Evie Day 95

Good morning, and happy Monday! It is 19 June 2023.

We’ve had a good weekend here in rural Douglas County. Friday night we spent a little time catching up on shows we wanted to watch, watching the first episode of the news season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the new season of Outlander. Worked in a little more time watching some Nations soccer, both the European and CONCACAF semifinals and the finals yesterday. The match between the US and Mexico generated the most red cards I have ever seen in a match at the level with 4. Fortunately, the US regrouped and pulled off the 2-0 win over Canada yesterday for their third straight CONCACAF Nations title.

Yesterday was Fathers Day here, and I find myself thinking about my dad who passed away in August of 2019. My dad taught me a lot of important lessons, the most important lessons having to do with inclusion. My dad was a people manager, taking care of a big diesel mechanics shop, and he tried to see the good and the talent in all of the folks he worked with. I am grateful for whatever wisdom he passed along to me.

I spent time with all of my kids yesterday, and Evie came over as well. Gracie came in the morning, and we had an enjoyable visit, and for a period of time we had all three kids here, but Gracie had other familial responsibilities. I was distracted with some work stuff, getting ready for the first delivery of a new course this week, and everybody was pretty understanding. We all spent a little time in the pool, then grilled some steaks and had dinner.

Meanwhile. back in the world…

Not a whole lot else to talk about. Time to make some coffee, through in a couple of eggs with some leftover corned beef hash, and get focused on the day at hand.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 92

Good morning! I almost forgot to write today!

It is 16 June 2023.

Today is Evelyn’s three-month milestone – she seems to be happy, healthy, and a beacon of light whenever she is in the room. It’s my future son-in-law’s first Father’s Day this Sunday, so I told my daughter I would buy the steaks for them to put on the grill. He strikes me as a “big steak” kind of guy, so I’m going to keep my eye on a couple of bone-in ribeyes today.

I’ll grab some steaks for us here as well. It might be a good idea for me to grab an extra refill on the propane tank as well.

In a little bit, I get to host a team meeting. It will be interesting. I’ve never been the host, so I hope it goes OK. I’m sure it will. Sometimes I approach talking with my teammates differently than in my classes – known versus unknown. I like the element of surprise

Anyway, there’s mowing to do this weekend. I have a mask to wear to cut down on the volume of stuff I breathe in while I mow. I might need to double-check my fuel supplies – premium for the little mower, diesel for the tractor, and the brush-cutter behind that.

No gaming this weekend. Father’s Day weekend is a time for family, as is Mother’s Day. A new class next week, teaching a little more computer security theory this time around, then back to almost two straight months of teaching administration.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 91

Every day is a good day, and today will be no different.

Today is 15 June 2023.

Yesterday I did my regular work stuff, prepared for my security class, got a few emails out, and chatted with a few folks on teams. Later in the afternoon, my youngest daughter and my only grandchild came over for a visit. I got a little “Evie Time” with a beautiful 90-day-old child. She’s getting stronger every day.

June is Pride Month, and we celebrate some other occasions as well, with Juneteenth and Father’s Day on the June calendar as well. Gives me pause to think about diversity and inclusion, and I will be party to a discussion on that subject at tomorrow’s team meeting.

I look at the topic of D&I as a social contract. We have choices in our lives, and the choice I make relative to D&I is inclusion. I choose to include. I will include others that choose inclusion. If you want to reap the benefits of the contract – meaning you want to be included, too, the policy is pretty simple – choose to include. There are a lot of folks out there that want to exclude one group of human beings for one reason or another, and they adhere to ideologies that require a target, something to hate. These ideologies can’t survive in the light, they have to have a focus for their righteous indignation.

And then they choose exclusion and get upset about it.

Make better choices.

I’m not perfect, and I don’t have all the answers, but some things have become very clear in my life. Everybody wants to be included. I include you, you include me, and we’re going to include everyone regardless of where their ancestors came from, regardless of the faith they were brought up with or chose, and regardless of who and how they love as consenting adults. I’m going to include people regardless of how they dress, whether it’s a homeless guy in worn clothes, or someone dressed up in a sequined evening gown.

I’ll probably catch a little crap around my home state for adopting an attitude such as this, but in the reality I experience, we need diversity and inclusion. We need exposure to different cultures. We need to cut loose and have a little fun, and if that involves some dude dressed up as a flamboyant alter-ego, that’s fine. Nobody is getting hurt. I’m more concerned about the dude carrying an AR-15 wearing camo at the grocery store than some entertainer wearing a ballgown and singing funny songs.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 90

Good morning! I hope this finds you well. Today is Wednesday, 14 June 2023.

