Category: life

In which these are not the giraffes you’re looking for

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I have sung the praises of Potawatomi Zoo more than once in this space; our local zoo is genuinely a highlight of northern Indiana and we’ve been members for quite some time. They’ve recently acquired four new giraffes and have spent a lot of money extensively renovating a large swath of the zoo to construct a proper habitat for them. The zoo is typically closed during the winter, but once a month or so they have Zoo Days anyway, where they open for a few hours, rain or shine, and well, you see whatever you might be able to see. However, today was the first day that seeing the giraffes was possible, and the high today was a rather unseasonable 68 degrees.

We were going to the zoo.

Unfortunately, so was everyone else in South Bend. When we got to the zoo the line to get in was a block long, and the parking lot is a mess under the absolute best of circumstances, and “perfect Spring day featuring the public’s first real chance to see four hotly-anticipated new animals” is, uh, not the best of circumstances. So we did not go to the zoo today. And as soon as we decided we weren’t waiting in the line, much less whatever horror we might have encountered inside the zoo (they were limiting access to the animals, letting in a limited number of people for 10-minute blocks, so who knows how many a “limited number” is) we immediately drove past two perfect parking spaces.

We came home, opened all the windows, and I put shorts on.

There is a 60% chance of snow on Monday. Because Indiana.

If you want to feel like a celebrity for a little while, post the words “looking for an artist” on Twitter. Because holy shit are there a lot of people out there who very clearly have programmed a bot to reply instantly to any use of that sequence of words. And the funny thing is that I can tell from referrals how many people clicked back to the article, where I clearly describe what I’m looking for, and the vast majority of the 43 people who responded to that tweet or however many more who immediately DMed me did not (possibly because they were not human) click through the link on the Tweet to see what I was looking for.

Hilariously, however, I got a recommendation in comments almost immediately, and while I haven’t contacted the artist yet her style is exactly what I had in mind, so I think I’ve got somebody. I’ll take some time tomorrow or later today to go through all the comments I got and then delete the original Tweet just to do my diligence, but … man, asking the Internet for something worked this time.

In which I’m almost there

On By Luther M. SilerIn life, video gamesLeave a comment

I have been an utter wreck for the last few days. Monday was spent in a nameless bad mood, to the point where I actually took a brain pill in the middle of the day, which is something that I generally don’t do; I almost always use the emergency pills for nights when I can’t shut my brain off and need to sleep. I was out of work yesterday and today, yesterday with something vile and digestive, with shooting pains in my stomach, and today with a massive headache. I’m out of sick days for the year, so the next three months are gonna be interesting. I’ve gotten roughly an extra day and a half worth of sleep in the last 48 hours and feel fine right now, so I’m going in tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.

(I’ve missed a ton of work in 2022. This is the first two days I’ve had to take off because something was wrong with me, however.)

Anyway, Elden Ring comes out on Friday, and while I don’t know it’ll help my mental health any it’ll certainly fill the hours. Next week will be that horror of horrors, a five-day work week, something that sounds nearly insurmountable the way the last two months have gone. The following week ends the quarter and features a teacher record day, and then the two weeks following are full weeks, but then we have Spring Break. I want to try to make it that far without missing any days, or at least without missing any days under circumstances I can control.

Meanwhile, the world is slowly catching on fire again, in any number of ways and any number of places, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about any of it, so I might as well burn my hours on video games. I said on Twitter earlier today that I can’t remember the last time I was looking forward to anything as much as I was looking forward to getting home from work on Friday and getting to play this game, and that remains true; the closest I can think of is Avengers: Endgame, and while we don’t all know how that ended up, enough of you do that you’ll understand why I don’t care to repeat the experience.

Tomorrow, though, I’m gonna teach somebody math for a while. I’m going to get through tomorrow, and I’m going to get through Friday. One day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time; three months from now, I may be done teaching. We’ll see what happens. One way or another, the time is going to pass.

(You really really ought to follow me on YouTube. Even if you’re not a video game person, my current project, What Remains of Edith Finch, has been … really interesting so far in a way that sidesteps a lot of what people who don’t play video games don’t like about them. If that makes any sense. Anyway, go subscribe.)

But wait, it’s not …

On By Luther M. SilerIn life2 Comments

In case anyone was wondering, it is 100% possible to Sunday on a Monday, since I am doing it right at this exact second.

Meanwhile, World War III may be starting (again), and I’m getting really fucking tired of living through history.

My sweet home

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We ventured up to the northern Chicago suburbs today, the part of Illinois I used to call “north Northytown” back when I actually lived in the city, to celebrate Christmas with my brother’s family. The fact that it took us nearly two months to do so should indicate just how many times we’ve had to reschedule this visit. We’re home now, but that means I spent maybe five and a half hours driving for what was probably about a five and a half hour visit, so .. I’mma go collapse into bed now.

Probably going to review Peacemaker: Season One tomorrow, but if I don’t, be it known that you should watch it.

Oh, great, this again

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We have a nasty little motherfucker of a storm coming, aimed, as near as I can tell, directly at my house. It’s been 50 degrees all day today, so a lot of the snow has melted (remember, we got a foot of snow a couple of weeks ago, and most of it was still around) and it’s supposed to start raining pretty much any time now. Then the temperature is going to start dropping, so that by the time school starts it’s going to be below freezing, and all that water is going to start turning to ice, along with whatever “wintry mix” has been dropped on us up until then. Estimates for how much snow we’re going to get tomorrow have ranged from five inches to over a foot; I think they’ve mostly settled in the 6-9″ range, but all day tomorrow is going to be ugly as hell.

