It is Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2023.

I flipped on the news first thing, and the topic of conversation is the GOP candidacy for president, They just did a piece on Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

I tell you what, every time I hear him say “woke agenda”, I know what he really means. He’s not “anti-woke”. That’s code folks – it means, “anti-black” relative to teaching American history. It means, “anti-LGBTQ+” when it comes to marriage equality and gender-affirming care for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria (my guess is that DeSantis and most right-wing politicians couldn’t define gender dysphoria without insulting most people in a room with an IQ above room temperature).

And he says he doesn’t in the name of freedom.

The freedom he’s talking about is the freedom from discomfort and freedom from the truth. He doesn’t want to face it. He’s like so many other people that talk a good game, but in reality, he has an ideal he wants to pursue, where he gets to pick and choose a version of the truth that most closely aligns with his desired reality.

He reminds me of people in foreign countries that are seriously oppressive of the LGBTQ+ community and say ludicrous things like, “that’s a western thing, we don’t have homosexuality here”.

Nah, bud. You have gay folks in your country just like everybody has them in their country. You just oppress them and force them into silence for fear of their own lives.

Freedom means different things to different people. Freedom doesn’t mean suppressing the truth. Freedom means we take the good with the bad, and we realize some 1950s nuclear family fantasy is never going to happen.

Tonight Kansas travels to Stillwater to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Texas lost on the road last night at Texas Tech, so tonight’s game might be even more meaningful.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, 13 February 2023, and I’m in a pretty good state of mind. After falling behind early, the Kansas City Chiefs rallied to take home a 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.

Some folks were pointing to a late play where the Eagles’ defense was called for defensive holding. I get that they’re upset. Nobody likes it when things don’t go their way. I was upset with a couple of plays myself that didn’t go the way I wanted them to go.

It was a good game, and the Chiefs played well, and the offensive line did an outstanding job protecting Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs’ quarterback played a solid game and added Super Bowl MVP to a list of honors he has earned this past season.

I go into my virtual classroom in a bit – my luck I’ll have a bunch of learners from the Philadelphia region in my class this week.

Time to get some coffee going and get my day organized. I was a bit distracted yesterday.

Tonight I’ll have a chance to get the next few days organized a bit more. I’m feeling pretty good about this delivery – it’s a solo delivery, but I just co-delivered the course a couple of weeks ago, so not much need for a refresher.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday morning! Woot! 10 February 2022.

Today is the last Red Friday for sports fans around the greater Kansas City area and for Chiefs fans around the world. Super Bowl Sunday is a mere couple of days away.

We’re going to go with a taco buffet and mango habanero wings for Sunday, and I might even (gasp!) have a beer. I haven’t had a beer in a while, so it will be a welcome one-day limited-time offer.

Today is a day of meetings, some leaning casual, others leaning to more serious topics. I’ll try to keep my comments to a minimum – I have a tendency to be “that guy” in meetings that makes the occasional joke to add a little levity. Most of the time I think my quips are welcome, but at times they haven’t been timely or welcome. As a manager once reminded me, “time & place, Bob”.

I shave my head, as I have shared with folks, and this morning during my rise & shine sequence, I over-shined and shaved a blemish on the top of my head, I looked around for a bandage to cover the new wound. The only bandages in the house were extra-large, so rather than looking like a cut myself shaving, it looks like I had to have some sort of emergency brain surgery.

If I get out of the house this afternoon, I’ll be sure to wear a hat.

I also need to get my notes together for my class next week. First solo shot on a security course.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

Thursday morning, 9 February 2023.

Last night I had a hard time sleeping. It wasn’t so much that something was bothering me – I really don’t have anything creating a bunch of unnecessary tension in my life right now, to be frank – but I just had weird random thoughts running through my head like Olympic sprinters going for the gold. I was hanging out online with friends right up until bedtime, so I didn’t decompress in the evening like I usually do. Hopefully tonight I’ll be better prepared for a good night’s sleep.

