14 December 2022. It is Wednesday morning, and the sun has yet to breach the eastern horizon. I’ve been under the weather the last couple of days, but this morning I’m doing OK. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be feeling like a dirt-rolled snotwad later, but for now, it’s good enough.

I joked with friends yesterday that Benadryl is the “I’m not ready for a nap/we didn’t ask you” cold medicine.

OK. Today’s rant.

I go by Bob. I prefer Bob, I’ve always been called Bob. No one that knows me calls me “Robert”. If I hear “Robert”, I figure it’s either because that’s what it reads on the form, on my insurance card, or it’s my Gramma Reinsch mad at me from beyond this mortal plane. I don’t look at it as an insult, but I have preferences.

In a lot of movies, you’ll hear coaches and drill sergeants misgender the troops. It’s not innocent. It’s an attempt to diminish, to make people feel they are somehow “less”. We’ve been doing it so long, we don’t even give it a single thought. “Let’s get to work, ladies” is one of those expressions you’ll hear, and maybe it’s time to rethink that.

Then, the crux.

Everybody deserves a base level of respect for just being a living human being in the world. I’m often surprised how many people forget that. We need to respect each other and refer to each other in a fashion that says, “hey, I see you”.

I was going through the comments section about a story of a corporate environment where people were constantly misgendering people. I told ’em it was bullying.

Oh, boy.

One person, “Remember when we told our kids, ‘sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me’?”

My reply – we were wrong to say that. We know that mean kids can torment another kid to the point of suicide or worse.

“It’s bullying to make me use a pronoun that I don’t accept”

It’s not about you, dude. It’s about a 3-way fork in the road. 1. Misgender somebody. 2. Learn their name and refer to them by name. 3. Use the pronouns they prefer.

Show me on this doll where the pronoun hurt you.

The irony is that I pointed out that kids use nicknames as a form of torment, and it happens all the time. Part of that irony is that the guy that argued about “pronoun bullying” – his first name was Richard.

I wonder if he takes issue with being called “Dick”.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, 13 December 2022. It’s about time for me to do a little assessment of my Christmas present situation. I need to recap what presents I’ve taken care of and what needs to be addressed, but I think I’m getting close.

Yesterday wasn’t great for me. After I meandered through a couple of meetings, I called in sick for the afternoon. The problem with me regarding sinus congestion is that I react to decongestants pretty well, but I end up simply opening up the faucet and my nose runs like a horse bolting out of the gates at the Kentucky Derby. I’m not 100% today, but I’ll muscle through it.

I need to spend a little time on my goals/personal mission statements later today. I talk with my manager about it later today, and I know he’s supportive of these efforts. Sometimes it’s nice to get a different perspective on such matters. I posted on LinkedIn about my ambition to redefine that, and the first person to voice support was my training partner for my class this month, and I’ll be darned if she didn’t help me write a section right then and there.

Other than that, not much to talk about it. Two more weeks of class then a break for Christmas and the New Year.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, 12 December 2022. In other parts of the country, snow has been falling heavily, but not here quite yet.

Today is my prep day for the rest of the week, and I’ve got a few meetings to attend, as well as my Teams channel for my class.

Ugh.

Monday.

This is a very Monday Monday. I’m tired. Dogs wake up all barky.

But, my Monday is probably isn’t as stressful as it probably is on campus for the college students – it’s the beginning of finals week.

A little bit later today, I’m going to try and be a little more introspective about the coming year, set some goals, and work on my personal mission statement. I need to ponder a bit on where I’ve been and where I’m going. I’ve got a good personal journal set aside to help me with that, asking me to think about some questions to help define that. I used to work with books and planners that made me think about “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and some other books on creative visualization – the process of visualizing the future with the goal in mind. It’s time to revisit that. Clear up some things.

I’m just not into this morning, so, I’m going to call this one short and good.

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

Peace y’all.

Friday! Friday! Friday!

It is 9 December 2022, and even though the sky is overcast, I know there will be some light – even if I have to be the source.

Oh, man. Last night, Lisa and I flipped on the tv and had no idea what to watch, and I guess somewhere along the line I had set the DVR to record the KU women’s basketball games. The tv flipped over to the channel to record the unranked 7-0 KU women playing at the 12th-ranked 7-0 Arizona Wildcats. Unranked, undefeated versus highly ranked and undefeated.

Kansas won by 27.

That was a whoopin’.

