Jacob Mulquin

February, 2022

2022-02-01

I awoke with a vigour this morning, changed bub, gave him to mum then went for a decent paced walk. It was a bit later than usual but I felt great after I got back. When toddler woke up we had no bread left so we walked down the shops to get some. He went really well, held my hand the entire way and was talking and giggling. I love him, his brother and my wife so much and I'm feeling good to be alive this morning.

Took toddler to swimming lesson and he did so well. The teacher took off his bubble after a few goes and let him swim unassisted, she looked really enthused to be teaching him.

Had a support call and almost melted in the heat of this room.

My parents came over for dinner and we had burgers and chips.

Spent some time messing around on the Internet this evening.

2022-02-02

The rain fell this morning once again. It seems the universe is destined for our lawns not to be mowed.

I found a really neat website that contains lots of music that comes bundled in key generators. I wanted to download the entire archive, but unfortunately the links do not work so I whipped up a small bash script to scrape and extract all the music into a single folder.

#!/bin/bash
wget "http://keygenmusic.net/?page=allteams&lang=en" -O index.html
grep -oP '(?<=href=")[^"]+.(zip|7z|rar)(?=")' index.html > rawlinks.txt
sed 's/^/http:\/\/keygenmusic.net\//' rawlinks.txt > links.txt
mkdir dl
wget -i links.txt -P dl/

mkdir extract
unzip dl/*.zip -d extract/
7za -y x dl/*.7z -oextract/
for file in dl/*.rar; do unrar x "$file" extract/; done

I'm about 2 hours into funky chiptunes and loving it.

Went grocery shopping at our local Aldi and Coles. It looks like they are both still having supply chain issues. Some of our staple purchases were nowhere to be found.

Toddler went to daycare today so it's a scramble to get chores done around the house without him "helping" everywhere.

Had to do an emergency provision of a laptop as one of our staff members had their laptops shit itself today. sigh That's the second one in a bit over a month. This one is out of HP warranty so getting it fixed is going to be more of a pain in the ass.

Listening to all these chiptunes reminded me of a great little flash animation I used to enjoy titled "r0x.swf". It was surprisingly difficult to find on the Internet after the great Flash purge of 2020-2021. To commemorate and immortalise this awesome tune, I converted it to webm for everyone's enjoyment:

You can download the original SWF here: r0x.swf

I need to work out my hosting as my current host, Dreamhost has raised their prices and I don't feel it worth the cost considering how little resources I consume. I will look at migrating this site to an Australian-hosted VPS tomorrow.

2022-02-03

Woke up at 4:30 and went for a walk. I basically slept-walk the first third of the trek but came home feeling fulfilled. My toddler once again arose from bed immediately after I got home so I have to swiftly put him to sleep on the lounge.

Some asshole, also lovingly known as "an old friend" came by to visit this morning and met new bub. It was really good to see him after so long, he's doing well and entering a new stage in his life. He lives up in Sydney so can't make it down too often but hopefully he can come down more often in the future. When COVID quietens down we should go visit him up there as well.

Spent the rest of the work day drawing diagrams, thinking about processes and wrangling Power Automate to update some Excel spreadsheet (painful if the data is not in a table).

My wife took a video of my snoring last night, it was awful, I'm sorry sweetheart. I need to do something about it.

The weather has been great today, the southerly buster finally hit and it doesn't feel like summery death.

2022-02-04

Bub woke up around 3:30 this morning so I fell asleep hoping I could get up not long after and go for a walk. 2 hours passed and as soon as I entered the loungeroom toddler waltzed out with high energy. I spent the next half an hour trying to convince him to sleep on the lounge but he was having none of it. Such was the theme of the morning.

I went into the office today for the first time in a while. Got some really productive work done with Power Automate. I'm still really impressed with how powerful this tool can be. We are also starting to feel the effects of utilizing consumer-grade hardware and started some very "early days" analysis on going to business-grade. I had many conversations today.

