Video Games

For the first time what I think are a few years, I don't work this upcoming Monday so that means that I can spend tonight at my leisure. This means I'll have the chance to tune into two programs which come on NPR at this time - Joe Frank and Wordjazz. It's likely that I've already heard both programs which will happen to come up tonight, and it's also likely that the latter will be at least as hokey as it might be enlightening, but it's an enjoyable experience which I have done with regularity for ...

Fifteen degrees and a fresh, but not too heavy, coat of snow started to fall in the day. I was at work. I was on the salesfloor doing inventory counts within the grocery section, and it was busy enough (being a Saturday and all) that I couldn't hear overhead announcements, and that I was assisting customers finding things for a significant portion of time anyway. Apparently, my name was called to go out to help round up carts, but I honestly never heard it, and I wasn't individually hunted down ...

The IRS response that I mentioned yesterday turns out to be an error and subsequent misinterpretation on my behalf. The attachment which they kindly took the time to send to me was my data that I had sent to them and was being shown in their Form display to point out exactly what was wrong. The other remaining error was easy enough to resolve once I had realized that I put the greater of two values, when the worksheet asks for the lesser of the two values. I need to slow down and take the time to ...

The second IRS response came today, and I just need to send the mail out after writing this that I have resubmitted all new corrections. One very strange correction that they made - and took the time to take a screencap and attach a picture to the mail - was for something in the adoption credit (Form 8839). Not only does the picture contradict the data which they have given in the testing Publication, but it also doesn't make arithmetic sense on the basis of the line instructions given and visible ...

D3. Tri Nat's Ring. I had one drop earlier this morning. Long story short, my plan to receive this item seems to have paid off. There's no way to know if it would have eventually happened if I played like normal, but the results are the same regardless. Who knows how long it would have taken to have this happen on PC. Well, in my case at least, the answer is "more than 1000 hours".

I sent the second submission of the 1040 Test Returns before playing, and had that wrapped ...

Did I title yesterday's entry with the date of the fourteenth? Why would I do that? Huh.

Anyway.

Finally, a day with some new things to report.

The first being that I have some work to do. Hot dog. Response from the IRS to the first test batch came first thing this morning, and it seems that each of the actual tax return submissions (that is, as opposed to the simpler filings like Form 56 or Form 2350 which are not "tax returns" per se) all ...

I think today was as good of a case as any has been made for me that I should honestly call off on my birthday rather than work as scheduled. My perspective is that while I enjoy celebrating it fine enough and I don't go through pains to conceal it, I also acknowledge that there's nothing particularly special about it where I need to postpone doing a job just because it happens to be that particular day. I usually don't go to the morning meetings but I was compelled to go today, and I was outed ...

My last day as 33.

The highlight of the day which isn't video game related is that I was able to show off my power equipment abilities to my wife, as I had a palette of store paper to move up into the ceiling rafters. That was nice.

Songs weren't particularly great today but they weren't as awful as possible either. I guess I should be glad to have passed Ultimate for the second time and prove the clear to not be a fluke.

Lunar Beat. Extra Mode. Double ...

As happened last time, the sump pump issue is resolved with nothing more than a twist of the screwdriver, and to tighten what became loose. The end. As a matter of habit, I tend to call my parents about these kind of things in case they have any wisdom or products to impart, and to keep them appraised of the situation, so they visited here to verify that the issue had this simple resolution.

Before doing that, we went to the local pancake restaurant for a breakfast meet up, and the ...

The warm air did come as promised, as did the rain. There is a steady stream of water flowing into the sump pump basin - however, things seem to be relatively OK. The connecting gasket is not airtight and water still leaks down the pipe, but it's leaking back into the basin at a rate much slower than what is being kicked out by the pump. The pump is operational and not running constantly. The most I needed to do was to wedge a wet towel between the pump's pipe and the basin outer wall so that it ...

It turns out that there was a revision to the IRS 1040 XML schema on December 30 that I didn't become aware of until today. I made the call and, as I suspected, the initial response which I had mentioned as being wrong was marked as a closed case in their system. Thankfully, their response to the call I made today in an email came later today, so that was very much appreciated. The revision did seem to fix my problem as well; I resent the submission which gave an error last time and sure enough, ...

The length of pipe which goes out from the house to the ground is about four feet in length, but is covered in a plastic casing which leaves ample room for air to sit inside. I purchased my own pipe heating kit from a hardware store today, and once I held the device in my hands and read the instructions that I realized that I couldn't install the wire until the air temperature is 15 degrees, and that I likely would need to cut that plastic casing so that I could place the heating element onto the ...

At about 3AM this morning I heard a loud noise near the room I was in, as if it was some kind of scratching. It didn't take long for me to think of the sump pump nearby and wondered if that sound I heard was the same as I heard last time, and sure enough it was the issue at hand. It seems that some portion of the tubing has frozen up from the weather and now nothing can be pumped out. Before going to bed, I spent the remainder of my time scooping water out of the basin using a gallon milk jug which ...

It is never too cold to be hustled. I hope you two enjoy the $20 you got for coming to our house with your shovels in hand, and that your theft by abandonment means that I will turn everyone down from this point forward. I hope that $20 buys you both some like a nice case of Natty Light or a good pair of dime bags. Consider it my Christmas gift to you both.

Tonight is meetup night for D3. Until this weekend my two co-players and I were on every night, and there was finally a break ...

The snow, oh the snow. So much snow. Will there be enough snow to fall tonight to compel the store to close tomorrow? I doubt it, though I think that overall it will be as bad at the upcoming point as it was a few years ago when the sudden snowstorm did force the store to close. I guess I'll find out.

Songs. I woke up with my wife at 4AM so that I had enough time to do some shoveling before driving her to work, and I think I'm simply tired as of the point of the session and writing ...