Hello. Today is 17 January 2023, and at 5:54 AM, I am up, awake, and considering my coffee options for the morning. I’m back in my virtual classroom discussing Infrastructure as a Service in about two hours – ok, truth – class starts in two hours, and I’ll be in the virtual classroom in another hour. I’m always in early, just to get things ready and make sure all of the services are available. Just one of the many ways I’m a little different.

And I am. A little different, that is.

As I have shared with anybody that reads this (and I am thankful for you), I’m not drinking this month, participating in a dry January until January 29, which is my late dad’s birthday. Yes, I know January has two more days beyond the 29th, but I’ll have made my point by then.

Not drinking for a month is a wonderful opportunity for introspection, and I’ve been engaged in some. I’ve had some interesting conversations with my wife and son about the way I act and react in certain situations, and the conversations will serve as fuel to take me a little further down the road to self-awareness. I’ve noticed some tendencies, and my wife and son agree that I should look a little further into the root causes and treatment for what appears to be attention deficit disorder. It’s probably no surprise to anyone that knows me recognizes that I’m wired a little differently.

Watching the news with Lisa and the dogs. Lisa is focused on the news, dogs are more interested in attention and lap time. The current story is about a Republican candidate in Albequerque who, after losing his election last fall, hired gunmen to shoot at the homes of Democrat politicians.

Only the best people, right?

More stories about Nepal and Ukraine. All about bad things happening in the world. Might be time for me to focus on breakfast.

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

Peace y’all.

It is not your average Monday, the 16th day of January 2023. Today is also the Martin Luther King holiday in America, and I think today would be a good day to focus on Diversity and Inclusion. I’ll be spending a portion of my day reading books on the subject.

I’ve also decided today will be a day to look at my Twitter feed. Another friend on social media -a longtime professional colleague – noted in her latest post on Facebook that she is getting a lot more spam promoting unsavory content on Twitter – more unwelcome ads spanning a horizon of distasteful topics, including porn and racist content. Time to shake the banhammer and block those folks who have a less than helpful intent.

This past weekend, the NFL playoffs got underway, and there is still a wildcard game tonight between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I might watch it just to see… I’m not a fan of either team, to be honest, and I don’t think either team has a snowball’s chance of making it to the Super Bowl – I think the Philadelphia Eagles are the class of the NFC. At this point, Tom Brady is kind of a circus sideshow rather than the headliner in the center ring. The Chiefs will play host to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday afternoon.

I’ve got some stuff to think about today. I want to be a better human being. I want to live a life that embraces diversity and inclusion. I want to be the kind of guy that people say, “Hey, he’s a good guy”. I hope people think I’m part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

And I have no control over what people say about me – all I can do is what I think is the right thing in any given situation, and hope that the net result is positive. I hope to be judged not by the color of my skin, but by the content of my character, to paraphrase Dr. King.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday! End of the work week, the beginning of the weekend, and it’s Friday the 13th.

I hope that last line doesn’t prove to be foreboding.

Yesterday was an interesting mix. Sadly, one celebrity died, a woman who was never really going to get a chance to just be herself – Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of Elvis Presley, died after having a cardiac event, at 54 years old. She had lost a child to drug abuse a couple of years ago, and I can’t imagine the toll that must’ve taken on an already broken soul. She was raised with fame and fortune, and ultimately, that was her undoing.

Fame & fortune. She was born into it. I can handle fortune. Fame has a different price tag.

Made the mistake of calling out an old friend on a post rife with bovine scatology. He posted something to the effect that right now the conspiracy theorists are “winning” 37-0. I guess I made a mistake by asking him to list them. That sort of challenge was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “How dare you ask me to back up my BS with facts!”.

I think I can get by without him. The guy pretty much put me on a shelf when Trump got elected, so this isn’t some monumental shock.

I spew BS from time to time. I admit it. And if I have facts to back it up, I present it. If there aren’t facts to back it up, I admit that it is exaggeration and hyperbole.

I get it. I’m abrasive. I challenge people. I don’t apologize for hurting people’s feelings as much as I probably ought to… maybe I ought to open every single sentence with, “I’m sorry, hope this doesn’t trigger you, but…”

Yeah, that sounds like a jerk thing to say as well.

I’ll try to do better. Might work out, might not. That friend dropped me on social media, and it will probably not be the last time some GOP conspiracy theorist finds my challenges offensive.

I doubt it will affect my sleep patterns.

I’m going to get out of here and get started with my day. Time to put this post in the can.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday morning, 12 January 2023, and I hope I had a good rest last night. I know I woke several times in the middle of the night, but I feel like I dropped right back off after I had those nocturnal strolls. I’ll get a feel for the quality of my sleep about 10:30 this morning… until then, we plow.

Every now and then I reflect on why I do what I do. I originally started writing just to get some thoughts down about my life and my experiences. I’m not real big on fame and fortune… ok, that’s a lie… I’m not real big on fame. Fortune is perfectly welcome to set up permanent residence in my bank account. But I have thought about some people I know that pursued fame with mixed results. The problem with drawing attention to oneself is that those folks get out in public and say, “Hey look at me for this cool thing I did”, and the folks that are paying attention are more than eager to point out, “Yeah, you think that’s cool, but these other things you did aren’t that cool”.

I’m not an influencer. Ask me, and I’ll tell you what I think. I don’t provide that opinion as an effort to control anyone else’s life – there’s more than enough people out there that are willing to give you advice, much of it bad, some of it worse. If I think your proposed course of action hurts more people than it helps, I’ll say so. If I think your plan could have a negative outcome, I have a moral responsibility to point it out.

Ultimately, the choice it yours.

Maybe I’m more of a nudger than an influencer, but I’ll do my best to call it like I see it.

I would tell George Santos (look it up, I’m sure it’ll be in the history books one day) to embrace transparency. Be honest about who you are and where you come from. Be honest about your life experiences. If you think a fictional background makes you more appealing, rather than tell lies, change your reality to match the fiction you think is better.

I could tell a lot of people a lot of things. I’m not going to seek them out to say, “Hey, you know what you ought to do…”.

If people want my opinion, I’m here.

I m perfectly fine knowing that 99.9999999% of the world doesn’t really give flying finger of fate what I think. I’ll focus on the 8 people that do.

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

Peace y’all.

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.