Evie Day 365

Good morning, friends. Today is Friday, 15 March 2024.

Tomorrow is my granddaughter’s first birthday, so this is for her.

Dear Evelyn,

If you are reading this, or having this read to you, let me start off with one simple truth. You are loved. Just as your momma loves you, we loved your momma when she was a tiny little human as well.

A child’s first year is all about discovery – and it doesn’t stop at year one. You’ve discovered your fingers and toes, and those fingers and toes have made discoveries of their own, and some of those discoveries lead to the bathtub… we know you love spaghetti.

In the coming years, you are going to see and hear amazing things. Your life will guide you from one experience to the next, and I wish I could be there with you every step of the way. I know your momma would love to fill your little mind and heart with a lifetime of wisdom and experience to guide you, but that’s not how things work.

I hope you can observe and learn from what you see. Watch the way people laugh and find happiness. Embrace that. Everyone around you wants you to be happy. I would also ask you to notice the things that cause pain in others, so you know not to do that to others and can ask others to stop if they are trying to hurt you.

Your life and world are going to get bigger in this next year. You are going to be walking and talking soon, and we all look forward to bearing witness to those moments.

I hope I get to spend time with you for the next twenty years, maybe even longer. Part of the beautiful reality of family is that recognition that there is a bit of me in you – when you tell a joke or make others laugh, that might be a Grampa Bob moment. If you look at flowers and see colors and patterns, that’s your momma. When you look at problems and see solutions, that’s maybe a bit of your Grandma Lisa coming through.

I’ll share more later, but that’s just a simple note. You’re only turning one year old, and I pray you have a long and very happy life filled with joy, friends, family, and experiences.

You are loved.

Grampa Bob

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It’s not my best post ever, but it’s real and it comes from the heart. I am a blessed man, and I know I am surrounded by people who care about me, and I, in turn, care about them.

Time to get ready for my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 364

Good morning, and happy Thursday to you . Today is 14 March 2024.

Had to fix a couple of things on my “minute” bits I do a few times a month. I mistakenly loaded old videos with new thumbnails. Youtube Studio doesn’t change default locations when you load a file from one location, it still loads different files from, the last previous load location, and that led me to make a couple of mistakes.

Last night was not a good night for Kansas basketball. Two leading scorers and all-conference players on the bench with injuries, one with a deep bone bruise on his knee, the other sidelined with a dislocated shoulder. Kansas loses by twenty to Cincinnati in the Big 12 post-season tournament.

I’ve got two sessions today, one a chalk talk about data integration, and then I’ll lead a case study in the afternoon. I would’ve had another presentation on courseware blueprints, but that has been deferred to next Tuesday night. I’ll have another extra presentation a week from tomorrow as well with a security update. I’m glad they are spread out a little bit.

There’s not much else going on. I picked up a little brace to isolate my right thumb a little bit. It’s been giving me a little tendon trouble around the base of my thumb… probably due to repetitive movement with my mouse.

Lucy got my attention and wanted to sit between my legs on the legrest. Odin and the Floofs are barking at some dog on TV. Lisa suspects that advertisers are incorporating more dogs and cats into TV ads because the owners will notice their pets barking.

OK, that’s an abbreviated note, but a note nonetheless.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 363

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to you all. Today is 13 March 2024.

Hard to believe that my granddaughter turns one in just three more days. I know the counter says 363, but remember, this is a leap year. Arrangements are being made, and families are planning travel.

I was going to have a presentation tomorrow afternoon, but it looks like that is being rescheduled. The friend and teammate making the arrangements for it is making an effort to get a few more registrations for the event, so a better time will hopefully present that accommodation.

My training partner had a challenge yesterday with her car, and that led to me jumping into a session to help out. Basically, she had a space at the car dealership to work while her car was being serviced, and some executive kicked her out right in the middle of the session. I jumped in to cover the session – it was a review session, and I was fine to do that – I was familiar with the subject as it was effectively a more serious review of the same stuff I reviewed the previous Friday. She let the executive know who was in the class and that she passed along info about the make and model of her car as a subtle message to the dealership exec. He made some assumptions that he shouldn’t have made.

That means I’ll get a little more time to plan out my chalk talk for tomorrow morning, and that is fine by me. I’m ok with data integration services, but there is always something more to learn.

Other than that, there’s not a lot going on. I’m looking at more practical uses of AI in my virtual classrooms, and I use it regularly for quick-hitter questions that I can’t answer. I had a learner ask me about comparing a service I was familiar with another service I had never heard of… I popped that question into CoPilot and then shared the response. The learner was not only satisfied, he was pretty impressed with the depth of the question and the referral links.

I also like it for looking up key points on unfamiliar terms. Some news story threw around the name “Project 2025”, and I had never heard of it, so I popped it into CoPIlot and asked for a summary and key points. That was helpful. I’ll continue to use AI for just that purpose – filling in the gaps.

I’m going to get this in the can and get on with my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 362

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 12 March 2024.

March is International Women’s Month. Add in Neurodiversity Celebration Week from March 18 to March 24. Looks like March is a busy month… add in my granddaughter’s birthday on Saturday, my nephew’s birthday on Sunday, March 17, and the international celebration of the Kansas City Chief’s quarterback on March 17 as well, and it just gets busier and busier with more and more stuff to celebrate.

Of course, we’re going to recognize all… well, maybe I made up the part about celebrating the Chief’s QB on St. Patrick’s Day, but let’s not write that idea off completely. I have some incredible women in my life – my wife, my mom, my daughters, my sister, my nieces, my granddaughter (who will be awesome someday, but there’s no need to put pressure on her now, she isn’t even one yet). I’ve had great women teammates and great women managers.

