Evie Day 238

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. It is 9 November 2023.

I do pay attention to the political landscape, and sometimes it terrifies me. The prospect of Trump getting back in the White House is something I do not want to face, and as I look at some of the polling data, it is one I likely have to face. I couldn’t believe the American people would be so gullible back in 2016 when he was elected, and after all of the facts that have come out, it it still within the realm of possibility that he could return to the presidency.

Through Mitch McConnell’s machinations, he put three justices on the Supreme Court, when, if this had been handled as it has been in the past, Trump would’ve likely had only one. Scalia’s vacant seat was not filled because it was an election year, and Ginsburg’s seat was filled because it was.

Politics are sickening in America.

I’ll wrap up my solutions architecture class today. It’s been a good week with a small group. I would’ve liked to have had more of my learners active in the chat, but I also respect that some like to sit back and listen. I’ll just accept the reality of it and focus on my part of in the delivery.

I’m a little tired this morning. Neighbor dog up late barking. Even in the country, there are still some inconsiderate dog owners that leave their dogs out too late and too loud.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 237

Hi! My name is Bob, and I write a blog Monday through Friday. Today is Wednesday, 8 November 2023.

I get up at 5:30 AM to get ready for my day, and I try to crank out a couple hundred words about what is going on in my personal and professional life. I am married, the father of three kids, and the grandfather of one little girl who is 237 days old.

I track the number of days I have been alive. The average person lives between 28,500 and 30,000 days. As of today, I’m at 21,968. I turned 60 years old in September.

I am a technical trainer by profession. I have a college degree, and I have been working with computer since the late 70s, when I discovered the first PC purchased by my high school stashed in a chemistry classroom storage closet.

I’m geeky, nerdy, and I used to be a little bit athletic when I was a kid. I like to play guitar, but I do not read music. I like to play golf, but truth be known, I haven’t picked up a golf club since I started working for my current employer almost five years ago.

I work from home. I spend my days talking to people all over the world about cloud technologies. Right now I am starting day three of a course on cloud solutions architecture.

I have four dogs. We used to have five, and lost one of our beloved pooches in September, and I do miss her. She was a wonderful dog.

Tonight there will be a debate between most of the GOP candidate for the presidency, while the leading candidate, currently facing 91 counts in 4 jurisdictions, has a rally down the road where he doesn’t have to share a stage with anyone else. I think I’ll be focused on my game night with the guys instead.

That’s just a little slice. I write a post like this every now and then to kind of ground myself and remind myself of who I am and what I do. I don’t claim to be anything more than what I am. I just want to be a genuine guy with hopes and fears like anybody else.

That’s good enough for now.

I always close my posts with two lines.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 236

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday. No need to ask me about my plans for dinner. It is 7 November 2023.

Kind of interesting… my website is undergoing some maintenance, so I have started my daily blog entry in Notepad.
Not much going on here this morning. I’ve got some info to look over for my class here in a bit, but the news cycle is focused on the off-year election coverage. Not much really going on with our local elections, mostly school board and city commission stuff. There are some elections in other parts of the country that have a little gravity in states like Virginia and Kentucky, where right-wing Christian men are vying for the right to take away more body autonomy from women.

Sorry… I’m not a big fan of men controlling women’s rights to make their own decisions about their bodies. I would also not be in favor of a female majority having the ability to control the body autonomy of men. It’s a private matter, and it’s really no one else’s business but a woman and her doctor.

Yeah, I’m starting off the day with an attitude. I should check myself.

Lisa and I watched the Kansas University season opener last evening. Kansas, the number one ranked preseason college basketball program in the US, took on an overmatched squad from North Carolina Central. It was not a good experience for the Carolina team, as Kansas controlled the game from the start, and ended up winning by a score of 99-56, with walk-ons closing out the last seven or eight minutes of the game while the starters got to rest and watch. I can’t help but wonder of North Carolina Central’s athletic director lost a bet and had to put Kansas on their schedule. The game was kind of ugly for them, and there were obvious moments of frustration for the visitors.

OK, time for me to get this in the can and start to focus on the day’s work.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 235

Good morning, and happy Monday to you all. Today is 6 November 2023.

I had a pretty good weekend.