It was really good to be around my colleagues to collaborate after so long sitting by myself in the home office. I will endeavour to go in there more often. The office is a very vibrant place with so many different things going on; You had the support staff that were scheduling shifts, support workers coming and going with participants, the car wash, the supported employment participants doing administration work and of course the kiosk workers making delicious food. It's a great company and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Spent the afternoon and evening at in-laws as toddler is staying the night. I made some potato bake and some chicken breast stuffed with feta and spinach. I was really happy with how the potato bake turned out but was disappointed by the chicken. I put it in the oven way too early and unfortunately it was too dry.

Potato bake and chicken breast stuffed with spinach and feta

2022-02-05

Woke up 4:30 this morning and felt kind of hazy. Since toddler wasn't here I didn't feel the need to be quiet when getting ready for my walk. Walk went well, refreshingly cold. When I got home, the heavens started pissing down, heavily. It happened literally as I put my foot in the door. I'm glad I didn't wait around any longer to leave.

We are going to go for a picnic this morning after picking up Toddler.

Well, we were going to have a picnic. Unfortunately, I've had a rough morning. I made a stupid decision and deleted my shared folders on my NAS because I wanted to turn on data scrubbing. Turns out a shared folder must have this turned on when first created (it cannot be enabled later). I didn't think that all the data would be DELETED when I removed that shared folder. I thought only the share would disappear. Full derp moment. Now I'm scrambling to try some recovery software to at least get the photos and documents recovered.

A search around the net landed on ReclaiMe. I gutted an old Windows box, attached the NAS drives and a spare 4TB recovery drive, spent $300 on an ultimate license and thankfully files are being recovered.

A gutted Windows machines with all the NAS drives connected

This was a brown-pants period of time.

Learn from my mistake.. I know I will be.

ReclaiMe has performed well so far. It identified the correct directory structure and all my important files appear to in tact. I've noticed some performance issues/hangs after the quick scan finishes. The program also appears to need to be activated every single time it has been launched for me.

My plan of attack is to recover my data onto 2 fresh 4TB drives that are destined for my Microserver (luckily I procrastinated on getting that project up and running). The idea is that I will recover my important files onto each and then split the media files between the two drives. After copying the data, I will put the drives back into the NAS and connect the 4TB drives via USB.

It's looking to be a 2-3 day job. This has motivated me to finish that NAS/data security article I've had sitting in drafts since I bought the NAS.

2022-02-06

Woke up this morning and changed bub just after 5, feeling good to go for my 5th walk for the week. And just as I zipped up his swaddle, it started raining. Great.

Went back to sleep on the lounge with toddler for a few hours. Spent the morning continuing the data recovery and tidying up around the place.

We went to the in-laws for brunch in-leiu of our usual Sunday roast. My parents came over for the roast instead, it was really good!

Watching the casenotes roll in tonight while beginning the process of putting data back onto the NAS.

I found a fun website at https://www.rejectionline.com.au/ for those cases where you want to give somebody a number but don't want to give them your actual number.

2022-02-07

More rain again this morning. I woke up at 3:50 and was grateful as I belive I've caught this cold from toddler.

Did casenotes this morning and did a bit of shopping in the arvo.

Feeling kind of death-y in the evening. Plenty of water and cold and flu tablets.

Haven't held bub or been near wife today as we want to minimize the possibility of transmission. Sleeping in the spare bed tonight.

The data recovery efforts are still going well. I have transferred all the data I could only temporary hard drives, did a fresh re-install of the Synology software and copied everything back. I will start verifying files tomorrow.

2022-02-08

Bit of a rough night coughing and spluttering. Toddler came bounding in demanding "UP" and "TOAST" at 10 to 6 this morning. He was prompted smothered with cuddles in bed for at least an hour. No walk this morning but the weather is looking OK so might go for a short one later this morning.

It looks like I may have lost just over a TB of data on the NAS based on a storage report provided by the space analyzer.

