pineapple tidbits, sloppy joes

 it was another day off as this was a bank holiday. for the evening meal it was 'odds and ends'. i ate the second and final frozen meal i had recently found at a bus stop, it was a sloppy joe and corn meal. i also opened up a can of pineapple tidbits. it was one of five items i had claimed out of a box next to a dumpster. all of it was perfectly good, unexpired and unopened food containers. it was two cans of chicken, two cans of pineapple, and a jar of peanut butter i had claimed. this was the final one i was using. a good fallback plan for me on a day off is to head to Mall of America. i had lunch there at the A and W. i had a burger there but got an idea to eat a fish sandwich on a later visit as 'fish fry season' is starting soon. there was an electronic ad about it when i was ordering. then i had a scoop of ice cream at great American cookies as i wanted some airline miles. the other two stops were at a toy store where i found two Charlie Brown items, a charm and a yo-yo. then i got a 5-pack of ramen noodles at the 'Japan store', Ebisu, as snoopy is on the package. there were two museum logos on it as well, one of them is of the snoopy museum in Tokyo. after leaving the mall i got some drain opener at a Walgreen. then i watched 'jeopardy' when i got home, and the final jeopardy clue was about John Knox, the religious reformer. i went to perform in the evening, and did stories about the bank, the day off, seeing a movie, and going to a donut shop. i was pleased that the wild guitar player decided to play a Lewis Capaldi song as i had requested it last week. there was another performer who talked to me after my set, was wearing an outfit that said 'supreme' referring to the shoe brand and spoke of performing in Las Vegas soon. i was annoyed when another performer asked for an opinion about their set and then later pranked me. it is a reminder of why i often leave shortly after the show is over as things like this can happen during the after-show part. 

wild river movie

 in the afternoon i watched a movie on DVD, it was 'wild river'. it was a recent purchase, part of a 'double feature'. it was about the TVA during the great depression, so of course this was of interest to me as a history major. i recall one history book saying the Tennessee valley authority 'made running rivers walk'. the movie did start with footage of this river flooding. it was about a government agent who must evacuate a small town to make way for a dam, but one resident refused to leave. then the agent falls in love with the granddaughter. i did not recognize any of the actors in it but i liked the story. notable was the old lady telling her story of why she refused to leave, and this was a scene where we see the cemetery on this island. for lunch i went to the mall in Roseville and ate at Tio's tacos. it was a way that i mark the anniversary of me moving to the twin cities for work many years ago, as it was on a Valentine's Day weekend. i had four small tacos and some fries and a bottle of Jarritos soda. then i went to have a blizzard treat at dairy queen. and i bought a small pack of baseball cards from a vending machine. i was pleased that one of them was of Yadier Molina. after i finished watching the movie, i had the urge to get moving again. i went to get some discounted Valentine's candy at Hy-Vee in Eagan. one was a big bag of Hershey's kisses, and another was gummies. both had Charlie Brown characters on the package. in the evening i liked watching two 'Simpsons' episodes. there were some postings on Facebook about this being episode number 800. one i understood was inspired by this year's america-250 celebration as it was about ben franklin and the setting was Philadelphia. this led to some jokes about the 'rocky' movie franchise as well. the other was about Milhouse's dad and crackers, notable as REM frontman Michael Stipe guest stars and the song 'i am superman' is played. 

blue moon movie

 in the late afternoon i went to see the movie 'blue moon' in Columbia heights, first time at this venue, called 'the heights'. this was one of just two screenings scheduled for this Oscar-nominated movie that was on my list. i had seen some other movies with Ethan Hawke, as well as Margaret Qualley. Ethan's character sure does talk a lot in it. this explains why his role was nominated, but no best picture nomination. it depends on who he was talking to. when talking to most people, seemed funny when reminiscing about his career. but with his ex-partner, seemed sad and bitter. but this fits with what i would expect when it is about 'Rodgers and Hart' becoming 'Rodgers and Hammerstein'. it was about the party at a bar after the premiere of 'Oklahoma!', a play i had seen performed by a local community theater. would it surprise me if the movie wasn't entirely factual? no. because one line in it was 'it would become so popular that high schools would perform it'. this is what happened, but was it really said right after the premiere? another one that meant something to me, as a performer, was the line how 'the crowd laughed at the wrong thing'. as a performer i know it is a good idea to know who your crowd is and try to perform something they will like. being edgy and satirical can work, but sometimes nostalgic, light-hearted, and feel-good works. it was time to have the evening meal by the time the movie was done, and i went to the nearby taco bell. one table over from me, there were two teenage boys who had showed up after i did and were arguing. it was added motivation to finish eating and leave in a timely fashion. in the morning i went to the post office, but there were no orders to pick up. for lunch i went to Jersey Mike's. my visit to Aldi for groceries was moved up to the afternoon due to when i attended the movie. i liked finding an Aldi truck on this visit, it will go next to other toy cars i have bought. 