Dane and I are going to work on a project this spring, and we’re starting to receive some of the components. A guitar parts manufacturer based in Washington state was having a sale on their unfinished guitar bodies, and I know I have a neck or two out in the barn that has remained unused. The neck and body are covered, and the body is based on the popular Fender Stratocaster shape, so all we really need is a set of tuners, a Wilkinson-style tremolo, and a pre-wired pickguard with decent pickups to complete the axe. It will need some finishing – the body is made out of black limba, with some really nice streaks to it. Sand it down a little more, get the grain filled, and let’s see if it can make some noise.

It started raining a little bit late yesterday afternoon. Looks like the temperature dropped enough that the rain turned to a light dusting of snow. I don’t need to drive, but my wife and son will have to head to campus later today. I hope the roads aren’t a frozen obstacle. I remember when I used to drive into Kansas City after snow and ice storms, and I would casually count the number of cars that had gone into the ditches – a surprising number of 4×4 pickups, Jeeps, and other SUVs. People all too often drive too fast without really knowing the road conditions, and I keep counting, 27, 28, 29…

Time for me to toss back my second glass of water of the morning, and see if I can win an argument with the coffee maker.

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

Peace y’all.

Hi folks, it is Wednesday morning, Hump Day, 8 February 2023.

I’ve got my second glass of water sitting beside me, watching the morning report about news around the world.

I’ve been asked to not be overtly political.

That can be hard.

Lisa and I chose not to watch the State of the Union Address last night, as we flipped on Netflix and watched a new season of “The Great British Baking Show” featuring professional chefs rather than talented amateurs and serious hobbyists. I have to admit, I prefer the original format.

I made a taco run last night to a local restaurant. I’ve come to the decision that we’ll tap them on Sunday for our gameday spread. One of the items on their menu is chicken wings, and I asked them to combine a couple of the flavors on the menu for the wings, so there will be mango-habanero chicken wings on the spread.

I’m a little too attached to my sports teams sometimes. The Chiefs play in the Super Bowl on Sunday, and it is starting to affect my sleep patterns. I need to get some meditation in to calm my chronic overactive brain.

It’s the third day of the security course I am sitting. I booked my exam for it. I hope I can nail this down the first time I take it. These certification exams have always caused me some anxiety, even now when it’s not a big deal if I don’t pass – the exams are the property of my employer, so we don’t have to pay for these exams like I used to. There used to be so much pressure when I was starting out because certification was the gateway to working as a contract technical trainer.

Time to get another glass of water in me and get a pot of coffee brewing.

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

Peace y’all.

It’s a Tuesday morning, 7 February 2023, and I don’t think I slept that well last night. I woke about half an hour ago, and I still feel exhausted.

I’ve got a couple of hours before I have to make an appearance in class (as a student), but I might sneak in a short nap until that happens.

The first day of class went alright. Whenever I have to learn a new course, I try to read as much of the course beforehand so I have a little more background going in. I’ve known this class was on my horizon for some time, so I’ve been looking over most of the content for some time. The challenge for me is how to get the flow right… there’s a “banter” I aim for when delivering a new course. My goal is to speak on the subject naturally, just letting the words flow like a normal conversation. For me, that doesn’t happen until the second or third time I deliver the course.

Turkey is a mess. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake has leveled thousands of buildings, and people are trapped inside these collapsed structures. It’s tragic.

Last night Kansas controlled the game and earned a win at home versus conference-leading Texas. The 88-80 win by the Jayhawks was needed.

Other than that, I’m not quite dialed into the day yet. I’ve got the news on, and they’re covering and recovering the same four or five stories over and over… I wish there was a news channel that covered a lot more news in a shorter amount of time.

OK… let’s get this in the can.

I hope the world treats you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Good morning! Today is 6 February 2023, and in the world today Turkey is in the news following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has likely caused the death of thousands of people.

This last weekend was exciting and fun. On Saturday, there was a baby shower for my daughter and her boyfriend, as we all anticipate the baby’s arrival next month. My sister and mom drove in, as did several of my nieces that live in the area. It was a lot of fun, and I lost a blindfolded diaper-changing contest with my future son-in-law.

