It’s a Thursday morning, and I am at a work event, located in a beautiful resort in Washington state, about an hour and a half outside of Seattle. This event has been a wonderful experience, quite possibly due to the comradery in the after hours events than the daily content. I’ve had much needed follow-up conversations with some coworkers, and have met some others that are just all around great people… and at least one fellow employee that lives in Lawrence as well.

I didn’t write yesterday. It was a very busy day, with lots of Worldwide Learning team content, and a fun activity in the afternoon where we focus on the giving campaign. Microsoft is really an incredible company with a very human-centric culture. People genuinely care. I’m not saying that people didn’t care at my other workplaces, but the coordination and the “more than the some of it’s parts” application of talent is something to experience.

Other good news in the offing… today we get another internet service provider at the house. We had hoped the install would take place last week, but they were missing a key piece of equipment. Today, however, is the day we get things done.

We just went through introductions, and Steve remembered everybody in the room. Wow.

I’m going to get this wrapped up, as we’ve got more important things to talk about… Later.

Peace y’all.

Hey, gang! Hello to my future grandchildren and any other gentle readers that dare to trip the light fantastic that is my daily blog entry.

First of all, let me take a moment and emphasize the need for one and all to blog. Your children, your grandchildren, and their great, great grandchildren are going to want this. Seriously. We all have a responsibility to pass along our thoughts, our words, the ideals of the day in which we live… it’s something that many of us are doing, and more ought to be doing.

Here’s the thing. Everybody ought to be doing it. I occasionally read the misbegotten ramblings of racists and other bigots in the internet. Whether right or wrong, all have a right to speak. My old saying is that I’m a full supporter of freedom of speech. It ought to be exercised often. It also makes it easier to spot the asshole. That way, when our grandchildren look back at the degrees of ignorance in full display by some loud folks in this day and age, they can at least say, “Grampa thought everybody ought to get an equal shot, and equal access to all of the services necessary to achieve that dream”.

Dreams don’t have a gender.

Dreams don’t have an orientation. OK, some guys are going to disagree with that, bit they’re also the guys that dream of having consensual sex with a girl.

Dreams are equal opportunity.

We all need to come together, and help our respective peer groups achieve those goals. *

*Except you racist assholes. Y’all need to get over that shit, because one of your kids or grandkids is going to fall on love and marry someone that doesn’t look like you. Deal with it.

Peace y’all.

It’s bright and early Monday morning, and it was even earlier and a lot less bright when I got up this morning to drag my fat ass to the airport to get checked in by 5:30 for a 6:30 flight. Right now, I’m at 37,000 feet over some of the most beautiful, snow-covered landscape in North America.

I am headed to an internal event in Washington State for an event we call “Sync Week”. As a technical trainer, I spend a lot of time talking. This week my primary objective is to shut up and listen.

I love what I do. I have a great job, talking about technology and helping people accomplish more and advance their own careers. I have experienced a lot in my career, and certain facts remain…. with technology, there is a challenge in staying up to date, and the older you get, the more of a challenge that can be. I do OK, but I could be better.

This week we gather. I need to kick a few penguins off the iceberg and make room for some new penguins. It’s just part of my reality. I’ve become accustomed to it as a “work hazard”. And I have a tendency to fall back on my mantra “Everything is going to be fine”.

Everything is going to be fine. I’ve been performing all that has been asked of me at a level I would describe as “adequate”. I can and will do better. My manager and peers would likely say I’m doing better than that, with a couple of training partners calling me a rock star. Even if that was true (it’s not), I can’t let myself believe that. Overconfidence leads to complacence, and I can never allow myself to get comfortable. There is always another bridge to cross, and if there’s no bridge, let’s build that sucker.

Best to you all.

Peace y’all.

Ok, here we go. It’s Saturday night, the last Saturday night of September in the year 2019. I was traveling yesterday, but I did eventually get home… around three o’clock in the morning. Man, that was a rough trip home.

Lisa and I had a good day, going out to lunch and then trying to address the “trash out to the road” issue that will continue to be a problem as long as I keep going out on the road on the night before trash day.

So many oddball things kind of swirling through my head right now. Might be a combination of Canadian Whiskey, Fresca, and exhaustion.

I was thinking about bullies again. I think I’ve chatted with y’all about my take on bullies before. They’ve become quite the phenomenon lately, and certainly an interesting topic of discussion. I remember telling the kids when they were very young that there were three kinds of people. There were the bullies that picked on people. There were the victims of bullying that for one reason or another, were always targeted by the bullies. Then there are those that defend the victims and stand up to the bullies. I hope my kids end up in that third category.

Maybe I overthink things.

Maybe I should call it a night and get some sleep.

Peace y’all.

It’s weird, but I have to confess…

(I wonder how many times I’ve stared off one of my blog entries with just that statement. I know, more random thought stream absurdity!)

