It is Monday morning, the 14th of March, whimsically referred to as “Pi Day”, as it is 3.14. There’s a little humor in that, and we’ll be enjoying a little pie tonight for fun. Later this week, it will be my nephew’s birthday and St. Patrick’s Day. Also starting this week are the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Both Kansas teams made the tournament, so it will be fun while it lasts.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and will be into its third week in two more days. The pressure mounts on the Russian government and the Russian people. The Russians have turned to China to support their ongoing conflict, but it seems that the Chinese government is feeling a little pushback from the rest of the world. If China supports Russia, there will likely be some unfortunate repercussions and a little bit of squeezing by their trade partners, most notable the United States.

Hurt my neck this morning. This getting old business is not for the meek.

I’ve got some work to do, so I should probably get to it. Trying to sharpen the sword, learn some new skills, and then use them to become a better trainer. It’s what we do.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday, March 13, and it is almost a holiday here in the US. Today is “Selection Sunday” as the field is selected for the NCAA tournament. 68 teams in total, with a couple of teams having to “play-in” on Tuesday and Wednesday with a shot to join the main tournament body for Thursday and Friday’s first rounds, where the field gets cut in half 64 to 32, then 32 down to the Sweet 16.

Kansas won their conference post-season tournament yesterday, knocking off the Texas Tech Red Raiders by 11. Things are looking up for the Jayhawks, as they seem to be playing their best basketball right now, peaking at just the right time. One of Kansas’ big men got hurt in the game yesterday – Mitch Lightfoot got his legs cut out from underneath him and ended up with a sprained knee.

Just saw a ridiculous ad on television. The pharmaceutical industry is trying to prevent government regulation of pharmaceuticals. I’d compare the ad to a form of blackmail – effectively stating, “Give us free rein to charge what we want for drugs or we’ll kill this little kid”.

Reminds me of the joke posters from some years ago, “Do what we ask or we’ll kill this cuddly bunny”.

That’s where we are at.

This afternoon I’ll gather around the tabletop with my friends and we’ll see where the afternoon takes us. I’ll keep one eye peeled on the computer monitor to see where Kansas will go for their first-round games.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, friends and possible future grandchildren. It’s the old man here, throwing a few words on the page. It is Saturday morning, March 12, 2022.

The war for Ukraine continues. I’m currently watching a news program discussing the ways the US can support Ukraine without entering the conflict in its entirety. At the same time, there are concerns that the Russians won’t stop at Ukraine, and the folks that border Ukraine have to be anxious. Moldova has to be a bit on edge, but few people are doubting Putin’s resolve to re-unify the old Soviet Union under a single government with a single leader – him.

So many businesses are participating in the sanctions against Russia, and more are still on the horizon. Looks like there’s talk that pharma and other biotech companies are going to pull as well. The ruble is in the tank, and the entire Russian economy is cratering… meanwhile, the Russian government-controlled press is claiming victory and how all of these sanctions are helping Russia, a complete gaslighting job on one other group of victims in this war – the peace-loving Russians that don’t endorse this war against their neighbor in their name. This is Putin’s war, and the people of Russia will get the real news eventually – there will be soldiers that return home, and there will be soldiers that won’t, as their remains will be destroyed by mobile crematoriums.

Still, we see Russian television personalities trying to stay true to the government line. The lies will catch up with them, and when it does, everybody that pushed the Putin talking points will become pariahs, but in that world, it doesn’t matter. They have no choice but to talk that line or face some pretty dire consequences.

Meanwhile, back here in the midwest, we’re planning for the coming spring. I’ve ordered service on our two yard vehicles; the riding mower and the gator. Still think a bigger tractor with a bucket on the front would be wise for the long term.

Kansas won last night, and now faces the Texas Tech team for the Big 12 Post-Season Tournament Championship. Let’s go Jayhawks!

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday, the last day of the workweek, and the 11th day of March, and Vladimir Putin is still the most dangerous lunatic in the world.

I have to pause there… you know, I’m not sure. There might be more dangerous lunatics out there. Kim Jong Un, for example, or some other tyrant in another country. The difference, I guess is that those lunatics have potential energy, and Putin is 100% kinetic energy. He’s in motion and destroying any Ukrainian targets that he can.

I hope the squeeze on the Russian oligarchy is enough motivation that his regime comes crashing down around him. He’s going to have to pull the plug on this campaign against a peaceful country at some point. The prediction I heard is that they don’t have the resources to do much after about 3 months. If this conflict lasts until June, it will stop just as a matter of attrition. Putin might get handed a polonium and tonic cocktail between now and then.