This week I am back in my virtual classroom but as a student this time rather than the instructor. One of the things I try to weigh is the popularity of new classes relative to the number of available instructors, and try to address a need at work. To that end, a new security class is on the docket. There are other classes having to do with data processing, artificial intelligence, and business intelligence that are popular as well, but those are a little outside the scope of things I normally teach.

Tonight we’ve got a basketball game, and things have not gone that well for the Kansas Jayhawks in the conference this year. The Texas Longhorns are the team to beat right now, and they’re coming to town. The home team will have their work cut out for them – we usually do well at home, but we have lost at home this year, and Texas has been effective as the visiting squad on the road. I’ll give credit to Texas – they have adapted to the loss of their coach who was fired following a domestic violence incident with his fiance (who has retracted her statement).

I’m glad we don’t see quite as much drama in Lawrence as other programs see… at least not lately.

I’m going to grab some breakfast and start getting my head wrapped around the day. Learning is serious business around these parts.

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

Good morning, folks! It is Friday… and I am thankful. 3 February 2023.

Next week I get to sit a class, and I will welcome the break. Yeah, I’m still in my virtual classroom, but I get to be on the receiving end rather than the giving end. I’m trying to build out my security catalog, so next week’s class will be a good foundational course for some other certifications down the road.

Took a tour of the comments section yesterday. Not the comments on my blog posts – y’all are great and I love the support and the perspectives. When I open my web browser, my home page opens to a news aggregate site that permits people to post comments, and the comments I read vary from news story to news story. Lots of comments from left-leaning folks, and lots of comments from right-leaning folks.

Some people seem to be chuffed up for a scrap.

It amazes me how tough people can be when they can hide behind the anonymity of the internet. Fake names, fake accounts, and private profiles equate to zero consequences for people that make veiled threats – and sometimes that veil isn’t there.

Oh well.

I’ve got some things to do today, so now is as good a time to get to work. The sooner I get going, the sooner I can start enjoying my weekend.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday, 2 February 2023, and today is the last day of my advanced role-based course on cloud security.

I have to admit, teaching in my current time zone will always be my preferred method. East coast time, an hour ahead isn’t really a problem for me either. But Pacific? I’ll tackle it when asked, but of the three time zones we normally teach in for the Americas team, Pacific is my least favorite.

It’s weird starting a class so late in the morning and finishing in the early evening.

Meanwhile, the news is on and the GOP revenge tour continues, as Kevin McCarthy and company plot to throw Democrats they don’t like off of committees for not bending the knee.

So petty.

Next week I have another 4-day class, but I’m attending, not teaching. One aspect of my job (career?) I try to focus on demand. If I pick up some new courses to teach, I try to find out which classes have the greatest demand and the fewest instructors to address the demand. There are some other areas that have more demand than security, but they are in areas outside my normal infrastructure-centric scope.

So, more security.

Time for me to get focused on the day ahead.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, folks! It is the first day of February in the Year of Our Lord 2023… otherwise, it’s 1 Feb 2023. A new month, a new set of goals, and new opportunity.

I’m starting off this day with some gratitude. I have so much to be thankful for. Yesterday I renewed my certified trainer status and shared that on LinkedIn, and I was surprised by the responses. These days I am not the most social guy on the planet. I’ve almost completely eliminated beer from my diet (carbs!), so going to a bar and having a beer isn’t anything I do these days. Keep in mind, living rural creates some natural isolation as well. Most of my social interaction is through work… my coworkers, fellow trainers, and the learners that sit in my class.

And you.

It’s ok. One of the things I’ve reconciled is that I’m not naturally social. A lot of my social interaction is forced, as I seek acceptance and validation. Thing is, I’m learning to live beyond that need for outside validation. People can be a lot of fun to be with, but people can also be a pain in the ass.

Enough about that.

I have a career I love. I have a loving wife and family. I have five noisy furballs that give me entertaining looks. I have my health, and my family is healthy as well. I am about 6 weeks away from becoming a grandfather.

There is so much in my life to be thankful for, but I’m not going to dwell on it. I hope you have things going in the right direction in your life and you have a lot to be thankful for as well.

I’m going to get this in the can and get started on my work day.

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

Peace y’all.