Health
I've had a weird issue come up with my back. It's been hurting on and off since my 'Ronacation last November. It had been in the 'off' cycle for a couple months now and I was hoping that meant it was as good as before, but it's cropped up again. This time it's only really noticeable when I'm in bed. I'll go to sleep with it feeling fine, but wake up on my back with it throbbing. It hurts bad enough that it's actually difficult to turn back onto my side and try to go back to sleep. And then getting out of bed? Yeah, I have to basically 'turtle throw' myself off. Roll a bit to the left, then quickly to the right and hope the momentum takes me far enough to get my legs over the edge.
It aches for a few hours afterward, but it's not all that bad and fully goes away. I honestly don't have an explanation or even a guess. We'll just monitor and hope it goes away or improves.
Thankfully, no other health updates.
Finances
Computer info today.
On the old desktop, I got it ready for sale last weekend. I grabbed the crate up from the basement and took about 10 photos of it. I figured I'd sell it for what I thought before; $1,500. But before I went through the awkwardness of selling it to a stranger on Facebook Marketplace, Craig's List, or E-Bay, I offered it up to my friends on Facebook for $1,250. I put it up Saturday night. Sunday afternoon and a friend notified me that a friend of his was interested. I'd normally have said that it was fine at the full $1,500 but the friend also worked for the prison so he was a co-working friend of a friend. Trustworthiness in my book. I contacted this friend of a friend that night, talked to him, sold him on the value of the computer, and he agreed to buy it. The very next day he shows up and carts of my old Origin PC leaving behind $1,250!
I left the money out, just in case there was any problems or buyer's remorse but now a week later and I'm going to deposit the money this morning. Then, after it clears, I'll just put it on the credit card. That pays off the majority of the computer!
Then there's the new laptop. Last year I bought a 13 inch Macbook Pro for when I was pushed out of my cousins house for a week. The iPad was great and all, but I missed sitting in front of a computer and screen and had a couple days off coming. Naturally, four months later Apple announced their M1 chips and put it into the Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and the 13 inch Macbook Pro. Because Apple was so bad at cooling the Intel processors (and probably because they controlled every aspect of the processor, motherboard, computer, software...) the M1 chips were rated as WAY faster than the Intels they replaced.
Over the last seven months, I've watched numerous reviews of the M1 Macs and they all beat the Intels in just about every metric. Yeah, mine is a higher end speced system with 16 gigs of RAM and 512 Gigs of storage, but I paid more for that to 'future proof' the laptop. The M1 would futureproof it further, even if it had less ram and storage (lets face it, I'm not going to be pushing this Mac, so those stats should be fine). And the costs are reasonable.
I can get a Mac Mini for $699 with 256 Gigs of memory. I can get a Macbook Air with the same stats for $999. And I can get a 13 inch Macbook Pro for $1,299.
Apple has a good trade in program where you put in your serial number and they give you a fairly specific value. Right now my laptop would garner me $855 in trade in value. I figure that's not bad for a little less than a year. I lost about $200 in value and can 'upgrade' to this years edition along with the chip of the future for less than $200.
I should step in here and say that I actually use the Mac now and every day. It's connected to the Wifi and to my monitor, but it's rarely in direct use. In fact, it sits in a laptop stand behind the monitor. To access it, I use Chrome Remote Desktop. On the Mac, I have a iMessage window open then have the Chrome Remote Desktop window open on my Windows system just large enough to show the iMessage window. Yes... I'm using my laptop to view my text messages. Sue Me. BUT, I do also have it with the idea of possessing a portable computer. For instance, when I travel down to Texas later this year (hopefully soon!) I'll take it and be able to have a computer while in the motel.
I all but settled on the Macbook air. The biggest difference, so far as I could see, is the cooling. The Air has no active cooling (no fan) while the Pro has a fan. Again, I shouldn't be pushing the system enough to warrant the fan so that should be fine. I could have gone with the Mini, but I'd lose that portability. I was just about ready to pull the trigger when I watched a video and they recomended buying a refurb Mac. Evidently they're sold as 'new'. They can get an Apple Care warranty, have a 14 day return and carry the same parts and service warranty. Just a little sticker on the box that says 'refurb'.
