It is Wednesday morning, January 12, 2022.

I’m breathing a little easier today. Yesterday I delivered the first day of a new class, and it went OK. I’ll be the first to admit that I was dealing with some anxiety (as well as being under the weather), but we got through the day just fine with a little bit of extra time available at the end of the day for my learners (students? trainees? attendees?), I wasn’t as comfortable with the database-centric material as I would like to be, but we’ll get there. I’m going to turn some of these weaknesses into strengths.

Last night I was able to relax a bit and watch some basketball. I do enjoy watching the Kansas Jayhawks, and last night they had a nail-biter against Iowa State. KU won in the end, but it was a dogfight. On top of that, Texas Tech knocked off the number 1 team in the country and Big 12 Conference nemesis, Baylor. This conference is going to be a beast this year. Lots of talent, solid coaches, and great fans for the most part.

Today I get to back up my training partner while he’s back in the hot seat. I’ll sit on the sideline and shovel in URLs left and right in support of the topic of the moment, as well as do my best to answer questions that pop up in the chat.

Tonight, it’s back to study hall for me as I prepare for our last day, then I’ll reach out to my partner for next week’s class to discuss what went right and where we have room for improvement. That’s the job. Buckle down and get ‘er done.

I think I’ve spewed enough brain scrapings for now.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, January 11, 2021. I normally wake to my alarm at 5:30 AM on delivery days. Today it felt more like I just rolled out of bed rather than wake up, as I feel like I tossed and turned most of the night with thoughts about my delivery today (first-time content), as well as all of those other peripheral issues that can keep a person from a good night’s sleep.

Yesterday’s class was pretty good, my training partner did a solid job covering the content, and as I ponder the content, I think I’ll be OK with that material in future deliveries. Today’s discussion will center on databases, database storage, and other data-related topics (integration, hybrid deployments). Not my strongest suit, but one of the things we all have to do sometimes is reinforce and buttress those weaknesses, study, explore, and eventually the topics that we consider weaknesses become strengths. I can say I know more today than I did a weak ago on the subject.

There’s plenty of room for improvement.

I have this same class a few more times before I have to do my first solo delivery of the course in March. Before that opportunity, I’ll be delivering another course that is new to me and sitting, possibly partially delivering, a third new course in February.

I just need to buckle down and stay focused, maybe loosen up the belt around my brain a little bit to let my cranium expand. Nailing this course will be a nice leap forward relating to getting past some of the anxiety that is keeping me up at night.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, January 10, 2022.

Started off the day with a little good news. I’m back on my meal plan, and I am down almost a full seven pounds from where I was last week at this time. Up the hydration, down the carbs, and discipline, discipline, discipline. I do believe combining my meal plan and cutting out my alcohol intake is somewhat responsible for the success I’ve had this week. I’m hoping by this time next week I’ll have bumped a digit on the scale, getting below 290. It’s a very reasonable expectation.

Watched a little football yesterday while I was prepping for class this week, and there was some excitement. Right now I’m watching the overtime of the Chargers/Raiders game. I don’t know the final score… don’t ruin it for me. If these two teams end in a tie, the Steelers are frozen out of the playoffs and both the Chargers and Raiders earn wild card slots. I think it would send the Raiders to Kansas City for the first round of the playoffs if memory serves.

I’ll just sit here with my glass of water and ponder the Chargers attempt to tie the game with a field goal… and it’s still tied in overtime. I do love an exciting football game.

This week I have a first delivery of a new course, focusing more on whiteboarding and case studies rather than the hands-on classes we have been teaching. This will be interesting. I get to teach with the same trainer I taught with last week, so that helps with in-class rapport.

There’s political news out there, but you can look up what happened on this date. Insurrectionist GOP reps don’t want to cooperate with the January 6 investigation. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway, I’m going to wrap this up, finish my water, grab a cup of coffee, and make an omelet.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday morning, January 9, 2022.

I made a mistake this morning.

My wife gifted me with a Flaviar subscription, for which I am truly grateful. Part of my quarterly shipment is a small, three-vial tasting sampler set. It comes in a cylindrical container with a slip-off top.

I had shown that wonderful gift to some peers the other day, specifically a mentor who is involved in bourbon tastings.

