Evie Day 572

Good morning, and a very happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 8 October 2024.

Lucy, our senior dog, is losing it. She just starts barking at stuff, whether it exists in this plan or not. It’s kind of sad, always noisy, and often disruptive.

The sports fans around the greater Kansas City ADI (area of dominant influence) are all happy today. Last night the Kansas City Royals evened the American League Divisional Series with the New York Yankees with a final score of 4-2, thanks to a grand slam by Salvi Perez. The series now returns to Kansas City for games 3 and 4. Lisa and I also flipped over to Monday Night Football to watch the Kansas City Chiefs top the New Orleans Saints 26-13.

Like I said, a good evening for Kansas City sports fans.

I’ll return to my virtual classroom in a couple of hours after I finish recording a bit for YouTube. I have a four-day class that starts today and runs through Friday afternoon. Then there’s the weekend, followed by a one-day class and another 4-day solo gig with the same material I’m delivering today.

There will be tacos tonight, although I might just grab a couple of tacos and then an Alambre, an entree we scoop into tortillas.

That’s all I have this morning. Not too much excitement in this mundane life.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 571

Good morning, and a happy beginning to the Western work week to you all. Today is Monday, 7 October, 2024.

I spent quite a bit of time in my office this last weekend. When I went to Seattle a couple of weeks ago, the intent was to record my demos on the second day in the studio, but with my voice wasn’t cooperating with that plan. I shot demos on Thursday and Friday, but on Friday afternoon we concluded that my videos weren’t optimal (my fault). I got a primer on a different software package, then went back to re-record my demonstrations. They told me the hard deadline was today at 9:00 AM Pacific time, but I got my act in gear and was able to post all of the demos by yesterday afternoon. That made for a long weekend, and I hope the guys at the main studio don’t have to edit out too many incidents of dog barking.

Today I have a prep day, and I am thankful for it. Originally, I had a one-day delivery scheduled for today, followed by a four-day class running Tuesday through Friday, but the one-day class had low enrollment, so it was canceled. Next week, though, I’ll be revisiting that idea, with a one-day followed by a four-day.

We had an interesting weekend here in Noria (this region to the east of Lawrence and a little to the south shows up as “Noria” on some maps. Part of me wants to look for a lost dwarven mine), with some extra life forms around. Gracie took the weekend to go see a friend, so Lisa, Dane, and I looked after her dogs, Colby and Bailey, while she was away. There was a little bit of extra barking, but Gracie’s dogs are very gentle – Colby can be a little bit over-salivated, but he’s alright, and Bailey is a Great Pyrenees, and that breed is so cool and calm.

I was just reminded that one year ago today, Hamas attacked Israel in a horrific act of terrorism, killing over a thousand Israelis and tourists. There are still a hundred people in captivity, but I doubt there are that many still alive.

Tonight, there will be a quandary for Kansas City area sports fans. Game two of the American League Divisional Series, the Kansas City Royals versus the New York Yankees, and Monday Night Football comes on an hour later with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the New Orleans Saints in Kansas City.

I need to make a plan for dinner. Wings, ribs, pulled pork, or brisket? Decisions, decisions.

OK, I only have this one prep day for the next couple of weeks, so I better shift my sail a bit.

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

Evie Day 568 

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you all. The end of the Western work week is upon us. Today is 4 October 2024.

Yesterday was not as productive as I had hoped. I started recording some demonstrations then noticed a ghostly image on the virtual machine I was working on, and realized I needed to start over on a different desktop to get rid of it, losing a couple of hours’ worth of work. After that, I was able to crank out some video and audio files for demos, but I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped. I’ll be back in the sunroom in another hour turning and burning through content. I’ll get the recordings completed by mid-morning now that I have a routine built around the process.

Bonnie, my oldest daughter, came by yesterday late afternoon for dinner, and she and her dog, Ruthie, stayed the night. Ruthie is a sweet dog, half standard poodle, half something else, and 100% generator of excess dog hair. We talked and watched a little TV – “Chopped”, then the ladies went to bed, and I finished off the evening watching the tail end of the Falcons/Buccaneers game, as the Falcons scored in the 4th quarter with no time remaining to tie, and then the Falcons went on to win in overtime.

I’ve got meetings later this morning, work to keep me busy this afternoon, and a trip to the doctor’s office to get some blood drawn for labs – time to follow up on my cholesterol and A1C levels.

Tonight we’ll have some time to relax before tackling the weekend’s responsibilities. Lisa and I will watch an episode of the “Great British Baking Show” and maybe something else. The Kansas City Royals square off against the New York Yankees in the American League Divisional Series, the Kansas Jayhawks face the Arizona State Sun Devils in the early evening, and my Chiefs don’t play until Monday night. Next week is full, full, full, with a regular 4-day class by myself and a 1-day class shoehorned in to complete the week.

Alright, enough of my ranting, time to focus on the day ahead of me.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 567

Good morning, and a happy Thursday. Today is 3 October 2024.

I looked it up to make sure – early voting begins in Kansas on October 16. My first day out of class after that is October 21st… so that’s when I’ll head to the county courthouse and get this over with.

Yesterday I closed out my three-day class. Some classes are harder to evaluate than others. I think my learners had a good experience, but I have yet to look over the post-class survey. One of the things we notice about classes is that we often have the best attendance on day one, and then it trails off a bit through the week. It’s easier to do now when all the classes are remote. I often miss delivering classes face-to-face for just that reason. We have goals for getting a percentage of surveys turned in, and it was a bit easier to keep the percentages up when you held on to a completion certificate until the survey was handed in.

