this site: “HERE’S THE ENTIRE LIST OF EDUCATION COMPANIES OFFERING FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS DUE TO SCHOOL CLOSINGS” – Hopefully we can keep our kids happy and not halt the learning that the teachers have worked so hard to do every day. They are working hard to provide learning online and we have to help our kids continue to learn. It’s going to be tough.
Last week was pretty busy around here. I thought I would just recap how it went, if I can remember.
Monday
Nothing spectacular happened today, but the moon was so amazing this morning while driving my boy to school. Check out this photo.
Moon in the sky
You can see the moon just above the sign. It doesn’t do it justice, but it was an amazing sight! Never mind the cracked windshield. It has been the last thing I want to get fixed, since it isn’t a requirement and I can still see through the windshield. Cops…Please weigh in below. 🙂
Tuesday
My boys school is always running fund raisers at certain restaurants around the valley and we try and support them when we can. Tuesday, it was at Zupas. I have big problems with this place. Zupas is always busy and you pay an insane amount of money for a salad. Am I the only one that looks for quantity over quality? Maybe that is why I’m overweight? The place was packed with parents and kids, and it took us 40 minutes to get food.
I don’t get out of the house much, so it’s fun when I can get a night out with some friends. Mike, Richard, and I went out to dinner and to play some pool. We had a lot of fun catching up and driving Richard’s VW Bus. The BAD is he took out his heat exchange to improve the performance, which means there is no heat in the bus. Driving 75 on the freeway with no heat in 37 degree weather can make anyone wish they had worn a bigger coat. It was super cold, but we had a blast!
Thursday
We experienced something new today that as very interesting. Our boy doesn’t get sick much, which is a blessing! He woke up in the morning and had a bad case of diarrhea, which was heart breaking. We had to keep him home from school, which tore him up. He stayed home terrorizing the wife, Jen, and plugging the toilet, because he hasn’t learned how to use toilet paper yet. We are learning a new skill around here when it comes to TP and stuff. It’s a never ending battle. I’m not going to include any photos, but he recovered on Friday and was able to go back to school! Yahoo!
Friday
Valentines day! It’s a fun day, and it’s nice to spoil the ones you love. Going out to dinner is a joke on this night, so we have started a little tradition around here. We get the Heart Shaped Pizza from Papa Murphy’s and have a candle light dinner while we eat. Jacob loves it! We had a great night and grandma brought over a ton of candy for Jacob, so he was jacked up on sugar as usual.
The unfortunate thing is, Jen is diabetic and was having issues with her blood sugar. She was getting sick later that night, so it pretty much ended the fun. She ended up being sick into Saturday, which sucked. I think she had Diabetic ketoacidosis. It’s pretty scary and she just wants to sleep, so it’s hard to help her.
Saturday – Sunday – Monday
Jen slept all day and Jacob and I relaxed on Saturday. We had plans to go to dinner with Friends and start a little stay-cation. We couldn’t make any plans during the week, due to the illness that was going on. Jen woke up at 5pm and was feeling better, so we decided to execute the first part of the stay-cation, which was go to dinner with the friends. We had a blast at our favorite spot, Charlie Chows, and stayed there until they closed. They need a new website and If my design skills were good, I’d offer them up.
Sunday we stayed up in SLC at a hotel with a swimming pool and water slide that was pretty fun to play in. The boys had a blast swimming and hanging out for a couple days. We had a blast!
We drove home today after we finished swimming and just tried to recover! Tomorrow, Tuesday, we have to get back to reality. Jacob’s school wanted to make up a snow day today. I think it is ridiculous that you try and make up a snow day on a Holiday that families plan mini vacations around. I’m assuming it wasn’t well attended today. So sad.
On October 5th 2016, I ordered my Pixel 1
phone. It was announced on October 4th. I was super excited! I’ve always been a fan of Google phones. I had the first G1 that I used forever! I’ve had a few Android phones before the
Pixel. (HTC Sensation and Nexus 5). An iPhone was in there for a little while, which
felt like I was cheating on Android. I
even enjoyed it!
My Pixel 1 started experiencing screen issues a year ago. After
calling support, they made me wipe my phone and it seemed to fix the issue
until December when it returned. The
screen would jump up (the bottom of the screen was jumping up and down). The screen would show snow and become
unresponsive. Being a long-term user, I was way out of my
warranty. The warranty was almost up the
last time they had me wipe my device. Conveniently,
it went out after doing all the trouble shooting.
Shopping
It is impossible for me to show up at a store and pick something out if I haven’t researched it a ton. It took almost a month of research and deciding what I wanted to do, before I could settle on a phone. I paid $750 for the Pixel 1 with all the bells and whistles. I was not going to do that again! The pixel 4 is out and the price tag on that was super high! It has horrible reviews!