My mistake… this morning I was moving that container from my desk back over to a shelf where I store my premium whiskeys, and I was holding the container by the lid, not by the bottom, and, you guessed it, the container slipped out and gravity did its thing.

I lost one of the vials. On the positive side, I could’ve lost all three, but I am disappointed I lost one of them. I don’t know that I’ll scurry about to find a replacement, but I will investigate whether there is a process. I’m not drinking this month, otherwise, one or maybe all three of those vials would have been consumed.

I need to stay focused on work today, though. Hitting “Dry January” at the same time that I have two new classes coming up fast is probably all for the best. My productivity is likely to be slightly higher when I’m not slightly higher myself.

I can work today and keep a football game on in the background. Kind of hoping that the Houston Texans can knock off the Tennessee Titans today.

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

Peace y’all.

Today is a Saturday, January 8, 2022. Nobody’s making people into Soylent Green yet.

A great performer passed away yesterday, legendary actor Sidney Poitier, and I’ve read several tributes to him. One that particularly grabbed my attention was the reflection by Halle Berry, posting a quote from Mr. Poitier’s book, “Life Beyond Measure”.

“A tiny bit of myself is lost when my friends are gone”.

That got me thinking.

I have had a number of great friends over the years, solid people that you could always count on when the going got rough. I tried to be there for them as they had to deal with some of the worst tragedies a family or an individual could endure. I cannot assess how valuable my friendship was to them, as that’s not for me to judge.

Over the years, there has been a distance created with any number of my old friends, and I understand part of it is human nature, part of it is a change based on, believe it or not, politics. A number of my old friends are far more right-leaning than I am. I was pretty vocal about my distrust and distaste for far-rightwing politics and politicians. I take full responsibility for my words, spoken and written, about the former guy and his followers. I know what I said, I know what I wrote.

So, those friends are, for the most part, in my rear-view mirror, and, although there are plenty of great memories, I’m going to make new ones. There are gaps, and I’m either going to grow to fill in those gaps myself, create new content with my family and current friends, and when the opportunity presents itself, create new friendships that won’t be hammered and dinged up by political alignments.

Thank you, Mr. Tibbs.

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

Peace y’all.

It is a Friday, January 7, 2022. I don’t have a class today, as just about all of my classes have moved to a four-day format, and today I have a number of meetings to attend, starting with a casual “come as you are” chat with my fellow trainers here in about ten minutes. Coffee is brewing, I’m on my second glass of water for the day. Breakfast will happen over the course of the next hour, probably eggs and ham, or eggs and cheese… maybe I’ll take the easy way out and just grab a hard-boiled egg or two and head into the coffee talk.

Yesterday was both eventful and uneventful. There were multiple remembrances of the events of a year ago in Washington, DC, and it seemed that the insurrectionists decided to keep a low profile, perhaps reflecting on their roles in that sad, historic day, as they tried to overthrow the government because Donald J. Trump is a whiny bitch that still can’t wrap his tiny brain around the indisputable fact that he lost the election by 7 million votes. To be honest, there are still any number of his weak-minded followers that still subscribe to that lie.

Just two days ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated very clearly that there will be further prosecutions and that the instigators of that attempt to overthrow our democracy will face justice. I hope they all get what’s coming to them. I’m not asking anyone to be shot at sunrise, but some of these overblown egos certainly need to be humbled to the point where they retire quietly in some community away from the public eye to wallow in their shame.

OK, this is my Friday entry, I’ve got coffee and breakfast to attend to, and some meetings to prepare for, so I better get to it.

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

Peace y’all.

It is January 6, 2022. A year ago today, a sitting president, defeated in his attempt for re-election, organized protestors in an effort to overturn a lawful election. It was not the best moment in the history of this country.

No matter what policies his administration implemented that may have had a net positive effect, the way that tenure ended will define the administration of the 45th president of the United States. I know that all I can really offer is an opinion, but I believe the events of a year ago highlight the narcissism and desperation of a man who found out he wasn’t the solution.

He was the problem.

Today there are still countless weak-minded fools that believe that the election that took place in November was corrupt. They’ve had irresponsible agents of chaos whispering in their ears that the election was faulty, that there was cheating. They sued over and over again, and the result in each and every case has been the same – the case was thrown out or lost due to the complete absence of evidence.