After that, I flipped over to Amazon Prime to watch the NFL football game – the Los Angeles Rams versus the Las Vegas Raiders. On paper, the Raiders should have won going away. The Rams starting quarterback is done for the season, and they made a move to bring in a sack of potatoes to finish out the season. That sack of potatoes is Baker Mayfield, Heisman Trophy winner and number-one pick in the NFL draft. I watched Mayfield, with some serious help from the Rams’ defense, recover from a 16-3 deficit in the 4th quarter to come back and win. The icing on the cake was a drive of 98 yards with a minute and 45 seconds or so to win 17-16.

Brittney Griner has arrived in the United States. A swap was made. Criminal arms dealer Viktor Bout was approaching his effective use date, with the prospect of parole in the next few years. With the “use-by” date approaching, the best deal was made, and she’s coming home. It would’ve been nice to get Paul Whelan home as well, but the Russians are going to use that ace-in-the-hole for something of greater value, likely tied to trade deals or the Russian rape of Ukraine.

OK, time for me to get my head in the game and get ready for the day ahead.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning. Thursday 8 December 2022.

Flipped on the news, and the two stories at the top of the feed are relating to bad things… on November 13, four college students at the University of Idaho students were murdered, and they are still looking for the killer, and the other story is about the attack on a power substation in North Carolina, and it appears that a hate group coordinated the attack on the substation.

It might be time to turn off the news and wait for the sun to rise.

I am back in front of the camera in a bit, this morning talking about data integration. I’ve handled this talk a few times, so I’ve grown more comfortable with it. Every time I have this discussion, I end up learning something new about the various resources involved in those operations.

I think my spouse is under the weather. She had some interaction with somebody who was fighting the seasonal flu earlier in the week. It’s been disrupting her sleep patterns. I hope she’s feeling better soon.

I need to double-check my Christmas shopping list and see how much more shopping I have to do. I think I’ve got a handle on it.

I also have a new planner arriving today or tomorrow – time to think about my goals for 2023 and get the timeline working. I need to get them written down and figure out what milestones I can define and then stay focused.

We all need to keep learning and growing. When I stop, it’s time to step back. Can a person stagnate and be a positive influence at the same time? I think a person would be looked at more as ballast than a motivator at that point.

Time to get ready.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! 6:00 Am Central Standard Time on this 7 December 2022 Wednesday.

Woot! I get to play online tonight with some friends, but there’s work to be done before we get to that point.

And… what things have happened in my life and in the world over the last day? Well, stuff has happened.

First of all, congrats to Dr. Raphael Warnock for winning the runoff election against the woefully underqualified and Trump-backed candidate Herschel Walker. I still can’t believe that almost half of the voters active in that election voted for a Texas resident. It’s a little crazy.

Oh… Trump had some more bad news. Two things. It appears that during his presidency, Trump pulled in a 19 million dollar loan from a source with ties to North Korea. That might explain his fawning over the North Korean dictator.

That’s not the biggest piece of news, however.

The Trump Organization was found guilty on 17 federal charges of tax fraud/tax evasion.

Trump has not been very active on social media since that judgment was handed down.

OK, moving on.

I’ve got some recertification to get done this week. Need to find a nice gap in the next day or two to wrap that up.

Bonnie came over for dinner last night, and there were many tacos to be had. We talked about the holidays as well as Bonnie’s plan to have Dane over to watch her dog in January while she heads off to a couple of workdays on the east coast.

I’ve been messing around with my audio setup to create/record music. Computer is in good shape, and the new Presonus audio interface seems to be working well. I might need to grab a couple more 1/4″ audio cables to complete things.

Other than that, not much else to share.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday, 6 December 2022.

OK, there’s stuff going on in the world.

The big thing at the top of the list in the US political world is the runoff election between incumbent Democrat Dr. Rafael Warnock (not sure if his name first name is Rafael or Raphael off the top of my head) and the GOP candidate, apparently only chosen based on name recognition, Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL running back, Herschel Walker. Walker is well-aligned with former President ad current Constitution critic Donald J. Trump. Trump was a team owner and figurehead for the USFL back in the 80s and signed Walker to a huge contract as owner of the New Jersey Generals… and Trump later sued the NFL after the predictable failure of the USFL. I believe Trump was awarded $1, and then banned from NFL team ownership by the league.

Good luck today, Dr. Warnock.

Walker has no experience in a leadership role in politics, and frankly is a piss poor candidate. Start with your local school board. Learn to make sense. Focus on issues that are important, topics more critical than the desire to be a werewolf or a vampire.

