Evie Day 281

Hey folks, it’s Friday! I’m on vacation until 2 January 2024! Today is 22 December 2023! That’s like ten days of … doing things I promised I would get done this year that I procrastinated doing!

Lisa and I slept in a bit this morning, and that extra hour was most welcome. The floofs didn’t notice until we get up to get going, and they usually are bright-eyed at 5:30 AM, ready to go. I would have said “bushy-tailed” but in their case, that is a permanent condition.

We’re going to get the house ready for Sunday. We’re heading over to Clay Center tomorrow to see family. My sister and brother-in-law are hosting for a holiday get-together, complete with seasonal treats and comfort food. My niece and her newborn won’t be coming to visit until Monday, but having everybody at the same time might be a lot for my sister to have to deal with.

Today, I’ll get some running around done in town, with a possible lunch adventure side trek. Might be me, might be Dane and me, might be Lisa and me… who knows? Might even be Gracie and Evelyn and me. To be frank, the Friday before Christmas in this town is likely to be pretty busy with lots of folks going out for lunch to see friends they haven’t seen in a while.

I’ll probably do some fun stuff, too. Tonight, the KU Jayhawks host Yale in men’s basketball. Kansas has moved up to #2, but one thing I have learned, when these Ivy League schools come here to take in a game, they are prepared and Kansas has a bullseye on their backs. Yale, Harvard, Princeton… it doesn’t matter. These folks get up and get motivated when they arrive in Allen Fieldhouse.

I will probably kill a few virtual aliens in Starfield today as well.

I’m not sure if I’ll be writing and posting every day next week. I may skip Monday, and maybe get a post in Sunday instead. We’ll see. I do hope to get four or five good posts in next week, so we’ll see what gets produced from the break.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 280

Good morning, happy Thursday, and welcome to my last official workday of the year… today is 21 December 2023.

My training partner and I have a few shorter segments today, and we’re hoping to have the talking part of the class done by noon or thereabouts. In reality, I think we’ll have part of the content overflow into the after-lunch break, but you never know.

I’m starting to reflect on this last year, the ups and the downs, and all in all, it was a pretty good year. Yes, I am aware there is still a week and three days in 2023, and heaven knows a lot can happen in a scant ten days, but I don’t know if there is enough to change my overall perspective.

I’ll spend a little more time reflecting on that next week. It’ll give me something to write on vacation.

In reality, my vacation will be a working vacation. There are plenty of things I need to focus on to close out the year – a couple of unchecked boxes in my annual goal list are bugging me a bit. I also need to set some SMART goals for 2024 as well… some to be accomplished during the fiscal year, others, the calendar year. New training modalities I need to conquer, and certifications that I have procrastinated. I have a new planner – there is something I like about writing things down on paper, and I have a pretty good planner to help me stay focused on the goals before me.

Lisa and I are going out to dinner tonight. Dane wants the house to himself for an hour or two to wrap some Christmas presents, so he told me to take my wife out on a dinner date. I have a few to wrap myself.

Time for me to get focused on closing out my training year.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 279

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to you all. Today is 20 December 2023.

I woke up this morning to the news that at least one state has decided to remove a candidate from the ballot due to that candidate’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. That candidate is not going to be happy.

Last night Dane and I went to the movies. We had planned on catching a movie on Saturday, but the power was out at the movie theater, We were given rain checks, but they problem we ran into was time… the movie we wanted to see leaves town on Thursday, last showing as 12:50 PM, in the middle of my work day, so last night became the night. The movie takes place at the end of World War II, and the protagonist is a Japanese kamikaze pilot who realizes he is throwing his life away if he completes his mission. The outcome was clear to him and others… but he still felt survivor’s guilt over his decision.

Oh, and the other thing… the antagonist was Godzilla.

I have to admit, that was a fantastic movie. There’s a reason “Godzilla-1” rated 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Today, I’m back in my virtual classroom, starting off the day with some review, then a module on compute security. After that, my training partner takes over for the other two modules.

I’m looking forward to a gaming night with the guys tonight.

Time to focus on the day ahead.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 278

Good morning! It is another taco Tuesday on planet Earth, and I am happy. It is 19 December 2023.

I’ve got some friends who are happy this morning in Seattle.., and one Seattle friend who is probably waking in disbelief. The Seattle Seahawks rallied to beat one of the best teams in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles, on Monday Night Football. I have a number of friends in the Seattle area, but I can only think of one Eagles fan, another guy on my team. 11 plays, 92 yards, incredible catch with 28 seconds left in the game. Good job, Seahawks.