It appears that all files that did not recover correctly are all 0 bytes. I need to enable SSH on the Synology and run a report to find all empty files.

find /volume1/Files -size 0 -type f > /volume1/Meta/empty_files.txt

5.4 MB text file, woah! Now that I have a list of files that I need to try and find from other sources, I can just delete them all at once.

find /volume1/Files -size 0 -type f -exec rm -f {} \;

Now the process of rebuilding begins...

Went for a walk mid morning with toddler so as to give a very weary mother of an attached infant some quiet time. It seemed to tired him out for a while which was really good.

Still trooped on at work, improved our staff onboarding process and even squeezed in some programming.

Checking the files on the NAS tonight. Looks like a majority of the movie and TV show files are corrupt :(

2022-02-09

Feeling a bit better this morning. Toddler is still waking up way too earlier. No walk this morning because I didn't feel like it.

Worked a lot in powerpoint today mapping out the casenote processor and staff intake processes. It doesn't feel like there's much in my brain, but when it's out in flowcharts... There's a lot!

Dad called and said he came back COVID positive from a PCR test. We saw him not long ago. I did a RAT and it came back negative, he also did a RAT that came back negative. Maybe the PCR is a false positive?

I'm going to go have a PCR test in the morning.

2022-02-10

Had the PCR test this morning. Really looking forward to this cold passing so I can start walking again in the morning. I need it. I crave it.

Toddler did amazingly, did not expect him to accept the swab around his nostril as well as he did.

Worked on various things today, had a few conversations.

Warm day today but a good day nethertheless.

Tacos for dinner, yum yum!

2022-02-11

Still no walking yet. I'm going to endeavour to go for a quick walk tomorrow.

Had a really good day at work today. Had productive conversations and wrote down some solid documentation that has been sitting in my brain for a while. Getting back into the groove after being on leave over Christmas and new bub.

Made spaghetti chicken carbonara for dinner after watching a video from Vincenzo's Plate. It looked too delicious not to try!

Spaghetti Chicken Carbonara

Mine didn't come out as good.

Still tasted pretty damn good for a first go so I'm happy with the result overall.

2022-02-12

Didn't do much today. This bloody cold is still hanging around and it's annoying the shit out of me.

I played some Team Fortress 2.

Did a few bits and peices for work. I'm finding it hard to switch my brain off from work mode considering my work space and play space are the same thing.

Cooked Beef Stew for dinner.

2022-02-13

Cold still lingering, but it is subsiding.

Went to the in-laws for most of the day so Theo could play with his uncles.

Had a yummy roast.

2022-02-14

Happy Valentine's Day 🌹 Wishing everyone a day with some romance and positive thoughts and feelings.

I found a neat way of extracting links from an email using Power Automate which I have deployed extensively at work. I have fantasies of automating everything! Mwahahaha.

2022-02-15

It feels like a long time since I walked in the morning. It makes me sad as I'm at the point where I wake up at 6:30 now and feel very tired and sluggish. I really need to get back into that healthy routine. I still have a bit of congestion but the cough has abated so I think I'm on-track to start again tomorrow (hopefully).

Our printer at work is on the fritz so had a support call to remedy it. Unfortunately we couldn't resolve the issue remotely so we are having a tech come out to look at it.

Took toddler to swimming lessons after a week off. He did really great and I think he may be the teacher's favourite student of the class. I say this as she removes his "bubble" (floatation device on the back that straps around the waist) during some of the exercises. He seems to really enjoy the classes so that's what I like the most.

Had a support call in the afternoon.

This evening we went out for dinner at a Teppenyaki place named Fujiyama. It was great. Toddler behaved himself and ate basically everything with us. Delicious and fun experience for everyone.

2022-02-16

Didn't feel much like documenting today. I felt off. I need to start walking again.

2022-02-17

I finally did it! I got up at a quarter past 5 and went for a walk. I feel so much better about myself for performing that one simple healthy habit. This set the tone for the day.

The printer issue at work got fixed. It looks like it was a combination of outdated firmware, and embarassingly, a broken cable.

Spent the majority of the day in our management meeting. Lots of regulatory changes upcoming so I'm going to have a lot of my plate shortly.

