Author: qvcbu

I recently had the pleasure of installing a Pioneer three-zone split unit on my home and wanted to share some feedback for anyone looking to do this on their own home. I wish there was a comprehensive list I could have followed when I did mine, perhaps this can be your list.

Before ordering the unit, give yourself a reality check. Are you sure you’re ready and able to do this? I ask because many folks aren’t ready for the size and scope of this project, so I want to make sure you’re aware of what you are getting into.

A rough project scope is, with approximate hours (for my job):

• Run electrical to the outdoor location you plan to install the compressor at. This includes installing a breaker (do you have room for a 240v breaker in your panel and capacity for your new system?), running cable from the panel to the outdoor unit, pulling up your siding, installing a block, running conduit through to the outdoors, then installing a disconnect panel on the outside of your wall – about 4 hours.
• Plan your compressor/outdoor unit positioning. For brick walls, a mounting bracket might work just fine; for vinyl-sided houses you might want to buy/build a stand. I did mine out of concrete and paving blocks, then tiled it. Note that you want – need – the compressor at least 12″ from your house wall. Check the manual to ensure enough airflow. Plan to install the unit – and not move it again – for ten years. A masonry stand about 16″ off the ground required about 4 hours.
• Plan your wall unit locations as best as you can, full picture included. You want the indoor unit(s) placed as high as you can, not blowing on people. The easiest, best way to work on them is to have the lines run straight out the back of the unit, through the wall, to the line sets outdoors. The hardest way to install these is to install the lineset flares behind the unit and have them run out the other side (because you have to take it off the wall to test or maintain anything). Anything you can do to get the flare joints outside where you can work on them, the condensate lines outside as quickly as possible, and avoiding studs in the way of the lines will make your life easier. Prepping for this should take about 2 hours.
• Once you’ve planned your location, take measurements to assess how much lineset cover you need, how much lineset you need, and how you plan to run/mount it.
• Once you have the footage per head, look up your potential unit’s specifications. Many include enough charge in the compressor for up to 25′ of line. If you use more than that, you’ll find you need more refrigerant – unless you are EPA 608 certified, you will have a tough time buying this.
• Mount the indoor unit to the wall, pass the lines through, and run your lineset from the flare fittings to the compressor. I recommend you run the line entirely – don’t plan to “clean it up later” as this can cause some very unexpected (bad) surprises. I would allot 4-6 hours per head unit for this.
• Mount the compressor, install a watertight electrical whip to the disconnect box and cut/flare/connect your lines to the compressor. Connect the wiring from indoor to outdoor unit (I would highly recommend using a gland connector for this instead of the factory rubber slip) and ensure the condensation line drips somewhere acceptable outdoors – I would allocate 3-4 hours for this step.
• Here’s the important part, explained below: you must, without a doubt do a vacuum pump down of the linesets, ensuring it holds a vacuum, along with a nitrogen pressure-test/evacuation of the lines. This doesn’t take a long time to do, but requires time to hold vacuum/pressure. Allocate 3-4 hours for this step.
• Once all of this is done, it’s a good time to do another leak test, this time under pressure and with a small amount of refrigerant released (again, see notes). This only matters if you have a refrigerant detector, but can help identify leaks. This shouldn’t take more than an hour or two, if you have the equipment to do it.
• Fire up the unit and enjoy!

Some bullet points that I hope help you out:

