Weekender #31

• Birb watch: Still no sign of Handsome myna, but I did spot 3 roosters cruising along the road we live on as I left for work one morning. I’m not sure where they came from or where they went. Haven’t seen them since.

• Hawaii broke past 1000 active COVID-19 cases statewide earlier this week, which isn’t something I’m happy to see. Today’s count was 1678, with no signs of slowing. With the Labor Day weekend coming around, I’m not sure things will slow anytime soon. Hopefully, Hawaii residents will wise up and take precautions and decide to not gather together.

• Understanding how to troubleshoot technology issues has been a large part of my career. I don’t really care for problems that “fix themselves”, tending to want to understand the root of an issue so that I can actually fix it for good. I tend to live by the quote “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” (It’s from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I like to think of it as Mr. Spock quoting Sherlock Holmes from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country). This quote saved my sanity again this week while dealing with a perplexing tech issue that stole two nights of sleep from me. I won’t go into details about the issue, but I will say that being able to eliminate as many variables as possible when troubleshooting an issue is extremely helpful. Also, being able to take a system out of the environment that it’s having trouble in, is also invaluable when trying to get to the bottom of an issue. Thanks to my teammates for lending me their eyes and experience to solve this issue. Without their help, I may still be floundering in despair. I am thankful to work with them.

• That said, yes, it was an extremely stressful week at work! To top all of this off: I know school’s been in session for at least a month, because I caught a stomach bug on Friday and then spent most of my weekend in bed. Don’t worry… I’m feeling better today, just in time to start another week! Thank you Audra for taking care of me this and every week.

• Audra and I blasted through the entire 13 episodes of the anime series Wonder Egg Priority in about 2 weeks. The series follows high school student Ohto Ai, and the connections she makes with other girls who fight monsters to save girls in a dream-like world. I really enjoyed the way the characters bonded with each other and how each of their stories unfolded. The character designs, backgrounds and animated sequences were all top notch as well. The storylines touch on student shut-ins and suicides, the changes you go through during adolescence and how it makes you vulnerable, LGBTQ experiences, depression, learning how to love yourself, and how life goes on no matter what you decide. It also attempts to put a smart twist on the trope of anime magical girls (I feel like Madoka Magica was the first to do this). The ending of the series took some time to digest and decipher, but was extremely satisfying to me. Highly recommended.

• I wouldn’t have gotten through this week without Lorde’s latest album - Solar Power and AAAMYYY’s Annihilation.