It is Twosday… 02 22 2022, or if you go European reckoning, 22022022… which is a palindrome, the same forward and backward, and in this case, also upside down.

That and six bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

I’ve got the coffee going, and my second glass of water at the ready. Russia has started its invasion of Ukraine, recognizing the Pro-Russian separatist regions that are pro-Russian because Putin made them that way through financial backing and disinformation campaigns. Russian stock markets have crashed, and the Germans have halted work on a pipeline that would pump oil from Russia to Germany.

The economic blockade of Russia is beginning.

You can bet that there will be pro-Putin, pro-Russian posts on every internet-based comment system in social media. Fake accounts will be flying off keyboards at an accelerated rate. They’re easy to spot, and they are aggressive – but that’s expected, right? After all, it’s the job of the troll farm ranch hand to keep those posts on page one.

Today I get back into the classroom, but as a learner, not an active participant in the class. Networking… but it’s a topic I’m pretty comfortable with, so I don’t anticipate any problems picking it up. I already passed the exam, so that is covered.

That’s enough for now. Save a low-carb taco for me.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday the 21st of February, and President’s Day, a federal holiday, and for me, a paid day off from work. I will do some things that are relaxing, and I’ll get some work in, too, just to better prepare for the classes I’ll be delivering down the road. I need to take a little time and get my calendar up to date with my delivery assignments. Time management is an area of my life that could stand a little refinement. Use the tools in front of me, right?

The morning has been a bit loud. Lisa and Bonnie both went into their respective offices, but the dogs stayed here and on stand-by to alert me of any delivery, neighbor dog, or gust of wind that could be a potential murderer. I hear barking, but I feel they are really saying in dog-speak, “But…but… THAT LEAF!”.

I love my pooches. Pooches need smooches.

There’s been a summit called for Wednesday. Russia is announcing their versions of the news, doing everything they can to justify the pending military action against Ukraine. They are blaming the Ukrainians for shelling, violations of the ceasefire, and crossing over into Russia. Can’t trust a thing coming over the Russian media.

OK, got a few ideas on how to capitalize on the time I have at hand.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday morning, February 20, 2022, and today we will say goodbye to the snow that fell on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s not 8:00 in the morning yet, and the temperature has risen to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, on the way to an expected high in the 60’s. The snow won’t last the day.

It’s going to be a fairly casual day. Coffee is brewing, I’m drinking my second large glass of water (hopefully, on my way to eight), and there will be some gaming this afternoon. The Olympics are closing out, just in time for Putin to order his troops to invade Ukraine on some pretext of liberation or some other false flag operation.

I’ve got a day off tomorrow, a federal holiday… one that, historically, I’ve worked on, but I’m working for a company that tries to provide 3 and 4-day classes so we have a little more flexibility in scheduling during weeks that have a federal holiday.

Starting Tuesday, I’ll be shadowing a 3-day class as I ramp up for my first delivery in April. I’m glad I get to add another course to my repertoire. It’s a good idea to add a few more classes to the mix. I’ve added networking and security courses this past year, and next year I’ll look into adding a couple more. Two or three new offerings a year will be good for me, allowing me to diversify within some boundaries, focusing on the infrastructure and security topics I enjoy.

Enough for now. Time to finish my water and grab my first cup of coffee today. Then… the choice – eggs, toast with peanut butter, or a lovely zero-carb banana nut muffin.

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

Peace y’all.

It’s Friday, February 18, 2022. I’m writing a little later in the day, just after noon, as I enjoy a break from my low-carb mealplan to do a reset after a detectable stall in my weight loss.

When I started this, I was counting days, and I worked from an assumption that I had about 30,000 days. According to @imrodmartin, I’ve had to roll that back to the calculated average of 28,835 days. Ouch. Without doing a thing, my projected lifespan shrank by 3 years.

I better get busy.

I watched a little news this morning, listening to multiple sources reporting on the crisis between Ukraine and Russia. It was interesting going back and forth between the different stations. The traditional western media is reporting what I interpret to be the closest version of the truth, but the pro-Putin news sources have their spin on events of the day as well.

