It is Monday, 10 October 2022. It has been an event-free weekend here in rural Douglas County, with the regular college town stuff happening, but nothing earth-shattering here.

Kansas lost their football game against TCU, which wasn’t that much of a surprise. Our quarterback was taken out of the game following a hard tackle that left young Mr. Daniels with an injured right shoulder. His replacement, Jason Bean, did a remarkable job in the second half, and kept Kansas in the game with a 4 touchdown effort, but we came up a little short, losing 38-31. There were lost opportunities, as there always are, so all we can do is learn from the experience, heal up, and get ready for the next game against Oklahoma, a team coming off a 49-0 shellacking at the hands of the Texas Longhorns.

Kansas City Chiefs play tonight against the Raiders. I’ve just about quit saying which city the Raiders play in… you never know if their ownership group will throw a hissy fit and decide to move the team to Salt Lake next year.

I’ve got a few meetings booked today, along with prep for this week’s blended learning sessions. My training partner from last week is out this week, so I get a substitute delivery partner. I haven’t delivered with the other partner yet, but she and I have crossed paths . I don’t expect any complications.

Other than that, not much else is going on.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday, Friday, Friday! Good morning! It is the 7th day of October in the year 2022. I’m awake, drinking water until I pour my first cup of coffee. I’ve got an office hours session after a bit here, and I’m wondering where the morning will take me.

Eventually, it takes me to meetings I’m obliged to attend, so there’s that. No big deal, really, as I know that comes with the gig. I know thousands of trainers out there would love to be where I’m at, so I appreciate the opportunity that has been given me.

I still need to put together a little survey for my learners… that’ll take a moment or three, but won’t overtax me, I’m sure.

Lisa and I went to an engineering school barbeque last night. The food was good, the company was great – hey I was with my wife, and it doesn’t get better than that. Today is the beginning of Homecoming weekend here in Lawrence, so folks will be coming from far and wide to attend downtown festivities this evening, leading into tomorrow’s football game between Kansas and TCU.

My weekend will be consumed by football, mowing, and laundry.

Oops… just remembered something I need to attend to…

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday morning, 6 October 2022. It’s kind of funny, but when I get into one of my four-week deliveries, the days jut some to click by a little faster on the calendar.

This morning I will have my last major speaking role of the week, delivering a talk on Computer Services and the Well-Architected Framework. Yeah, sounds impressive, but the concepts are pretty straightforward. Keep the design as inexpensive as possible, while still providing service that meets the agreed upon service level agreements, and eliminates single points of failure.

Tonight, Lisa and I will be attending a departmental social event up on campus. It’s a barbeque, so I’m hoping that blue jeans and a polo shirt will satisfy the guidelines of the dress code. I’m wearing a work shirt at the moment, but I’ve got a couple of shirts in the closet that ought to fit the occasion.

I’m pondering some ways I can get back into my music efforts. I haven’t been playing and practicing as much as I would like to, so I’m going to carve a little daily time out to take online lessons and get back into playing my guitars. If I record anything worth listening to, I’ll provide a link.

That’s a big if.

Time to get myself together and get my day organized.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday, 5 October 2022.

Up early, getting ready for my day, and watching the news. Right now they are reporting on the 5 Oath Keepers that are being tried for sedition charges related to the attempted overthrow of the government on January 6, 2020.

Based on what I hear in the recorded conversations, these guys really like the word, “kinetic”. It’s a fancy word that is used in military circles relating to the air being filled with high-speed projectiles.

So much ambition. So much righteousness. So much gullibility… because they all got suckered into believing the big lie from Trump. Part of me wants to feel sorry for these folks, but you have to figure the warning signs were all there, and these people ignored them all in pursuit of what they were convinced to believe by a con artist.

This is the “and find out” part that follows the “f*** around”.

The only justice I want to see is when the leader of the insurrection gets sentenced. Maybe his Supreme Court picks ought to resign in shame as well.

I’m in front of the camera this morning, talking about our first case study. I’ve got a little time yet, and I’m going to need that to get a video file uploaded to the Teams site.

OK, might as well get going on the necessaries.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is Tuesday, 4 October 2022. I’m up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready for my first session, which will start in about an hour and 45 minutes from now.

I do love my job.

One of the best parts is the opportunity to work with other instructors that have a different style than I do. This month I’ll have a chance to work with two teammates I have yet to deliver with, and I’ll do what I do, observe and listen, then assess whether there are little delivery differences that I like and want to incorporate into my delivery style. It’s a case of constant critique and improvement. I want to continuously improve – when you have no interest in getting better, it’s time to find something else to do.

My oldest daughter is coming over this evening for dinner. I think tacos will be on the menu.

As I have written before, I follow the University of Kansas, and for the first time in a long time, the KU football team is ranked in the top 25. This is good and bad – the University of Wisconsin fired their head coach over the weekend, and they are looking for a replacement. A major part of the concern is that Kansas’ coach won 6 national championships coaching a smaller program in Wisconsin, and it appears the coach is going to be pursued by Wisconsin. I must confess, if they come at him with the right offer, he’ll likely head north. He likely has a lot of friends and connections to the Wisconsin area.

Yeah, it’s a said reality. A school finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel, not knowing that the light belongs to the school that wants to pilfer your coach.

Dang it.

Time for me to get focused on the task at hand.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, 3 October 2022. Odin is over by the screen door wanting me to let him out, but he can wait a few minutes while I crank this out. The floofs are heading to the sliding glass door, anticipating that I’ll get tired of the whining and scratching in a moment or two and succumb to the will of pooches.

