Black Cat Blog

Thoughts, Stories, and Ideas

  • Exhaustion

    I have hit the point of exhaustion where not even caffeine gives me a boost anymore. When I get home from work, I am going straight to bed where I hope to fall asleep and get as close to 6 hours as possible. Denisse and I have breakfast with mom at about 7:30. I plan on rolling out of bed at 7, taking my medicine, and then getting our ride to mom’s memory care facility squared away. I am looking forward to having a good breakfast, and spending time, with her.

    At my age and physical health, it is hard working 6-7 days a week but I kind of have to at the moment. It may only be temporary though. But temporary or not, it is still difficult. I am too tired to work on my home lab hobby at the moment. I was hoping to be far enough along that I could do a few things remotely but that will not happen. Sleep this evening will be far more important.

    I have lost interest in writing a book. I thought it would be fun but it turns out it is tedious. Well, maybe the approach I am taking is tedious. I haven’t been able to find dictation software for Linux so I’ve been stuck with actual writing and I find I prefer the dictation because it lets me get comfortable and pump out ideas from a stream of consciousness. I don’t know. Maybe the scope of the book has gotten out of hand and I am trying to appeal to too large an audience. I don’t really know. I know I am too tired to work on the book right now.

    I am too tired to think.

  • Another Rough Night

    I could say that the dreams were very intense last night. I mean so intense that I had night sweats. This seems to be happening more and more frequently. I awoke drenched in the middle of night. Why am I getting worse and not better!? I was positively clammy all over. I have to go in to work earlier today to cover for the supervisor because he will be in to overtime. I don’t mind doing a 10 hour shift because I need the money. I still don’t really want to go in but times being what they are …

    On the positive side of things, I did manage to write close to 800 words of my book last night. I don’t know whether or not I am pleased with the result, but the entire point is to put words to paper and I achieved that. If I can write or research some more today, I would feel like I accomplished something. I just wish I didn’t feel so down in the dumps and worthless despite getting something accomplished. I know this is the depressed mind talking and not reality.

    Despite having a rough night dream-wise, I do seem to be rested and ready for the day. I bought a 2nd network card for my Dell OptiPlex so that I can press it into service on a Proxmox VE virtualized OPNsense router. I want to really get my home lab up 100%. The Verizon-provided CR1000A router is a shitty one. I want some more features and more exciting stuff. This is all going to help tremendously with my book.

  • Scammers

    ,

    I have written posts on Linked In about signs that you are about to be scammed. I’ve written the same posts on Nextdoor. Well wouldn’t you know it? Today I got scammed and it hurt badly. I lost $50 via Apple Pay on a moving scam. Here is the entire story:

    I reached out to somebody on TrashNothing. This person is not the scammer. Anyhow, she was offering a king bedroom set in beautiful condition. I was planning on getting it for my fiancée. In a sweet way she complained about me taking up so much space in our queen. But I love her so much that I started looking. And sure enough this came up.

    Today one mover flaked out completely. So I tried reaching out to somebody else and they ended up taking my money. I’m not into victim blaming but this one was my fault. He wanted me to pay half up front via Apple Pay on a telephone number other than what he contacted me on. That should have been the red flag that ended it.

    Sadly, I was desperate to get this bedroom set for the absolute love of my life. Desperation and emotion clouded my better judgement and I fell hook, line, and sinker for it. Well, once bitten, twice shy. I will only deal in cash now and only when the job is completed.

    I went to ApplePay with a tone of contrition in the hopes of getting my $50 back. Once the money is sent, there’s no going back. I felt sick to my stomach when I realized that loss represents 4 hours of work. I get paid $17 an hour. 1 hour of work with tax deductions works out to be roughly $12.75 per hour.

    Scammers are parasites and predators. They seek out innocent and trusting targets and exploit them. Scammers should face consequences similar to sex offenders. They should be required to register on a database and I do not say this lightly because I am generally anti-government but this is where the government and I agree. Don’t hurt your fellow class members. Don’t exploit the vulnerable, and furthermore, never exploit children.

  • Some Interesting Things

    I am excited and a bit nervous about the new bedroom set that I am about to get today. Well, it’s new to me at any rate but it is in good condition and looks nice. I am nervous about the mess it is going to create because I won’t be able to set it up right away. Things will be cramped for a short period while I try to sell what I have now which is a queen-sized bed and two end tables. I really want the larger bed because I am a bigger guy and I am practically forcing Denisse to the bare end of the bed.

    I am super motivated today to clean stuff up. I credit Denisse and I wanting a larger bedroom set. I found a beautiful one available for free from TrashNothing. TrashNothing is one of those truly awesome sites for finding freebies and giving away stuff that you no longer want. I love it. I am going through my electronics and wholy shit do I have a lot. I have so many charging cords that it is sick. I guess I might have had the tendency to hoarde so I am nipping this in the bud right now! I don’t want to be a hoarder at all.

    But I am super motivated on my own to clean up and that’s a good thing. The spring cleaning is necessary and I am actually feeling better about doing it. I feel like my cabinets will be nicely organized and that I will ultimately benefit. This project is actually lifting my spirits. I’ve really got to stop hoarding electronics. I seem to have that tendency because I think I’ll need them one day and it turns out that I never do.

  • A Rocky Start Today

    Today got off to a rocky start. I am very angry with DART, the Delaware Transit Corporation. They’re the people that provide busing and 2 buses were cancelled. So I ended up having to Uber into work and there goes 25% of today’s earnings. I am beyond angry but this is what happens when budget cuts strike and/or bus drivers call out of work: people get adversely impacted. I do not know how I am going to get ahead. I am literally drowning.

    In other news, I have my orientation with VGM so that I can begin driving for them on the Uber platform. Hopefully it will make financial sense. I’ll have to try it and see but I have strong doubts as it seems every other thing I try turns out not to be feasible.

    I did get a head start on building out my virtualization server. At long last, I am actually doing this! I am enjoying the challenges very much.