• The linesets must be done – enough to not move them again – before you pressure test the system. That’s because moving the lines becomes almost impossible after the refrigerant is released without a pump-down (see below). Moving them after the system is under pressure is asking for trouble – a lot of it – if you’re not a trained HVAC technician. Have them done enough that you’re ready to put the lineset covers on.
• Read up on your local code before installing these. I am not a person who cares much about inspections and permits, but I also pay note to doing the job right should something ever come under fire. I did learn where my suburban town requires me to put the outdoor unit (it was not where I first planned to put it) and specific requirements for the shutoff before doing the job, so I wouldn’t have to rework anything. Upfront, though, had I not checked, I’d be reinstalling the entire system should the town have made me.
• You will absolutely need the tools below to make this work:
  • An HVAC pressure manifold, used to measure your vacuum and pressure test. Note that in general, any one will do; you’re not charging or assessing refrigerant based on what’s on the dial, just measuring PSI.
  • An HVAC vacuum pump to pull the vacuum.
  • A tank of nitrogen (call your local welder supply company, these are rentable for $40 or so) and a pressure regulator for it. Amazon has these (CGA580 inlet, 1/4″ flare output).
  • A flaring kit for HVAC work – these are also available on Amazon, you want to ensure you have the correct one (45 degree flare).
  • Nylog sealant – this is useful as a general oil for HVAC work, but helps to seal the flare connections.
  • A pipe cutter and reamer – for plumbing, it might not matter if you don’t ream a line, but you’ll never flare a pipe properly without a proper reamer.
  • A reliable torque wrench that works between 10 and 40 ft-lbs. Preferably one with a digital display, a wrench-style opening and a very audible notice when you’re at the requested torque. I bought a “click-style” one with crowfeet wrench ends and it does not work as expected at lower torque ratings.
  • A liquid-based leak detector (required). Even dish soap will bubble when it finds a leak, but there are cheaper alternatives on Amazon that spray on.
  • An electronic leak detector is optional but recommended, my vacuum pump and manifold kit came with a refrigerant leak detector that was absolutely helpful in not flying blind.
• I should also mention that linesets can be very difficult to work with. I had two head units with 1/4″ liquid and 3/8″ suction lines, which were bendable by hand (when done gingerly and carefully). One head unit had a 1/2″ suction line and – I am not a proud man – required me to replace it twice because I kept kinking it. You won’t install a 1/2″ line bending it by hand. You will absolutely need a pipe bender. And you should pay attention to any bend you do on smaller sizes, because kinks can destroy your unit.
• Understand how your service valves work and what that means for the system. Mine open/close the inside of the unit to the outside, for example, so they never want to be opened until the entire lineset is tested. You want this to be 100% obvious and understood just in case you have an emergency during the install that requires you to know how to respond properly.
• On flare fittings, you really want to do two things: first, you want to torque them correctly, each and every time. If you are going to overtighten them afterwards, only do it a little bit. The copper flare becomes the seal and, if you crank it right down, you’re just making that part thinner and less strong, meaning it’ll blow out under pressure. Also, don’t move the linesets after the fact, particular around the flares. You can cause the line to break or otherwise fail, and that’ll cause your refrigerant and oil to also go away. Not a good scene.
• Pay lots and lots of attention to your condensate lines. They won’t seem like a big deal until you see a puddle of water and realize you’re taking the entire unit off the wall to fix it. That’ll be painful, because you can’t remove the unit from the wall when it’s got refrigerant in it (if you like to keep said refrigerant, at least).
• Pay no attention to the internet when it tells you to remove the schrader valves. For anything. Nothing you do as a DIYer is going to require them removed, but you’re not likely to return them properly or at the proper time. Imagine not being able to remove your manifold gauges because you forgot to put the schrader valves back in before you opened the service port. I’d laugh at you too.

On “my friend said you don’t need to pull a vacuum”:

You do. Your friend is wrong. You need to pull a vacuum for a number of reasons:

• The lines have moisture in them, and your compressor is filled with oil and refrigerant. Unlike oil you cook with, the oil in your compressor reacts with moisture in air to form acid, which will eat the inside of your unit apart.
• Air makes the refrigerant work much less effectively, and the same acid formed with the oil will get blown through your whole system, eating it inside out.
• Here’s the part that should scare you: in rare cases, large amounts of air being forced at incredible pressures into a hot compressor with flammable oil and potentially flammable refrigerant can be … well, explosive. Don’t put yourself in this situation. Should you not believe me, Google “diesel effect compressor explosions”.
• A vacuum is one of two complimentary ways you can check to see if your system holds pressure.
• Lastly, it’s not something you can undo. Once you mix air with your refrigerant, it’s shot. It has to be reclaimed and processed, and you have to vacuum out all of the refrigerant and oil from your system, refilling it from scratch. This is both expensive and not something you’re likely equipped to do.

And the Pressure Test?

Yeah, also something I would not consider optional after doing my install. Look, I shoot straight: I did mine according to the manual, which did not require a pressure test. I got lucky. I released the refrigerant, and checked for leaks. I had a small one on a flair fitting that I tightened. Having said that, I’ve done a few of these on the side and in two cases, a very gentle move of the liquid line caused it to pop off and blow a ton of nitrogen out the line, telling me I did the flare wrong.

The pressure test is the only way to get the system up to design pressure (which can be 500PSI or more) and test for leaks at spec. Vacuums can draw a seal closed where pressure can force them open. Again, it’s better, cheaper and long-term healthier for the equipment to check the system for leaks before opening a service valve.