One of the more fascinating realities about living in today’s world is people’s tendency to read a little bit on a topic and then claim a level of expertise that can only be explained by people with the last names of Dunning and Kruger. When the pandemic hit, everybody read up a little on the coronavirus and then felt that they knew more than Dr. Anthony Fauci. When inflation spiked, people came across some article by an economist, and they were ready to run the Fed.

Over the course of the last two weeks, the number of experts in the legal prosecution of those that have mishandled classified government documents has reached alarming levels, but at least the CIA will no longer have to worry about the size of the recruiting pool.

I am not one of those people. I can draw simple comparisons, such as Reality Winner mishandling a single document about Russian interference in the 2016 election (the one Trump won) and she was convicted and sentenced to five years and three months in a federal penitentiary. She served four years and has been released.

I wonder if she’s going to be brought on as an expert… she has more first-hand experience than many. Could have brought in convicted spy and former FBI agent Robert Hansen, but he died in prison last week.

I still go back and look at the photos taken from Mar-A-Lago… why the hell was there a copier in one of those rooms Trump used to store those documents?

“Makin’ copies for the Trumpster…”

This morning I’ll be working on my class for next week. Out of a four-day class, I have a responsibility to deliver two days, so I focus on those two days first, then prep to fill in just in case my training partner has an internet or health issue. I’m working with a trainer I’ve worked with before, and I think we work together well.

Online gaming tonight, but it might be a short session. Looks like a few of the guys won’t be able to make it, and it appears that our regular Sunday game might skip a session for Father’s Day this week.

Maybe I’ll use Sunday afternoon to become an expert on international textile markets or something.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 89

Good morning! It is Tuesday, 31 June 2023.

I’m sitting here blocking out my day. I’m preparing for a few things… new class next week, a presentation on Friday, meeting later today. Tacos for dinner, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on TV tonight – we’re rewatching Season 1 before Season 2 debuts tomorrow evening.

The Denver Nuggets finished off the Miami Heat last night, winning the best-of-seven series in five games. Nikola Jokic was the MVP, and he earned it. All of us around the University of Kansas basketball program are happy for Christian Braun, who went from a college national championship last year to an NBA world championship last evening. A couple of the Kansas coaches were in the stands to cheer the Nuggets.

Later today, a former president will show up in Miami to be arraigned on almost 40 charges. There will be protests – apparently Trump helped to arrange the schedule for maximum indignation. Trump was asked if this will deter him from continuing his run for the presidency in 2024, and he said no. I think I’ve been pretty blunt about my opinion on Trump, and I honestly can’t believe there are people out there that still support the clown.

I’ve been paying a little attention to the Ukrainian offensive as they try to retake land stolen by the Russian invasion. I hope it goes well for the Ukraine forces. There might be some pretty serious infighting with the Russian forces right now, as the Kremlin was forcing troops to sign some loyalty pledge, but the mercenary Wagner group, which has been operating as a vanguard/forward combat unit, has refused to sign the loyalty pledge. Crazy idea, mercenaries acting like mercenaries. By the time it’s said and done, they’ll sell out to the highest bidder.

Time to make coffee and get started with my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 88

Good morning, and happy Monday. Today is 12 June 2023.

OK, this is the post I should’ve posted last week, and deferred.

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on 37 or 38 felony charges for the mishandling of classified documents after the conclusion of his presidency. The pictures came out of documents being stored in a ballroom, in a bathroom, and a storeroom with a copier. There appears to be evidence that Trump went to extreme measures to hide those documents from the National Archives and the FBI.

I have talked with people that hold or have held security clearance. I have family members that currently hold a security clearance. If the history of security clearance and classified document prosecution is any indicator of future events, this does not bode well for the former president. It’s a mess of his own doing. Reality Winner shared a single classified document about Russian interference in the 2016 election and she was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in a federal penitentiary.

The rest of the stuff… we had a pretty rainy weekend, so I wasn’t able to get any mowing done. I did focus on work a bit, and got some things done in anticipation of teaching a new security course next week. I have more work to do, certainly, but I got a good start.

Other than that, not a whole lot else to share.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 85

Hi everybody! It is Friday!