Watched some college basketball last night. I recorded the Kansas-West Virginia game, and that was a pretty one-sided affair, with Kansas winning by 24. Today, Kansas will face a team that they’ve had some trouble with – TCU. It’s just about the matchups, and TCU has some skilled players. They are better than their record. Kansas could be facing a severe test at 6:00 PM tonight.

I’ve got to get the trash out here as well as get the laundry room cleaned out. I’ve got a repair crew coming over to take a look at the family washing machine in a bit.

I’ll get focused on my day.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday morning, the last day this week that I have a two-hour discussion on a work-related topic. I’ll be passing along what I know about cloud-based load balancers in another couple of hours, but I’m ready to jam.

It’s been another terrible span of a day for the people of Ukraine. I think I figured out that when the Russians are declaring a cease-fire, they’re really saying, “We’ll stop shooting at military targets and redirect out efforts at civilian targets”. Yesterday, Putin’s boys were kind enough to destroy a children’s hospital. Yes, there were babies and other small children there.

As recently as 2021, the former guy said in an interview, “Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.”. I wonder if he has figured it out yet.

Now, this is my personal opinion, but it strikes me that TFG did all that he could to undermine NATO and align himself with some of the worst tyrants on the planet. People ask why Putin didn’t invade Ukraine during the former guy’s administration – kind of obvious to me that his puppet in the White House was doing plenty to help his cause, and if the puppet had been granted another term, he might have been successful in completely fracturing NATO beyond repair.

But Putin didn’t plan on the unity that he would create through his invasion of Ukraine. Several countries are considering changing their position on NATO membership, including several old Soviet bloc countries. Germany, previously dragging its feet on defense, has just committed another 100 billion euros to their defense. Other NATO members will likely follow, as it is more obvious as ever that the enemy is at the front door.

I’ll keep sending all positive intentions to the people of Ukraine.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday, March 9… and for Bif 12 fans, March Madness begins today with the start of the Big 12 Conference Basketball Tournament.

I’m going to try and take some pleasure from college basketball, but it’s hard. I kind of want the distractions from the pictures and footage of the war in Europe. Am I wrong?

Good people of conscience are going to feel things deeply, and although I hope I’m an empathetic person, I want to support the people of Ukriaine in this conflict, as well as the refugees trying to escape to the west. That said, sometimes I want a little break from the constant heartache, even if it’s in two hours increments.

Looks like Biden is admitting that we are involved in an economic war with Russia. Yep. Yesterday it was announced that McDonald’s has joined the long list of companies sanctioning the Russian government, shuddering several hundred locations in Russia. The ruble is in freefall, there has been a slow-rolling run on the banks, and their stock market is in a shambles.

I hope this leads to the downfall of Putin’s regime.

I think I have a dog that needs a little love. Might be time for me to wrap this up and make a little room for Freya on my lap. I’ve got room for a Yorkie.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday, and I’m back in my virtual classroom for most of the day today. We start off with office hours, where learners can talk about any questions they have on the topic du jour – (probably ought to be topic of the week “de la semaine” rather than of the day), then we’ll have lab support around lunchtime, then we’ll close out the day with some whiteboarding centered on our weekly topic, “networking in the cloud”.

Came across an interesting article yesterday, posted to Twitter, then reposted by Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The post was translated to English by a naturalized American originally from Russia, and it was allegedly originally written by a Russian intelligence analyst. It was quite remarkable (if true) and was very critical of Russia’s ability to sustain that front. We’ve come to realize that there is a difference between taking territory and holding territory.

I’m convinced that even if Russia were to seize Ukraine, the insurgency that follows will be strong, sustained, and will eventually break the invading forces. The Russians are losing the battle for “hearts and minds”.

Time for me to buckle down and start thinking about the day.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve. One exception – Putin… I hope you get exactly what you deserve. Palace coup, getting deposed, tossing back a polonium gimlet…

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, and the dogs are all barking as my oldest daughter comes upstairs with her dog… her dog is the only one not caught up in the canine cacophony.

Right now, one of the WNBA’s most visible stars is being held in Russia on drug charges. Britney Griner is everything Putin hates – she’s tall, black, and gay. The claim is that they found her with vape cartridges containing hashish oil.

