Evie Day 687

Good morning, and a happy last day of the Western work week to you all. It is also the last day of the first month of 2025, 31 January.

Friday, Friday, Friday!

I closed out my class yesterday on a high note, with some comradery and pleasant banter at the end of the course. I showed my attendees one of my favorite cute videos of Evelyn noticing the tiger at the zoo – “No, no, no!”. All in all, it was a successful class. The admin courses are generally a notch down on the difficulty scale, but there were definitely some questions that were beyond the scope of the material, queries right out of the solutions architecture and cybersecurity architecture classes I also teach. Good group… I told them they were my best private class this year. They then noticed it was still January, and the joke took on a life of its own.

Today is a day filled with meetings. A one-on-one with a skip-level manager in lieu of a normal one-on-one. There are some things to think about. After that other team meetings and discussions fill up the day.

The last couple of days have been warmer, Wednesday unseasonably warm with temps reaching into the high 50s. Yesterday it wasn’t quite as warm, and it was raining in the afternoon. Today’s forecast includes rain as well. It’s going to be a soggy day, one of those days that highway drivers should check the windshield wiper fluid levels.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. I know Lisa and I will be able to spend some time with our kids and our grandaughter. I always look forward to that.

In the meantime…

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 686

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 30 January 2025.

I got to see Evelyn yesterday. It was a good day. Gracie and Evie showed up yesterday afternoon. Gracie was getting a little bit of cabin fever, and I guess Evelyn told her that she wanted to see Grampa. I am a lucky old man.

Last night there was an accident in Washington, DC as an inbound American Airlines flight from Wichita collided with a military helicopter at Reagan National. From what I have heard, there are 67 deaths, 64 from the flight and 3 from the helicopter. My thoughts are with the victims’ families. Both Lisa and I are keeping an eye out for a passenger manifest, as we lived in Wichita for quite some time.

I got together with some of the guys last night for a little tabletop. We were short a couple of players, each having to deal with their own real-life situations. They were missed. It was an enjoyable evening, nonetheless.

Today I’ll wrap up my four-day private class, then segue into a walk-through of a presentation we’re recording in a couple of weeks. I still need to look into my hardware situation… I’m looking forward to using a teleprompter.

Oh, I did a brisket on my smoker yesterday. Turned out pretty good. Lisa said it was one of my best briskets ever… and I think she tells me that every time I smoke a brisket. She loves me.

That’s what I’ve got for now. Be good, be the safe space someone needs. Heaven knows there are folks out there being persecuted for just trying to be the best version of themselves, and the folks doing the persecuting will claim to be Christians. To paraphrase Matthew 25:45, “I tell you the truth, anything you refused to do for even the least of my people here, you refused to do for me.”

I’ll take passages Christians should familiarize themselves with for $500, Alex.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 685

Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday. Today is 29 January 2025.

Today would be my dad’s 84th birthday. He was born in 1941. I remember my grandmother telling me about window shopping for Christmas in downtown Sioux City on December 7, 1941, and she was pushing my dad around in a stroller, and as they walked by one of the radio stations, she heard the news about Pearl Harbor. Many of the radio stations then had speakers on the outside of their buildings so people could hear the radio broadcasts.

Radio days.

When we transitioned to teaching from home in 2020, a number of my peers weren’t too excited about it. I completely understood. Trainers like to be in the same room as their learners, so we can better grasp their sentiments in the moment. When we pivoted to remote learning, we moved from a room full of people to a room in the house where one person could sit and present all day. It was easier for me than it was for some others, as having a radio background helped during this move. I’m still fine with it, and I don’t see that changing. I think I’ve adapted fairly well.

Lisa and I had tacos last night, but she was concerned I didn’t buy enough. We have a taco left over in the fridge.

After dinner, we settled in to watch Kansas host Central Florida in basketball. Once again, the Jayhawks took it to the edge, but pulled out a win – this after they had demolished CFU earlier this season at their home court by 51.

Today will be a pretty basic day. Lisa has a class that runs until 7, so Dane and I will put something together for dinner.

Alright. That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 684 

Good morning, and once again, a very happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 28 January 2025.

Hey… I got the year right on the first try! Woot! Minor victory time!

Lucy, the senior dog, is over by Lisa at the dining room table trying her best to bark her way into a little bit of Lisa’s breakfast. It’s the dog’s least charming trait. Bark, bark, bark… that dog is old and grumpy… and you know what they say about dogs and their owners, right?

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I started my class on cloud administration, a private class with all attendees from a single customer. They come from different teams, so we can talk candidly, but at the same time, there aren’t any big projects they are collaborating on at the moment, so in that regard it’s a pretty typical class.

Last night we watched some reruns of Forged in Fire, followed by the second season of “The Night Agent” on Netflix. Tonight we’ll watch a little college basketball as Kansas hosts Central Florida at 7:00.