Oh, and 30 mph winds through basically all of this. So all sorts of shit will be falling out of the sky and it will be falling sideways.

The question, of course, is this: tomorrow afternoon is going to be a clusterfuck. Tomorrow morning, on the other hand, might involve slippery roads but ought to be otherwise manageable. We are currently under a wind advisory, a flood watch, and a winter storm warning, all at the same time. Do we think the schools possess the necessary ability to think ahead required to cancel school in the morning, before things get bad? Or are we just going to have kids stranded at school tomorrow afternoon in the middle of a major blizzard? Stay tuned.

In other news, sometime in the next couple of days, I’m getting another Afghan student. Another girl, which I’m going to assume is good, because it means Fatima might have someone she can talk to, assuming the two of them share a common language. From what I’m told the new girl doesn’t speak any English either. I’m trying to treat this as a good thing; hopefully the two of them will get along well enough (and be able to talk to each other) that they might be able to help each other learn English, because thus far most of what I’ve been trying to do has fared … poorly.

Let’s cross our fingers.

Super Social Saturday

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I had family in town today— my favorite aunt, along with her oldest son and his wife were in town from Michigan and California, respectively, and they went and picked my dad up and came over here for the day. It was a lot of fun but I am well and truly worn out from just being a human for several hours. I’m trying to beat Dandara just so I can put it to bed and figure out what I’m doing with the YouTube channel (wanna be subscriber #115? Sure you do!) in the days between this final episode going live on Monday and Elden Ring coming out on the25th, and right now I’m kinda clueless. I do know that my hands hurt because my current strategy for this utter bullshit final boss involves lots of button-mashing.

This is all a lengthy way of saying this is going to be all the blogging I have brain for today. Any cells I have left in another hour or so will be devoted to finding a couple more jobs to apply to. One of the ones I sent in an application for today has a salary range of $125-185,000, so I am denying myself nothing; if I think I’m even vaguely interested in the job, I’m applying. Not like I have anything to lose.

(There is an interesting phenomenon going on here, where I’m looking at jobs with high salaries and immediately feeling like I can’t possibly be qualified for them, and fuck that. I’ve met businesspeople. They’re people. I can be people too. Fuck it. I want a six-figure job. Give me one. I’m not letting my own bullshit hold me back here.)

Free day off!

On By Luther M. SilerIn life, WorkLeave a comment

I was supposed to have jury duty today, and as of last night it hadn’t cancelled, so I was hoping that this would actually be the time that I get to serve on a jury– and yes, I mean get to, because I’ve never done it before and I wouldn’t mind the experience. I got the notification that my service was cancelled as I was getting into the car to head to the courtroom– which, on one hand, yay, because I’d already gotten the day off and it wasn’t like I was going back in, and on the other hand boo, because I’d gotten the day off so I could go do my Civic Duty as an American and that clearly wasn’t happening.

It’s not like there’s any chance I’m ever going to be allowed on a jury in the first place, unless the prosecutor isn’t paying attention and just assumes that since I’m a fat bald white guy with a beard I’m going to assume that whoever they put in front of me is guilty. I was kinda looking forward to declaring that all cops were bastards in my jury questionnaire. Alas, ’tis not to be, at least not this time.

So I came back inside and started job-hunting. Someone asked yesterday what sorts of jobs I was looking for. There’s a spreadsheet, because of course there is:

The blacked-out one is my kid’s school; they don’t actually have any openings right now but I sent in an application anyway just in case somebody resigns anytime soon. I’m not holding my breath over that one, but it’s pretty much the only way I’m in a classroom next year, since it’s a private school, which I’m pretty sure means that HB 1134 can’t touch it. If I find out otherwise I will probably mark them off the list. Nearly all of the rest of them are remote.

The interesting thing: I’ve been complaining about the quality of the jobs that the various search sites have been returning, but it turns out that once you start telling them what you’re applying for they start figuring out how to dial you in. I’m still getting the occasional blip where I search for education-related jobs in my area that pay $65K or more and get something in Fiji that pays $2 an hour to masturbate musk oxen, but … well, it’s getting better.

Anybody have any contacts at Edmentum, by any chance?

Oh good this again

On By Luther M. SilerIn life2 Comments

I’ve been in this crabby, sluggish mood all day, and the steak and mashed potatoes my wife just made for dinner has helped with the crabby a little but but definitely has not helped with the sluggishness. I’ve spent most of the day reading, which is generally good, and I’m enjoying the book I’m reading, but … just … blech.

It’s Sunday, if it wasn’t perfectly clear.

In addition to reading, I’ve dedicated some time to job applications. I’ve done … maybe a dozen since the snow days started? I’m mostly doing moonshot type of jobs right now, putting ludicrously high amounts of money as my expected salary just to see if I get it, that sort of thing. I also started a trick today with several of the applications: most of these places will reject you before a human being ever looks at your resume if their software doesn’t find the keywords it’s looking for, so I’ve been taking the entire job description, condensing it to one-point text, turning it white, and sticking it at the end of my resume. The algorithm will find whatever words it’s looking for, but if the resume is printed it won’t be there for humans to see. We’ll see if I feel like it made any difference; if I get more emails from people for this round that might have had something to do with it.

(Does anybody out there do hiring? How important are cover letters? How much individual legwork should I be putting into each of these applications?)

Anyway, I’m going to put together tomorrow’s assignments for my kids– at this point I’m pretty sure there’s going to be school tomorrow– and then I’m going to go finish that book. No recording today, I think. How was y’all’s weekends?