Health
Not much going on health wise. A disadvantage of not working is the loss of the ease of weighing myself. Then again, maybe it's not worth me worrying about.
I had another two day migraine (after sleeping for 15 hours). I took an Ubrelvy for the first time and it didn't do anything. To be fair, this wasn't a particularly bad migraine. Mostly sound sensitivity and brain fog.
It's only been a few weeks on the splitting of the Quilipta, so I won't chalk up any increase or decrease in migraines to that yet.
I had my dental crown this morning. It went fine until I learned that my dental insurance was canceled. It wasn't great insurance to begin with but now this crown is going to cost me over $1,000.
I saw my psych NP as well and we're going to go without any med changes. With the whole job thing my mood is down and it's not a good time to assess if my mood gets worse because of current circumstances or from a med dose being lowered. We'll talk about it again in three months.
Finances
So I'm still not at work (more on that in the Work section). I have about $4,000 in the bank that I can pull from and I also have my 401k. The 401k is just my portion as I wasn't fully vested yet, but that's still $6,000 before taxes. Figure at least $3,000.
I got my 'last' check. I can tell they were serious about it being my last check as they took out no money for benefits. Only the 401k deductions (which they had to invest into that as I HAD worked the hours and they owed me the money).
The one thing they haven't done yet is try to take the $3,000 sign on bonus back yet. That's the thing probably giving me the most hope that they intend to bring me back. BUT, if they aren't bringing me back then they WILL eventually want that money back. I even checked the offer letter and it clearly states that if I quit before the first year is complete, I owe the money back.
But, as for now my finances are fine. I have another 'pay day' tomorrow and we'll see how they are after that.
Family/Friends
The day I posted my last Update, August 5th, I learned that R's trip up north was delayed. As I was planning on a trip to A's down in Texas and knew that that weekend would have worked, I called up A and found out that he was still open to me coming down. So, I packed up after lunch and hit the road at like 3 PM.
It was a good trip. Very relaxing drive down, nothing special while there but a good visit with A, J, and the kids, and a very relaxing drive back up. It really helped me get my head on straight with the whole Job issue.
That being said, R is now up north on his trip and will be for another week yet. That means I'm taking care of Mom on my own. We'll chalk that up to a good thing for being off work as Mom is feeling under the weather. I'm keeping my eye on her and making sure she doesn't push herself.
Work
In my post about quitting, I left off with writing a 2nd email and then texting my former supervisor M. I hadn't heard anything back by that Monday so I texted her again for an update. As I learned later, I probably texted her right about the time she was being escorted from the building. It seems she not only had really given her notice about quitting, she had been let go early. I don't have all the story on that so I won't presume anything more than she told me (which is that they 'gave' her an early resignation).
That left me with no in. I only had the HR Director, L, to talk to about coming back and I'm fairly sure she's the one that I quit to. Knowing that I'd been ignored by everyone except for my former supervisor (who I later learned had already put her notice in when she said she'd speak on my behalf), I figured I'd corner L into responding. I wrote an email with two parts. The main part was requesting my payroll statement. I'd been sent a letter in the mail stating how I could find that information online but there were so many typos that if I followed the instructions exactly, they'd never work.
For example, lets say the company I was working for was called Babylon. It's not, but lets pretend. Their main corporate website is babylonhealthcare.com. In the letter though they typed it out as www..babylonhealth.com and help@babylonhealth.com. The address with the two periods obviously doesn't work. Even if I correct that, it's not babylonhealth.com. It's babylonhealthCARE.com. The icing on top is that for help they offer up their help email... which is also wrong.
So, I write L saying that I'd like my payroll stub and then lay out that the letter she sent me isn't getting me to the right place (and that the app I've always used isn't working). As the HR Director she'd obligated to get me that information, so I took advantage of that fact and started the email out by 'apologizing' for not asking about it earlier. I 'apologized' as I'd written several people and was trying to come back and hadn't received any answer.
Now, there are several ways this can be going under the covers and they can each have a way to be played.
- They can have let me go and not want me back
- Ignore me as much as possible as they don't want to admit that they don't want me back because I was concerned regarding a patient safety issue. They also don't want to admit they let me quit after telling me we'd discuss my issues and instead simply writing me up for those issues.
- Be honestly incompetent and take my coming back up the chain (the CEO, into the corporate realm...) always looking for someone bigger to give them the official 'no'.
- They can have let me go and have no care one way or the other on me coming back
- They're incompetent and keep forgetting to discuss this and bring me back
- They're busy and it just keeps slipping through their fingers to get to a decision.
- They can want me back
- They're incompetent and can't figure out a way to have me come back and still look good.
- They're incompetent and just keep forgetting to pull the trigger to get me back.
It never rains but it pours. As I'm writing this I get a call from a recruiter for another Admissions nurse position. The call went well and she said I should hear from the hiring manager soon (I'd imagine to set up an interview, but that's all I should need!). Later that day I got an email from the contract company working with the prison... with a job offer. Now, if I got the contract job offer and nothing but the contract job offer I'd have emailed her back and started that process. But with the possibility of returning as an Admissions nurse at a full job with benefits... I'm going to give that a chance first. If it doesn't work out or the interview doesn't go well I can always try the contract company again. I'll let you know how it flies.