How to do a pressure test:

• During this entire test, you will not open either service valve in the compressor, so leave your hex keys in the tool box. You’re only testing the environment outside of the unit.
• Connect the low-pressure manifold to your service port, and the yellow/service equipment line to your vacuum pump.
• Draw a full vacuum on the system, hold it for a while, then close the low-pressure valve to hold the vacuum in. Transfer the service equipment (yellow) line to your nitrogen tank whose regulator is dialed in at 450PSI (or just below the split unit’s design pressure). Open the manifold valve very slowly until the system sits at/around 450PSI – you want to let the nitrogen in, not slam the system with 450PSI immediately. Once there, close the manifold valve. Wait about 20 minutes for the pressures inside the circuit to equalize, then note the exact needle position.
• Check all connections for leaks using your leak bubbler. Any leaks will have to be addressed. Note that you’re dealing with high-pressure lines, so you absolutely don’t want to open anything up (or cause it to open up) in your face, etc.
• Once you’ve successfully leak-checked all connections and you’ve let it sit at least an hour, confirm the pressures have not moved. Note that the first 20 minutes or so can see major swings as the pressure moves through the system and causes temperature fluctuations.
• Once you are satisfied you have a leak-proof system, shut off your nitrogen, unscrew the yellow hose and release nitrogen from your system until it’s at 0PSI by opening the low-pressure manifold (slowly, again), immediately closing off the valve at that point.
• Reconnect to your vacuum pump and draw a full vacuum again, leaving it run for a while to ensure all moisture evaporates out of the system and exits the lines. Never connect the vacuum pump to a pressurized system. It’s a great way to blow the oil inside everywhere and damage it.
• Once you are satisfied you are operating with a completely leak-proof system and have all of the air vacuumed out of the lines, you can open your service valves and fire the system up. I like to disconnect the vacuum pump, ensure the low-pressure valve is closed on my manifold, and slowly but fully open the service valves. That way I can keep an eye on the pressures and remove the low-pressure line with an internal pressure that will keep the outside air from coming in (as it would if you opened it under vacuum).

There is an additional step you can take that adds a bit more leak-checking to the system – a pressure test with a tiny amount of refrigerant in the lines. Here’s how I do this:

• Start with the service valves never having been opened.
• Draw your full vacuum as above, leaving it drawn and valved off to check for leaks.
• With the manifold valve closed and a full vacuum in the system, open the liquid valve about a half turn until you see a small pressure increase on the suction side (about 3 seconds for me), then immediately and fully re-close the valve with a small amount of refrigerant trapped in the lines.
• You never, ever want to open the service valves with any pressure in the lines, as it can force back into the compressor and contaminate the refrigerant.
• At this point, you can re-test the lines with nitrogen pressure, but in addition to bubble leak checks, you can use your electronic refrigerant detector to see if any is being blown out the fittings/flares.
• Evacuate the gas as before, bringing the pressure back to 0PSI before pulling a vacuum.
• After a full, complete vacuum has been drawn at least fifteen minutes, you can close the low-pressure manifold valve, switch off your vacuum pump and release the refrigerant as per normal.

Note that in no case, ever, should the service valves be opened with anything but a full vacuum in the lines. Opening it with nitrogen in the lines first will blow nitrogen into the refrigerant, contaminating it. Opening it with air in the lines opens the Pandora’s Box we talked about earlier.

What if I opened the valves and found a leak?

You can perform what’s called ‘pumping down’ the refrigerant into the unit. This closes the liquid line service valve with the unit on and in high-cool (i.e. compressor is working) and suctions all of the refrigerant back into the outdoor unit. You watch the low-pressure side draw that pressure down from around 150PSI (where my unit sits) to around 0PSI before you immediately close the low-pressure service valve too, trapping all the refrigerant into the outdoor unit. Note that for good sized leaks, I would close the valve before it gets to 0PSI, as it might draw air into the leak and down into the compressor.

You can YouTube search the process using keywords like ‘pumping down hvac split unit’ to see the process, there are good videos out there.

You’ve made it too complicated!

