11 January 2023. Eleven days into the new year, and I’m still kicking. I’ll consider that a minor victory.

Last month I had a case of COVID. Stuff got me down.

Whoops, I type that just as I see that there is an FAA outage that is grounding flights across the US. Looks like somebody should’ve been a little more progressive in updating the flight control system that we’ve known is outdated for decades. I’m going to guess that the current GOP leadership will blame Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and completely ignore the history of the problem which would include GOP administrations. Just a hunch.

OK, back to the topic at hand.

I had COVID. Multiple positive tests over a few weeks. I lost a little weight, and I’ve put a little of it back on… and now I’m trying to take it off. I’m still down about five pounds from where I was at Thanksgiving. I just need to build on that progress.

There’s more in the news about the air traffic control system, The computer network security guy in me has to wonder if the system was breached and brought down by chaos agents.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in a bit. Lab support this morning, with a little preface first thing about the labs on tap.

Time for me to take a look at a couple of things and get my ducks in a row.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, folks. It’s a Tuesday, early, just a couple of minutes after 6:00 AM, on this 10 January 2023.

I still am not accustomed to writing ‘2023’ when writing the year. I’ll probably get comfortable with it sometime in late December. It’s 2023, and most people I know still aren’t over 2020.

The college national championship game was last night. Georgia destroyed TCU 65-7. So much for parity across the Power 5 conferences. That was absolutely embarrassing for the Big 12 Conference.

Back in my virtual classroom in another hour. This morning I have a review of last week’s content and a deeper preview of this week’s content. Time to remind folks about the value of overviews, best practices, and FAQ documents.

Tonight, the University of Kansas squares off against the University of Oklahoma in basketball. I’m going to hope that KU does its thing, shows up, and takes care of business with a minimal amount of drama. That’s easy to say though as an observer. I’m not the one that has to go out and perform.

Classified docs found at Biden’s old office. Apparently, those documents could not be found until the GOP had control of the House. That seems odd. Prosecute where the law applies.

Time to take a look at my planner and get my day organized. I planned to spend time the night before reviewing my planner, but I failed to do that last night. That’s another opportunity for improvement.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, folks! It is 9 January 2023, and I have small dogs using my body as a free-form trampoline.

In Brazil, supporters of ousted billionaire president Bolsinaro have stormed the capitol and the presidential palace. 400 people were arrested. I wonder where this Trump wannabe crowd got the idea this would be a good thing?

Here in the US, on the fifteenth vote, Kevin McCarthy, with no relationship to Joe (as far as I know), was elected Speaker of the House. Now we can expect the most dysfunctional congress in US history. I don’t expect much from this House session other than a MAGA revenge tour. Anyone expecting meaningful legislation to pass with this bunch of Republicans is delusional.

Personally, I expect a vote on impeachment of Joe Biden to happen before the end of the month. It is not grounded in any sort of real crime, but Trump was impeached twice with cause, and that’s really all the motivation this bunch needs. It’s about revenge, it’s about creating pain, it’s about “We didn’t get our way in 2020, and now everybody has to pay”.

The sooner this bunch of fascist wannabes gets voted out (or are forced to resign).

Meanwhile, back here in my corner of the world… spent a little time with my youngest brother this weekend. He had a load to drop off this morning and hit town Friday afternoon late, so we had him and his little dachshund over for a night. I think he appreciated not having to spend the entire weekend in his truck.

Today, I get back to work. It’s a prep day, filled with a couple of meetings and time to organize my class for the week. I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on things. I’ll get a couple of things posted for my learners, and organize my review/preview session for tomorrow morning.

Not much else I really want to get into right now. Thanks for understanding.

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

Peace y’all.

It’s Friday folks, and I hope you all are closing out the work with a smile, and have some fun planned for this first full weekend of 2023. Today is 6 January 2023.

OK, so a little recap from earlier in the week. On Monday night, about 9 minutes into the first quarter, Buffalo Bills free safety Damar Hamlin had a cardiac event that required resuscitation on the field and another in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The young man captured the attention of the country and sports fans around the world. Yesterday, according to reports, he regained consciousness and asked who won the game. The attending physician told the young man that he did… he won the game of life.

Social media went a little nuts. Of course, you had the anti-vax ghouls that immediately blamed COVID vaccinations. You had some poorly informed folks stating things like, “This kind of thing doesn’t happen to young healthy athletes”. Anybody with any knowledge of the subject knows that is a big stinking pile of poo. I mentioned Hank Gathers, a college basketball player from Loyola Marymount University, and his death on the basketball court in 1990. I had someone reply to my post to say they knew two 19-year-old athletes that passed away playing sports. I recalled my own incident… I had a couple of health issues in my youth. I used to be athletic – hard to believe today, but it’s true. I popped my left knee in 1982, then found I had cancer in 1983. Those two things pretty much put a period at the end of my paragraph, college sports were not going to be in the mix for me. I still played ball at the YMCA and other facilities, and while playing at my hometown Y in 1989, I collapsed on the court with a cardiac event. I got lucky, as an EMT was working out at the Y at that time. I’ve been on medication ever since.

