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.

Evie Day 551

Good morning! It is Tuesday, September 17th, 2024. I’m in Las Vegas for a conference.

First thing I must do is thank everybody that wished me a happy birthday yesterday. I’m 61. I’m happy, relatively healthy, and not waking up with a hangover. I’m at a company event, and we have the team here from all around the world. I met counterparts from all over Asia and Europe, and it is a wonderful experience seeing so many folks that I have shared sessions with online. Everybody is the same height on a computer screen, but there is a tremendous pleasure gathering together and meeting teammates.

I’m writing this on my work laptop, and I keep getting a notification “You’ve signed out of Grammarly”… yeah, because Grammarly reads the content and give you feedback, but if you a re working on a confidential work document, it’s not something you want to have reading and recording stuff that might damage the company.

The first day was a lot of meet-and-greet, and I had a great time with familiar faces and some new ones. The pool reception was a lot of fun, and then some of us headed to the sports book at the hotel to continue our discussions, and I had great interaction with members of the European team. I also might be getting drawn into a couple of projects… and that is one of the primary reasons I enjoy these events.

It will be another full day today – I expect we’ll be talking, laughing, and sharing until about 11:00 tonight. We don’t have these get-togethers very often, so we do try to maximize our interaction. I was thankful to get away from the casinos for a while – all of the flashing lights can be a little off-putting for my neurodivergent side. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that while I’m in sessions.

OK, time to get going on the day ahead. Ibuprofen will be on the menu… lots of walking here.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 547

Good morning! It’s a Friday! Today is 13 September 2024.

Yes, it is Friday the 13th.

Let’s hope that things go favorably, today, shall we?

I’m watching the news and they’re talking about the election, which states might go to which candidate, all in that pursuit of 270 electoral votes. It’s going to be an interesting couple of months.

I’ve got my last day in the virtual classroom for a couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting class with lots of interaction with the front row. I look at virtual classrooms like a high school classroom, and we have a couple of folks that sit in the front row, and a few others taking notes in the back. I’ve been working with my training partner for eight of the last ten weeks… I might have to ask him for a little feedback about my delivery style, see if he has any suggestions for me.

Tonight there will be football. Kansas hosts UNLV at Children’s Mercy Hospital field over in Kansas City, Kansas. I hope we show up a little stronger than we did last Saturday night. Fewer turnovers would be good, too.

That’s all I really have for now. I’m not particularly motivated to be frank. Monday will be a little late, as I fly to Las Vegas at 6:00 AM. I’ll be looking for some breakfast when I get to the hotel.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 546

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 12 September 2024.

We’re watching the news this morning, and the first commercial spacewalk is happening. Some billionaire is going on a spacewalk. Thanks for reminding us that the future is for all of us if we have the money.

Sorry, I’m not the biggest fan of Elon Musk.

Last night there was a gathering of the tribes online, and there was a little bit of kinetic fun. I was a bit surprised when I rolled my third attack for a “3” on the dice, and it was still good enough to hit the bigbads that we were encountering in the woods.

There was quite a bit of talk throughout the day yesterday regarding the debate on Tuesday night. The consensus is that it was a pretty one-sided victory for Harris, and Trump looked like an old fool. Of course, the Trump true believers are saying that Trump won, but then again these are folks who could get a bucket of pee dropped on them from a second-story window and they would talk about being good because we need the rain.

Today I’m talking about business continuity and disaster recovery solutions with my class. This will be my last real lecture with this private class. We’ve been working with them for four weeks. Next week I have a conference with my team in Las Vegas, so Monday’s post might be a bit late, or way too early, but I will try to stay on top of my writing. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with folks, including a coworker from my previous life.

Alright, it’s time to make a pot of coffee and reheat a little of the breakfast I made yesterday.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 545

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to one and all! Today is 11 September 2024. It’s the morning after the debate, and it’s the anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history.

Today will be an interesting day. I’ll be back in my virtual classroom in a bit. My training partner and I have been working together for 8 of the last 10 weeks, and I like to think we’ve established a rapport. He’s on deck first with a case study, and I’ll run the afternoon office hours, and we’ll switch that up for tomorrow.