I’ve done a thousand projects myself and found most things – electrical, carpentry, plumbing – very self-explanatory. HVAC is a lot more technical (at least for home versions of these trades). It has to be done very methodically, with tons of knowledge involved in each step. The truth is pretty simply that the worst you can do is burn out your unit, lose your refrigerant, and lose a few thousand dollars on the equipment you just bought, but none of those are easily recoverable. You will absolutely find someone willing to come out and work on your mistakes if you have to – most smaller HVAC contractors or companies will be happy to take your money to do this – but they are not going to provide a warranty on their work, your unit or do it at cutthroat pricing.

HVAC is, as it turns out, a very complicated, specialized, technical and tool-intensive trade. My drawer of mechanical tools meant nothing for most of my project and even misled me into thinking I was torquing something properly. Not following steps (steps that – by the way – you’re not going to know unless you consume a lot of training) is a great way to damage equipment and the environment. After doing a few of these, I find myself feeling confident – both in doing them properly now, but also the amount of work that goes into doing them properly. I also find myself looking at my first install and wondering “well damn, I wonder when that’s going to fail, because I clearly didn’t _____”.

If you find these steps burdensome or don’t want to do them, consider if you want to do the project at all. As I said, I’m a very accomplished DIYer, but I hate these: there are too many details, too much to go wrong, and frankly, I won’t ever do another on one on the side either unless my immediate family needs me to come back and replace theirs.

I was recently reading about numerous ICE “raids and disappearances” that have taken place, which brought me to a story about the raid of Glass House Brands, a company that owns several organizations related to Cannabis sales and advocacy. Recently, Glass House Brands had a subsidiary farm raided by ICE, where over three hundred workers were arrested and deported – but perhaps worse, fourteen of those workers were children.

In researching this, I often try to read articles from both sides of the political aisle – and I’ll be referring to the article on the LA Times’ site (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-04/glass-house-cannabis-major-changes-after-ice-raid) but will pepper in several articles to demonstrate a point we all need to be aware of.

First, I don’t support the Right on this wholesale: legal immigration is what this country is built on. But the bullshit from the Left – which is absolutely crafted in a manipulative, skillful manner – does nothing to actually correct the issue of illegal immigration, and it does so in a draconian manner.

Let’s look at the LA Times article first. Here’s what actually happened: Glass House Brands (which itself has to be named after the trope of ‘throwing stones in a glass house…’) employed hundreds of illegal immigrants to farm marijuana, when ICE stormed into the compound and made mass arrests. A man fell off a building running from the police. Over a dozen children – who were very young – were detained. Glass House Brands – we’ll call them GHB for the rest of the article – had seven people on-premises, but claimed they knew nothing about the migration status of these people, including the children. They blamed it on a contractor, as if their eyes did not work.

These people did not enter our country legally – and I can say for sure that given a legal way to enter, the story might have been different. But the Left doesn’t want that; they want limitless importation (so long as it’s from the correct countries, it would seem…). They want us to believe that any immigration law is tantamount to genocide, and that any attempt to control who we allow in

How did the LA Times report on this?