I don’t hide my sports fanaticism as any of you who have come across my blog are well aware. I’m a Kansas guy. Kansas and Kansas City had a pretty good weekend. The Kansas Jayhawks won on the road at Iowa State, a team that hung 52 points on the Jayhawks the first time they met in Ames under the current coach Lance Liepold. That’s pretty significant, and it propelled Kansas to its first winning season since 2008—pretty good stuff. The Kansas City Chiefs bounced back from an embarrassing loss on the road to the Broncos by beating an AFC-leading Miami Dolphins team in Frankfurt, Germany. The Chiefs became the first NFL team to win games in four different countries – USA, England, Mexico, and now Germany – not too shabby. The one match I did not watch was Sporting KC playing St Louis in the MLS playoffs and scored a huge upset over the West-leading team from across the state.

I was a bit productive on Saturday, as I started the task of cleaning the barn to make room for my utility vehicles here in rural Douglas County. We’re looking at a more-rough-than-average winter, so it’s best to get the vehicles indoors.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in another couple of hours. I’ll be teaching cloud solutions architecture this week, going solo this time for a class of 27 learners from around the world.

Tonight I get to put my sports fan hat back on as the preseason number one ranked Kansas Jayhawk basketball team opens their ’23-’24 campaign versus North Carolina Central. Kansas should be favored, but one thing I have learned – if teams don’t take an opponent seriously, it can lead to embarrassing outcomes. Kansas needs to step on the gas early, get a solid lead, and then work on their player rotation. It will be interesting to see what happens with the shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 232

Good morning, happy Friday, and where did the week go? Today is 3 November 2023.

I suppose I should head into the courthouse to vote today. Normally, it’s a Tuesday thing, but I’ll be in class, so I might as well go take advantage of early voting.

It’s kind of funny. I’ve heard people grunt, grunt, complain, and moan (when I say that in my own head, I don’t use the word “complain”) about voting – whether it’s early voting, voting machines, vote by mail, allegations of stuffing the ballot box… but there’s not a lot of fraud cases out there that disprove voting options one way or the other. Our system is pretty good. It just seems like there’s momentum to try and make voting as difficult as possible. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

TV spokesperson has a voice that hits my eardrums like as icepick. Ugh.

My partner and I wrapped up our security class yesterday. Good class, good learners. Today I’ve got a day to prepare for my class next week, a solutions architecture course. The week after that, I head to Austin, Texas for a team meeting, and I’m taking a vacation week for Thanksgiving. I have this tendency to defer my vacation time to the end of the year. The only problem is that I often don’t have enough year left when I figure out how much vacation time I have left… I’ve left some days on the table in the past, and I likely will do the same this year.

Well, I don’t have a lot of motivation to continue writing at the moment. Nothing against y’all, but I think I’ll just wrap this and get it in the can.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 231

Good morning, folks! It is Thursday, 2 November 2023,

Today is the last day of my security class. The course had a refresh recently, and I like what the courseware designers have done with the class. The previous iterations of the course presented some challenges – most of those challenges centered on time management, making sure that our learners have adequate time to focus on the hands-on labs. This new version is better.

I’m watching the news this morning. A senator from Alabama has been holding up promotions for US servicemen as part of an infantile tantrum. He doesn’t like the fact that the military reimburses military personnel for travel for certain types of medical care, and to put an exclamation point on his self-righteous indignation, he has been holding up the appointment of officers to leadership positions for months – at this point, it might very well be years. He’s doing the work of the Chinese and Russian leadership without compensation from their governments… as far as I know. By the way – he never served. I didn’t serve either, but I volunteered, just couldn’t overcome a major blip in my health history. Back in ’85, a person could not serve in the military with a history of cancer, and I was only a year, year-and-a-half out from my fight with the big C.

I got together with some of the guys last night. One of our gamemasters was rebuilding his campaign from backup, and several of us were able to recover our characters from the local cache. My backup showed up as a level one character, but that had more to do with the computer I was logging in from than versioning problems from the local cache. We’ll get it sorted out this weekend, I hope.

Not a whole lot else to report. I guess I’ll get focused on the day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 230

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday/Hump Day to you all. It’s a new month, and today is 1 November 2023.

We were ready for trick-or-treaters last evening, but the only creature that came around looking for treats was the neighbor’s malamute. Jamison (dog’s name) did an adequate job disrupting the household as he stood in front of the front porch picture window and drove our house dogs into a frenzy. It got loud for a little bit, with Odin’s loud boy bark, and Lily has this high-pitched piercing bark that lands on my eardrums like an ice pick.

