Okay...Docked the old SSD (thank god for the full tower coming with it built in) and didn't even need to install the files to the drive. Windows 10 will take some getting used to, and that's saying it lightly. It implements a lot of features that I have honestly taken a less ergonomic step towards handling, so I'll see if this helps. Windows 10 license will come in tomorrow, so it can wait in the meantime.
Before I called it a night, I ended up getting the drivers from the old boot drive to activate my wifi router properly. Then installed GE Experience so I can see about getting my drivers installed. I'll put money down for Capture One later today. This will be a whole new world of things to learn! I'm so used to Photoshop that even Lightroom seemed a bit tricky for me, but I'd rather use something that emphasizes maximizing images and Capture One's noise software is supposed to be among the best out there. Not entirely looking forward to all the work that's going to be involved but at least for now my boot disk is 1TB of memory. I'll still want to switch it out with a true SSD later on and memory's always getting cheaper, so I'll have to add that to my "investment goals" later this year.
I'm tempted to get a pirated version of CS6 just to do manual work regardless though. For comfort sake, you know? I should feel bad about even considering it, but Adobe's tech support is terrible anyway and I'm just too used to understanding its functions, so I want to think of it as a crutch of sorts.
So yeah, that was last night. That, and a few episodes of Clarence (because it's a really fun and surprisingly progressive show, that's why).
TelevisionNearly a year and Mr. Robot is still so god damned relevant despite its roots in a field that is constantly being developed in terms of knowledge and politics. The references to Comey every other episode is so oddly now, as are the concepts of a two-faced Chinese government/hacker collective, and all-black anarchists assaulting officials. What things that didn't hold the same grip was because of their relevance with an Obama administration and I can't help but see that next season is going to go apeshit over Anjit Prat and the Net Neutrality debate and Trump because Trump.
What is most amazing is all I'm doing is talking about the background noise. The meat and bones of Season 2 is not so much of a high-stakes thriller as much as a character study of a man questioning his madness and it's still amazing. I'm glad we waited on watching this for when we had time to really digest what we were watching, and I can't believe we managed to hold off for so long, but getting to watch the show so long after its release lets me appreciate how much they thought ahead of some of these things. God help me, I hope season 3 will keep this up. I'm already curious to see their Alex Jones proxy becoming either part of the administration or as some backhanded remark on Jones' decisions.
Saturday!We were told the weather was going to be terrible on Sunday, so we decided to make a trip out of Saturday with some hiking while the weather was good; it was pristine, by the way; mid-70's from the relentless storms.
Along the way, we stopped at one of those gardening/hardware/farm stores to find hay. Yes, believe it or not, hay is not a common thing to find here for sale. I mean, short of going to a farm and asking personally. We ended up getting a twenty pound bag of chopped hay and I found some bamboo poles for those bean poles. They had these adorable chicks they popped their heads out to peep out and eat some feed out of their cages. I wanted to pat one on the head, even at the threat of salmonella.
Further East, we took a trip to Groton state park, which we did come by during off season. The roads are paved, and RVs reside the park. Our mission: to take a 3 mile loop around a pond. As we left the car and were greeted with gnats, I took a photo of a black and white butterfly that sunbathed on the pavement, not far away baked a dragonfly with a similar agenda.
Our trail cut short after a view of the boat loading area and then it was off to a trail! that was soaked in like a moat. After her new shoes were soaked in twice from too many parts of the trail that lacked dry spots and stepping stones, we decided to head back to the entrance. What few fellow hikers we saw either wore sandals or bore the squeaks of soggy footwear wringing out with each step.
So we instead went to an easier trail called Owl's head. Short trip up, overlook at the top. Sure enough... it was wet. The paths bore the saturation of several days of storms, now "dry" of running water but saturated. As we wended through the dry plots, I took photos of moss dripping still, and fought cowflies and mosquitoes hiding among the gnats that lapped up our sweat. Not long after though, we see the light in the canopy of trees and are treated to an observation tower and a glorious view.
A constant breeze wicked our faces, and flies fought the wind; life was rampant. A couple and their baby and a dog also met us around the same time and Michelle took their photo for them. But like all trips ending, we went back down... and soon found ourselves back to the parking lot. It was remarkably short, but we already felt it in our legs. Just more proof: we need to get out more.
I didn't think we got enough movement, so we drove from there, explored. We found this infamous 24 hour diner that's built into a truck stop; like one of the old school truck stops that offers showers for truckers and everything. You don't normally find that around my overdeveloped parts of the New England area. This station is more or less an oasis in a very rural area.
