Tornado? Alrighty Then

Yesterday early afternoon the light of the day started dimming fairly early. Sometime around 2, maybe even as late as 3:00 PM the sun seemed to be going down a little earlier than it should be during the summer months. Looking outside and noticing that the wind had picked up helped me to realize that what we were in for was another afternoon of rain and wind just as we have been dealing with for the past couple weeks.

Hold-On Mother Nature; Northern Nevada Isn't The Mid-West

OK so between 6 and 6:30 PM yesterday the national weather service sent out a broadcast to smart phones, TVs and I can only assume radios etc as well that there was some crazy weather approaching the area. As luck would have it we were not in the area at this time because we had to go to the Apple store to have them look at my iPhone and run diagnostics on it - more on that in a minute.

So the warning that went out was for the Spanish Springs area (my area) and that there were confirmed reports of a funnel cloud forming and heading towards us. There were a few that sent in some great video of this as well to the local news stations. I would post them here but have not found any YouTube links "yet" and would prefer to not link to my local news websites as they tend to change frequently or have broken links. If I find one later today on YouTube I will add it to this post at that time.

Anyway, it was pretty crazy to think that there was a friggin' tornado so close to home, like in our backyard basically. I guess they can theoretically happen anywhere with the right conditions but you don't really give it any credibility. The last time this happened was in 2008, I don't remember that for some reason but I guess it's not so "new" to the area after-all.

While most people in the mid-west and more tornado prone areas would have a chuckle at our "tornado scare" it was a pretty big event for all of us. Our homes and related are not really setup for little surprises from Mother Nature like that. Heck we have earthquakes frequently and we barely have the things in place to deal with them. Everything from proper construction of homes to the way that roads and bridges need to connect to be able to flex and twist.

I have not heard much more about the tornado today so maybe everyone is "over it". I am surprised if so, generally the news can find an angle to blow anything out of proportion and create enough of a buzz that it becomes the water cooler chat of that day or the next one following the event.

In the end nothing came of it other than some video and a small amount of social media chatter. As much as crazy events can increase the wow factor of a day a tornado is not something I want myself or anyone to have to deal with.

Genius

So after getting annoyed throughout the day yesterday with my touchscreen acting up I decided to go to Apple and see what they could do for me. Cicely made me an appointment at the Genius Bar for 5:50 to have it looked at.

When we arrived they were quick to get us taken care of and the diagnostic test ran on my phone. It came back as having a messed up or end-of-life battery and several programs that were having issues. I guess that when they opened it there were no signs of water getting into it which was a good thing. I for one know that a little water must have made it's way in because the camera was fogged up with moisture Saturday but I guess not enough to the point that it showed any indications when opened.

The negative part is that they assumed that the touchscreen issue was because of software or a bug that is in part of it via updates and so on. While this may be true to some extent, I don't believe that it would have surfaced the same exact day that it wet.

Anyway, their suggestion is/was to wipe the entire phone and "set-up as new". This means that you lose everything. From photos to app progress, text message history and related as well as a slew of other things. Initially I had told them to go ahead and do that, only because I assumed I could do a refresh like always and pull the back-up down from the cloud - nope, so I am thankful I double-triple checked.

In the end I had them replace the battery and leave everything else alone. I told them I would take care of it once I was certain I had all of my photos off the device. I have so many on my phone, going all the way back to 2010. Sure most are backed-up or in iPhoto and so on, but there are a lot that are not. Specifically more recent photos of Zoey as well as video of her. Those are things I don't want to lose. I worry about Cicely's phone because she has well over 2800 photos and videos on there. My bet would be that less than 10% of them are backed-up or saved elsewhere.

For me this becomes a headache because it tends to fall onto my lap to be sure that everything is organized and backed up as well as running correctly. If you have never tried to go through a ton of photos, name them, sort them and related then I challenge you to try it  sometime / it's a huge pain and while fun in a sense reliving all the moments as you go through, it's extremely time consuming to do so.

Anyway, enough on that - in the end my phone has a new battery and I am leaving the software alone for now. My hope is that the phone will last and sort itself out until I can get the next version if the phone once it's released. Not my usual way of dealing with problems but it's the best choice this time.

Sick

So after a nice long run of not being sick Cicely has managed to catch what Zoey was going through and is still fighting right now. Poor girl is not very "spunky" today as she usually is every day. The cold is really kicking her butt and it's showing. She slept pretty hard last night and while I thought it would help her to feel better today, I think that it actually made her more tired. Plus the medicine she had last night must of had some of the normal "cold remedy" crud in it, if only just a small amount, and it messed with her today as well - makes her feel kinda flush if that make sense.

The crazy part is what she was given is a children's grade which means not only does it taste really good, but it has much less "stuff" in it. I thought for sure she would be OK taking a dose but it appears that she is too sensitive to it all, no matter the potency.

All I can say is that I hope she starts to feel better soon. She has a big show coming up again this Thursday and I would hate for her to be under the weather during it. Knowing her, she will perk right up and no-one will be the wiser that she is not 100%, but I will know and I want her to enjoy her events like this to the fullest! Fell better Cizzle - love you!

Change

So it seems that the saying "the more things change the more they stay the same" does in fact hold very true. Talking with others today I learned that there is a good chance that we will be doing some "remodeling" of sorts in the studio again. This would mean that cubes will be changing around, walls will be constructed, others cut down and so on.

This round my cube is one on the list as well. In the past managers and supervisors were given a double cube. Not that we necessarily need them, but it's nice when you have to have multiple team members in your cube or for quick meetings. We are running so thin on meeting rooms at the moment that it can be very helpful - although the directors have offered up their offices to use anytime that they are not in there or when they are out of the office.

Anyway, my cube will be going from a double cube back down to a measly single cube when and if this takes place over the course of the remainder of the year. Honestly I really don't care other than losing the ability to have meetings in my cube. In the long run, so long as I have a place to work then I can make due with what I have.

Don't misunderstand, I would be more than happy to keep the space as well now that I am accustomed to having it. It was / is nice to be recognized and have the additional space when you are promoted to management - I mean there really are not that many perks otherwise, it's a simple fact and if that is what you are looking for; - perks, mega pay, golfing with your buddies mid-week then you have watched too much TV or are subscribing to inaccurate management definitions.

The bigger issue and/or benefit for me for me is that if we can add developers by removing a few double cubes like the one I am sitting in doing my work day-to-day, then I am all for the change and will start boxing up my stuff today!

Photo: Photo of the tornado off in the distance from yesterday's storm. There are some better angles of it in the video that was posted but this gives the general idea of the thing. Dunno what camera phone took the photo, not the best - but gives you an idea of things.