If she had been caught with anabolic steroids or some other performance-enhancing drug, she would just be another athlete in Russia. (Sarcasm)

I don’t know if the charges are trumped up or not, but as frequently as WNBA players have traversed back and forth from Russia to play in the women’s professional leagues there, they ought to know the rules. That said, I wonder how long it will be before we see Ms Griner back in the states. It might be years. It might not be ever.

I was reading a couple of things this morning, and these days you have no idea what is truthful and verifiable when it’s coming from Russia and Ukraine. I really hope the news items I see coming from Ukraine are right on, and not some fake attempt to manipulate my emotions one way or the other, and my confirmation bias wants to believe the Ukrainian posts – I have that much situational awareness, at least. One story I read this morning was about a woman and her two children, ages 12 and 2, getting killed while waiting for evacuation. Apparently, the evacuation point locations are being announced, and the Russians are shelling the evacuation points. That’s just pure evil.

I came across another interesting post by a gentleman named Igor Sushko (@igorsushko). The content he pointed to is an assessment by a Russian FSB officer about the Russian plan to invade Ukraine and depose the Ukrainian president, then replace him with puppet leadership. The content of the post can be found here. If this is real, the Russians know they have much bigger problems now that their blitzkrieg attack on Ukraine has been thwarted. If you read this post from Igor, keep in mind that there is little we can do to verify or refute the content, but it sure reads like an accurate assessment – but then, the best pieces of disinformation always do.

Yesterday I spent some time around the virtual tabletop playing a little RPG, and one of the guys I play with made a comment about how nice it would be to see footage of a couple US anti-tank aircraft, the A-10 Warthog, coming over the horizon to obliterate a Russian tank column.

I hope the Russians have to crawl home with their tails between their legs. They don’t belong there.

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

Except you, Vladimir Putin. I hope you get EXACTLY what you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday, March 6. Starting to wonder if I really need to announce the date in my blog entries. The benefit is probably marginal at best, but if any grandkids of mine, or even my own kids, stumble across this in the future, it might be good to have that point of reference.

Today in the world, there are a lot of moving gears. Countries are enabling more and more sanctions against Putin and his war every day. Some gears are the sound of weapons systems being transferred across borders. Some gears are the sound of trains transporting refugees from Ukraine to surrounding safe-havens.

Some gears are caused by the sound of rapid backpedaling by politicians that were all about working with Putin a couple of years ago. Funny how many US politicians praised the strength of Putin not so long ago, and now really need to get that message of denouncement and distance out there as loudly and clearly as possible.

If these folks had been paying attention, they would’ve come to the conclusion that Putin was never one of the good guys. His visage was manufactured by a team of former KGB agents specializing in psychological operations. It was tailored to create an impression on weak-minded fools in the wet, and some took the bait, hook, line, & sinker.

Now they are scrambling to repair their own image and history. Thankfully, the internet has an important role in the fact-checking phase of bovine scatology. It’s easy to check the history of these fools on social media, and now the folks that publicly advocated for the normalization of relations with Russia look like the gullible fools they are.

Today will be a good day here at the house. We’re having a family breakfast – Lisa is putting together quite the spread, with quiche, hash browns and sausage.

I made coffee…

Later today I’ll get together with some friends online for one of our regular role-playing game sessions. Not sure which game we’ll play, but we’ll make the most of it.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Saturday morning, the 5th day of March. So far today, I haven’t done much other than drink a glass of water, start a pot of coffee and watch the news on TV.

Russia is still being Russian, now dropping illegal cluster bombs on civilian targets in Ukraine. I hope those around Putin realize the imminent danger Putin has created for the Russian people. Call me nuts, but I have a feeling that there are a few billionaires (or former billionaires) that have just about had enough of Putin’s little war, and there will be a Stauffenberg moment in Red Square.

It’s interesting seeing the human moments on the news and on the internet. Airbnb room rentals for refugees, paid for by anonymous benefactors. Men from foreign countries committing to fight for Ukraine. Defense systems and other weapons are being shipped into Ukraine to support them.

The sooner this is over the better. Eventually, the oligarchs of Russia will take action and something pretty dramatic will happen in the Kremlin.

Today is the last regular-season game for the KU Jayhawks. They play Texas, and have an opportunity to get a little payback for an early-season loss in Austin. It’s also Senior Day, and that’s a positive thing – Kansas has not lost on Senior Day in something like 38 years.

Pray for peace.

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

Peace y’all.