The fun part… had a couple of smart-ass retorts from members of the Ignorati… they think they know the mysteries of the Illuminati, but they’re really just ignorant… and that is always fun. I found myself being stalked on LinkedIn by a retired NYC police officer… let’s just say that folks are a lot safer with him in retirement, and Sherlock Holmes doesn’t have to worry about being replaced. He made some ridiculous assumptions about me, and ended up looking foolish. Another clown made a comment about my health based on a ten-year-old photo… his profile pic was a gay porn star… I guess there’s a lot that can be conveyed through a profile pic.

Oh well. Haters are going to hate. They’re also going to make ludicrous assumptions, and practice inductive reasoning, twisting the facts to fit their own box full of assumptions.

Time for me to grab a cup of coffee and a little breakfast. I’ve got a session in a bit.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday, 5 January 2023, and I am up and ready to get after it. One big glass of water down, one on deck, and a few more scheduled for ingestion.

OK, this little corner of the world today. We had an election last November, and the GOP has taken control of the house. Only problem seems to be that the GOP can’t control jack squat. There have been six votes so far for Speaker of the House, and the GOP can’t get their act together to elect a Speaker. Right now, there are deals being made by Kevin McCarthy of California so he can round up enough votes for the role, but he’s going to give the most far-right factions of the GOP more and more power in order to win them over.

The GOP is being held hostage by Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Heaven knows what this bunch is holding out for … there are rumors that they want rule changes about how many votes it takes to call for a no-confidence vote in the Speaker, shifting the line from half of the house to one representative. I’m sure there will be committee appointments on the line, and probably some legislation to fund some priority projects in certain representatives’ districts (read “graft”).

The GOP is a punchline this morning.

I should probably correct that… the GOP has been a punchline for a lot of people in the US and the world for a number of years. It’s simply becoming more of a punchline.

I have a talk here in a couple of hours, so water, coffee, breakfast, and then the rest of it. This month I’m teaching an admin course, so a lot of the folks I’m working with aren’t as experienced with the cloud as the folks I usually encounter in a solutions architecture course.

Not much going on at our house right now, other than Odin digging into a pet toy trying to find that squeaker.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! I’m looking at the clock, and it is just a scant few minutes before 6:00 AM this Wednesday, 4 January 2023.

I’ve got y class starting at 8:00 AM, so I’ve got a little time to get my thoughts, act, and shit together. Coffee will start brewing in a few, and then I’ll have to make a decision about breakfast.

I start off the day watching the news, and I can be a little picky about my news channels. I don’t trust Fox news to tell me the truth, so I generally start with CNN. Yes, I know there can be a bit of a bias to CNN’s news, but as someone that leans progressive, I don’t cringe as much with CNN as I do with Fox or some of the other blatantly propagandist right-wing nut job “outlets”.

Yeah, I’ve got an “outlet”, too, and after I get a cup of coffee in me, I can drop an entire Newsmax morning broadcast into the toilet as part of the start to my day.

In other news, the GOP can’t figure out who the Speaker of the House is going to be. Kevin McCarthy (no relation to Joe, as far as I know) has lost three votes, primarily due to representatives of the far-right nutjob caucus that want to full cover-up of the January 6th Capitol attack, and they want an investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop and all of the financial deals between Hunter, and his father, President Joe Biden. Funny how they want to investigate one presidential offspring, but when Jared and Ivanka were making deals worth hundreds of millions (billions, possibly, with the Saudis), it was business as usual. Hypocrites.

OK, time for me to get this in the can and get on with my day.

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

Peace y’all.

That day has arrived… 3 January 2023… the first full work-day of the year. I had to take care of a couple of things yesterday, but that doesn’t really count.

OK, something timely to post. I know that what I write is read by a few eyes, and my intent is to write down stuff happening in the moment, so here’s something that happened late last night. On Monday Night Football, about ten minutes into the game, something happened. A defensive back for Buffalo, Damar Hamlin, was involved in a play, popped back up after the play, then immediately collapsed. CPR was performed on the field, and the reports last night implied that Mr. Hamlin had a pulse, but was not breathing on his own. He was intubated at the hospital, and I haven’t heard any updates… until now. Currently watching the news, Damar Hamlin is in critical condition, but he is alive.

Of course, the ghouls came out right afterward blaming the event on vaccinations. These people are awful. Commotio Cortis is currently being investigated as a cause, where a sudden blow to the chest causes an interruption in the heart rhythm. It’s part of the discussion, but I’m no doctor.

The whole thing reminded me of my cardiac event when I was in my 20s. I think it was 1989. I collapsed with chest pains on a basketball court and went to the emergency room. That was when I discovered the irregular heartbeat issue that I have dealt with for the last thirty years.

Today the new congress gets sworn in, and then we’ll have two years of investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Meh, I’m just not into this right now. I’m going to go make a pot of coffee and get ready for my class.

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

Peace y’all.

When is Monday not a Monday? When it’s the first Monday of the year following a New Year’s Day that lands on a Sunday. Yesterday would’ve been a paid holiday for many workers in the US, but as it fell on a weekend, today is that paid holiday. Also, as college football bowl games are normally played on New Year’s Day, there is another issue – the professional football teams all play on Sunday (with the exception of one Monday night game and one Thursday night game), so today we’ll have college bowl games starting a little before lunch.