• It led to a man’s death and the ‘disappearing’ or detention of 360 people. They were disappeared! Did the hyperbolic comparison to despots disappearing their political enemies make you think of that murderous political despots, or did you presume they were just sent back home?
• The company reports it will make ‘significant changes to labor practices‘ and will ‘use verification policies to avoid legal entanglements with ICE‘ – who are they making the problem here, when the company chose to hire an almost entirely illegal workforce including CHILD LABOR? Did they properly shift the blame such that you let them off the hook?
• The company then refused to comment further, beyond that they will “make sure we never have a situation that we had on July 10. We can’t have this ever happen again” – was it the ICE raid on July 10th that was the problem, or the company’s illegal hiring practices? That date certainly seems like a finger might be pointing anywhere but to themselves.
• Oh yeah, the article tells you that “On that day, federal agents in masks and riot gear stormed across Glass House operations in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in the state’s largest ICE workplace raid in recent memory. Agents chased panicked workers through vast greenhouses and deployed tear gas and less-lethal projectiles at protesters and employees.” – because ICE is the problem, and the protestors who showed up and attacked the police weren’t pushed back with reasonable force, it was “less lethal”. God forbid we mention that protestors used force against the police and were bolstered by local politicians.
• You’re then told, basically, that ICE killed someone: “One worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after he fell three stories from the roof of a greenhouse trying to evade capture. Others were bloodied from shards of broken glass or hid for hours on the roofs or beneath the leaves and plastic shrouding.”
  Whose fault was this? I guess if ICE just let people illegally enter our country to be abused by corporations who don’t want to follow the law, none of this would happen, right?
• Regarding the children who worked alongside Glass House’s at least 9 employees (we know it was at least that many, because they stated at at least 9 were detained): “while the identities of the alleged minors have not been disclosed, the company has been able to determine that, if those reports are true, none of them were Glass House employees“. Right, if those reports were true, none of their on-site employees noticed or paid out salaries to fucking CHILDREN? Did you feel the doubt they put in your mind? Did you take the focus off the shitty company hiring these people?
• More plays on your empathy, more hyperbolization: “The raid devastated Glass House and its workforce. Numerous workers were detained or disappeared, terrified to return. Those who remained were so distraught the company called in grief counselors.” … again, with the disappeared. Almost as though the LA Times knows which ditch they were supposedly lined up and shot in. This article just drips with messaging about how you should feel without explicitly saying it. Oh, those poor people had no idea what would happen when they illegally entered the country at all. They figured they were just going to be temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
• And then we have “Many in California’s cannabis industry feared the raid on Glass House was a signal that the federal government’s ceasefire against cannabis — which is legal in California but still not federally — had come to an end” … ICE isn’t about immigration, they’re coming after our dank nugs!
• Just to double down on the point that it’s not about immigration, we’re then told “In the wake of the raid, the United Farm Workers and other organizations warned farm laborers who were not citizens — even those with legal status — to avoid working in cannabis” – see, it’s definitely about weed! Don’t go apply for citizenship, hoard the nugs before they’re all gone!
• The one part of this whole fucking article I agree with was the quote “This shows the double standards of our legal system, where corporations can profit from the immigrant workers their businesses depend on, yet wipe their hands clean when it becomes inconvenient“, which is then shat all over by three paragraphs where Glass House says over and over again that they just want to pay these poor, innocent people. “We don’t want anyone to be shorted” – don’t you just feel warm and fuzzy for the abusive bullshit practices this company underhandedly pulled off?

Now, let’s talk a moment about the prinicipals at Glass House Brands. I did a quick OpenSecrets search for Kyle Kazan and Graham Farrar – Chairman and President of Glass House. Almost a hundred donations to Democratic leadership, with a few exceptions for Republicans who would make their farming operations a bit less regulated.

What wasn’t said in the article at all?

That a massive company – the Walmart of Weed, as the article quotes – sidestepped state and federal law and illegally employed these people for likely very substandard wages, not paying any taxes, and structured the operation so there was no liability?

That they had at least nine people working on-site who had to have seen over a dozen kids working on these farms?

That their website brags endlessly about social justice organizations to right the wrongs committed to, often, the very same people they illegally employed?

That the Californian government did nothing to oversee these farms? That criminal behavior and child trafficking was happening at a drug farm and nobody sounded an alarm? With an industry as regulated as legalized Marijuana nobody overseeing these farms asked about a single fucking immigration paper or why there were tweens running around farming weed?

Do you see through this bullshit, or is it just me?

In related news, if you don’t see through it, here’s a clip from a semi-related news article (https://progressive.org/latest/anti-cannabis-hmong-california-weinberg-210813/) where an illegal immigrant pulled an automatic weapon on emergency service workers directing traffic away from a wildfire and had fire returned by the police:

Do you see how the left is manipulating you?

Before I start this essay, let me lay a bit of background: I’m a gay dude who lives somewhere in the Upstate NY area. I’ve been around the block. I’m in my late middle ages looking at retirement. And I’m socially ostracized for everything you’re about to read, because despite the fact that my locality, county and state are run entirely by the Democratic party, any complaints about issues I face sitting in this deep blue state are clearly and concisely the fault of the Right. And the Right only. There is to be no question in this: complaining about the Left is not an option.

When I complain about the health care system, two things are made very clear to me. Firstly, I am a White man, which means that I am privileged, that I do not face issues, and that the medical system has never failed me. Conversely, the medical system consistently fails non-White people, the most important issues to be addressed are the issues that non-White people raise, and because of my privilege, it’s not just important, but an imperative that I have my voice “decentered” so that no power is gained by me, because I am the problem, not a victim. Secondly, any denial of these basic, core fundamentals makes me an ignorant racist who is, once again, trying to make it all about me. The system is failing, but it’s not failing me enough to matter. Therefore, step aside and let the “correct people” take the lead. We promise, you’ll be included when it’s necessary. And you don’t get to decide when that is.

