It’s a windy, cold night in rural Douglas County. I have to admit, that for me, it was a pretty productive day. Lots of new material coming down the pipe from the mothership, and I’m swallowing it whole without taking time to chew.

Tomorrow, more of the same, reading, labs, whatever it takes to continue on this very interesting path.

OK, interesting to me. It might not be that interesting to you. For all I know, in the future my grandkids will be accessing data that’s stored in a pocket universe.

I’ll stick to this reality for now. It suits my personality.

Other than that, just the anxiety that goes from living day to day in this everchanging, and ever-strange, world.

I need to get back to some pleasure reading. Might be time to read a little more humor… maybe some of the collected works of Asprin. He always made me laugh.

The new guys are good, though. I think Scot Meyer’s “Magic 2.0” series is a hoot, and there are a couple more books left in the series I have yet to listen to.

I know I ought to read the “Wheel of Time” series. I’ve read the first couple, but that was probably twenty years ago. Might be a good time to consider a revisit.

That’s good enough for now.

Peace y’all.

It’s Sunday night here in rural Douglas County, a part of the county that shows up on maps as “Noria”.

Lisa and I are watching a Natalie Portman movie that came out right around Memorial Day last summer. I know now why this movie didn’t do so well at the box office. The books might be better. The sound editing on this movie is terrible.

But, back to the review of the day. We went to Mass yesterday, so we weren’t quite as motivated to get up and get out of the house at the crack of dawn. No problem there. I’ve spent most of the day has been spent reading and working on pending work-related projects. So many new classes coming down the line for me.

Azure, Office 365 (Microsoft 365), and a smattering of new classes on Messaging, Teams, Active Directory, and soon some deeper examination of Azure Solutions Architecture. I’ll get there. I’ve always adapted to the needs to the current IT environment. It’s simply a matter of investing the time and learning the ins and outs.

I’ll get a good nights sleep tonight. Has to be better than the tossing and turning I endured last night.

Maybe a little time speed reading a book will help.

Maybe some time with my “Weightless” by Marconi Union will help me get my head aligned with a restful sleep. Throw in a little Liquid Mind to even me out a little bit.

Peace y’all.

OK, it’s a Saturday night in rural Douglas County, and the old, fat guy in’t as hacked off as he probably ought to be, but that’s going to happen when you lose to Kentucky on the road halfway through the conferences season.

Tomorrow is a bookish kind of day for me. Lots of reading ahead. Fortunately I have a couple of tools in my gig bag to help me with volume of stuff I have to read.

If it’s anything I can convert into an epub format, I use an app in the Microsoft Store called Dynamic Reader. When I was younger, I was able to score speed and retention pretty well. Not to boast, but I would like to think I was above average.

That kind of spurs off another conversation. Maybe in another post.

So, maybe I ought to stick to KU’s loss to Kentucky?

Meh,

This one was visible from the horizon. Kansas has beaten the Wildcats the last few times in a row, and playing them at their house was more than this Kansas team was ready to overcome.

It was a horserace, though. I’m guessing the NBA scouts in the audience were impressed with what they saw.

Goodnight.

Peace y’all.

Friday night in rural Douglas County, and I’ve had a pretty good day. Finished up a 2 day Azure Fundamentals course (ok, some weirdness… I’ve taught a five day Azure course probably a dozen times, and yet tis was a first time teach on Azure fundamentals).

Lisa and I, ok, mostly me… Lisa has been sitting with Freya, and has slipped back and forth between the movie, her phone, and sleep.

Hey, she’s had a rough week. Give her a break.

Not much happening for me this weekend, other than aggressive perusal of some Microsoft curriculum. I need to take a look at what’s happening with the Office 365 curriculum and what’s happening with the new Azure courses coming down the line.

I’ve got some work to get done.

But… isn’t that the case with everybody? Nobody gets ahead without putting in the work.

I’m kind of laughing to myself right now. I start writing about ythe little things I need to do to “be right” with the world, or getting a little bit more done with the tasks in front of me. Some things are likely to change, some things are not.

All I can hope for is that the decisions I make in the coming weeks are the best ones.

There might be some stuff on the line.

Peace y’all.

I’m sitting here enjoying an episode of “The Orville”, and I have to admit that Seth Macfarlane is pulling off a Gene Roddenberry kick with his little morality plays, and it has a definite Macfarlane twist. He’s tackled the oddball stuff that are absolutely part of our modern society, and I applaud him for it. It’d nice to see a show tackle the uncommon issues in our society.

Now, that show is over, and I’ve switched “Star Trek: Discovery”. It’s into season two, and the second episode. It’s pretty different from the Star Trek series (plural) that I’m used to, but I’m not one to give up. There have only been two Star Trek series that I haven’t committed to, the original Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Star Trek: Enterprise. I’ll get through them all, but it might take a little time.

My weight loss plan is going well so far. Down about ten pounds on the year.

Back to the second day of my first time teach. So far so good. Some of the experience reinforces some of my core beliefs about training, especially the part about a good trainer being a good listener. I don’t quite know how some folks expect to learn anything new when they insist on doing all of the talking. If you need help, chill out. Let me do my job. I can answer your questions, but lordy, give a guy a chance to answer the question without being interrupted.