We tried to get our tabletop session going on time last night, but there were some delays, and we decided to go our separate ways about twenty after 8. I went back into the living room and got involved with some work stuff and some family stuff. One of the guys (thanks Dan) pinged me about ten minutes later asking about my availability, but by then I was hip-deep into other stuff. I jumped right into that river and the current swept me away. I hope the guys had a good time without me.

Today is a recording day. I’ve got one of my regular bits to record, and I also have the demos to record that I couldn’t get to when my voice failed. I hope to have all of the bits recorded by about 2 o’clock this afternoon. After that I should have some time to focus on my other projects.

On that note, I suppose it’s the right time to get started on what comes next… breakfast and coffee.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 566

Good morning! It is Wednesday, 2 October 2024.

As expected, my needle didn’t move much last evening. There were some noteworthy moments, some of humility, some of arrogance, but I’m not going to dwell on that. My mind has been made up for some time.

The world is becoming a more dangerous place as violence continues in the Middle East. I don’t know what the outcome is going to be other than recognizing that a lot of people are going to die. Some will be combatants, and there will be innocent lives lost as well. Israel is going to defend herself, but I often wish somebody other than Netenhayu was the leader of Israel. I hope somebody doesn’t detonate a nuke.

I got through the second day of my networking class yesterday. The coughing fit didn’t start until the afternoon, and I wrapped things up for lab time around a quarter after three. I had folks dive into a few hours’ worth of labs and then wrapped it up at 5:00 PM. We wrapped up the day just as the Royals hit the top of the ninth with a one-run lead over the Baltimore Orioles, and they held on to win.

I’m trying some new productivity tactics last night, swearing off certain unproductive activities until the weekend. I almost made a mistake last night, but I caught myself and reset. I do need to set up my bullet journal with my October schedule, and I hope to have some time to do that during our lab block at the end of the day.

Tonight, I’ll enjoy a couple of hours around the virtual tabletop with the guys. Tomorrow, I will not have class, but I will have quite a bit to accomplish. I wasn’t able to record my demos last week for my virtual training day shoot, so tomorrow is a demo day.

Dinner tonight is a bit up in the air… we’ll have to see where the spirit takes us.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 565

Good morning, and a very happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 1 October 2024.

Wow. It’s already October. Once again, I ponder the speed of time.

BTW, happy 100th birthday to former president Jimmy Carter. He may not have been a great president, but he’s a fine human.

My class went pretty well yesterday, with 21 of 27 registered attendees popping in and getting checked in by the apps. I had hoped to get through three modules yesterday, but I forgot how long that first module can be. Today we’ll tackle high-speed hybrid connections and load balancers.

Tonight, there will be tacos. And a vice-presidential debate… we’re a little bit up in the air about watching that. Lisa and I have already decided who we will vote for in the November election, so I don’t see this debate causing either of us to change. I can see how the debate might rile us up in our “anti” stance towards one particular candidate, but I just don’t see the needle moving too much.

And, there are baseball games this afternoon and evening. The Kansas City Royals square off against the Baltimore Orioles at 3:00, and the good news is that the game might be available for me to watch. The Royals went into an agreement with Bally Sports for the broadcast of their regular season games – and that means if you have DirectTV, you were able to watch the games, and if you were on DISH, you didn’t unless you bought the Bally streaming package, which we’re not doing. We have enough pay subscriptions already.

I need to think about breakfast and doing my little recorded bit for work.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 564

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you all. Today is the last day of September, 09/30/2024.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty interesting. As I shared, I went to Las Vegas for a team retreat from September 16 through September 19th, then came home for a few days before heading back to the West for a couple of days in the studio to record some training videos, all at the company campus in the greater Seattle area.

I’ve enjoyed being in the recording studio in the past, and I was looking forward to this adventure as well, but Thursday started a bit squeaky, but right after lunch, the worst thing that has ever happened to me as a technical trainer landed right on my larynx – I lost my voice.

I’ve always taken my voice for granted. It’s always been right there, in the front row, a biological contraption made from tungsten and titanium, but when my voice failed me Thursday afternoon, it was terrifying. My career is centered on my ability to speak, to communicate a message. I was quite worried. We canceled our studio time for the last couple of hours on Thursday. I returned to my hotel, sipped tea, and kept my mouth shut the rest of the day.

Friday morning I woke up and tested my voice – it was a little better, but not 100%. We went back into the studio Friday morning and cranked through all of the lecture content. I’ll record the demos on Thursday this week after my 3-day networking class.

This morning, my voice is OK, still not 100%, but after a little cough drop therapy, I should be fine. One of the folks in charge of the shoot last week was kind enough to bring some cough drops to the studio. Lisa picked up a bag of cough drops for me yesterday, and I am grateful.

Over the weekend, we spend time with family. Gracie and Evie came over Saturday morning. My flight back from Seattle landed late, and I arrived home at about 2:00 AM Saturday morning. Evie was perched on Lisa’s lap when I got up Saturday mid-morning.

As I mentioned, I am back in my virtual classroom again this week, a 3-day class rather than a 4-day class. I was originally scheduled for a one-day class on Thursday, but it has been canceled, so Thursday becomes demo day at my home office.

It’s time for me to think about the next steps. Breakfast, coffee, home office.

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

Peace y’all.

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.