It is Wednesday, January 26, 2022. I double-checked my day count on Rod Martin’s website. I know the average person can expect a lifetime of pretty close to 30,000 days. Let’s make this one count, shall we?

I was kind of stuck this morning pondering what I wanted to write about. Thought about how I’ve been called a communist multiple times for having certain liberal perspectives (right to vote, matters of personal choice, single-payer healthcare, climate change), but in reality, I’m a capitalist. I earn a decent living, as does my spouse, and we own a couple of companies on our own. Just seems to me that historically, it was the fascists that needed an enemy, and going after communists seemed to be low-hanging fruit during the rise of fascist regimes in certain European countries.

But that wasn’t what I wanted to write about after I thought about it.

I have an issue with other labels.

Mainly, “expert” and “ally”.

Bear with me for a second… I don’t dislike those labels. I love those labels… but my problem is in the use of those labels. I had someone ask me if I considered myself one of those labels a while back, and it kind of swelled into my consciousness that these terms, these expressions, should never be given to oneself. To be referred to as an expert, to be referred to as an ally, these are gifts from observers. It kind of ties back to the use of the descriptor “Christian”. You don’t have to tell me you’re a Christian, in fact, you shouldn’t have to. If you are following the tenets of that teacher, it should be rather obvious in the way you treat people.

I think the same goes for “expert” and “ally”. I hope I never claim to be either, but I would welcome being referred to as either one by others. I will return the favor if the evidence supports the assignment.

Kind of weird, I know. What else do you expect from me at this point?

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, and I am a bit tired, once again. (It’s January 25, 2022)

Last night there was another game, a KU basketball game, hosting a very determined Texas Tech squad hellbent on becoming the third team in Bill Self’s tenure at Kansas to sweep the regular-season series. Double overtime. KU wins, but it was a hard-fought game, that went on for an extra hour, or so it sure seemed.

This morning there is rumbles of conflict in the air. Putin and his Russian military forces seem on the verge of invading the independent Ukraine as part of his dream of reuniting the old Soviet Union territories. It seems to me (an opinion, not sure how much can be based on facts and evidence), that Putin longs for the old Soviet Union, where he can implement an even broader autocracy and expand his control over the very valuable resources in Ukraine.

It’s an opinion. I could be wrong.

I think that’s part of the problem we have in the US today. People think they are stating facts, but facts require evidence. I’ve heard more than one person say or post that they know (know – not suspect, not theorize or hypothesize) that the 2020 elections were stolen… but there is no evidence to support that statement. It’s not a fact that they can know – it’s an opinion, based on other opinions that are forced by people that want to control other people. If you can get people to believe a lie, you can get them to do other things on your behalf… like storm the Capitol on January 6.

We need to be warier of those messages out there that tie in with our confirmation bias. We all have a tendency to want to believe certain things if it reinforces other things we want to believe. Folks that want to believe Biden is an ineffective President are going to focus on the way he speaks, and even though they know the guy has fought a speech disorder his whole life, the moment he misspeaks or says something we can’t make out, it immediately gets labeled as evidence of cognitive failure… because that’s what a portion of our population wants to believe is the truth.

I admit my bias. I hope others will as well.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, January 24, 2022. There were times last night that I was pretty positive that I would not be sleeping well… like the time I looked up at the end of the 4th quarter of the Chiefs-Bills game, saw the Bills up by 3, and a scant 13 seconds left in the game.

I slept pretty well last night.

I could hardly believe the events that transpired at that point. Mahomes found another rabbit in the hat. With 13 seconds left at the end of regulation. Patrick Mahomes fired two perfect passes to get the Chiefs within field goal range to tie, and then they won the toss in overtime, chose to receive, and finished up the Bills in epic fashion. (Credit to the Bills: they played top-shelf football for four quarters).

It was an incredible weekend of football. 4 games… and the first three were just about as exciting, with all three road teams winning their respective games on the last play with a clutch field goal to win.

Amazing stuff.

Next weekend, the Chiefs will host the Cincinnatti Bengals to earn the right to go to the Superbowl.