I feel like there ought to be a pause here to give y’all a chance to stand up and dance a little if your Friday is an actual Friday. Some folks who work on Saturday and Sunday don’t get to experience that joy … dance for them, too.

It is 9 June 2023. I wrapped up my security class yesterday afternoon and took care of some housekeeping basics. I think our class landed well, but I haven’t gone back to check the post-class surveys yet.

I’ve got a meeting starting at ten that will tie me up for the rest of the day. We’re exploring a different sort of training modality, and I think I need to experience it before I can draw any sort of conclusion.

Dane is heading to the lake with some of his friends later, and Lisa and I will be on our own for dinner. It might be an opportunity to try something different… either preparing something new or trying a different restaurant.

Other than that, I really don’t have much else to share. There has been some interesting news in the last day, but that’s a conversation for another day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 84

Hi. It’s Bob again, and today is 8 June 2023.

Later this morning, I’ll be chatting up a couple of topics on the last day of my cloud security course, discussing database security and monitoring tools. After today, I’ll be focused on a course I’m familiar with, but have not taught. First-time teaches can create a little bit of anxiety, but I’m not too worried. I’m working with another trainer that I have worked with before, and our styles dovetail into each other pretty well.

Sending positive thoughts to our friends in Canada fighting the wildfires up there. There’s a 100 square-mile range/forest/wildfire generating huge amounts of ash and smoke, and the prevailing winds are carrying that bad air right into some of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the US. Folks in those cities are having a rough time with the air quality, and I can’t help but think about the people that have lost their homes and property in Canada, not to mention the displaced and lost wildlife that are forced to relocate if they even can.

Played a bit with the guys last night. I always have a good time with that bunch. A better night for game-play combat without the ridiculous number of consecutive “1s” rolled on the dice like we had last Sunday. It was uncanny how many bad rolls we can have in a session.

After work, I think I’m going to take a little time to watch last night’s NBA Finals game, game three, Denver Nuggets at the Miami Heat. I know the Nuggets won, but local favorite Christian Braun caught fire a bit and had fifteen points in the game. He’s not a starter now, but that might change next season.

Time for me to make coffee and get focused on the tasks at hand.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 83

Hi. It is Wednesday, 7 June 2023.

Today is the 60th birthday of my best friend from high school. I shot him a note yesterday wishing him a good day.

My 60th isn’t for a couple of months yet, my birthday falling a scant twenty days after my wife’s. She would tell people she robbed the cradle… the one next to hers.

I’m back in the virtual classroom in another couple of hours. The content I am covering this morning is stuff I usually hand off to a partner trainer, so I’m going to take a bit of time before my session to go over that content.

I had some parts arrive yesterday for the “Holy Grail” guitar I plan on building with my son. I’m very happy with the neck, but the body is going to need a little work to make the figure of the wood really pop. The body is an Indian rosewood cap on top of a mahogany base. The neck is Indian rosewood over walnut. What I hope we can do is stain the mahogany to as close to the color of the walnut as possible, so we’re going to have to get creative matching those pigments up.

I’ve had some pleasant interactions with a guy from Lollar Pickups, and I think I’ve decided to go with two Charlie Chrisitan pickups. Lollar has a kit with both neck and bridge pickups, with the bridge pickup wound in the opposite direction of the neck pickup to create a hum-canceling pair when played with the switch in the middle position. It’s kind of exciting.

Time for me to get focused on the tasks at hand.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 82

Good morning, folks! It is 6 June 2023.

Watching the news, and during a report on Ukraine, an eerie sound came from the background as they started the air raid sirens. Now they’ve rolled over to more on Trump (moron Trump?) and how classified documents were moved and hidden from view following the subpoena to return classified documents that were in his position.

I started my four-day security class yesterday, working with a trainer I have not worked with before. She started off with a whiteboarding session on identity, and her skills on the digital whiteboard are among the best I’ve seen in our organization. All I could do was sit back and admire her handwriting and illustration skills. I need to work on my chops because the bar has been raised.

Today is the 79th anniversary of D-Day. Not too many of those guys around anymore. Thank you, folks.

It’s funny. I can sit here, and think that I’m focused and in the moment, but then the squirrel brain gets distracted and I go on a three-minute journey without ever getting out of my chair.

I’m going to go get the coffee going and get my low-carb bagel in the toaster.

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

Peace y’all.