I fear for the people of Ukraine. There has already been a mortar attack on a Ukrainian elementary school by separatists loyal to Putin and Russia – which, to me, means you’ve got a bunch of gangsters getting paid by Russian oligarchs to cause trouble.

This is going to be bad. Hopefully, there will be some diplomatic moves to calm folks down, but ol’ Vlad seems hell-bent on recreating the old Soviet Union in his image.

I hope the murder and mayhem stays to a minimum.

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

Peace y’all.

This is Thursday, February 17, 2022, and today is my mom & dad’s wedding anniversary as well as Lisa and my anniversary. How this brilliant woman put up with my jokes and other mistakes for 26 years, I have no idea.

Marriage isn’t always easy, but she has made it pretty easy for me. Have I made it easy for her? Not sure I want to hear the answer to that question. But, we’re alive, we’re still together, and I’m going to break my stall and enjoy some carbs today… I stopped at Muncher’s for some breakfast carbs, and we’ll have some more carbs at dinner, including tiny little potatoes that go so well with filet mignon.

Putin is still playing extortion games, holding Ukraine hostage, but telling the world that he is open to diplomacy… which I read as, “Give me what I want or I start killing innocent people”. What a despicable human being. But, apparently, he’s the former guy’s friend, so he’s been given a pass. Putin will get some of what he wants, then he’ll still find ways around to get the reunification of the old Soviet Union, being a good KGB agent.

Power. It can do bad things to good people and can do even worse when given to bad people.

I have one more module to cover in my architecture class today, then I get to sit a class next week. After that, I get a little bit of a schedule shift as I get to spend a few weeks on a new project at work, then in April, I’ll flip back to regularly scheduled programming.

That’s enough for now…

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday morning, February 16, and the newspaper has yet to arrive, and likely won’t before we all have to get going on our workday. It’s becoming a trend.

Odin is over by Lisa begging for food, attention, or both. He’s spoiled rotten because he not only gets treats and eats his treats, he regularly swipes Freya’s treats, too (which leads to Freya begging me for additional attention and treats, and how can I say no to a little Yorkie like her?).

Russia is still surrounding Ukraine on three sides, and they could invade with zero notice. I’m starting to wonder if Putin is just using his military maneuvers to extort the West… “Give us oil contracts, or we will invade Ukraine” or “Give us another Olympics or we will invade Ukraine” or “Restore Trump to the US Presidency or we will invade Ukraine”.

No matter what happens, you can pretty much count on certain things – when good things happen, some people will give all the credit to the guy they like, and when bad things happen, all of the blame will be assigned to the guy they don’t like.

It’s the drumbeat of the day. My guy, good; your guy, bad.

Yesterday was a long day from 4:25 am through my last India Standard Time session that started at 9:30 and was scheduled to run through 11:30. Fortunately, I was given leave early, as the lab sessions were pretty quiet. My head hit the pillow last night hard, and I think I slept pretty well. I still have a little prep to go through for today’s delivery, but I’ll be OK.

The bubbling sound in the background tells me that the coffee is done brewing, and it’s time for me to get a cup and get going on the tasks of the day.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, February 15, and it is early. Right now I’m pulling a little double duty, as I’m going through my regular morning routine, and cranking out my blog post as well.

I have volunteered to participate in a new program, and part of my preparation for the new responsibilities is sitting in on a couple of sessions being taught by another instructor. Not that big of a deal, but the other sessions are going on in India Standard Time… so, up from 4:30-6:30 AM for my first session of the day, run my regular class from 9:00 am through 5:00 pm, then get back on for my last session today from 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm. It’s going to be a longer-than-average day.

Taking a look at the news of the day, I worry. Will there be a blow-up of tensions between Russia and Ukraine? Right now the Russian military has surrounded Ukraine on 3 sides, and it looks like an invasion is imminent. Predictions are that the first attacks by the Russians will be focused on the Ukrainian power grid, followed by Putin declaring victory and claiming that Ukraine was always part of Russia anyway, so it doesn’t really count as an invasion.