Kansas City is going to be a buzz all week, and I’m happy to get a peripheral secondary-smoke buzz from the abject joy the community is embracing. We’re not done yet. One more game, maybe two, but let’s get business done at our house first.

Back to the grind, coffee up, time to make some breakfast. Meetings start in a bit.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning. It is Sunday, January 23, 2022. My daughter is asleep on the couch, as she apparently was woken up early by her dog, Ruthie. Right now the other five pooches (yes, I did not mistype that… 5… Lucy, Freya, Odin, Rosy, & Lily) are just going about their mornings, getting underfoot and begging for treats, as good dogs are wont to do.

Yesterday was a pretty fun day for the casual sports fan. I’m a Kansas Jayhawks fan, so basketball season is king around these parts. Yesterday my Jayhawks were down by as many as 17, down by 16 at the half… and came back to finally take a lead with 30 seconds left in the game, and were able to hang on to win. It was a special game for the coach, who had recently lost his dad… this was his first game coaching since his dad passed, and he was a bit emotional about the victory afterward.

Also, there were big upsets in the NFL playoffs. Both top seeds were knocked out by road teams… no benefit to having that bye week this year. The Bengals beat the Titans with a last-second field goal, and the 49ers were able to do the same to knock out the Packers. Great excitement, and for me that adds a little more anxiety… my Chiefs host the Bills today at Arrowhead, and if the Chiefs win, Kansas City will host the AFC Championship game again.

Go Chiefs.

Might have to cut my afternoon D&D game short this afternoon.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Saturday morning, January 22, 2022, and I am starting my day with coffee, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Threw back two big glasses of water while my coffee was brewing, and I am sated.

Sometimes I start off the day with news, right up until they get to some update on the pandemic and hospitalization numbers. Then, I must confess, it does get me down a little bit. ICUs and hospital beds are still being occupied by so many people that picked the wrong hill… the unvaccinated one. To me, the anti-vax misinformation campaign is being pushed by the same sorts of people that would take pleasure in a whisper campaign to convince some vulnerable victim to commit suicide. They do it just to see how much influence they can have on a person, and when they find out they can convince someone to do something that shattering, they revel in it. It strikes me as a form of sociopathy.

I guess people don’t get it. Every time an unvaccinated American dies, somebody somewhere revels in some sick joy.

Ok, back to other topics.

Wrapped up the second time through of my newest course, and it went very well, I really enjoyed working with my training partner this week, and he did a great job with the material… any time I can sit a class with a teammate and learn from their experience, that’s a win. I have my weaknesses just like anybody else (developer-related topics), but today I feel like I can wrap my pointy head around the topics just a little bit better.

Basketball games later today, KU@K-State. The KU head coach just lost his dad a couple of days ago, and now we go into an arena that has a reputation for not always behaving well. I do hope they take the higher ground and don’t mock the passing of Coach’s dad. That would be a very unkind thing to do. I guess we’ll see later this afternoon.

That’s enough for now. I’ve got a prep week this next week, ramping up on another class, and helping with the revisions to another.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday, the last day of my work week, and the 21st day of January, 2022.

I woke up this morning to the sad news that Meat Loaf, born Marvin Aday, has passed. This is sad news to me. His role in “Rocky Horror Picture Show” was a debut, but his album “Bat Out of Hell”, featuring songs written by Jim Steinman, was one of the greatest albums in rock and roll history.

I started off my little tribute to him on my Facebook page with the opening spoken line from “You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth”.

“On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses“

Gees.

The guy sang overly dramatic anthems of love and loss, and they all just seemed to “stick”. “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad” “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” “I Would Do Anything for Love”.

Ugh.

2022 is off to a rough start.

I’m going to keep this fairly short this morning, then go into my workspace and crank up his debut album. The world lost a voice today.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday, January 20, 2022. It is ten minutes past six in the morning, and the coffee maker has just made that gurgling, bubbling sound to let me know that the carafe is full of my preferred morning beverage, coffee made with freshly ground medium-roast Tanzanian Peaberry.

