Testing journal software on new centos 10 arm based VM running on the m2 mac. Very exciting.

Installing more tools, fixing up syncing from the m2 mac to the new web3 system, cleaning some junk up.

Need to move media share off the camera PC onto the mac and then figure out how to mirror it back instead of serving off the PC mirroring to the mac.

So multiple shitty days. I replaced the leaking valve cover easily enough, but broke something else. Based on the codes and some bullshit ideas from the mechanic I threw $300 worth of parts at it and it was still broken. Another ride on a tow truck to get it handled.

At the range, the Viridian optic on the P322 decided to not hold zero. Tapping the gun left or right moves the dot. It's got 100 rounds of 9mm and 150 rounds of 22 under it and it's broken. Guess I won't be carrying with those.

Then just a while later the SCS decides to crack. Wasn't dropped, hit or anything just set it down, reloaded a mag and picked it up and it was broken. Still seems to hold zero, but obviously needs to be replaced.

Mechanic unable to fix the van, but they did succeed in overfilling the oil and screwing up the tire pressures. I didn't ask them to do anything but solve the problem but they felt the need to do a full 'inspection' and find all the other stuff wrong they could hope to charge me for.

Got my HEMA mask and did the bending they show to adjust it to my head and it fits. With a skull cap I can get it on with the implant in place. It's not comfortable, but it works. I had one of the instructors hit me in the head a few times with my hand inside the mask above the implant and it didn't come anywhere close to touching.

Broke out the wiring diagram and tried to find the most likely breakage points in the harness to explain what I'm seeing. So far, no luck. The van is now down at "I Fix Fords!" which is apparently the shop that other places send their Fords they can't fix.

I actually negotiated towing down there, the same price as renting a tow dolly without having to do that and go drag the van down there myself. A small win in this whole mess.

Dick called the other day and I didn't answer, and he called today and I did and now I'm driving tomorrow. I lost a lot of sleep last night thinking about quitting so the drives don't get in the way of other things I want to do, but I haven't done that yet. Quit that is. Think and worry, I've done a lot of that.

The second mechanic figured it out, one of the bolts from the original valve cover fell into the cams and got munched. The cams are held to the timing gears by friction and not a key/pin so the cam just spun on the gear and the engine is out of time.

He's going to put it back (a rather complex procedure) and then we see if there is any additional damage from the valves hitting the pistons. We both don't think so, the fact that it runs means at least a few of the cylinders are firing correctly....

I ran the cracked optic in the match and it worked less well than I had hoped. Right at the start the crack was catching the sunlight and either washing out the dot or the irons or both. Easy fix was to slap some tape over the glass and just run with an occluded dot the whole time. It worked for the most part but all my mental energy was going into worrying about the dot so I was making simple stupid mistakes elsewhere.

By the end of the match the glass was toast. It's in the box going back to Holosun on Monday.

I let Katelyn know I want to quit, so that's something.

Also, this ARM based VM seems to be working so I should probably figure out how to build a new centos10 based web server for the woman's site at Digital Ocean.

Turned in my transporter plate, licenses, name tag and gas card. I'm officially unemployed again.

The van lives! After the re-timing of the cams, the motor is fine. Whew. I did an oil change and didn't screw that up and reset the tire pressures and we're good to go. Now I can go put all my junk back in it I guess.

Putting my crap back in the van I checked to see how poor a job the car wash did at actually cleaning it. Pretty bad, so I got the spray polish out to get the worst of the bird poop and grease off. Along the edge of the hood/fender what I thought was dirt was actually the paint peeling off. Don't want rust so a quick mask job and a coat of white enamel paint and it's good to go.

The centos 10 install wants to install firmware updates, but it's running in a VM so what firmware would it be updating exactly? I guess I could back it up and let it do things but not sure it's worth the effort.

The $10 3M headlight restoring kit... really works. Couple of wet sanding disks, two little wipe-on polish pads and the headlights look crazy good.

At Panera yet again, this time after the driving range with the woman. I have some solid stuff to write, should be able to bang out another 1k day if all goes well.

Grill cleaning crew is here.

So check that out. Went by the dealership to check on the 'missing part' for the Fiesta that they've not called about (which turned out to not be missing and already had been installed like I thought) and saw the Jeep was there. They decided to try to sell it after all which is nice. It was pretty clean after all. I looked up the price (crazy high) and they had a carfax up for it so I grabbed a copy. Jeep Patriot Carfax after trade-in Interesting how much work they claim to have had to done when pretty much none of that was necessary other than the inspections.

The camera PC died, three days after the return window closed. That sucks. From what I can tell the NVMe drive died. It shows up, but fails its self test. Could be the controller too. In any case I'm working with support to see if they can agree it's dead and send me some sort of new one.

Luckily I moved the web VM off, but it also shows why I need to keep good backups. The cameras are running on my gaming PC now... which is of course crazy fast. CPU is essentially idle all the time. The system runs at 52 watts when the software is active, 70 watts when someone is streaming via the web server. That's not too bad, it's half the Dell's usage but 2x the little PCs usage. I would be fine with that except now my security footage is on the very system that's likely to be stolen in a robbery. Can't stream to a NAS fast enough, or at least a NAS I would build. Gotta figure this one out if I can't get the other PC fixed.

The network on the mac VM keeps dropping and I have to 'power cycle' the VM to get it back. I've added a USB ethernet port to the mac and dedicated it to the VM, we'll see if that helps any.

Met with Don the owner of Apex Martial Arts (who still had messages from me in his phone pre-covid... wonder what I said when I quit his gym?) and have scheduled some privates with one of his fighters. Kid is a welterweight title holder, so he's about 10 years old and 100 pounds, or so he looks. Dude is likely wicked fast and he says he is very 'technical' in his approach. Makes sense, in that weight class you're not just standing and swinging for the fences.

Finished a tentative outline for the rest of the book today. It's still weak but I can write to it and improve it as I go. Also went to the range briefly to practice for tomorrow's BUG match and changed the batteries in the wall safe upstairs. Tonight we're doing take-out from a new Thai/Vietnamese/Indian place. I can't imagine any of it will be good with that much variety. In addition to the legit sounding dishes, they offered a selection of southern white people cuisine that's expected on any "Asian" menu, along with french fries.

MiniPC people say the NVMe is bad and they'll ship me a new module straight from China. Should see that in a few months I guess.

I wanted a little pouch to carry the off-ear processor setup for the implant and a lighter pouch looked perfect on paper. Turns out... it's just a few millimeters off but forcing it risks breaking the plastic box. So, return the pouch? No way, it's got another solid use case. The emergency fireball holder!

So far no network dropouts with the USB adapter on the mac for use with this VM only. Annoying it's necessary but an easy fix since I had the adapter on hand. If that doesn't work... well I'm not sure what since the mini-PC is busy doing the camera stuff once again.

Picked these up for $2 each off CL for the woman's dead hedge project. Much cheaper than new and the pre-rusted state makes them blend into the dead branches better. I drove one into the ground this morning with Jason's post driver, it was easier than I thought.