We still keep the news turned off, but with some of the executive orders coming out of DC, the news is going to get a little more sparse. Reporting outbreaks is not going to be reported any longer, and that means that the largest tuberculosis outbreak in US history won’t get a lot of discussion in the news. Last I heard, there were over 70 cases in Wyandotte and Johnson counties in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. It’s not good news, but no one is going to talk about it because someone has decided that sort of news doesn’t matter. Amazing.

OK, I’m going to get a pot of coffee going and grab a little breakfast.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 683

Good morning, happy Monday, and welcome to another week. Today is 27 January 2025.

I’m in a pretty good mood, although I must admit to a bit of “champion’s guilt”. I’m a Chiefs fan, and they are going back to the Superbowl for a possible three-peat, which would be the first in NFL history. A lot of people are sick of the Chiefs… and that’s where the guilt comes in. Given a choice between being likable and being reviled, I would prefer to be liked, but I will admit that when I am around some of my professional peers, I don’t bring up football and I don’t bring up the Chiefs. It’s reached a point where even the Patriots’ fans are sick of hearing about the Chiefs.

I had a good weekend. I worked on some projects, and Dane spent some time really focused on out 3D printer (Bambu Lab A1). He’s doing a combination of things, some work-related prints for himself, then some fun fidget things to keep my mind occupied. He gave me something called a gearcube, which it an interesting fidget toy.

Today I embark on a four-day exploration of cloud administration for a private customer. I’ll start off the day by asking if there are any special projects they are working on that we need to spend a little extra time and focus on this week. I expect there will be some suggestions for deeper dives, and I’ll do my best to accommodate.

We’re expecting a warmer spell here, with temperatures rising into the 50s (Fahrenheit). That will likely melt most of the snow that fell a few weeks ago. It might be a good time to get another gallon of wiper fluid – when there’s mud on the highway, there will be mud on the windshield.

Oh, and Kansas fell to Houston in double-overtime on Saturday. I don’t want to talk about that.

Work stuff, record some work stuff, follow up on some hardware I need for recording… I’ve got a little to-do list for a Monday.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 680

Good morning, and a happy last day of the Western work week to you all. Today is Friday, 24 January 2024.

In five more days, I’ll reflect on my dad’s birthday. I’ve taken the month of January away from alcohol, and on my dad’s birthday, I’ll toast his life and his memory. When I’ve done Dry January in the past, I didn’t always stick to the pledge, but this year has been an exception because I played by the rules. Minor achievement achieved, here’s a badge to post on LinkedIn.

Today I’ll wrap up my solutions architecture class. Two more modules to cover, and one case study walk-through after the closing. I have a little recording to do this morning that I couldn’t; do last night – after talking all day in class, I was starting to lose my voice, so I thought the better of it. I’ll get it cranked out shortly, after I get the garbage out to the corner.

We’ve been keeping the news off for some time and will continue to do so. It seems there is always something in the news that reminds us that the country is taking a turn, and I don’t believe it’s for the better. My mom’s insulin prices will be going up because Big Pharma investors need to be reimbursed for their campaign donations. Farm good prices will be going up, as the ICE raids are affecting farm labor – people aren’t showing up, and crops will just rot in the fields. The White House says that Ukraine just should have surrendered to Russia instead of fighting for their homeland… words from a man who surrendered to Russia long ago.

This weekend I’ll watch some sports, Kansas will have basketball games for the men and women, and the Kansas City Chiefs will host Buffalo. As I flip through the news and other social media, I see that the hatred for my favorite sports team is growing with each win. Even if the Chiefs win, I probably won’t say much about it. No need to transfer the hate from the team to this fan.

Time to get this in the can and get going on coffee and a breakfast bite.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 679

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to yo all. Today is 23 January 2025.

Every time I write the year correctly the first time, it’s a minor victory.

I had an exchange on LinkedIn I would like to share.

A former coworker posted a note on LinkedIn, the professional social network, that he was just so darn happy that the president declared that everyone has to go by the pronouns assigned at birth, and all of this pronoun nonsense was over. I had to remind him that using the pronouns people prefer is a sign of respect, and that I would continue to use his preferred pronouns in that fashion. He then complained about why certain groups have “months” and veterans don’t, and that he was upset about the rainbow being associated with LGBTQ acceptance rather than God’s promise that he wouldn’t kill everyone on the planet again because God is a good and caring God that just killed all the women, men, babies on the planet.

I probably should have asked how he knew for sure that God wasn’t regretting his decision and showing a rainbow in support of the people he had murdered, including the LGBTQ folks. It’s not like somebody was taking down contemporaneous notes.

I’m snarky that way. A lot of folks claim to know the mind of God, and I love it when I get a chance to say, “That’s not what God told me” just to see the look on their face.

God told me to leave my neighbor as I love myself. God told me to do under others as I would have done unto me. God never told me to that if I advocated for the eradication of folks with gender dysphoria, I wouldn’t be inconvenienced by pronouns. Seriously… there are people that think the world would be better off if trans kids offed themselves so they wouldn’t have to change one part of the way they refer to another human being. How selfish is that?