The campaign season is heating up, and things are being said that ought to give folks pause. The regular old insults are flying around, and then there are some other things being said by a candidate or two that are quite alarming, recalling a time a hundred years ago. One candidate commented that foreigners are “poisoning our blood”. I can guarantee that candidate has not an ounce of indigenous DNA in his genetic makeup… he’s a son of first and second-generation immigrants.

My class is going well. We had really good participation from our attendees yesterday, and I hope we have more of the same today.

Lucy is pawing at my leg, begging my to lower my legrest so she can come up on the recliner. She’s getting older, 12 years old this fall, and doesn’t quite have the spring in her legs that she used to have… I can understand that, Lucy.

Time to get a pot of coffee on and get breakfast sorted.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 277

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you all. Today is the last working week of the year for me, and we start with 18 December 2023.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in another couple of hours, co-delivering with one of my favorite fellow trainers. He’s been doing some other stuff for the last few months, and this is his second or third week back in the trainer role for which he is imminently qualified.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. The Chiefs played at the Patriots early, and despite some setbacks, found a way to win… but against the Patriots, a shadow of the team they were in Tom Brady’s heyday, they had no excuses. A ten-point win on the road is welcome, but the Chiefs still have a long way to go to get back in Superbowl-winning form, and I don’t think they will get there this year.

Lisa and Gracie went into Kansas City yesterday, along with a sleepy little girl, all of 9 months old. I did get to spend a little time with Evie after they returned, and she was all smiles. It is kind of cool being a grandfather.

Lisa is now over enjoying her breakfast. Odin is at her feet, whining for a taste like the fluffy boy that he is. Lisa and Dane gave him a trim yesterday, and gave up after they got most of him trimmed except his jaw area and around his tummy… he currently looks like a Scottish Terrier, and it’s funny. Yesterday I told Lisa that he’s more of an “Odin MacTavish” in his current look.

Just showed a shot of the former guy at a rally talking about foreigners coming into the US to “poison our blood”. I recall another leader from another country from another time talking about “blood purity” almost a hundred years ago. I hope people open their eyes – we can’t afford another four years of that criminal.

OK, time to get this in the can and get going on my day. Lisa has to go out for a business dinner this evening, so Dane and I will forage at a nearby diner for supper.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 274

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you all! It is 15 December 2023.

Last night I found out who the worst team in football is today. Earlier this year, when the Miami Dolphins hung 70 on the Denver Broncos, I might’ve said it was that particular AFC West team. Since then, however, the Broncos have recovered and have put together their best season in several years, including a win over my Kansas City Chiefs at Mile High Stadium.

But the state of the Los Angeles Chargers, formerly the San Diego Chargers, is one to cause alarm for the most casual football fan. A mediocre 5-8 Raiders team hosted the Chargers on Thursday night football and set a blistering scoring pace on offense and defense to rout the Chargers 63-21. The Raiders were up 42-0 at the half and then took their foot off the gas pedal to only score 3 times in the second half.

I joked that I didn’t know the Chargers had a junior varsity.

I hope the Chiefs don’t look like that ever in whatever time I have left… but it will probably happen, right after Patrick Mahomes retires from football.

OK, enough of that.

I’ve got a meeting to lead in about 7 hours, and I need to dial in and get some finishing touches on my presentation. I enjoyed putting the content together, but I still haven’t decided on a theme for the slide deck. I’ll get that sorted here shortly.

I will get this in the can, and focus on the tasks at hand. Not too shabby getting my blog done by 6:00 AM.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 273

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you. Today is 14 December 2023.

Today is the last day of my security course, a course primarily focused on security theory, policy, and compliance, following cybersecurity architectures and regulatory security policy. It has been an outstanding week and has helped me prepare for a security call with teammates tomorrow. My training partner and I have had some fantastic interactions with those in attendance.

It’s a good day for an ugly Christmas sweater. I’m going with my Xbox game pass sweater. I’ve got one featuring Clippy, but it’s tucked away in a storage box somewhere.

I’ve got the news on… I guess I’m a deer caught in the headlights when it comes to news. I see that the House GOP has formalized their plan to open an inquiry into an impeachment of President Biden. My opinion is moot, I think it’s retaliatory to dilute the two impeachment trials of the former guy to make him more palatable as the likely GOP candidate for the presidency in 2024. If there is evidence of wrongdoing, bring it, but it sure seems like it has as much traction as bald tires on melting ice.