Back to it tomorrow. Friday. Jeans. Count me in,

Peace y’all.

It’s Wednesday night in the rural Douglas County, and I’m looking over some content.

I wrapped up an Office 365 class today, and tomorrow I jump right into an Azure Fundamentals class with a bunch of folks on-premises. It’s an interesting situation, as we have enough students that it requires that we actually have two instances of the class… I’m teaching the class at out our Kansas City facility, and another instructor is teaching all of the remote students.

I’m a little frustrated with the curriculum. The folks at Microsoft learning are having to deal with an incredible challenge trying to maintain some consistency in the labs with the environment is constantly changing.

I love what I do, but sometimes keeping up with half a dozen classes that are constantly in a state of change. It might be a little easier if those two subjects were the only ones I had to worry about, but the reality is I still have to worry about Exchange, Skype for Business, IIS, and a few other things as well.

Part of the irony of my situation is that I need to expand the breadth of my knowledge even more. I need to embrace the solutions architecture role, and try to think more and more like a developer.

I haven’t written any code of significance since I was a teenager.

In BASIC.

On a Commodore PET.

Once step at a time, right?

Peace y’all.

Right now I have a small dog by my ankles hoping I put my laptop down soon so I can pay more attention to her.

I love our little Yorkie-mix dogs. Lucy is about 11 pounds, and little Freya, the cutest small dog in the world, is kicking the scales at about 5 and a half pounds.

Colby, Gracie’s dog, has been pretty good tonight, and he’s asleep on the couch.

Lisa is asleep in her recliner.

It’s 8:42.

The rain is changing to ice, and the temperature is dropping. I’m going to have a bit of a challenge getting into work tomorrow.

I’ve let my students know how class might go tomorrow if the ice makes travel too dangerous. I’m going to get up and do my best to make it into work. I know I need to get up and get going early, keep it low and slow.

At least I have half a Western Omelet I can nuke in the lounge for breakfast when I get there.

I better check the roads again.

Lisa is going to be a little anxious about me driving in to work tomorrow, I know. She’s asleep in the chair beside me now, and Lucy is flipped over on her back by Lisa’s knees. It’s borderline hilarious.

I want a piece of fruit.

I’ll get a good snack, then call it a night.

Peace y’all.

I’m a happy person.

At least I try to be. I want to be a person that is enjoyable to be around. Nobody likes a grumpybutt. To that end, I’m trying to get over the things that get me down a little quicker, get refocused on the things that make me feel good. I like my career. I train on technical subjects. I get to watch light bulbs come on. Today I saw some of that, and that’s what makes me happy.

I need to spend a little time working on my planner, getting some of the fields filled in. It’s the Freedom Mastery “Law of Attraction” planner, and it has a lot of good planning material for goal setting. It’s never too late to set goals and work towards them. I’ve been lucky to have achieved a number of goals that I have set for myself in the past.

So, to that end, we set some more goals, for my health, my wealth, my career, and my family. What am I going to do this year to be the best “me” I can be?

I guess the first step is asking the question, and maybe a few others. How can you find the answers if you’re not asking the right questions?

Peace y’all.

OK, it’s Sunday morning, and we’re getting ready to head off to church here in a bit. It’s cold outside, hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Today I’ll be on pins and needles all day, right up until the game is over. The Chiefs host the Patriots today. My team has not been to a Superbowl since 1970, when I was six years old. It’s hard to believe, and I can’t get ahead of myself. Chiefs have to get this win for that to happen. Last time the Chiefs were in the AFC Championship, the Chiefs had to travel to Buffalo, with Joe Montana at the helm.

To that end, I’ll be a bit of a wreck. I’m a huge Chiefs fan, both in spirit and in girth. I’ve waited a long time for this.

I guess it should be reassuring that the Chiefs are playing a team that everybody outside of New England hates. People are tired of Tom Brady and the Patriots. It’s time for a new sheriff in town.

Patrick Mahomes has bought a new puppy. I used the picture of that pooch on my daily profile pic on social media.

Church in half an hour. I got some praying to do.

Then I need to get my wings in the oven after.

Peace y’all.

It’s a Saturday night in rural Douglas County, and I just dragged my old fat butt home from a great show.

So, when I heard Eric Johnson was going to perform his album “Ah Via Musicom” as part of an anniversary tour, I knew I had to go. Irememb er when that album came out. I had bought a new car, a Pontiac Grand Am, and I was working at the Salina Journal. I was about to make a couple of changes in my life that would propel me into the career and life I have today… mainly getting out of Salina, and working in IT full time.

I remember watching “Austin City Limits”, and this dude with a Flock of Seagulls hairdo and a high school marching band uniform came out and played “Ah Via Musicom”, an introductory piece, and prelude, and then the most significant guitar piece I have ever listened to up to that point in my life, and likely beyond, “Cliffs of Dover”.

Man oh man. I was hooked. Went out and bought the album the next day, I think on cassette tape. I’ve picked up the CD since then, as well. There’s just something about that guys music that does it for me. Incredible guitar player.

It will likely be chasing my dreams tonight while I sleep.

Peace y’all.