Oh, Susan tells me that it’s National Handwriting Day. Write somebody a nice handwritten note… and make sure it’s legible enough for them to read. I know I will – my dad is watching.

On that note, it’s time to get ready for the day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 678

Good morning, and happy Wednesday to you all. Today is 22 January 2024.

It seems this month is flying by.

It’s funny. I invested so much time into passing that exam I took Monday. I studied over my Christmas vacation, took the exam, and missed it by that much. I learned more, tried to stay focused as much as possible, and passed the thing on Monday, but it feels like I have missed out on a great deal. I didn’t spend time with my family like I should have over the break, and I was distracted by that exam even when I was around my wife and kids, and of course, Evelyn, my granddaughter.

Now I ponder buckling in to tackle another certification exam, the last in the security suite. This one should not be quite as challenging as the other one, but it could have a few hidden tricks and trap in it. The day will come when I no longer have to get certified and renew those certs every year, but that day is years away.

Lisa and I had a quiet evening at home. I looked over some work content, and played a little sudoku on my laptop until it was time for bed. I turned on the “Sleep” music channel, settled my brain into a less active mode, and dropped off.

Today, I’ll be back in my virtual classroom in a couple of hours. Database design, high availability, data integration are the subjects of the day. Tonight, it looks like there will be a little time for some virtual tabletop with the guys. One of the guys in the group talked about his schedule, and he’s anxious to slay some non-existent big bad evil guy to work out a little tension.

I see I have a class scheduled out into April now. That is a bit of a reassurance.

Time to get focused on the day.

Evie Day 677

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 21 January 2025.

Make a plan, and get some tacos later. You’ve earned it.

Yesterday was a pretty dark day, in my opinion. A felon was sworn in and started issuing executive orders. First, apparently, was an EO to raise the flags back up to full staff, as the tradition is to fly flags at half-staff for 30 days following the death of a former president. Tangerine Palpatine couldn’t bear to share the stage with a man who had more integrity in his toenail clippings than Cheeto Benito has in his family tree.

There were other EOs. Raising drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid recipients. That fat bastard thinks my mom has money around that pharma investors need more than she does. There was another EO that was the most anti-LGBTQ+ declaration in a hundred or more years. He also pardoned around 1500 rioters who participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection -effectively stating that it’s ok to assault police officers with flag poles, bear spray, feet and fists as long as you do it in Trump’s name.

We’re going to continue to leave the news off in the mornings.

Folks on social media platforms have noticed new followers – apparently the FOTUS and Vance have both shown up on folks’ lists of followers mysteriously… or not so mysteriously. All Zuckerberg has to do to modify the world’s followers on Facebook and everyone has a new follower. Great… just great.

I’m back in my virtual classroom today, teaching solutions architecture. I have a couple of other tasks I need to attend to as well, verifying the classes I can teach. I made a typo recently that showed I was capable of delivering a course, and when I checked out the course, I realize the mistake I had made.

I did accomplish something yesterday – I got that monkey off my back and passed that certification exam.

Time to get this in the can and turn on my little space heater back in the sunroom… -11 here, so I’m going to need a little help getting my workspace up to speed.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve. If you beat up cops in DC, it is.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 676

Good morning… I almost wrote “good moroning”… that’s not until noon.

Welcome to another week in 2025. Today is Monday, 20 January.

Years ago I was building a new system to help me learn cloud technologies and some other applications in the Microsoft 365 application suite. I was trying to devise a name for the machine, and decided to go with “Nightfall”. I thought it appropriate considering the short story by Isaac Asimoc and the insanity I thought the world was experiencing in 2016 and 2017. Nightfall seemed a good name… a descent into darkness, and moments of pure chaos.

I retired Nightfall late last year after a good run. I still have it, but it sits unplugged back in the office next to my new desktop with the i9 processor and the high-end video card. Still, the name was appropriate at the time.

The Chiefs won on Saturday over the Houston Texans, and it appears as if the Buffalo Bills will be travelling to Kansas City for the AFC Championship this coming weekend. The game will start at 5:30 Central Time on Sunday, January 26.

I have a meeting this morning with a colleague in France, then I’ll continue my preparation for another certification exam. My confidence is a little better this time around.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be delivering a solutions architecture class. I have a few new twists that I plan on incorporating into the course to spur a little more engagement.

Meeting, exam, doctor’s appointment. I’ll relax a bit tonight after I pass this exam. Tonight’s national championship game between Notre Dame and Ohio State will be fun. I can’t say I have a preference – my oldest daughter earned her master’s at Ohio State, and we’re a Catholic family, and we’ve known more than a couple of folks who attended Notre Dame.

Time for me to get a pot of coffee going, and get back to studying.

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

Peace y’all.