Accusations are easy. Proof is often more challenging to present.

Work is calling, so I better get to it. Time to look over my two presentations and then pivot to my security presentation tomorrow.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 272

Good morning, and a happy hump day to you all. It is Wednesday, 13 December 2023.

Odin is at Lisa’s feet begging for a bit of her breakfast. Lucy is outside barking at an errant cloud hovering in the early morning darkness.

Lucy is a little nuts.

One of the things that I should do more is turn off the news. There are bits and pieces of good news every now and then, a guy building toys for underprivileged kids, people volunteering in their communities for a good cause, but so much of it is “here’s what you need to be afraid of today”. I know that news is a business, and people work to report the news, and they earn a living by attracting viewers which leads to advertisers paying to get their product in front of those viewers. The thing that gets me is that there is so much more going on in the world than the 7 or 8 stories that seem to dominate the news cycle. I prefer a source of info that gives me more to go on. I want to be informed, not just lectured.

I had a guy online try to tell me that Antifa is a fascist organization. After I corrected him, he attacked my education… and he still could not accept the common knowledge that Antifa came into being as an anti-fascist group during the rise of fascism in the early 20th century. It is rather humorous to get to how wrong I am about something by someone who appears to be deep into a Dunning-Kruger episode.

I’m going to guess my accuser probably couldn’t define fascism either.

Alrighty, enough of a rant for now. Time to get focused on the tasks of the day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 271

Good morning, and welcome to my favorite day of the work week. Today is Tuesday 12 December 2023.

Yes Virginia, there will be tacos!

One of the tools I have loaded up on this WordPress site is a little tracker that shows me how many folks check out my site daily. I don’t have a multitude of visitors, but I am thankful for those of you who decide to drop by and read about what’s going on with me and where my head happens to be on any given day. I’m sure that there are several folks that question why I do not pull my head out of the place some believe it has been inserted. I’m not the most exciting guy on the planet, and that’s just fine. Maybe that just means that I’ve grown up a bit.

A bit… not completely. Let’s not get carried away.

I was reading an opinion piece about religious displays on government property in Iowa, and it’s interesting to the point where if a local government has to accept a display on behalf of one religion, then all others who want the same treatment get it as well. The local Satanic Temple decided to ask for the same recognition and received it… and folks are hacked off. It’s a combination of things – religious freedom and freedom of speech. There are a lot of folks who don’t like the Satanic display but have no problem with the nativity scene. If you have one, you have to allow all – Christianity (one flavor or the other) is not the state religion – we don’t have one. That was the intent of the separation of church and state. If you are going to allow one, you have to allow those to which a person might not endear themselves.

I made good progress on my security session for Friday. I think I have all of the content for the session and a few extras that I can pore over for interesting tidbits.

I’ve got a couple of hours until I start my Eastern Time Zone session at 8:00 AM local time. I better make a pot of coffee and get a little breakfast in me. Lisa made a breakfast pie on Sunday, and I’ll reheat a slice of that to go with my medium-roast Tanzanian peaberry coffee.

(BTW, thanks for reading)

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 270

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you. It is 11 December 2023.

I go back to Eastern Time this week, as I’m back in the security chair to teach a theory course. It’s the same class I taught two weeks ago by myself, but this week, a larger class and a split load as I co-deliver with another instructor. I have a presentation on Friday on security readiness, so this delivery and a little extra time should get me in the proper frame of reference for Friday’s security call.

Sports Fan Bob is a little blue, but I’ll deal. The Kansas City Chiefs have lost to Philadelphia and the Buffalo Bills two games in a row. The Chiefs are out of sync, and we have receivers that can’t hang on to the ball. I expect significant changes in the wide receiver corps in the offseason. The mistakes are adding up like a Home Depot contractor’s bill to fix an old house. The draft has helped in some areas but has been a letdown in others. Don’t get me started on the receivers the Chiefs traded picks for… the disappointment with two high-profile trades is staggering.

I’m watching the morning news, and I see Elon Musk is allowing Alex Jones back on his social media platform. Jones lost a couple of lawsuits over comments he made over the mass murder of children and teachers at Sandy Hook. I am so glad I abandoned that platform. This will be another recipe for disaster, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to another lawsuit.

OK, it’s time to get the coffee going and get myself dialed in for class.

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

Peace y’all.