When I complain about the cost of housing, and more specifically, the zoning and code changes that have made Single-family housing the single-largest problem in our state, I’m told that I’m simply trying to hold on to the last vestiges of my privilege, that I’m denying “something needs to be done” for climate change, and that non-White people are the only folks who have any real claim to complain about housing availability or costs. Until they are elevated, I cannot complain about anything. Especially the fact that cities all over Upstate NY have paid hundreds of millions of dollars a year to their richest developer friends to build completely unaffordable housing at well over market rates for construction, creating an ever-increasing wealth bubble of developers and investors who are buying up large swaths of the remaining housing stock and renting for amounts well over affordable for anyone in the lower 50th percentile. I guess it’s easy to boost your income when people don’t wanna be homeless. It’s okay, though. We’ll talk about restricting “package sales” of these homes when the developers have had their fill, and what’s true anyway is that I should really be living in a postage stamp downtown, because if I’m not in Dense Housing(tm) I’m contributing to Global Warming, which is definitely not going to impact me and is a racial issue. I’m basically a racist for questioning where I fit in any of this.

Did I mention Global Warming? Because we really need to Ban All Cars. Yes, that’s right, let’s not have better cars, because All Cars Are Bad. When I discuss any of this with a liberal, I’m told criticizing their Chevy Tahoe is off the table, because All Cars Are Equally Bad. Drive an EV, make choices to drive as little as possible, charge the EV with solar panels on your house? You’re no better than the guy who just coal-rolled me. And to fix all of this, we’re not going to make YOUR neighborhood walkable – that’s ridiculous. Please see the aforementioned housing policy. Yes, you’ll be living downtown in a freshly-build, fully-subsidized tower, and you’ll live, work and play (because you’re a child, not an adult with life goals) in the same 15 minute walk. You’ll do that, or you’ll be labelled The Problem. To encourage you not to be The Problem, we’re going to traffic calm every road you drive on – yes, that’s right, no more than one lane for everything, ensuring you’re sat at every light. You see, every traffic backup is good, because you’ll use all the extra time in your car to think not about the extra fuel you’re burning driving between the lights (or idling at them), but instead to think about that 15 minute city we talked about. You’ll have plenty of extra time as a ten minute drive balloons into a thirty (or more) minute drive. Which is good for you, remember. Besides, what did you have to do with that time anyway? You should just calm down and be less angry.

And when you nestle into your couch and try to relax at home? Yes, you’ll be treated to the dulcet tones of 2-stroke engines screaming past your house, boom cars rattling the artwork off your walls, people screaming at each other over said boom cars. Endless sirens and alarms. You see, it’s true that inner-city noise causes endless harms to the people who live there, which is why non-White people are under so much more stress – you drove by their house, you terrible person! – but when my quality of life is impacted, I have to sit down and remember that I’m privileged and those studies weren’t meant to center my concerns.

I’m tempted to go on. I’m tempted to complain about the constant, endless restrictions on what I can do with my home – I installed a car charger?!? – aghast! – but that kid with the AR15 stealing cars can’t let his life be ruined by anything more than an appearance ticket. I’m could write for days about the unfairness of raising my taxes for more corporate welfare and direct cash payments to people who don’t want to work. But at this point in our society, I don’t see us really caring at all.

When Hillary Clinton stood at her podium during the 2016 elections and started calling the entire Right “deplorables”, despite their serious concerns and issues, I understood immediately that the Left has elevated themselves above these people. I’m one of those deplorables. I want to live in a quiet neighborhood, have access to actually good healthcare, pay what’s fair for city services and strike a good balance on laws and restrictions for me versus the general freedom and quality of life of everyone around me. Which is to say, of course, that I want to oppress Black people, that I want to center myself above the people who really need better healthcare, that I want to hoard my own wealth and keep other people from “rising up”, and that I am (undoubtedly due to not being ‘educated’ enough) against the progress those laws and regulations are going to force out of me.

You see, when you question the Left, you are questioning not just progress and fairness, but the very nature of humanity. You’re one of them, a deplorable anti-progressive who just can’t get with the program. They’ve elevated themselves over the needs of the working class, and the people who have slowly watched their own opportunity dry up over the last few decades are supposed to, by nature of their own race, sit down and shut up. They’ll be taken care of real soon now, we promise. For equality. Until then, we just need to you stop asking questions and submit – intellectually, sure – but don’t think your wallet isn’t on the line too.