The Pixel 3 has an epic camera and phone stats, but the price tag is still high! You can purchase refurbished on Amazon, but the reviews are kind of scary. The price is great, but who knows what you will get and what kind of warranty you get is questionable. I also had a hard time deciding if I wanted an XL or basic phone. The XL is big, but how hard is it to use with one hand? (This will be something I regret. My hands are stubby)
Insurance
Most companies offer a device protection plan. T-Mobile has one where you pay $10 a
month. Best Buy has one where you pay anywhere
from $8 – 10 a month. They cover a lot
of stuff and there is a piece of mind there, but I don’t want to pay an extra
$120 a year for 2 years of “Piece of Mind”.
I want the protection though. The Google Store the phones for a good price and
they only charge $89 for 2 years of protection after the MFG Warranty expires. That seemed like a pretty good deal to
me. Google has been fast at replacing my
phones in the past.
The Big Day!
On January 4th, 2020, I ordered my Pixel 3A XL. The bigger screen was appealing to me and the consensus
was 50/50 on how good it is. The order
said it would take 5 days to get the phone!
I was kind of sad, because I wanted the phone now! I checked my email everyday after it
shipped. The phone ended up taking 4
days to get to me.
Anticlimactic.
The phone, case, and screen protector all came around the
same time. Backing up the old device and
installing the new phone was super easy!
The phone is much faster and has some
fancier specs than the Pixel 1, but the OS version is the same! Using
the 3A is just like using the Pixel. Not
much changed, so it wasn’t as exciting as when I switched from the Nexus 5 to the
Pixel. I’m so glad that I purchased it though. The phone works, and the screen is
snappy! I had the 128gb before, but this one only has
64gb. I’m hoping I can get use to it! 😊
This one is already 80% full and it’s giving me heartache! The first time I
used the phone one handed, I found that my thumb had a hard time reaching the “back”
button without dropping the phone! AAARGH!! So annoying, but I’m going to get
use to it. The battery is the best
part. It lasts 20h per charge with my
normal use! I’m excited about the phone
so far.
Work Update
Work has been busy this week. It was mostly boring until Saturday when I got a call from my boss saying the machines were “super loud” and the server room was HOT! The Air Conditioning stopped working. After shutting off the machines, He called the building maintenance and had them come look at it. When the maintenance guy showed up, he said his boss was up on the roof and noticed an AC was running (in the winter) and he shut it off! WHAT?
We have been in this building for 5+ years and the AC isn’t new! We were busy on Saturday night, out celebrating my Birthday, so Sunday was the only day I could go turn everything back on and get the Domain Controller, Firewall, etc all booted back up. IT work is not what I do on a day to day basis, but I understand a lot of the machines and software. The adventure took 2 hours to get everything working again. With Copious notes and trial and error, I have a better understanding of how things are put together in the server room. Everyone should be able to be up and running in the morning when they get to work.
Great times. More celebration needs to be had, because my birthday
is January 13th!
Christmas is officially over, and it’s been a good one! Of
course, we were spoiled by everyone.
Here is a recap of the week events.
Christmas Eve
Jacob and I wanted to go swimming with my boss. My boss usually goes swimming Christmas Eve
with his family and We’ve also gone. The
Lehi swimming pool is only open until 12p, so we had to hurry. It is like herding turtles when it comes time
to get Jacob moving, so we didn’t arrive until 10am. We found out that my boss had to go into work,
so we didn’t get to see them. Jacob and
I had a lot of fun swimming though. We
got dressed and headed out.
My mother and father are buried in the same city, so we
decided to go visit their grave site. I
don’t go there very often, and it would be embarrassing to count how long it
has been. We have a family friend who goes and keeps it
nice and pretty!
After the cemetery, we ended up going to visit Lehi Roller Mills
and then home to get ready for dinner with Grandma, Aunts, and a Friend. We had
a great ham dinner and opened PJs! One of the neighbors passed out Sky Lanterns
to the neighborhood and instructed everyone to go out and light them at
8pm. It was super awesome! I’ve seen them in YouTube videos and pictures,
but never in person! It was super cool
to see and there were a TON going up around us! They went up and eventually disappeared. I did see one falling to the ground after it
has burned out. I’m curious what the
aftermath looked like after. Good thing
they were biodegradable.
Sky Latterns lighting up the sky.
We spent the night wrapping gifts to each other and then
trying to get to bed. Jacob doesn’t get
up super early, so that is a relief. He
once slept until 10am, but he only lasted until 8:30a.
Christmas Morning
Aunt J went and picked up Grandma T and they came over here to
have breakfast and open presents. We
had a blast opening gifts. Jacob totally
got spoiled! We already had a ton of
legos in our house, and we have a ton more now.
