Evie Day 558

Good morning, and a happy Tuesday to you all…you already know my dinner plans. Today is 24 September 2024.

I’m starting off the day thinking about the three big things I have to accomplish today… a recording, a couple of reports, and some lab content. Tonight, there will be tacos.

Lisa is usually the first one in the shower in the morning, but my alarm popped up first today. I took my turn, got dressed, and got the dogs out for their morning constitutional. The dogs then returned to the closed bedroom door awaiting the arrival of the treat lady.

I caught a former presidential candidate in lie this morning. One guy pushing his new book commented that there were no cases of women bleeding out in the hospital parking lot following the change in Roe v Wade by the conservative majority in the Supreme Court. It took me all of 30 seconds to locate the story of Amber Nicole Thurman, a 28-year-old woman who died in a parking lot following complications related to (tada!) an attempt by her to terminate her pregnancy.

It really bothers me how many people want to treat women as “less”.

There’s sports on tonight. I see that the Kansas City Royals have made the playoffs, but I likely won’t get the game. The outfit that handles the Royals broadcasts doesn’t have an agreement with my satellite provider, so I just don’t watch the Royals anymore. I watch the sports that are available on the channels that I have, so soccer and WNBA have filled in those baseball time slots just fine.

I likely won’t write tomorrow. Early flight to Seattle.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 557

Good morning, and a happy beginning to the western work week to you all. Today is 23 September 2024.

Yeah, I didn’t get as many posts out last week as I had hoped. Guess what? I probably won’t this week either.

Last week was interesting. I had a “Syn Week” with other team members from the company’s learning division – 1300 technical professionals in one spot – Las Vegas – for a few days of sessions and workshops. For me, it was great, as I worked closely with teammates from around the world. It was an absolute blast, and it opened the doors to some new ideas and projects. I’ve got some work to do and some projects to focus on.

I returned home at about 2:15 in the morning on Friday, and I slept in, didn’t get much writing done, and I don’t normally post on Saturday and Sunday.

Bob the sports ball fan had a mixed weekend, with the Kansas Jayhawks once again giving up a 4th quarter lead to earn another L in the win-loss column. The Chiefs did a little better, getting to 3-0 versus a strong Atlanta Falcons team.

Yesterday afternoon I was able to get together with the guys and game a bit. I play a dwarven cleric, and after throwing healing spells around like party favors, we entered the room with all of the undead swarms, and I opened my own eyes as to how many undead an 11th-level cleric can destroy with a “Turn Undead” action. It was successful enough that the next time we need that ability, it will be at the 12th level, as that little red-haired guy earned enough to level up. Woot!

This week is a couple of prep days for a video shoot in Seattle on Thursday and Friday. I’ll fly out very early on Wednesday morning, once again. We’re updating a video I shot last year about this time, focusing on changes and new features. My voice is in an interesting spot right now – I have a little tickle in my throat, and it adds a little “gravel” to my speaking voice. I tried to do a little Barry White impersonation last night as Lisa and I climbed into bed. She was not impressed, but then again, she’s heard me do that more than a few times. It usually ends the same way, with an eye-roll and me being hoist by my own petard.

That’s good. Time to think about a report for the boss, a couple of new projects with teammates, and prep for the shoot.

With my early morning travel on Wednesday, I probably won’t be able to write my post unless I do it from row 8 on the flight to SEA-TAC.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 552

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to you all. This is a short note for 18 September 2024.

Yesterday was a very busy day!

We had meetings all day, and smaller group meetings at night. I would say there was a reception (which there was… Yacht Rock was the theme… I wore a life preserver). The evening sorted out the way one would expect, with a lot of catching up, and frequent gatherings of folks to discuss a topic important to those within earshot. I enjoyed it, and I have a strong feeling that certain projects were advanced more than one would expect while a band playing Hall & Oates and Ace covers created atmosphere.

I’m going to head down for breakfast in just a moment. I just wanted to drop a note to say hi and Las Vegas has too many flashing lights for me.

Today we break out into five groups to talk about our collective goals for the year. We’ll have team dinners tonight. I need to remember to pay attention to shuttle times… don’t want to get left out.

I know it’s a short post, but my schedule has a few bumps in it this week. Being two hours outside my regular time zone is affecting me a bit.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 551

Good morning! It is Tuesday, September 17th, 2024. I’m in Las Vegas for a conference.

First thing I must do is thank everybody that wished me a happy birthday yesterday. I’m 61. I’m happy, relatively healthy, and not waking up with a hangover. I’m at a company event, and we have the team here from all around the world. I met counterparts from all over Asia and Europe, and it is a wonderful experience seeing so many folks that I have shared sessions with online. Everybody is the same height on a computer screen, but there is a tremendous pleasure gathering together and meeting teammates.