Could I say a lot about how the Right isn’t exactly providing for everyone, too? Sure. I could say that openly, in good part because that’s what I’m expected to say. Interestingly, I could say that to Republicans who themselves are open to the notion that their party isn’t perfect. Objective conversations seem to only occur with Republicans. A major thrust of the Democratic effort is a fascist, cruel casting out of anyone who dares question them. If you do, you’re obviously a racist, misogynist anti-progressive, because who would disagree with all the beautiful, wonderful virtues that Democratic party upholds?

I believe very strongly that everything deserves criticism, in direct proportion to that thing’s power over other human beings. It’s the reason we have critical thought and cognitive dissonance. When’s the last time you could have a critical thought about the Left?

Best to just keep that to yourself. You wouldn’t want your employer to know just how racist and misogynist you are, right?

I’m an IT Manager at a national company, with a variety of responsibilities on my plate. Managing a helpdesk is one of those responsibilities, and one that’s had me wanting to change careers lately?

Is it the unrealistic demands of entitled employees fresh out of college who believe they’ll be treated like the IT folks were in the late 1990s? That a six-figure salary must be right down the road for a person who is, fresh out of school, already too good for help desk work?

Sure, that weighs on it, but most of it are the industry vendors themselves. Let’s take a look at where two hours of my time have gone today (and see if this blog is a good catharsis for my troubles):

• I got a call from a user who is frustrated that Acrobat keeps crashing when opening a PDF from Outlook, and that the service desk has not been able to fix this.
• I reproduce the issue, which seems related to the “New Outlook” that’s been constantly rammed down my user’s throats, despite me turning it off everywhere Microsoft has said I can.
• I Google the issue. Recent code changes have made it such that these documents are opened from a different security zone than they used to be, making Acrobat unable to read the files when opened in this manner (i.e. when a user double-clicks them).
• I change the Compatibility Mode for Acrobat to Windows 8, based on a Google response (and after twenty minutes of trying things). The error goes away. I believe I am done with this issue.
• I get a call back about ten minutes later. Acrobat now “sits and spins” for 30-60 seconds each load, before displaying a dialog encouraging them to sign up for a bunch of really awesome, “will change your life if you let it” AI features that let us get contracts signed legally, right now! My options are to “Try Now” or “Remind Me Later”. There is no option – repeat, none – to say I’m not interested.
• Reproducing the issue makes it clear the program is loading a ton of Cloud content that we don’t use.
• I find the setting to stop showing me messages from Adobe, and uncheck it. Problem still persists.
• I find the settings aren’t being saved. Perhaps I need to run it as Admin?
• I can’t run it as Admin, because the program requires a sign-in to load, and the Administrator does not have an Adobe account, nor can I use the user’s login because they already have an install somewhere else.
• I create a registry key from their site’s support forums that does nothing to stop the pop-up.
• I disable Windows 8 compatibility mode, which lets me save the setting, but does nothing to stop the pop-up still, and I can no longer open PDFs from Outlook.
• I do an update of the program, which crashes.
• I remove and reinstall the program, which fixes neither issue.
• I put it back into Compatibility Mode for Windows 8, which allows me to open PDFs from Outlook, but the program still freezes up when opening before gently demanding that I use their fucking AI features again.
• As this is a paid program, I open a chat support session, which starts and ends like this:

• I eventually type the correct things to get a friendly agent on the chat to tell me how experienced they are with the program. They want me to remove and reinstall.
• I remove and reinstall, which predictably does nothing.
• Did you try creating this registry key, dword and value?
• Delete it and retry it.
• No fix? Here, uninstall but this time delete about fifteen different directories before reinstalling.
• Struggle with Windows Explorer bugginess, regress to command prompt.
• Reinstall program from scratch, log in as user.
• Greeted with a pop-up to try and new AI features. Disable the pop-ups, restart program.
• Greeted with a pop-up to try the new AI features.

The problem with IT is that you’re never really in control of anything. You’re always, always responding to whatever changes a vendor wants to make. Those changes are, increasingly and almost exclusively, designed to force you into paying for something more, signing up for more, or giving your data to them. It’s relentless.

The kicker? This is the third issue like this I’ve had today. I have no time for my job anymore. I’m just feeding more and more users into a handful of corporation’s desires to put their hands, arms and torsos entirely in our business. To be our everything. And to pop up dialogs until we relent and agree to give everything.