The debate last night was about what I expected… Trump lost badly and claimed victory. One thing that I’ve learned to say with some frequency is the old maxim “Demand evidence and think critically”. I like to think that I do… and the evidence points squarely to poor preparation on Trump’s part, and he’ll do what he does – claim victory – and then he’ll blame anything akin to a bad performance on the people that were there to help him prepare.

And no, they aren’t eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Anyway, I thought last night was good for the Harris campaign, and very reassuring to those of us that do not want to see Trump gifted another four years of diverting taxpayer dollars to his golf clubs.

Tonight, there will be gaming! I look forward to hanging out with the guys. I ‘ll probably jump on line a few minutes early to say hi to a couple of the crew and maybe reflect on what we witnessed last night.

In the meantime…

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 544

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all, including Sue, who had tacos last night at the Paramount. Hi Bob!

I have a dog here that is pawing at my leg to come sit on my lap… so I lower the leg rest, she looks at me, then wanders off. That’s a fact of life when you live with a senior dog. Lucy has her good days and her bad days, and I can’t help but wonder if dogs can get dementia just like humans can when they reach seniority. It’s something I think about, as I look at the calendar and wait for that annual date that reminds me that entropy cannot be reversed.

And now they are doing the tribute to James Earl Jones, who passed yesterday at the age of 93. What an incredible life, and what an incredible set of pipes. Of course, they cut away… and you hear James Earl Jones say, “This is CNN”.

I’m back in my virtual classroom this morning. I’ve got a short video to cut at 7, and then I’ll start class at 8. We’ll get after it for a couple of hours, then I’ll switch gears for a bit, shifting my focus onto some other upcoming responsibilities.

Tonight, we’ll have our traditional Tuesday night meal, then Lisa and I will huddle around the TV… well, it’s a 75-inch big screen, so no real need to huddle around it like it’s a 1930s-era end table radio. The debate will be on, and I have chosen my side… no real surprise which candidate I’m backing. For the first time, Lisa and I have chosen to buy yard signs to support a candidate. I wonder which delivery driver will try to take the sign out? I have heard some of our delivery drivers listening to right-wing radio when they pull into our drive to make a delivery. It might be wise to put the sign in front of the big tree stump as a layer of insurance against vandalism.

OK, it’s time for me to get focused on the day ahead.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 543

Good morning, and a happy first day of the Western work week to you all. Today is Monday, 9 September 2024.

The weekend was a good one, but not as good as we had hoped around here. The Chiefs took care of business on Thursday night (after I thought they would tank the first game of the season) then on Saturday, things didn’t go as well as we’d have liked. The Kansas Jayhawks traveled to Champaign-Urbana and couldn’t get things together, Kansas lost 23-17. Illinois didn’t like losing at Kansas and found a way to rally in the fourth quarter. Kansas gave them a little help in the turnover department, and an odd ruling on the field gave the ball back to the Illini after a muffed punt went into the endzone where it was recovered by Illinois – not a safety, as I would’ve expected, but a touchback to the 20 or 25. Ugh.

This week will be a week of staying focused on work. I need to focus on a couple of deliverables, one for this morning, and another for later in the week. I have a meeting with my manager later this morning regarding the first, as I am applying for a course lead position. We’ll see how that goes.

I think we’ve cleared all of the COVID cases in the house. Lisa certainly seems to be back to her regular self, and Dane and I never tested positive – rather odd considering our proximity to Lisa last week, but I’ll take the win and run with it.

Yesterday morning, Lisa made a couple of Danish pastries for breakfast: blueberry-lemon and strawberry-rhubarb. They were both fantastic, and I am happy to say there were some leftovers that will find their way onto my plate just about the time my coffee gets done brewing.

I’ve been getting back into the executive book summary habit – up to 38 books so far. I need to keep it up and focus on the titles related to staying focused and organized. I need structure, and where it doesn’t exist, I’ll create it.

Yesterday afternoon was a good time with the guys – we slayed a couple of big-bads – well, they were big-bads to us, as we’re not the most powerful party among the five different campaigns we’ve got going on right now. In this campaign, I’m a stoic Dwarven cleric who focuses on the business at hand, with no shenanigans… and his name if Buzz Keal. You can figure that one out.

