Eye Trouble

I couldn't see going in to work this morning. But finally got showered and out the door around 10:30. NP & I had to re-run all the required tests on the TV from hell, 46 of them. Of course some of them failed. There has been so much pressure to get this piece of crap approved, I have had some serious thoughts about quitting.

Here's my "lab":



The promised lab space was taken away to become a conference room, and the replacement lab, which was some Iranian manager's corner office, has no furniture and it's too small anyway. That thing on the chair is an Onkyo A/V unit, so I'm the audio tester. Over on the table on the right is James Bond, on end because there's no room to lay it flat, which is its usual working mode. On the floor is my usual lab TV. TV from Hell is in the center of the desk.

Lunch was beef teriyaki steamer, I ate out on the patio, which is right next to the freeway, so it's not going to become a habit.

We finished testing at about 4, there's a new guy in our office acting as liaison for the project and he is not qualified for the job. I keep having to correct him. One more reason to walk out.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to work on James Bond. But I'm not holding my breath. 50-50 chance the clowns in Tokyo will send another build.

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There were no doctor appointments for my PCP this week, so I called to see if anyone else could see me Friday. All the doctors at the clinic were booked this week. That's a lot of sick people. Got one for Monday afternoon with my doc.

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Been hearing a lot about a movie Crazy Rich Asians, so after work I went to see it. Best decision of the week. Maybe the best chick flick ever. Shot mostly in and around Singapore, there is a lot of fine acting, excellent cinematography, some intimate scenes, some huge extravaganzas (the bachelor party is epic). Lots of LOLs, and I cried twice. The BFF's wedding scene was so beautiful my eyes were wet for 5 minutes. Someone named Kina Grannis sings an absolutely gorgeous Can't Help Falling In Love With You which sets up the most romantic bride's entrance ever. The second cry is a spoiler, let's just say it involves an engagement ring.

At its core, it's the classic story of boy meets girl, boy brings girl to meet mom, mom hates girl. But there are twists. Lots and lots of twists. And three or four sub-plots. There is a lot of fine acting all the way through to the smallest parts.

Home, cooked up a chicken thigh in garlic/onion/ginger/olive oil and then fried the last 4 crab cakes. Left over 1 crab cake and the drumstick. Mango chunks for dessert. Chocolate milk bedtime snack.

Spook's been out a lot tonight. Last night having Spot outside gave her some extra bravery. I also kept my bedroom door closed all night after Spot was out.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Home

Lab experiments

Today boss stand-in worked with us on how to configure the lab. There's enough room for two people, but two single-person spaces would be better. Boss doesn't get this. She hasn't figured out how very little she gets accomplished because of all the interruptions.

The clueless wonder from TV From Hell keeps trying to help, but all he does is irritate me. It's not his circus. I'm not his monkey, nor is he mine.

Put TVFH aside and hooked up James Bond. most of the testing had been completed before TVFH, all that remained were some ones which required network equipment/connections we did not have, but have now. And there is still one bug which I can't test because a new bug blocks it. Can't test the problem where casting from a phone to James doesn't replace the screensaver graphic because casting doesn't work at all on this new build. Also filed two bugs about stupid changes to keyboard mappings.

No more TVFH testing. Yay!

Lunch was going to just be beef & grains, but the MK people finally figured out where to put the free meal-like objects, so I grabbed a small salad first. Kind of had to because someone was hogging the microwave to get her coffee exactly the right temperature. One of the down sides of sharing a building.

Strawberries for dessert, M&Ms for a snack.

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Lots of kudos on FB about Worldcon. For me it was better than Helsinki, and maybe also London. Not as good as Denver, maybe equal to Reno.

The good:
Many hard to get guests of honor,  and attendees who easily could have been guests of honor.
Huge dealers room with more than just books. Much, much more
Lots of varied art forms in the art show
Callahan's Place with some fine, fitting entertainment
Many snack bars with reasonable (for a convention center) prices
More kinds of panels than most cons
Wide open spaces
A masquerade with many and varied costumes and an MC who made the many technical difficulties an adventure
A really cool symbol of the con

The not so good:
Insanely small room assigned for writers to give readings
Almost every panel was so full that we learned to be at the doors 5 minutes before the previous panel ended
Way too many people on scooters who didn't need them, and didn't know how to drive them
No signage at all the first day, and small, hard to read agendas after that. Each room had an individual electronic reader board, the con should have spent the $$ to have them display the room agenda instead of ads
Filk was in another building, and they never put out a program
Parties were in a hotel half a mile away
GoH interviews were all the way at the other end of the convention center from the panels - a 10-15 minute walk
Lots of technical difficulties during the Grand Ballroom events
Not enough seating in Callahan's Place
Ugly art show pegboards, and no signage. No way to find a particular artist's work. Not enough staff to check out artists after the show
I lost control of the panel I was moderating.

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Home, lots of traffic even leaving after 6.

Fedex message said a package was at the side door, but it was actually at one of the front doors. When I opened the door, Spot blew right through the screen and outside. He will be staying outside all night. Spook is totally down with that. She has been playing with toys in the livingroom which Spot had been guarding.

Watched the 49ers blow a 3-point lead with 1:45 left to go. They should have gone for it on 4th and 1. Just to eat more time, and maybe go into OT. Thank goodness Tivo has three levels of FF. Also flipped the switch to turn off the center speaker, which was a mixed blessing because the refs were on that as well as the common taters. Usually the refs are on the L&R speakers.

Dinner was scrambled eggs with bologna, American and string cheeses on rye. Ice cream for dessert.

Plans for tomorrow:
Maybe let Spot back in
Maybe
Work
There's supposed to be a STB from Europe, need to have NP show me where it is hidden. But also was expecting new firmware which hasn't happened yet.
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