Went to the in-laws for dinner for tacos, my favourite. My beautiful mother-in-law knows this so she makes it with extra love :)

2022-02-18

Didn't end up going for a walk this morning as I was having a really good dream when my alarm went off and I was striving to get back to it. My mind also used the "my ankles hurt" as an appropriate excuse. Not the best but there is always tomorrow.

A second day in the row I spent at the office. More and more meetings. Looks like I'm starting to move into the managerial role as my title would suggest.

The Real Kiosk were having a special on $5 pork rolls. They were absolutely delicious and they smashed it. Great success!

Toddler is staying over at the in-laws tonight so it's an opportunity to spend a quiet night with bub.

My cold feels like it's still got 5-10% of life still in it. After it exsanguinates completely I am kicking my butt back into gear and commiting to more healthy habits. I know I need to get off my phone more to be more present with my family, and to make more conscious decisions on how I spend my time rather than be dopamine-fed by apps and websites.

2022-02-19

No walk again this morning. The pissing down of rain as I was drifting off to sleep combined with the cooler temperature overnight lulled my unconscious mind into a false sense of immutable comfortability (I know, not a word). I was kicking myself after I awoke 2 hours later than I wanted.

Spent the morning with bub, gave him a long bath and it was just really nice to be able to devote all our attention on him without toddler running around forcing our attention elsewhere.

Did some bits of work here and there.

My parents came over for a visit since dad caught and recovered from COVID. We all believe that his result may have been a false positive as his symptoms were small-to-none, which considering his age and co-morbidities, is quite surprising.

Tried my hand at chicken carbonara again. This time I improved the process based on issues discovered last time:

I also added some small bits of chopped mushroom as well for extra protein.

Spaghetti Chicken Carbonara, again

Great success! I feel really happy with how it turned out and everyone who ate it ate it all. A rare moment of pride :)

2022-02-20

A fun day for numerology today: 20th day of 02nd month of 2022th year. Went for a walk this morning thanks to bub's new overnight feeding schedule and my cold finally leaving my body. It felt really great.

Played with the boys this morning, slowed down. Really trying not to think about work.

Had a nap later in the morning to compensate.

Had Sunday roast at the in-laws. Pork crackling is so damn good. Love it.

2022-02-21

Bub was in a different routine today so I slept right through until 6:30. Busy monday morning as usual getting toddler off to school and getting in casenotes. No walking.

Went into the office and did some setting up of a laptop and a few "while you're here" support calls.

Our dishwasher has a blockage in the outlet hose somewhere so we went and got an eel from the in-laws.

2022-02-22

More numerology fun today. Didn't go for a walk as toddler was being very demanding, very early this morning.

Did some work. Tried fixing the dishwasher. It wasn't a blockage. Looks like the outlet pump is broken. Argh.

Chinese takeaway for dinner.

Need to walk.

2022-02-23

Feeling a bit burnt out doing this daily journal. Part of me feels sad and embarassed at how similar my days appear to be, and how little revelatory insights I appear to present.

Oh well, perhaps I just need to walk more.

2022-02-24

Nope. Not feeling it today.

2022-02-25

Currently feel fatigued by this daily journal. I'm going to give the rest of the month a miss and come back to it fresh come 1st of March. I find I have to put entries in a bit at a time during the day because at the end of the day I just really don't feel like typing anything.

I felt most motivated to write in the morning, but with that cold I had earlier in the month and now the shitty, rainy weather, I haven't been getting up early and doing those healthy habits.

One thing I need to change my daily morning habit from going for a walk to stretching and doing some calesthenics. That way I cannot use the shitty weather as an excuse to skip exercise.

I found a cool link to some old internet slang and realise I'm officially old. Not in a "haha I'm 21, I'm so old!" kind of old, but a proper old. It's slightly scary but also ironically it feels like a kind of freedom. I'm not expected to know anything that's in vogue, or to care about it at all. That new shit can gtfo.

2022-02-26

brb

2022-02-27

afk

2022-02-28

ttyl