That’s all I have for now. I’ve got courseware to review and forms to complete.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 540

Good morning, and a very happy Friday to you all. Today is 6 September 2024.

OK, first things first… the Chiefs won last night by a toe. The Ravens scored first, then the Chief tied it, got a little lead, then the Ravens came back. The Ravens would’ve scored on the last play of the game… but the receiver just barely stepped out of bounds in the endzone, game over, Chiefs win 27-20.

Put that one in the books and tiptoe away very quickly.

It was a pretty good game, and I apologize to the Chiefs. I thought the Ravens were going to come into Arrowhead Stadium with a full head of steam. They had a full head of something and called for illegal formations more times than I’m sure their coach would like. The highlight for me was watching the Chief’s first-round pick, Xavier Worthy, score two touchdowns. That was quite the display.

What else is top of mind?

I turn 61 in another week and a half. Am I a mature adult? I hope I’ve grown up some. I have joked that growing older just means you have more responsibilities, but there are some other things that are indicators of evolution. When I was young, in my teens and twenties, I didn’t always treat people with the respect they deserved. I was a self-centered narcissist and behaved as such (even if the term “self-centered narcissist” is redundant). Every now and then we get reminders of who we used to be, whether it was an interaction from years ago, or someone asking about other events that were long-forgotten. Yeah, when I was a kid, I did some foolish and inconsiderate things. I can’t change who I was, but I can try to be a better person today.

OK, time for me to think about the day ahead. I’ve got a few slide decks to review, due at the end of the business day today, and I need to take a look at next week’s responsibilities.

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

Peace ya’ll.

Evie Day 539

Good morning and happy Thursday to you all! Today is 5 September 2024.

Today is going to be an interesting day. Not for any particular reason other than it’s the beginning of the NFL football season, and the team I have aligned myself with and cheered for since I was 7 is starting their second consecutive season defending their Superbowl crown. The Chiefs open the season against a rival that really wants to beat them, the Baltimore Ravens. I fully expect the Ravens to win tonight… the Ravens game I care about the most is the one that might take place in January in the playoffs. The Chiefs lost their season opener last year against the Detroit Lions and then recovered… I expect the same tonight.

I got together with the guys for a couple of hours last night and we had a good gaming session. Not much slaying of evil bad guys last evening, but more of an assessment as to which of a series of opponents we want to tackle first. One of the party members, a relatively new player suggested, “Hey, maybe we can get them to fight each other?”. I like the way he thinks!

There was another school shooting yesterday in Georgia, 4 dead – 2 students, 2 teachers. I doubt anything will change. The nation could’ve made a collective “no more” decision after Sandy Hook, but we decided differently. We love our guns, and sacrifices will have to be made.

The shooter is a 14-year-old kid.

I’ll be back in my virtual classroom later today. I have a case study to go over later… then it will be time… for meetings. I have three meetings after my regular work day.

Until then…

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 538

Good morning! It is the first Wednesday in September! today is 4 September 2024.

We got the news last Friday that Bonnie, our eldest child, caught the bug. Yesterday, my wife and my son got tested… Dane came up healthy, but Lisa got the double-bars of a positive test. I’m feeling fine, but I probably ought to take a test later today to see if I’ve picked it up yet.

We had a couple of tacos last night for dinner, but Lisa wasn’t very hungry for obvious reasons.

Today is a normal work day for me. I’ll record a bit in about an hour for work, then I’ll hand the reins over to my training partner for today’s first session. I’ll take the afternoon session and manage the office hours.

Tonight, there will be much happiness and slaying of big, bad evil guys. Sunday wasn’t a great day for us to all get together, but I have a feeling we’ll have a quorum tonight. I get to debut my new character artwork in-game, and I’m looking forward to that. One of the guys I play with has a talented daughter than is creating original artwork on Fiverr, and I figured if I’m going to use generative AI for some pictures, I probably ought to support flesh and bone artists as well.

It’s odd to be in September already. The days seem to fly by.

I’m going to get this posted and take care of the tasks ahead of me.

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

Peace y’all.