So, my next step was to see what was available there. To be honest, it was a savings but only about $150. But I noticed toward the bottom, a 2020 13 inch Macbook Pro with the Intel i5, 16 gigs of ram, and 512 gigs of storage... just like mine... going for $1,500. Umm... I was under the impression that I'd bought my computer for $1,000. Maybe more with the warranty, but still. I had to back track and go to Best Buy and find my purchase. And yup... I paid $2,000 for my laptop with the warranty. And evidently its still going for that much. If I were to do this, I'd be trading a laptop currently worth around $1,300 (on ebay that's the going rate) for a computer worth $1,000. And I'd be paying around $400 (with the warranty) for the privilege.
I could do a side trade for the Mac Mini... not paying any extra.. but I'd lose the portability function. Great for home, useless for travel.
I guess the biggest take away of how much I'd be losing is if I purchased an 'equivalent' M1 system. M1 processor, 16 Gigs of RAM, 512 Gigs of storage, minus my trade in would be $1,209.88. Yeah, no. I'm good with a computer that I'm likely to be selling later this year.
Family/Friends
Not a lot on this front. Mom is good, still focusing on the paperwork surrounding her death. R is good, got a bonus from work that he no longer has to be on call. B is good. One thing that came up just last night is that evidently B is looking for a house. He was on Zillow looking at a very reasonable price range for what he and his wife make. Looking at a 4 bedroom house so all of his kids would have room. I'm happy for him, even if I still wish he'd drop his wife.
Work
You heard about the hour changes here. While things are still very tight for scheduling, we should have some help on the horizon. We're bringing in three new LPNs. It's been a LONG time since we've had a full staff of LPNs and that helps everybody. The RNs don't like stepping into the med room if they don't have to and if I have enough LPNs, they don't have to.
But then again, I'm making it a personal mission to get an LPN fired. One thing I took advantage of that first late night was to perform an audit of this nurse. Let's call her LPN A. We've suspected that LPN A has been presetting up meds as her med lines are very fast. Fast is good, but not if they go against policy. And not if when a nurse DOES follow policy they get the inmates upset because its taking so long.
So, anyway, I stepped into her med line and watched her. She was immediately nervous as she knows she doesn't do her job by policy. And boy she was deservedly nervous. First, she was passing meds without her mask on and without gloves on. Both are against policy. Yes, she had in fact pre set up some of her meds. No, she wasn't having the medication administration record available to look through or mark down when she gave meds. No, she wasn't checking inmates IDs. No, she couldn't answer some basic questions like when to notify the prescribers for inmates refusing their meds.
I'm going to be generous. I'm going to write up her transgressions and use it as a learning tool. Then, sometime soon, I'll pop in again. And if (when) she shows she's still doing it wrong, she'll get the hammer thrown at her.
I'm not generally vindictive, but she's the one that asks for too many days off. She calls in sick on an almost predictable basis. When found in a lie regarding her sick call, she changes her tune. When told to get evidence, she does a phone visit with a doctor instead of seeing one. She's abusing our system... so fuck her.
Entertainment
Watched a good movie last night on Netflix. Fatherhood starring Kevin Hart. I think he's going to be a really good actor once he loses the stigma of comedian. Seriously, I cried a several points of this movie.
Last weekend I also purchased a blast from the past. The Transformers: The Movie. This isn't the Jerry Bruckheimer CGI spectacular... this is the classic from 1986 with Unicron and the death of Optimum Prime. There are so many childhood memories that just suck as an adult, but this isn't one of them. This was awesome and I love it.
And now, I'll finally get to put games I'm playing into the entertainment section. I finished off the main run of Control and it lived up to the hype. It's a really good game with an interesting story that's fleshed out in a lot of little ways. The combat is fun, if a little repetitive, and the powerups you can give yourself and your weapons don't seem to do too much. But you're not playing this for the combat, you're playing this for the story and the graphics.
It was fully and enjoyably playable with all the settings maxed out, so it was gorgeous.
I'm playing through the expansion packs which are... eh. The story is fine, but not nearly as expansive as the original game. I finished the core part of the 'Foundation' DLC, and had previously started the 'Alan Wake' DLC. And yes, you're reading that right. This game completely lives in the Alan Wake game world.
I think I'll set this aside and move on. I was enjoying Valhalla until it started to buckle under it's weight, so I think that will be up next.
That's it for now. See you all next week!
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