… that I am excited about the possibilities presented by embracing yet another internet service provider out to the house. Maybe the fifth time is a charm?

Or is it sixth?

So the story, which I have probably related to you, gentles reader, before. When Lisa and I moved out to rural Douglas County, I confirmed three times with the local cable provider that they would be able to provide that residence with uninterrupted internet access as we moved from the old house into the new house. Every single time they told me “yes”. And then they showed up to install and gave me the bad news. No drop. I was furious.

I jumped in the car, and started to explore my options. I have since signed separate two year contracts with Hughes and Mercury Wireless. The Hughes.net service is metered – I get high speed for up to 50 GB of download, then they govern it down to a megabit or so from a reasonable 25-30 megabits. I’m a 500 GB a month user. That is wholly inadequate. Mercury Wireless in unmetered, but the speeds are unreliable.

Other than that, I have two different cellular providers, both metered.

So, we had Wicked Broadband come out to the house to do a site survey, and they told me they can see two of their towers from our roof. They believe that we can pull 40-70 Mbps.

Be still my beating heart.

The install happens next Thursday.

Mama!

Peace y’all!

It’s been a week. Might be time to see if I screwed up the timeline and the total number of days I’ve lived here on Earth.

Weird to think that someday I’ll have descendants that say, “I lived the first 10,000 days of my life on Earth, the fountain of humanity, but at the age of 22, I decided to participate in the colonization of the planet we now call…”.

It’ll happen. I hope he or she blogs about it and passes it on down to the next generation. Had dinner with old friends tonight from the Microsoft Certified Trainer community. It was an eye-opening experience as to what some things mean and what other things don’t mean. I also found out a little bit more about people, and I have to say that I am grateful for some friends, and hella lot more grateful for some others.

We had a good delivery today. I manned the boards and handled the registrations and the online questions. My partner did a great job going through the material, and I learned from watching him teach. I also learned a few things about myself by watching another trainer train. I will be able to build upon that in my future deliveries.

I pack in the morning and head out to the airport after Ken and I are done with our last testing session, and then back home for a couple of nights. I’ve got some mowing to do back at the homestead. I wish you all the best.

Peace y’all.

OK, it’s a Wednesday. I’ve got a lot going on today! First of all, I have to take care of class stuff, with a three hour internet delivery starting at 11:00 today. After that, I have an interview to conduct with a candidate for a technical training position. I probably ought to look up the details on the candidate prior to the interview.

Then, after all of that is said and done, I head to the airport. I have a flight late this afternoon/early this evening to Phoenix, Arizona. Over the course of the next couple days I have a delivery with one of my fellow trainers, along with proctored tests to get these folks certified on Azure Fundamentals.

I also need to get some hydrogen peroxide in my ears. My left ear is bugging me a little bit, so getting that addressed should be a priority for me today. I can’t let another ear infection bog me down. It affects my attitude and my performance in the classroom.

The house is looking a lot better. We have the flooring taken care of in the bedroom and out closet. Lisa has already expressed her satisfaction with the new flooring. If she’s happy, then I’m happy.

I probably ought to get myself organized and address any other issues that pop up today. I probably ought to forward the info to the kids about their tags and taxes getting renewed.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I hope your day is going well.

Peace y’all.

Nothing personal, but I’m not going to be writing much tonight. Just not there.

Peace y’all

It’s Monday night, and the house is in a bit of disarray. Lisa and I are having the floors redone in our bedroom and closet, and most of our stuff from that room is currently occupying places of high profile in the middle of the dining room and living room.

Tomorrow I tackle the online delivery. I’ll be performing my first AZ-900 over the internet. We have a big client in the eastern time zone, and we’ll get class going at about eight o’clock my time.

We’ll treat it as a any regular AZ-900, and I’ll be using Microsoft Teams for the delivery. I’ll be the primary, and an other instructor from the east coast will be handling the online questions and attendance. I’m looking forward to this.

I have a couple of concerns, but I’m doing my best to allay them . I’ve got four different internet providers. I’ve got decent speeds for this sort of delivery.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day.

Peace y’all.

Damn I got my day count screwed up again Good thing I go back and reckec that stuff from time to time.

So, what is there to talk about tonight? Chiefs won against the Baltimore Ravens, so that was a good thing. Lisa and I enjoyed a couple of really nice filet mignon tonight for dinner, and that was really good. Watched the TOm Cruise reboot of “The Mummy” and I must admit that the Brendan Frazier version was better.

I’ve got to get up and get going in the morning, with an early morning oil change. We’ve got some projects around the house as well, and I think we’re going to finally get the help we need to get them done.

It’s going to be a busy week with all that we’ve got going on. And that’s OK. I still need to get some stuff done, and I will likely get roped into moving some furniture … not my favorite thing to

I’m going to wrap this up a little early. I have plenty to keep me tied up tomorrow, so I’m going to focus on those goals. I hope all is well with you.

Peace y’all.