Being a Parent

For two weeks, I was a part-time parent, looking after two teenagers.  It was probably easier than being a parent; the hardest part was just making myself available to them whenever they needed a ride or food.  However, they were fairly independent, and could more or less take care of themselves.  I would've wished we hung out more, but I understood that they might not have wanted to, and that was cool.  I could do my own stuff too.

Snow!

Around that time, in February, it snowed twice.  Twice!  That was probably more snow days than I ever had when I was in school.  I got to work from home, so it was very nice.  Unfortunately, this was probably the first time it snowed, when I didn't take advantage of it and build something with it.  But, it was fun to walk around in and to drive in (though I may be in the minority with that opinion).  Also, because of the snow, on a Friday, I left work to go home early, but due to the traffic, was stranded at Yamasushi, one of my favorite restaurants.  There, I opened my laptop, and worked until I ran out of battery, and chatted with the waitress a bit.

Technical DIfficulties

During this time, I also migrated my website over to a new machine, which I had to swap out the hard drive for, because the old one died, which started clicking shortly before - a sign of death I should've paid attention to.  Note to self: next time a hard drive starts to click, turn off the machine until I can put a replacement in, and transfer the data over.  That would've saved some trouble.

I use a remote desktop program called NoMachine NX, which allows me to see the desktop of a computer I have connected via wifi.  It is quite responsive and reliable.  Unfortunately, it turns out that I was not a privileged user when accessing the computer that way, which means I was restricted in what I could do.  Here are some links I followed to resolve this issue (http://askubuntu.com/questions/47942/when-machine-is-headless-user-is-no-longer-privileged/54053#54053, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/+bug/797960, http://askubuntu.com/questions/47942/when-machine-is-headless-user-is-no-longer-privileged, http://blog.mediafederation.com/andy-hawkins/ubuntu-headless-vnc-vesa-800x600-fix/, http://askubuntu.com/questions/453109/ubuntu-14-04-add-fake-display-when-no-monitor-is-plugged-in)

In addition, I had wanted to transfer my website off of MySQL to PostgreSQL, but it turned out to be a larger headache than it was worth.  So, I mission aborted.

Finances and Taxes

I ended up owing the government taxes...  My effective tax rate ended up being a little more than 18% if using my gross income, or almost 21% if using my taxable income.  I guess at least I know how much I'm paying in taxes (of course, this is the Federal income tax; I'm probably paying a lot more in sales tax and property taxes too).

The Time I Could Have Ended Up in a Dumpster

One day, Frank and I had lunch together.  Afterwards, we wandered around a bit in the mall.  Then, we split.  As I was leaving the mall, I was greeted by a tall, voluptuous lady, sitting on a bench outside.  I greeted her in response.  Then, she asked me for a ride back home.  She said she was waiting for a taxi for half an hour, and she lived close by, so I agreed to it, thinking that I'm a man, she's a woman, so she has more reason to be scared of me than I of her.  If something does happen to me, then I only have myself to blame for being so weak.  At any rate, I sent her back to the hotel she was staying at, and that was the end of that.  Still, I could've ended up in a dumpster.  Scary thought.  

Cancelling the HOA AT&T Contract

More recently, I have been a part of the activity going on in our neighborhood to get the homeowners to protest the AT&T contract we have been forced to pay on a monthly basis.  HOAs have a lot of power in Texas, and unfortunately, that means that homeowners usually have to do whatever the HOA tells them to do.  For almost two years, I have been paying for internet and cable at a higher rate than what I deem necessary.  Unfortunately, for me, as for many others, it seems, any protests for more choice have fallen on deaf ears.  It wasn't until a fellow homeowner sent everyone an email about it that we started banding together, and things started happening.  It was announced at the HOA annual meeting (also the first one I ever attended), that the contract had been terminated.

Transience

Things change.  One of the waitresses in Yamasushi got moved to the new location, and another is moving back to Taiwan.  When things change, things are not the same (obviously).  Unfortunately, the old no longer exist, and can never be experienced again, except through memory, which is sad for people who really liked the old.  Of course, that doesn't mean the new is any less likable, but the old simply cannot be experienced anymore.