He loves putting them together and I get to help every so often.
I received a Ring Doorbell and I can’t wait to install it! I’m a little scared to install it. Having a camera on the front door will be interesting. Watching the boy in the summer will be interesting. I find my tools out in the front yard at time. Considering where we live, It may be overkill.
After opening presents, we went over to Grandma T’s house for
presents and then back to our house. We
were instructed by Jacob that we weren’t going to leave the house until the
next day. He played..played.. and played
with his toys some more. I ended up working a bunch.
Day after Christmas (Thursday)
One of my goals this break was to clean my office. It has always been a dumping grounds for
stuff. When the house is cleaned, and
something needs to be “hidden” it goes in there. I spent a lot of time cleaning the room,
which it still isn’t done, but I’ve made a good dent. My time is usually spent on our kitchen table
with my laptop. This allows me to spend
more time with my wife while she is watching TV. A room where I can get work done where it is
quite would be nice. We headed up to
Great Grandma’s (Jacobs) to visit with family.
Very cool family with a lot laughs!
Saturday….Dentist..
Jacob HATES the dentist and had to have a tooth pulled and a
few cavities filled. We had to be to the
Dentist at 8:15am. I woke up at 7:50a (I
was the first one up), so we had to get Jacob up, ready and off to the
dentist. We have a 15-minute drive to
the dentist. I don’t think I drove too
fast, but we made it there by 8:20a. The place was a total disorganized and we had a
hard time checking in and then had to wait until 10am before they could get him
back. It went well, but he ended up
biting his lip a ton after surgery and it was bleeding pretty good. His lip is super swollen now and looks bad. The dentist instructed us to keep him from
walking and keep a good eye on him. It
was hard to keep him from walking for 2 hours.
Jacob was on the move after about 3 and that is as good as we could
do! He was fine and there were no
incidents other than the bloody lip!
Sunday
Pretty relaxing day today, so nothing to exciting to report. Church was pretty good. Our neighbor gave a talk. It was great to hear from him (and the others). Jacob switches classes next week (New Year.. New Class) He had some awesome teachers, and he is sad to be loosing his teachers. I’m hoping he is a good kid during class. We finished off the night with some games. We had a great night until we had to put the boy to bed. I’m hoping we aren’t the only ones who have a rough time getting their kid(s) to bed.
I hope everyone has a great New Years Celebration this week. Keep safe out there and if you drink remember not to drive! You have options with Lyft and Uber.
Having the holidays over is going to be awesome! There are a lot of festive activities and
parties, but it is one right after another!
The weekends are usually crammed packed, so you don’t have much down
time. Sunday after church are usually
my favorite times. We are chilled around
here and take it easy.
I have loved every event that we have attended and done this
month. Earlier this month, we attended a
Christmas Party with my family. Getting
together with this side of the family, usually only happens once a year. My family
means the world to me and I wish that I saw them more! As I’ve mentioned, my father passed away several
years ago (30 years now). We have since found
out that he had a daughter before he got married to my mom. It is a crazy DNA story that I will have to
expound on sometime. She fits right in with our family. There are a lot of resemblances with her and
my family that are spooky. Each get
together, we learn more and more about her.
So much fun!
This weekend, we were able to meet with Jacob’s birth
grandma, J. She lives in North Carolina,
so we don’t get to see her very much. She
is divorced and has two adult kids that keep her busy! Jacob’s birthmother has made some decisions
in her life that aren’t the best. It’s
rough to see her go through this troubled time. We have so much love for her and the
decision she made to place with us. We
just don’t love her decisions she is making now.
We told Grandma J to meet us at Leatherby’s, so we could
have food and desert, if she had eaten, since it was going to be late. We show up and see a sign that says, “We are
temporarily closed for remodeling….”
There was no mention of this online.
I look it up now and it still says it’s open! Am I the only one who relies way too much on
the internet to tell me what is going on?
We ended up going a block or two over to “Crown Burger”. You can’t
go wrong with burgers, can you? We had a
great visit with J.
Before the meeting with J, we had family photos taken. I was dreading it, but it wasn’t as bad as I
though it was going to be. I’m not much
of a suit person, but it went better than I thought.
We went through the Christmas In Color display this week in South Jordan, UT. It is a big parking lot filled with Christmas lights synced to music and it is amazing! It is a pretty fun thing to do as a family. Jacob enjoys it. Hopefully the biggest of scrooges can come through with a little Christmas spirit or a song or two stuck in your head. This year, they added vertical lights have this 3D effect to them.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this year. I hope you don’t get caught up in the whole retail nightmare of Christmas.