We finished with a trip to a minimall. I did not do the flea market dance, sadly. Wandered through a supermarket where I realized how much I missed this one roast beef sandwich we get in New York and I want to remake my own version of it. Then we walked into TJ Maxx where we compared bedsheets (is this what being old is about?), and then to PetSmart, where I realized that reef fish are getting better in selection these days and that the designer betta breeds I'd have to order overseas from Thailand are coming over. I told Michelle that I would like to get back into aquaria, but I know that we can't do that yet; plus, if we did, then I'd want to go all out on it so would want a nice fifty gallon minimum to build a landscape of planted bliss in that case.
Also, we saw ferrets; they were the only rodent (okay, fine, non-cat nor dog) I ever saw Michelle react positively to as they immediately lit up when we acknowledged them and they started to approach us as though they wanted to climb all over us like the little cuteys they were.
Then she saw the pile of poo they made in a corner. I told her that that means they can be litter trained, but I think it ruined the moment for her. Regardless, the walking helped round out the rest of the day for us. Got home, made measurements of the base frame again for the screen door, before we finished out Mr. Robot and called it a night.
SundayWoke up late. Weather is still pristine. Later on, we would realize that the rain we were scheduled to be hit by passed us completely. Good; gardening!
GardenMichelle came out and helped me out this time. I used three of the six poles and tied the lines to the new crops. Then weeding. Michelle opened the hay packet and spread it around. One of the bean sprouts wilted and I found a tiny caterpillar-like thing that I am not sure if it's a worm of some kind of other crawling insect. One of the stems I found them on does include a wilting bean plant whose stem is lopsided, so I'm tempted to think it's a cutworm of some type. Aside from that, the plants seem to be holding up decently enough.
I transplanted three tomato plants as well. The ones inside seemed to have grown much better than the current batch there. I feel like plants grown inside are not adapting well to the outside, much to my annoyance.
DIYTrip to the hardware store, got spline, and then we debated over finding a proper item to lock the bug screen into the door. I couldn't help but feel frustrated at how haphazard some of these installations are and asked Michelle:
"Do you ever feel like everything the people here have worked on is..." I want to say a certain blue term, but as though she read my mind, Michelle finishes my sentence.
"-half assed! Everything here feels so half-assed."
I blink, surprised and relieved she said it for me. How the hell did I manage to find someone like her?
But it's true, this apartment is stocked with relatively decent things, but installed incorrectly. The fridge has a rail that is cracking. The patio door has damage that prevents it from closing correctly. The toilet only had half its gaskets installed. Some things I feel like were added as an afterthought, like the sink that has rubber pipes clamped in to make it easier to extract things that fall in there, but it's ridiculous sometimes. I told Michelle the same thing that I told
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rocket_to_neptune--that I'm willing to do these repairs short of replacing the water heater--and she agrees and admits that if it ever does reach that point, then she's going to talk to the Board here about it.
Anyway, Home Depot got us a more robust spline and I'll work on that once we get the chance, but for now, I managed to pry out the bad frame with a screwdriver and then a butter knife. A lot of it was jabbing and twisting to pull it out, which made me wonder who originally installed this frame. Then I got the dremel out and a cutting wheel and sized it out, marked with a pencil and grind baby grind!
Then I installed this generic Home Depot replacement with Gorilla Glue. I'm inclined to use wood screws too to reinforce but we don't have any. Press it in, slide the screen door into it, and smile with satisfaction as the door snaps into place. That provided enough pressure to make sure the chemical glue reacts properly, and actually offers a better seal than the original frame since I could overlap this into some gaps that old frame could not. As a result, there's an inch of space that is not accommodated for on the bottom, but Michelle said I could add a bottom inch and people won't notice anyway.
This helped me to realize as well that the screen door has a gap between the patio door that is large enough to make me understand that a spider really could sneak in despite the fact. Next time we go to the hardware store, we'll see about getting a sweep or something we can DIY. It's a quarter inch gap at most, so it'll keep larger bugs and mosquitoes out regardless, guaranteed. In the meantime, while we find a sweep we should also find a new handle: the current one doesn't work well for this more pressure-intensive seal.
Fried rice for dinner. It made me realize how much I missed a good chahan. Borrowed some techniques from the pad thai, but most of the flavor came from that chinese roast peanut pepper oil. If it's 80 percent MSG, I would not be surprised because it's such an awesome umami bomb.
WorkJust realized how messy asking for time off on a popular four day weekend was going to be, especially when I made it five to accommodate travel. I just spent most of my work day trying to figure out finding someone to watch my account while I'm out. There's a chance Michelle might need to drive me to work after we drop off all our bags.
Four days until vacation.
Reminder as well: we need to figure out our gear specs tonight between dinner. Seeing ranch pasta salad mixes gave me some ideas for tonight, but also still need to buy Capture One and get all my programs properly installed. No rest for the... Whatever the hell I'm supposed to be.
Four days...