I start off the year with a “break”. I regularly consume adult beverages and enjoy a good whiskey, but from now until the 29th of January, I swear off the hard stuff. It’s just a break for health reasons, for discipline reasons, and really just to prove to myself that I can. I have a cocktail because I choose to have a cocktail, and the cocktail doesn’t make the decision for me… so, a break. I choose to raise a glass on the 29th, which is a celebration of my dad’s birthday. This year he would turn 82. He passed in 2019.

I spent a little time yesterday with my planner, going over some goals for the year. The New Year is a great time to think about those things, but the fact is that anytime is a good time to focus on setting and achieving goals. I’m thinking about my health, my writing, my reading, daily meditation, hydration, diet, and creative outlets. No one is going to add structure to my life other than me – and I’m the kind of person that needs some structure. I don’t need to plan every moment of every day, but it is good to have a framework for my day. I think that’s one of the things I like about being a technical trainer – a lot of the structure and daily framework is built into the delivery day.

I write my blog in the mornings, drink a couple of large glasses of water, and soon I’ll prepare a simple high-protein low-carb breakfast – probably a couple of scrambled eggs, American cheese, and some leftover ham from dinner last week. Today isn’t a delivery day, so I need to scope ahead and take a look at the “must-see” sports events on the day… and there are a couple.

I also need to get some work done – a new four-week class starts tomorrow, and I have a couple of preliminary posts to the Teams channel that require some attention.

OK, off to it.

I hope you find something to be thankful for today. Gratitude can feel good.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday! 30 December 2022. Today might be the last day I write this year, as I don’t usually post on Saturdays during this “revival” period, but who knows? Tomorrow I may be inspired and feel the urgent need to get my thoughts on digital paper for all the world to see.

I also might just keep my mouth shut and ponder life in this mortal coil quietly while sipping a whiskey.

Anyway, yesterday was a good day. I went to visit my mom and spent some time with my sister’s family and my younger brother. My sister has a new pup, a male named Goose, and he’s a cute little guy.

One of the things we talked about is this new interest I have in neurodivergence, and mom had some insights about our family on the whole. She talked about my dad and some of the practices he had in place to manage his anxiety. Kids ate before the adults, and leave dad alone when he was out in the garage working on his cars and other projects. My dad had a pretty high IQ, and it’s not really a surprise that some of his neurodivergent tendencies would get passed down to us kids.

I have a feeling that this topic will be one I spend some time on in 2023. It’s kind of in the same realm as kids going to college to become psychology majors so they can figure their own brains out. Right now I feel like there is this puzzle in front of me that has pegs and holes, trap doors, and secret keys. One latch opens up a creative fountain, another opens overwhelming anxiety.

I’ll try to go slow. I get that not everybody is interested in the subject matter, but if I can figure out my own buttons, I can control which one gets pressed at the appropriate time, and I can also make the choice to not respond when the wrong button gets pressed… or at least recognize what is happening in the moment so I can react more appropriately.

Alrighty.

I’m going to get some goals written down for 2023 a little later. I’ll plan on spending some quality time with my planner on a daily basis.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday, 29 December 2022. There are only a couple of days left in 2022, and there is stuff yet to get done.

As I mentioned last week, we were down with COVID the last couple of weeks, and finally had a negative test earlier this week. We chose not to run to see my mom and siblings last weekend due to the illness, but today I’m going to load up the family truckster and go for a visit… five hours in the car for a two-hour visit… but I need to make the sojourn. I’ve got a good audiobook queued up for the ride, the last book in Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force series.

Last night was fun. We ordered in some barbeque and gathered around tv to watch Kansas take on Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl. To be honest, the game was pretty miserable for KU fans for the better part of three quarters, and then the magic came to play. Arkansas took a 24-7 lead in the first quarter, and Kansas matched scores in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but Kansas rallied and scored 18 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to tie the game up and force not just one overtime, but 3 overtimes. Arkansas eventually won, 55-53, but it was a heck of a ride.

A topic that we’ve been discussing around here lately is neurodiversity. A family member has been looking into the subject and how it relates to the way they think and how they react to certain situations. This family member also suggested that I take an online test for neurodivergence as well, so I took an 80-question online test. The results were rather surprising. It would be inaccurate for me to say that I’ve never wondered about the way I look at the world – I have. I have often wondered how I can start off talking about one subject, then somehow flip through the index cards in my head to arrive at a seemingly unrelated subject then blurt something out to a room of blank stares… people wondering how I went from point A to point Garbanzo. Sometimes led folks to wonder if I was actively engaged in a procreative process with cashews, almonds, and macadamias.

It’s a subject I should look into more. Might explain a little bit more about why I sometimes feel more than just a little bit outside the scope of what most people consider normal.

OK, time for me to think about grabbing a little breakfast and a cup of coffee.

I’m looking forward to spending a few hours in the car with Joe Bishop and Skippy the talking beer can.

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

Peace y’all.