To Hell and Back

Immediately following the spectacle known as Christmas, we launched down the road for yet another visit to Arkansas and good company.  We had hoped the weather would be better than it ultimately turned out.  However, the cold front reached further south than it was supposed to have, leaving us with a cloudy and chilly 7° C weekend.  It is a good thing that is nearly perfect weather for hiking about and discovering new places.

Hell Creek Natural Area has been quietly waiting on the to-do list for quite some time now. Timing is everything for this spot.  Excessive undergrowth and reports of a militarized tick population generally prohibit access from March through October.  Click the title above to read more.  It was a good, quiet journey.  There are not many folks out on the trail at this time of year.

While lingering about, a return visit to Woolly Hollow enabled solid exercise though more calm and quiet forest.  A bear bellowed in the distance at one point along this hike.  Each attempt to record the racket failed.  It was as if the beast knew of the effort through some sort of game cam of its own.  I departed empty-handed, since there seemed no solid reason to stick around to learn more of proximity.

The courthouse consistently greeted us each evening in its best display.  New lights bordering the windows caused them to stand out brighter than ever.  The only thing missing from the scene, a light blanket of snow. We had left that at home, to clean up after itself, and it was due to be gone before we returned.

T-Mobile Installs Spamware on Devices

App Selector On Android: What It Is (And How To Disable It) (slashgear.com)

I did not want this installed. I did not ask for this to be installed.  It does not permit me to disable notifications.  It is annoying the hell out of me, recommending apps that I would never be interested in.  What is the point?

This article helped me figure out how to shut it down permanently, though the steps are not exactly right.  It refuses to permit uninstall of the app.

Here's my mod on the process:

- Settings

- Apps

- Find App

- Force Stop

- Disable App

- Roll back Updates

Magically, the app is gone now, along with its evil twin sister AppManager.

Go figure.

This is what T-Mobile says about this spamware / spyware / malware that it likes to add during setup >  T-Mobile AppManager & AppSelector | T-Mobile Support

A Map Shaper

My new favorite GeoJSON editor that just enabled me to have another layer in a Power BI Azure map (and make it look how I want) without going through a lot of hoops.

https://mapshaper.org/

This one is nice too, but you can't add attributes for all points all at once.

https://geojson.io/

Inaccurate Location

Discovered a flaw in our data that caused a location to appear in Independence.  We fixed that, then it started showing up in Webster Groves.  That is not even close.  After staring at it off and on for an hour or so, I finally figured it out.  The correct street name contains an extra "r."

Smarter People are a Blessing

This about sums up the problem with the one that recently joined the Team, who seems to be clinging to her old-world ideas on the treatment of others in the workplace.  

It does not promote a healthy work environment, creating stress where none should be. 

I remember how things were at DST.  Fear was the management style, and always having to justify your existence.

Just Habits and a Template

Rarely read these listicles.  This one was pretty straightforward though and gave me a new template for writing here.  We'll see if it sticks ... click the image to read the entire story.

"Journal when you feel like you need to. And try to clarify your thoughts: 

What is bothering me right now? 

Why am I stressed or have anxiety about? 

What am I feeling good about? 

What am I feeling grateful for right now? 

How I am feeling lately? 

The purpose is to understand you better and process feelings and emotions."

Intentional Duplication of Effort

 

Ignoring relevant data in favor of quite literally having a minion reproduce what has already been done is ridiculous at best.  It is generally a huge waste of time.  That is what she is good at though.  I see little else from this individual, just a lot of churn.

The whole thing would not have been so bad, had she not gone immediately on the attack, when the duplication was identified.

Projection Blaming

 

Car pulls out in front of you and almost kills you, but it is your fault for driving down the road, following all the rules of the road.  What is that?  Stupid.  Happens way more than it should.

Too Loud

 

Ever encounter someone that is loud for no reason in particular?  It is impossible to get anything done around this individual.  Every discussion is at full volume.  Every move they make generates unnecessarily loud noises.  They bang everything around just for the sake of doing so.  It is impossible!

Power Automate Desktop Date Conversion

Put together a little Date Conversion template for Power Automate Desktop that I need to save out.  Copy/paste the quote block areas and you are on your way.

Date Conversions

DateTime.GetCurrentDateTime.Local DateTimeFormat: DateTime.DateTimeFormat.DateAndTime CurrentDateTime=> CurrentDateTime

Text.ConvertDateTimeToText.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: CurrentDateTime CustomFormat: $'''MM/dd/yyyy''' Result=> CDT_Formatted

DateTime.Add DateTime: CurrentDateTime TimeToAdd: -1 TimeUnit: DateTime.TimeUnit.Days ResultedDate=> CDTminus1

Text.ConvertDateTimeToText.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: CDTminus1 CustomFormat: $'''MM/dd/yyyy''' Result=> CDTminus1_Formatted

Text.ConvertDateTimeToText.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: CurrentDateTime CustomFormat: $'''MM/01/yyyy''' Result=> FirstDayCurrentMonth

Text.ConvertDateTimeToText.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: CurrentDateTime CustomFormat: $'''01/01/yyyy''' Result=> FirstDayCurrentYear

Text.ConvertDateTimeToText.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: CurrentDateTime CustomFormat: $'''12/31/yyyy''' Result=> LastDayCurrentYear

Text.ConvertDateTimeToText.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: CurrentDateTime CustomFormat: $'''MM''' Result=> ThisMonth_MM

Text.ConvertDateTimeToText.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: CurrentDateTime CustomFormat: $'''yyyy''' Result=> ThisYear_yyyy

# End Day Last Month = First Day This Month - 1 day

DateTime.Add DateTime: FirstDayCurrentMonth TimeToAdd: -1 TimeUnit: DateTime.TimeUnit.Days ResultedDate=> EndDayLastMonth

# First Day Last Month = First Day This Month - 1 month

DateTime.Add DateTime: FirstDayCurrentMonth TimeToAdd: -1 TimeUnit: DateTime.TimeUnit.Months ResultedDate=> FirstDayLastMonth

Artificial Not Intelligence

 

If it takes this much to train folks how to use AI, then you can probably drop the "I."  There is no intelligence, it is all just artificial.