Dane suggested a movie last evening, but I’ll be the first to admit that I was distracted. Lots of color and action in “Across the Spiderverse”, but I have to admit that this particular movie had a a lot of moving parts, and I got lost due to my lack of focus on the plot. I should take another run at it when I can find time, see if I can sort it out a bit better.

Normally, Wednesday is a gaming night, but it looks like tonight might not be a good game night. Two of our game masters have work-related responsibilities, and our third gamemaster had his computer crash, requiring a rebuild. Tonight just might be a quiet evening at home, and the big bad evil guys will get to walk the planes for another few days.

Today is day three of my security class. It seems to be going well.

My youngest daughter and granddaughter came by the house yesterday. I was expecting them around noon, but they got in a little early. I was able to share my granddaughter and her cow costume with my learners. They were quite kind.

That’s about it. TIme to get this in the can. I’m thinking some leftover chili with a couple of eggs this morning might make for a good breakfast start.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 229

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. On top of that, today is 31 October 2023. It’s Halloween!

I will not be appearing in costume today in front of my security course. I will be wearing a polo shirt and a cardigan, in the style made popular by many grampas around the world.

The other good news is that I get to see my granddaughter today, dressed in her first Halloween costume. She’s going to be the cutest pumpkin in town, and she will no doubt be a favorite when she goes up to trick-or-treat at my wife’s office up on campus.

My son is wearing a low-key Halloween costume, wearing a red-and-black plaid shirt and walking around with a roll of paper towels as he impersonates the Brawny character.

My wife planned ahead, making sure we have plenty of Halloween candy to give away for all of the kids that will not be showing up on our doorstep.

The news is back reporting on the kidnapping of hostages by Hamas terrorists. Israel has effectively declared war on Hamas and has taken armed forces into Gaza in an effort to recover the innocent people taken on October 7. Some hostages have been recovered, but there are still more than 200 still being held. I hope two things – that all of the innocent folks taken are recovered safely, and that the efforts by the Israeli military don’t end up becoming fertile ground for the cultivation of another generation of Hamas terrorists. Peace is far more preferable.

Tonight, I’ll make a taco run to my place on the east side of town. Halloween or not, Taco Tuesday takes precedence.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 228

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you all. Today is 30 October 2023.

Tomorrow is Halloween. This will likely mark the 5th straight Halloween with no one coming to our door and saying “Trick or Treat”, with the possible exception of my granddaughter, who will end up costumed as a pumpkin. Living out in the country has its advantages and disadvantages, and being secluded enough to hide from kids in scary costumes is a side effect.

This weekend was an opportunity for some streaks to end. The Kansas City Chiefs ended a streak of sixteen straight wins over the Denver Broncos, as a flu-sickened Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense turned the ball over five times and never looked in sync. The Kansas Jayhawk basketball team lost a pre-season exhibition game, and looked okay in the loss – I’m not too worried about it, as it doesn’t show up on the books – one of the game conditions was that no one fouled out, and I have a feeling several players would have if they had tallied the fouls. But… the big one… the University of Kansas Jayhawks pulled off a win over the Oklahoma Sooners for the first time since 1997. It was very nice giving the Sooners a going-away present as they leave the Big 12 Conference and head to the SEC next season.

I have a central time zone security class that will start in a couple of hours. I don’t mind the East Coast times, but after the early start with those classes, it’s nice to get back to a central time zone class… makes for a little slower start in the mornings, and a chance to enjoy an extra cup of coffee before the festivities start.

Might be time to get a pot of coffee dripping.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 225

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you. I hope this finds you happy, healthy, and surrounded by loving family and friends, bipedal and otherwise. Today is 27 October 2023.

I thought about tackling a certification exam today, but today might be a good day for me to address some other issues in my personal life. Some things are best attended to on business days.

It’s weird thinking about how fast this year has gone by. October is about to pass into history, and November looms like a specter left over from Halloween. November will be a good month, with family gatherings and the positivity most people have as we approach the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.

We finished up our class in good order yesterday. There were no real problems, and a couple of emails to return to attendees after the class formally closed. It can be a hassle trying to get folks to fill out the post-class survey… wish I knew of a way to get more folks to fill those out.

That’s about it, really.

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

Peace y’all.