Entertainment
I've finally pushed myself back into series television. I'm watching Star Trek Strange New Worlds as the new episodes come out and I'm watching For All Mankind again. I finished up season 3 on FAM and am a couple episodes into season 4.
While I may watch occasional movies that I've purchased or are available on streaming, I won't buy any other movies until I'm working again. I did watch Chernobyl last night, the HBO Miniseries and OH MY GOD is that a good miniseries. It was my third time watching it and it still hits hard!
I also came across the BBC/Netflix miniseries from 2020; Dracula. It's a three part miniseries totaling all of 5 hours. I think it's WELL worth a watch. It hits most of the main beats from the normal Dracula legends but tells the story in a different way. It's still scary and horror, but it's got a lot of good solid comedy as well.
New Tech
No real new tech to talk about. I was chatting with some of my Transformer friends (they're all friends from other interests, but we all tend to geek out on Transformers), and one mentioned the 2015 game Transformers Devastation. I went to look at it on Steam and saw that it had been delisted. It wasn't available. It wasn't even available on X-Box or Playstation. While searching for more information about it, I came across a website that offered it up for free.
I was naturally suspicious, but it seemed like it was from a group that was posting a bunch of 'delisted' games. They weren't putting up hacked versions of games you could buy, just games that were no longer available. I know it's still not legal... but it's a hacking that I can support.
I won't go to much into the game, just enough to say that it's fun and it required me to pull out my X-Box Elite controller. I remember working SO hard to get that to work wirelessly and it did that pretty good... BUT it went to sleep to fast. I used it on games where the gameplay was evenly split between the mouse/keyboard and the gamepad. So when I'd pick up the controller to suddenly use that part, it'd be dead and take a moment to wake up.
I still respect that part of me, that part that wanted the 'best' experience... but you know what? Fuck it. I grabbed a USB C to USB C cable and just plugged the fucker in. It works fine.
Writing
Still stuck on writing. I have the intent to try later this afternoon but I've had that same intent MOST days. We'll see.
Michigan Football
This weekend COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK!
Sure, it's just week 0 and only a handful of games, but it's still back baby! B and I have already gone over our bets for the weekend since he can't make it over. The following week will be huge though as it will have Game day, a full slate of games, and a prime time Michigan game on NBC. YAY!
Transformers
So, how much am I into Transformers? I have so many and they're coming in so often that I have to check the spreadsheet I keep just to know what ones I get to show off here! Yes... I keep a spreadsheet of my Transformers.
Arcee - Deluxe class - Studio Series 86 - $17.39 (Ali Express after discounts)
After I got my springs late (technically only a day late) I got the pruchase price back in Ali Express credits. I'd planned on spending them on replacement springs, but since they came I went to the only other thing I've purchased on Ali Express... Transformers. Most of the Transformers there weren't good deals or were Transformers that I just wasn't interested in. Then I came across this Arcee. She's old enough that I haven't even seen her listed for sale over here. So... after all the promos and such, I got her for only $17. Not bad for a fairly desirable Deluxe Studio Series 86 from several years ago!
Skywarp - Voyager class - Studio Series 86 - $42.99 (Big Bad Toy Store)
Jazz- Deluxe class - Studio Series 86 - $25.99 (Big Bad Toy Store)
Wheeljack- Deluxe class - Studio Series 86 - $2.65 (Amazon)
Keyboard
It's certainly not worth it's own post, but I figured I'd update my thinking here. My spacebar is pissing me off more and more. The feel of it when typing, the look of it when it's just sitting there, and the sound of it whenever I hit it. It's all just bad. I said in the earlier post how there wasn't a solution that was perfect... well, I think I have one.
Before I went to a TKL keyboard, I didn't think that would work, but I wouldn't really want to go back to a full size keyboard again. Well... 75% keyboards, at least in the custom and gaming spaces, are very popular. So, why not try those?
I know I spoke last time about how I'd lose certain keys including Print Screen. We'll start there by saying that losing those keys is unacceptable. Just like losing media keys is unacceptable. BUT, my number pad fixed the whole media keys thing with the programable keys. Remember, I have a number pad like this:
Those keys along the top may not be labeled like it, but they're my media keys. Cu is Previous, Zn is Play/Pause, and Fe is Next. Al is backspace, but only because I couldn't think of anything else to put there.
The keys along the side are all programed to be either commas or periods as I honestly don't use them. I thought I'd occasionally use the comma key when typing four digit numbers like 1,000 but I always forget and never use them.
Well... if I have a 75% keyboard and lose, lets say, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause, and Home, I can not only program those keys to those functions, I can use the keycaps so that I'll more easily remember them.
Now, there aren't a lot of TMR keyboards, let alone having them hot swappable with mechanical switches and at a 75% layout. What I didn't realize is that even at a 'standard' 75% layout, the arrow and other keys to the side are NOT standardized in their layout.
For example:
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