And thousands will be killed.

The Olympics in China are going a bit off the rails with a ruling on a Russian skater that got caught taking banned PED’s (performance-enhancing drugs). Looks like she’s going to be permitted to compete… and if she medals, there will be no medal ceremony for any in that event – punishing those that follow the rules the same as those that don’t. Keep in mind, the current fastest woman in the world, an American, was disqualified from the Summer Olympics because he smoked a little cannabis at a wake for a family member.

I guess there’s a different set of rules in play here.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday, Valentine’s Day, February 14, of the year 2022. The Rams won the Super Bowl, and I’m happy for them. Some friends of mine are Bengals fans, and I feel their pain. Back to my corner of the world…

We’re a little cold this morning. After I got done with my tabletop game session yesterday, my wife and daughter commented that the living room was a little cold and that we didn’t have hot water. I grabbed a flashlight and went to check the propane tank… it seemed like it was at 40% just a few weeks ago, and, as you can expect, it was down to nothing. I went to the company website and put in an order, and I’ll call them when they open. I moved a space heater into the living room and got the fireplace going… it’s been going for about 12 hours now… and I’ll go get some more firewood after a bit. I moved the space heater back to the sunroom, and that room ought to be OK to work in.

I’ve got a class that starts at 9:00 Central, and I generally get squared away and the virtual classroom launched an hour before class is scheduled to start. I had a nice planning discussion with my co-deliverer on Friday, and I think we’ve got a pretty good plan for the week. Four days… then a prep week and a shadow for me. After that, it’s a shift to a blended learning model for at least the next two and a half months.

The fireplace is going, the temperature in the family room should be on the rise, I can hear the fans blowing the hot air into the room.

We’ll get there.

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

Peace y’all.

It’s a casual Sunday morning, a Super Bowl Sunday, February 13, 2022.

I probably ought to look at Valentine’s Day stuff.

I also need to make my Scotch Eggs.

Lisa has started the day by making breakfast and starting a pot of coffee. I’m watching the talking heads on Sunday morning talk shows discussing the political issues of the day. I’m trying to make a concerted effort to avoid right-wing nutjobs, but one or two generally find a way into the mix, gaslighting the world with ridiculous and unprovable claims, all the while claiming to be the victims, and all I want to do is have them show us on this doll where the liberal agenda hurt them.

That was a very long sentence that requires some clean-up. Probably won’t, though.

The Super Bowl is on later today, and I’ll watch some of it. I’ve got a meeting around the tabletop later today, and I’m on the verge of leveling up, so I’ll embrace the minor victory.

I’m looking at my coming week, and it will be a mix of challenges. I’ve got to attend a number of online sessions this week, a couple on India Standard Time. I’m co-delivering a course this week, so that kicks the intensity level down a shot. I’ve also got some important meetings to attend later in the afternoons.

In the meantime, hydrate and stick to the plan. I also need to put together a decent meal plan for our anniversary. There will be steak involved… possible Wagyu filet mignon if I can find it.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Saturday, February 12. I’m enjoying my day, noodling around on computer stuff, running an errand or two, and thinking about stuff.

Sometimes I think I’m better off not thinking about stuff. Think too much about one side of a debate or another, lean a particular way due to personal experience and life philosophy, and then the confirmation bias happens. Hey, look, these folks think like me, so I’m going to endorse their position to reinforce my belief system and then use their posts as my GPS.

I don’t know, man. I’m guilty of it, I know I am. I try to recognize my bias – once again, based on my personal experience and life philosophy. Is there such a thing as objectivity? Can we take an experience, break it down into all of its sensory components, and get a true understanding of something that happened to somebody else?

More stuff to think about.

My conclusions will likely be biased based on my personal experiences. Hopefully, it will come close to being the truth… but whatever it is, I probably ought to just keep it to myself, because you know the moment you interpret something honestly, there will be someone right there looking over your shoulder and whispering, “That wasn’t my experience, therefore you are wrong”.

Yeah, sometimes I think I’m better off not thinking about stuff.

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

Peace y’all.