I’m writing this on my work laptop, and I keep getting a notification “You’ve signed out of Grammarly”… yeah, because Grammarly reads the content and give you feedback, but if you a re working on a confidential work document, it’s not something you want to have reading and recording stuff that might damage the company.

The first day was a lot of meet-and-greet, and I had a great time with familiar faces and some new ones. The pool reception was a lot of fun, and then some of us headed to the sports book at the hotel to continue our discussions, and I had great interaction with members of the European team. I also might be getting drawn into a couple of projects… and that is one of the primary reasons I enjoy these events.

It will be another full day today – I expect we’ll be talking, laughing, and sharing until about 11:00 tonight. We don’t have these get-togethers very often, so we do try to maximize our interaction. I was thankful to get away from the casinos for a while – all of the flashing lights can be a little off-putting for my neurodivergent side. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that while I’m in sessions.

OK, time to get going on the day ahead. Ibuprofen will be on the menu… lots of walking here.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 547

Good morning! It’s a Friday! Today is 13 September 2024.

Yes, it is Friday the 13th.

Let’s hope that things go favorably, today, shall we?

I’m watching the news and they’re talking about the election, which states might go to which candidate, all in that pursuit of 270 electoral votes. It’s going to be an interesting couple of months.

I’ve got my last day in the virtual classroom for a couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting class with lots of interaction with the front row. I look at virtual classrooms like a high school classroom, and we have a couple of folks that sit in the front row, and a few others taking notes in the back. I’ve been working with my training partner for eight of the last ten weeks… I might have to ask him for a little feedback about my delivery style, see if he has any suggestions for me.

Tonight there will be football. Kansas hosts UNLV at Children’s Mercy Hospital field over in Kansas City, Kansas. I hope we show up a little stronger than we did last Saturday night. Fewer turnovers would be good, too.

That’s all I really have for now. I’m not particularly motivated to be frank. Monday will be a little late, as I fly to Las Vegas at 6:00 AM. I’ll be looking for some breakfast when I get to the hotel.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 546

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 12 September 2024.

We’re watching the news this morning, and the first commercial spacewalk is happening. Some billionaire is going on a spacewalk. Thanks for reminding us that the future is for all of us if we have the money.

Sorry, I’m not the biggest fan of Elon Musk.

Last night there was a gathering of the tribes online, and there was a little bit of kinetic fun. I was a bit surprised when I rolled my third attack for a “3” on the dice, and it was still good enough to hit the bigbads that we were encountering in the woods.

There was quite a bit of talk throughout the day yesterday regarding the debate on Tuesday night. The consensus is that it was a pretty one-sided victory for Harris, and Trump looked like an old fool. Of course, the Trump true believers are saying that Trump won, but then again these are folks who could get a bucket of pee dropped on them from a second-story window and they would talk about being good because we need the rain.

Today I’m talking about business continuity and disaster recovery solutions with my class. This will be my last real lecture with this private class. We’ve been working with them for four weeks. Next week I have a conference with my team in Las Vegas, so Monday’s post might be a bit late, or way too early, but I will try to stay on top of my writing. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with folks, including a coworker from my previous life.

Alright, it’s time to make a pot of coffee and reheat a little of the breakfast I made yesterday.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 545

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to one and all! Today is 11 September 2024. It’s the morning after the debate, and it’s the anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history.

Today will be an interesting day. I’ll be back in my virtual classroom in a bit. My training partner and I have been working together for 8 of the last 10 weeks, and I like to think we’ve established a rapport. He’s on deck first with a case study, and I’ll run the afternoon office hours, and we’ll switch that up for tomorrow.

The debate last night was about what I expected… Trump lost badly and claimed victory. One thing that I’ve learned to say with some frequency is the old maxim “Demand evidence and think critically”. I like to think that I do… and the evidence points squarely to poor preparation on Trump’s part, and he’ll do what he does – claim victory – and then he’ll blame anything akin to a bad performance on the people that were there to help him prepare.

And no, they aren’t eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Anyway, I thought last night was good for the Harris campaign, and very reassuring to those of us that do not want to see Trump gifted another four years of diverting taxpayer dollars to his golf clubs.

Tonight, there will be gaming! I look forward to hanging out with the guys. I ‘ll probably jump on line a few minutes early to say hi to a couple of the crew and maybe reflect on what we witnessed last night.

In the meantime…

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 544

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all, including Sue, who had tacos last night at the Paramount. Hi Bob!

I have a dog here that is pawing at my leg to come sit on my lap… so I lower the leg rest, she looks at me, then wanders off. That’s a fact of life when you live with a senior dog. Lucy has her good days and her bad days, and I can’t help but wonder if dogs can get dementia just like humans can when they reach seniority. It’s something I think about, as I look at the calendar and wait for that annual date that reminds me that entropy cannot be reversed.