reverse engineer it

i did see some movement on the ticket with the printer stopping and starting over. i saw some instant messages from a tech. eventually it was said he'd try to 'reverse engineer' it. i had to say that most of the checks i print each day are in this system, some are PDF but not a lot. if i needed to be out of it for the tech to get it handled, then it would have to be after-hours. none of my business if it meant the tech is working on it when i have a day off such as the upcoming bank holiday. a toner cartridge arrived for the primary check printer, proving it is still on auto-ship. thankful i don't have to call for that one. i sent plenty of check samples to the boss in a folder that others can use, twenty-five in all. it covers even the checks that i don't have to print much. in some cases, i had to go back a month or two to find one due to 'lack of frequency'. i spoke of promotions for the local baseball team, the twins, to the manager that likes karaoke. there are two in particular that interest me, special theme tickets to order, but those games are not until august. i like a theme ticket, don't have to be first in line that get that kind of giveaway. there was an email request to reroute a check from a Cincinnati file to someone in the same town as me. of course, it meant that it was an overnight request. and there was a dial-in meeting about nearly two hundred tax checks going to a lawyer office in Chicago. i don't get those kinds of files too often, where i have to put it in a box. once completed, i sent it to the mailroom as i knew it wouldn't fit in the UPS drop box. it didn't say 'picked up' right away though. after i got home i checked the tracking number and it finally did, more than an hour after i had left the office for the day. we had to have I.T. on the call to change one thing on the checks, which was rake off an email that is normally listed. the customer service number was left on, though. then once it was re-printed, i let all know so I.T. could switch it back. in the evening i did the customary visit to the Hy-Vee in Eagan for groceries. but before that i stopped at a nearby Dunkin donuts, inspired by the recent super bowl commercial. i got coffee with the donut, and since it was less than an hour before close, i was given three donuts but ordered just one.  

how to find special handling

 there was a quick dial-in meeting with the boss. it was to show how to find special handling in some of the files that i print. i said i do not go through each check in a high-volume file such as the Fargo files. i go by if it is marked as 'overnight' and even more rare, when i am sent an email asking me to pull a check. in these two files and some others, i change the tab to 'comment zip code' and all of those go to the top. makes no difference if it is inter-office, foreign, or overnight. some of those with comments i leave alone, because some don't fall into any of those three categories. later on, i was asked to pull a check from the larger Fargo file and shred it, do not send it out. the maintenance kit arrived for the primary check printer, i was called by the tech on the laptop phone about when to expect the tech on the main floor. i said it was already swapped out, just needed a spare. the rollers were still swapped out by the tech, and the kit i swapped out was hauled away. tech wasn't there for long, didn't need to be. i also had to call for help with the inserter machine. it was stuck on a 'hot product error' on both hoppers, couldn't get much moved through. i was still a day behind on the Fargo files, so i still had some checks that i needed to get out the door. after more than twenty minutes on the call, we got it figured out. one button i don't use much was used, run one check through but do not seal it, and this was enough to clear the error. then it was humming along again. 

incident opened, two calls

i found another case of why i call it the 'not much help desk'. i called in another ticket, this time it was for the printer stopping and starting over. then just as i was about to get the ticket or 'incident' number, the help desk hung up on me and i had to call again and start all over again. who knows when i might see any action on it such as if a tech has to show up. the toner cartridge for the small printer arrived, in the morning. the techs who ordered it wanted to close the case once it was ordered, i said 'on the way' doesn't mean as much to me as 'delivered'. once i was notified that it was signed for in the mailroom on the same floor as me, i went to pick it up. doesn't take long to handle it, just slide one out and slide the other in. when i arrived for work i noticed our tax specialist had sent an instant message overnight, at a time when some are watching the late local news. the question was if there were any tax checks, i said there weren't. still odd to me when i hear from this dude at times. 

duplicated checks, two files

 we are still getting the problem of the check printer stopping and starting over on high-volume days for two Fargo files. it happened with both, but i caught it with the smaller one earlier. the larger one started over about midway through and it meant about two thousand duplicated checks were printed. i have to take good notes when this happens, seeing that the duplicated ones are set aside and do not go out. then of course, seeing where it stopped over and knowing where i need to hit re-print. it meant more than four thousand checks did not go out same day. i am used to some days where there is a backlog, but usually it is not this much. but i am a big believer in seeing that it is done right, even if it takes more time. the boss had sent us a schedule by email. in the next week or so there are days off, as well as days when working remote in California. there was a request from the boss for check samples, i think due to the expected change of signature to be implemented soon. i am aware that not all checks that i print have a customer service number attached to it, though. some do have a letter under the check; others just have itemization.