I gave in. Dogs are all outside, and I have to keep an eye on Lily… she keeps finding gaps in the fence. I think I blocked off her last little escape route, but I’ll go check on them here in a moment or two.

I start a new blended learning class tomorrow. I’ve got some “Day 0” posts to make to get learners steered in the right direction.

I’ll have a few meetings today to get things organized, but I think we’ve already got a grasp on who is responsible for what.

Lisa and I are thinking about cutting the satellite TV cord. Our provider had a contract dispute with a few interrelated channels, and although they got their dispute resolved yesterday, the outage caused us to miss a game we really wanted to watch. It’s time to assess the cost of our satellite service compared to offerings from Youtube and Hulu. I need to make sure we pickup our local channels, but other than that, if there is a savings, it might be time to make a change.

Glad I didn’t ever get involved in crypto. Always struck me as fool’s gold. Looks like I may have been pretty accurate with that assessment.

Time to get going on the tasks of the day, and check on the pooches.

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

Peace y’all.

Is it Thursday already? 29 September 2022… and tonight I get to be arm candy.

Lisa has some departmental event this evening, and I get to put the “mental” in departmental. Not a big deal really, just a semi-casual get-together. More of a “khakis, not jeans” thing.

I’ll stay focused on work today. It’s always a good idea to review the class content before day one, so I’ll get back to that later. I need to get a cup of coffee and a little breakfast, then go back to it in earnest.

I’ve been watching some of the coverage of Hurricane Ian, which made landfall yesterday. It has decreased in power, now a tropical storm, but Florida is under a lot of water, and rain is following the hurricane, with an expected 20 additional inches.

Right now, Venezualan refugees might be thankful Governor Desantis moved them from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard rather than Florida with federal funds.

Alright, it might be time for this old man to buckle down and get to work. I don’t have a lot more to add, really. It’s just another day in the life. The trick for me is to find ways to make the mundane just a little more interesting, mixing up my information delivery systems to maximize retention.

And now the dogs are barking at a sheep wearing a giraffe head.

My life is average.

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

Peace y’all.

It is a Wednesday morning, 28 September 2022. The day is starting a little slow, but I am positive that it will pick up speed at some point.

As sure as one of my dogs will be a little gassy when they decide to habitat the space between my legs when I sit in the recliner.

Little beasts can be predictable on that front, can’t they?

Today is a rather open day as far as my schedule goes. No appointments, but plenty to keep me busy. I start another month-long blended learning class on Tuesday that will keep me tied up until Halloween. I’ve had communication with my training partners regarding the schedule, so I think that is under control.

Hurricane Ian has yet to make landfall in Florida, but it sure seems to be parked and grinding right off Tampa/St. Petersberg (Berg? Burg? Not quite sure of the spelling to be honest).

Water is by my side at the moment, but it soon will be time to switch to coffee. Haven’t made breakfast yet, but chili and eggs seem to be the most likely option today. There’s something about fall weather and chili that makes for an irresistible combination. The only thing missing is the cinnamon rolls.

TIme to put together my to-do list. I’m sure it will get filled up quickly.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, 27 September 2022, and my to-do list has grown as much as it has been reduced.

Yeah, it’s kind of like that on a Monday, right?

Coffee is made, and as soon as I am done with this missive, I’m going to whip up a little chili and eggs to get me started on this day. Office chair issue is resolved for the most part – I ended up taking parts from four different chairs to create one working unit, so I have dubbed my new creation “The Frankenchair”. It gets the job done, but I won’t expose it to any fire.

I’ve got three things I have to get done this morning for work. I also have some voice-over work I need to complete for a friend. I hope my voice is at the right timbre for the project.

One swing of the axe at a time, keep chopping wood.

There’s plenty of other stuff going on in the world. Putin is calling up conscripts to serve in his military… and all of the men are heading for the border to get out of the country. Better to live in another country than fight in an unjust war against well-motivated local residents. Ol’ Vlad really didn’t think this through.

Hurricane Ian is hitting the interior coastline of Florida, with sites set on Tampa/St. Petersburg. I’ve got friends in the are, and I hope they are all safe.

Protests by women in Iran are growing worse. A woman was killed while being held in custody by the “morality police” whatever the hell that is. The men in that part of the world are generally weak when it comes to women’s rights, blaming women for men’s inability to control their more primal instincts. In that part of the world, rape isn’t rape unless it was witnessed by other men. A woman’s word isn’t enough. I would guess a western-style rape kit isn’t going to get close at hand following some sort of sexual trauma. Time to get with the times, y’all. Women deserve equality… get used to the idea.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, the beginning of a new work week, 26 September 2022.

I’ve got a to-do list to get going on in a little bit, right after rattling off this little narrative before I begin that part of my day.

The Chiefs did not have their best day yesterday, granting the Indianapolis Colts their first win of the season. There was plenty of blame to go around, between special team snafus, defensive penalties, and a collection of lookout blocks by the offensive line that would make any wannabe offensive lineman cringe in abject horror.

It was pretty bad.

I’ve got a growing to-do list, and the list is growing in my head as I think about it more and more.

I guess that’s to be expected on the first day of the work week… organize my brain, get the task to be done written down, and check ’em off as I go. Drink more water, make smart meal choices, get to writing down the plan, and execute.

Better reach out to the training partners I have over the next couple of weeks, too.

Just thought of something else I need to accomplish.

I better stop thinking or else I’ll never get caught up.

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

Peace y’all.