And now they are doing the tribute to James Earl Jones, who passed yesterday at the age of 93. What an incredible life, and what an incredible set of pipes. Of course, they cut away… and you hear James Earl Jones say, “This is CNN”.

I’m back in my virtual classroom this morning. I’ve got a short video to cut at 7, and then I’ll start class at 8. We’ll get after it for a couple of hours, then I’ll switch gears for a bit, shifting my focus onto some other upcoming responsibilities.

Tonight, we’ll have our traditional Tuesday night meal, then Lisa and I will huddle around the TV… well, it’s a 75-inch big screen, so no real need to huddle around it like it’s a 1930s-era end table radio. The debate will be on, and I have chosen my side… no real surprise which candidate I’m backing. For the first time, Lisa and I have chosen to buy yard signs to support a candidate. I wonder which delivery driver will try to take the sign out? I have heard some of our delivery drivers listening to right-wing radio when they pull into our drive to make a delivery. It might be wise to put the sign in front of the big tree stump as a layer of insurance against vandalism.

OK, it’s time for me to get focused on the day ahead.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 543

Good morning, and a happy first day of the Western work week to you all. Today is Monday, 9 September 2024.

The weekend was a good one, but not as good as we had hoped around here. The Chiefs took care of business on Thursday night (after I thought they would tank the first game of the season) then on Saturday, things didn’t go as well as we’d have liked. The Kansas Jayhawks traveled to Champaign-Urbana and couldn’t get things together, Kansas lost 23-17. Illinois didn’t like losing at Kansas and found a way to rally in the fourth quarter. Kansas gave them a little help in the turnover department, and an odd ruling on the field gave the ball back to the Illini after a muffed punt went into the endzone where it was recovered by Illinois – not a safety, as I would’ve expected, but a touchback to the 20 or 25. Ugh.

This week will be a week of staying focused on work. I need to focus on a couple of deliverables, one for this morning, and another for later in the week. I have a meeting with my manager later this morning regarding the first, as I am applying for a course lead position. We’ll see how that goes.

I think we’ve cleared all of the COVID cases in the house. Lisa certainly seems to be back to her regular self, and Dane and I never tested positive – rather odd considering our proximity to Lisa last week, but I’ll take the win and run with it.

Yesterday morning, Lisa made a couple of Danish pastries for breakfast: blueberry-lemon and strawberry-rhubarb. They were both fantastic, and I am happy to say there were some leftovers that will find their way onto my plate just about the time my coffee gets done brewing.

I’ve been getting back into the executive book summary habit – up to 38 books so far. I need to keep it up and focus on the titles related to staying focused and organized. I need structure, and where it doesn’t exist, I’ll create it.

Yesterday afternoon was a good time with the guys – we slayed a couple of big-bads – well, they were big-bads to us, as we’re not the most powerful party among the five different campaigns we’ve got going on right now. In this campaign, I’m a stoic Dwarven cleric who focuses on the business at hand, with no shenanigans… and his name if Buzz Keal. You can figure that one out.

That’s all I have for now. I’ve got courseware to review and forms to complete.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 540

Good morning, and a very happy Friday to you all. Today is 6 September 2024.

OK, first things first… the Chiefs won last night by a toe. The Ravens scored first, then the Chief tied it, got a little lead, then the Ravens came back. The Ravens would’ve scored on the last play of the game… but the receiver just barely stepped out of bounds in the endzone, game over, Chiefs win 27-20.

Put that one in the books and tiptoe away very quickly.

It was a pretty good game, and I apologize to the Chiefs. I thought the Ravens were going to come into Arrowhead Stadium with a full head of steam. They had a full head of something and called for illegal formations more times than I’m sure their coach would like. The highlight for me was watching the Chief’s first-round pick, Xavier Worthy, score two touchdowns. That was quite the display.

What else is top of mind?

I turn 61 in another week and a half. Am I a mature adult? I hope I’ve grown up some. I have joked that growing older just means you have more responsibilities, but there are some other things that are indicators of evolution. When I was young, in my teens and twenties, I didn’t always treat people with the respect they deserved. I was a self-centered narcissist and behaved as such (even if the term “self-centered narcissist” is redundant). Every now and then we get reminders of who we used to be, whether it was an interaction from years ago, or someone asking about other events that were long-forgotten. Yeah, when I was a kid, I did some foolish and inconsiderate things. I can’t change who I was, but I can try to be a better person today.

OK, time for me to think about the day ahead. I’ve got a few slide decks to review, due at the end of the business day today, and I need to take a look at next week’s responsibilities.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace ya’ll.