There’s lots of talk about the economy, the virus, the Russians, the January 6th hearings. There are a lot of people out there that still prefer misinformation over truth with verifiable evidence. You can lead a horse to water, but…

Class is going pretty well this week. One thing I try to do when a new class enters the mix is teach it early and often. There’s always a bit of a ramp-up time with a new course as I try to get comfortable with all aspects of the subject material and get comfortable with the banter about the class. I want it to flow, y’know? It’s only my second delivery of this class, but I know I’ve got more deliveries scheduled in the coming months. I’ll get there.

No real revelations to share this morning. Just working through my day, trying to establish the routine of getting up, writing, meditating, coffee, breakfast, gratitude. Like I just told my daughter, just focusing on being a better human being today than I was yesterday… we’re all works in progress.

That’ll do for now.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday morning, January 19, 2022. It’s fairly relaxed around here, and thoughts have turned to having COVID tests at hand just in case. The Biden administration has implemented a program to provide millions of tests for US citizens so we can all get a better grasp on this pandemic. Let’s hope it opens a few eyes, I’ve ordered four.

I may be downplaying current events. There is still a whole lot of smoke around the former guy and some of the business practices his organization endorsed when it came to the valuation of properties – one value for the banks, and a different value when it came to taxation. Ol’ Donnie and the crew might have a bit of trouble on that front with the District of Southern New York. I won’t shed tears if they get brought up on fraud charges.

I’ve got my second day in the classroom a little later this morning. Not expecting any real challenges with today’s deliveries. I do have a meeting with my manager as well, and I expect that to be nothing but positive.

All in all, this day should be relatively uneventful, and sometimes boring is good. Seems to appeal to my blood pressure.

I’ve got some other things to tend to this morning, so I’m going to wrap this up and get going on my day. No outrage to spew out onto the page this day.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday, January 18, 2022. Time for me to get in my expense report for the month.

I hope you are well. More and more people are not. There have been multiple school closings around the state due to COVID outbreaks, and now I’m watching talking heads on TV debating whether progressives should apologize for closing schools down during a highly contagious pandemic that has five million people worldwide.

Dear lady on TV. I am so sorry that you have been inconvenienced. I get that you need to use our public school system to keep an eye on your kids while you write articles for whatever periodical you write for. You seem genuine in your concern for your kids and their education.

The problem isn’t really the kids. Almost every kid in the world has a pretty robust immune system and will bounce back. I completely get that you’re willing to sacrifice a few kids nationwide/worldwide for the advancement of the rest. But there might be a better approach.

I doubt she has volunteered to be a substitute teacher. That is a pinch point in her argument. The need for hundreds of substitute teachers in our local school district has led to a chance in the rules… at this point, if you have a high school degree (not college, certainly not a college degree in primary or secondary education) and have passed a background check. I guess the upside is that we won’t have to worry about Lauren Boebert lining up with her gun belt and bandolero to teach American History or Constitution class.

I’m worried. My wife is a university professor and department chair. She is working under a directive from the provost to show up on campus every single day. No remote classes. I’m not going to go into her health/medical history, but there’s enough there to give both of us cause to worry.

I get to teach from home today. Remotely. With an audience that will likely span time zones and continents.

All I can do is pray that she doesn’t get it and that if she does, the vaccines work for her.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, January 17, 2022. It’s going to be a day. On the plus side, it’s a national holiday, a day of remembrance for perhaps the greatest civil rights leader in US history, Martin Luthor King. Also on the plus side, the Chiefs knocked off the Steelers and likely sent Ben Roethlisberger riding off into the sunset as his career as a professional football player is drawing to a close.

Then there is the other side of the coin. A high school friend messaged me last night to let me know that a mutual friend had passed due to COVID. She was a classmate, a musician, a military wife, and a military mom. She was a good person, but somewhere along the line she apparently decided that getting vaccinated was the wrong choice for her. There is a little less music in the world today, thank you anti-vaxxers.

It pisses me off. This was an unnecessary death.

There is so much irony, much of it quite bitter, about this pandemic. We have vaccines. We have a distribution plan. And we have folks out there spreading volumes of misinformation about the vaccine.

The numbers are back to going up each week as I track the COVID-19 mortality numbers each week. Twelve hundred more dead this week than the previous week, and the numbers have gone back over 12,000 for the week.

Wake the hell up, people. Get vaccinated.

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

Peace y’all.