Over the weekend, there was a power outage in North Carolina, and it appears to be intentional – an active of sabotage. This morning the FBI is releasing information that they received threats of such an action from domestic terrorist groups aligned with known racists.

Yay. That’s great.

Time to turn off the news and see if there’s a World Cup match on the tube.

I return to my virtual classroom in a bit. I’ll be handling a review of last week’s content, overviewing this week’s content, and asking for some feedback. This afternoon, my training partner will be driving the bus.

The dogs are being whiney this morning. Lisa is placating them with Cheetos right now.

I’m going to go rustle up a little breakfast.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, 5 December 2022, and I’m getting my head, my life, and my to-do list together for the week.

But first, let’s review some of the mischiefs I got into over the weekend.

I commented on a story posted online about how being a working mother is impossible… and I took a bit of umbrage over the term “working mother”. I know the writer intended to talk about women who have children and have jobs/careers outside the home. I didn’t care for the term, however, as it implies that women that are stay-at-home moms don’t work. All mothers work. All parents work. My mom didn’t have a job outside the home, but she worked… and what she did was different than what my wife does, as my wife has a career outside the home. Pick better words.

The former guy made comments demanding that Americans abandon the Constitution and reinstate him immediately as President of the United States. Many people, including myself, made the observation that Trump swore on the Bible to uphold and defend the Constitution. I also noted that Trump has an extensive track record of breaking vows… just ask his wife and ex-wives (sorry, Ivana, I know you aren’t available for comment, but your sentiments have been pretty well documented).

I pointed out that Herschel Walker probably ought to leave topics relating to science to people that work in those fields.

I could talk about my weekend as a sports fan, but that’s a great big barrel of suck.

A phrase that should be used more often – “I’m not qualified to comment”. If you don’t know what the hell you are talking about, educate yourself before commenting. If I don’t understand an issue, I read.

OK, it’s about time for me to throw my breakfast in the microwave and grab a cup of coffee. I made extra on Saturday morning, and Lisa made a wonderful assortment of breakfast pastries yesterday morning. I’ll reheat the Saturday hash, and Dane can have the pastries before he heads up to campus.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is FRIDAY!

That deserves a little bit of a woot all on its own.

Today is day 21,627 for me walking on this mortal plane. I have no idea what the future holds, but I do know one thing… someday, it’s all going to be over. You never know when your warranty expires, and you never know when that engine block stops rolling over in the morning.

I better make the most of the time I have left.

Time to write more, time to play more, time to get off my ass and “do”… stop thinking about doing, and get my butt in gear.

The recent arrival of a new guitar has reinvigorated my interest in the instrument. I wonder if that in itself is one of the reasons I keep buying a new guitar every year or two. New wood, new strings, new fingerboards inviting me over to sit down and just pick some stuff out for a while.

Lisa and I went to a School of Engineering recognition dinner last night. It had been scheduled almost a year in advance, and it ended up coinciding with a Kansas basketball game that had yet to be scheduled. My suggestion to the Dean of the school was to book a dinner like this during the height of football season when the game schedule is a little easier to predict (all Saturdays with maybe one Friday early in the season).

Right now Lisa and I are catching up on last night’s game… 11 minutes left, with Kansas up 65-39 over Seton Hall. I think this is an easy one to fast-forward through the commercials.

Alright, coffee is up, and I’ve got some things to attend to prior to my session at 8:00 AM.

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

Peace y’all.

A new month begins! Today is 1 December 2022, and the beginning of the end of the year. 2022 is going to come to a close in a scant 30 days… I haven’t even gotten over 2020 yet.

2023 will be an exciting year, I’m sure. Lisa and I will both turn 60, we’ll both become grandparents. That’s just the stuff we know about.

Let’s get through this month/year first. Don’t get ahead of yourself, Bob.

Lisa has a recognition dinner tonight, and I’ll be along for the ride. Not quite sure as to the venue or menu, but we’ll roll with it. Lisa thinks the turnout will be pretty low as the dinner coincides with a KU basketball game – the dinner had to be scheduled before the Kansas basketball schedule was finalized, and the chips fell where they fell.

I have a lecture in another couple of hours… the participation in my blended learning course has been pretty solid, and my training delivery partner has been rock solid.

Time for me to get serious about Christmas stuff. 3 weeks are going to go by fast.

Watching the news… politicians are idiots.

I’ve had enough for now. I’ll look for y’all in the comments.

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

Peace y’all.