I hope you all have a peaceful day and have a moment to reflect on the events that took place a year ago. I hope you can thank a peace officer, a first responder, a health care worker, a teacher for their service. What these folks do every day is an incredible challenge, and the witless mob that tried to overturn a lawful election are a clear and present danger to our democracy.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday, January 5, 2022, and baby, it’s cold outside. 15 degrees according to my little weather station – I’ve got an Accurite weather station that ties into a weather crowd-sourcing app, Wunderground.com (Weather Underground).

I’m not expecting a lot of drama today. There will be a lot of discussion in the news about what happened in the Capitol a year ago tomorrow. Right now I’m watching an interview with a House Representative from Pennsylvania, and she’s talking about her experience as Joe Biden was accepted as President of the United States.

We still have a lot of Americans that have swallowed the big lie hook, line, and sinker. They’re just a bunch of weak-minded, gullible fools that don’t know when they’ve been the target of the biggest political con-game in US history. They’ve been led to believe that they are patriots when just the opposite is true. They follow every word of a wannabe authoritarian dictator – the former guy hardly paused to breathe when he had chances to praise the autocrats that seemed to have unlimited power in their countries. He talked about how the populations of certain countries would obey the words of brutal strongmen without question.

He certainly didn’t like it when the press told the truth about him.

Let me add my .02.

Trump is the worst president in US history. He is also the worst ex-president in US history. I pray that he never steps foot in the White House again. I would say that I hope he never steps foot in the Capitol again, but I’d sure like to see him show up to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection.

A political observer from our neighbor to the north is afraid the United States is on a road to a right-wing dictatorship by the year 2030. Right now, I believe that is not an unreasonable forecast. I can only hope that people give up their feeling of entitlement and work towards a level playing field for all.

That’s enough of a rant for now.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve… but Donald J. Trump, I hope you get exactly what you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is Tuesday, January 4, 2022. It is early, but I made that choice… or more likely, my bladder wanted to get up and I decided to go along with it for now.

The weight-loss plan I’m on right now cuts carbs and increases water consumption. I have not been properly hydrating for awhile, so I know that I need it for several reasons… my body needs water, there is no doubting that statement. I need to rid my body of some of the bad stuff in my body – a cleanse, so to speak. The other aspect that I shouldn’t discount is that I have a history of kidney stones, and my increased water consumption will hopefully have a positive impact on that part of my health and well-being.

My 6:00 AM alarm just went off. Coffee is on, should be done brewing momentarily, and I’ll have some low-carb toast with peanut butter for breakfast – I normally have an omelet, but I think I need to keep up with some variety. An omelet, low-carb pancakes, toast and peanut butter, or just a protein shake. One of the challenges is always adding some variety to keep the program from getting too monotonous.

One other thing worth mentioning – the total volume of water. I have a goal of 8 glasses of water per day. Most folks would aim for 16 ounces, and I’m leaning towards 22 with the glass I have, and I have come to the realization that I really want to try and get that last glass of water in by 7 o’clock PM. Had to get up too many times in the night to relieve that pressure.

Time to focus, adapt, and overcome the challenges of the day.

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

Peace, y’all.

Today is January 3rd, 2022. Funny… I almost kept adding “twos” to the end of the date.

This is the first day of my “renewal”. Generally speaking, January 1st really isn’t the best day to start on a new path and rededicating oneself to goal setting and finding some balance, primarily due to my desire for just another day of sports and bar food.

The first day is typically easy. I’ve already dragged myself out of bed, showered, dressed, and slammed home two glasses of water as part of my hydration goals. Made myself a low-carb breakfast omelet with a little cheese and half of a leftover steak from Friday night.

I’m trying to get my writing in early… might be a little of the “eat that frog” attitude, getting a commitment done early in the day so I don’t sit and wonder about it the rest of the day.

Right now, Odin is sitting with me in my chair. He’s perched up on my right shin looking for the food I ate while he was still back in the bedroom. He’d really give me a long, judgmental look if he knew what happened to the last bite of my omelet – Bonnie’s dog, Ruthie, enjoyed it a great deal.

OK, time to get focused on the rest of the day… I’ve got an Admin course starting in a little more than two hours.

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

Peace y’all.