I will be working well late tonight to get the stuff I was supposed to do today done, and because tomorrow I’ll likely be rebuilding a C-level staffer’s PC to get a pop-up to stop – if that does anything.

Endless rushed-to-market features, buggy code, and a complete lack of respect or regard for people who don’t want to enable the latest AI Contracting features in their PDF viewer (while they open scanned copies of drivers licenses for employment verifications) will tear this industry down to its knees, and I can’t stand it anymore.

Its death can’t come fast enough for me.

Today I went to Staples to purchase a handful of SSD drives to replace some dead storage devices on some “just past warranty” PCs we have. Staples thoughtfully plunked a store down just about a mile from my office and I thought – I’ll take a run down to the store and grab a few. I should be back in twenty minutes and get these PCs back into service.

My first regret was the drive itself. We’ve traffic calmed everything. That mile – well, that’s a ten or more minute drive. You sit at every light. Nobody will move when it turns green. The left lane is for controlling, not passing. Things just have to take longer to save the world. It’s not saving anything, of course. All that idling really doesn’t make a V8 Tahoe save fuel, nor does the constant starting and stopping.

When I arrived at Staples, I was completely unable to use their website to find the product I needed. It was so focused on selling me stuff I could order for delivery that I had an almost impossible time figuring out where the M.2 drives were, if they even had any in the store.

Worse, none of the employees would help me with this. I needed to discuss this with an ‘expert at the Tech Center’. I stood at the Tech Center while person after person came in with Amazon returns. The person in the office behind the Tech Center ran out several times to help people at the Amazon returns desk, but I couldn’t get any help.

I walked over to the copy center, and was told “someone would be right with me”. Okay … let’s wait another 5-10 minutes.

It became apparent I would grow old and grey before I saw an “expert” to make my purchase, so I got in line at the register to ask the cashier. As soon as I walked over there, an “expert” walked out from the office and picked some stuff up from the desk I was just standing at. When she saw me walking over … right back into the office. So I get back in line.

… and waited some more. Apparently, the woman at the register really wanted to know about her rewards points, the program at large, what she could use/save. Who it’s registered to. How many purchases would qualify her for a higher tier. What the purchase levels are for a give reward. What are her options for her purchase today? Oh, by the way, she has these Amazon returns, too. Do the rewards apply to shipping costs?

After another five minutes, the same tech “expert” who had ducked my presence several times ran right out to the Amazon returns counter to process another return.

And I left. What’s the point of trying to spend $300 in a store that’s more interested in handling returns for Amazon or managing customer rewards points than it is selling product that’s sitting (presumably) on a shelf for cash.

I had cash. I wanted to buy a product on a shelf. I had to go through a sales process to obtain said product. But, had I wanted to return product another company sold me, I’d get priority service.

Ironically, I attempted to go to Walmart of all places to buy the same product, but aborted the attempt after sitting in artificially created traffic-calmed backups designed to wistfully force a reconsideration on whether or not I needed to even own a car, apparently at least.

Should I stop at Starbucks on the way back? Do I sit in the line of twenty cars while they make intensely complicated drinks for people who don’t want to walk in, or do I walk in and wait for everyone in the drive-thru line to get their orders completed along with the people who mobile-app ordered. Do I have fifteen minutes to wait for that latte?

Do I stop at CoreLife and wait in a 30-minute line while the staff does take-out order after take-out order or whips up a yummy labor-intensive smoothie?

Or I could get to the point … retail is dead. Not because big ol’ mean Jeff Bezos started Amazon, but because companies are too worried about downsizing their workforces, optimizing sales pipelines and capturing alternative customer bases to serve the people who are standing right in front of them.

My Amazon order will be here tomorrow, delivered right to my front door. Not because I wanted to send my business to them, but because I don’t have the time to do anything else.

… where I share my thoughts. Why should you care what I think? You shouldn’t. It’s my way of throwing my thoughts out into the world. Think of it as a very public therapist’s couch.

I fancy myself a free thinker. I don’t subscribe to any political party. I’m a married gay man who also thinks for himself when it comes to political issues impacting our community, how our community acts/behaves and what our priorities are. I love somewhere in Upstate NY. Frequent critic of our local leaders – the Democrats – and very much not inline with current Republican notions of how we should be engineered to behave. Loathe the modern media. History buff, IT Guy, DIY enthusiast. Some may call me a “polyglot”, I call myself interested in how things work.

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