For me it’s pretty simple – anyone who treats women like second-class citizens has no place in my circle. That’s a pretty simple idea. I want people around me that make good decisions and offer good counsel. Mistreating women and treating them as “less” will not be tolerated.

OK, I’ll step off my soapbox.

Here comes the high-dive moment… Lisa has her breakfast, Rosy just ran up the steps and jumped off my legrest. Lily just followed suit. That’s two… I expect I’ll have a couple more high dive moments… just as Rosy comes back up for her second turn off the leg rest… and there goes Lily, too.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in a couple of hours. I’m hearing the siren song of the coffee maker, and starting to feel the need for a little legal stimulant.

Tonight… there will be tacos!

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 361

Good morning, and a happy first-day-of-the-new-work-week to you. Today is Monday, 11 March 2024.

Kind of funny. I sat down at my laptop this morning and opened my email, and the first all-caps word that I see is DEMENTIA. That’s a great way to start the day, right?

Last night the Academy Awards, popularly referred to as “The Oscars” was on. So was the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup Championship match between the US Women’s National Team and Brazil. I watched soccer. It was a lot of fun, not the drenched, soggy field from the semi-finals, and the US pulled out the win, 1-0.

The rest of the sports weekend wasn’t as much fun. The KU men last on the road and our starting center dislocated his shoulder. The KU women lost against Texas in the Big 12 Women’s basketball tournament.

The other highlight of the weekend was probably watching the cold opening of Saturday Night Live. A little background – on Thursday night, President Biden delivered his State of the Union Address. Then there was the GOP response, delivered by the junior senator from Alabama, Katie Britt. Her over-the-top delivery became the foundation for the SNL cold opening and was delivered by Scarlett Johansson. That might’ve been the best opening bit in the history of SNL. Lisa and I watched it three times, and we’re wondering if she can get an Emmy for that. If she doesn’t, the writers sure should.

I’m up early. Daylight Savings Time, spring forward… and there really is no savings of anything. It’s time to lock the clock.

Rosy is back using my leg rest as a high dive. Go over to Lisa, run back, climb up the little dog stairs, then jump down. She’ll do that half-a-dozen times while Lisa eats breakfast.

Congrats Sweden on officially joining NATO.

I’m going to grab some breakfast and get going with my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 358

Hello! I wish you all a happy Friday and a wonderful weekend. Today is 8 March 2024.

Next weekend, we’re celebrating a birthday around these parts as our granddaughter celebrates her first birthday. We’ll be sure to take many pictures to embarrass her with them when she’s older.

Lisa and I made a choice last night to try and keep our respective blood pressures low, so we watched some TV series with multiple murders rather than watch the State of the Union. I’m catching highlights on the news, and I’ll probably be hearing about this and that throughout the day. I know there are folks out there who were hanging on every word and dissecting phrases, expressions, and facial tick. I had better things to do, like put together a Jeopardy-style game. I also missed the opposition’s response. I caught a bit of it this morning. It struck me as very forgettable.

I have a busy day. I think now is as good a time to get this done. As I watch the news, I just get sick of it.

My class is going well. As I mentioned, I prepared a little game for my learners to play. We’ll start with a review, then I’ll introduce the first game, and then follow that up with a second one.

I hope I have something a little more fun to post on Monday. I hope my weekend is productive, and I hope I get to spend a little quality time with my guitars… and a cute little short-scale 6-string bass.

OK… that’s all I’ve got for now.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 357

Good morning, everyone! It is Thursday, 7 March 2024.

I’ll have a little lighter day in front of me today. My class is off to a good start, and we’ve had four productive sessions so far. I was the lead speaker on three of those four sessions, and today I’ll hand the mic over to my training partner. I’ll be back on it tomorrow with another office hours session.

Last night I stayed up for a while to watch some of the Women’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. Brazil asserted their will on Mexico, winning 3-0 on a wet field in San Diego, and then the US Women’s National Team squared off against the Canadian Women’s National Team. It had been raining pretty steadily, and the pitch was a soggy mess. Lisa and I speculated that the ball might have been a little heavier from the excess water, and we thought that it would take a lot more effort to move the ball around. I was wondering if a header might cause a concussion. Anyway, I’m not going to spoil the score. It was a lively match, and I believe a replay will be on Paramount+ sometime today.

I might watch it tonight… it’s either that of the State of the Union address. I can catch a recap of the SOTU tomorrow morning.

I’ve got some recording to do later today for the YouTube studio, and I have an exercise to put together as well. Add in a little Applied Skills training, and that makes for a pretty full night.

Lisa and I were hanging out last night – no game for me last night, scheduling conflicts with a couple of the guys – and she mentioned that she really wanted pizza. My mission, if I choose to accept it, is to get a couple of pies on the kitchen table for dinner. If I go to my favorite place, Minsky’s, that also means there will an order or two of fried mushrooms.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I’m going to get on with my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 356

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to you all. Today is 6 March 2024.

I just remembered I need to make a post for my Blended Learning course regarding our first talk this morning.

Our senior dog is outside barking at something. At her age, who only knows what she thinks she sees? It could be anything from foxes rustling about in the dark, or an errant cloud moving suspiciously in the sky.

Last night was a good night for Sports Fan Bob. Kansas had a home-court advantage, and the game wasn’t going to go into overtime this time. It was a great way for the basketball team’s seniors to go out… if they’re going out. It appears as if a few more might be sticking around for an extra year than expected. Most are going to be done, but there are a few that have one more year due to the COVID pause. Next year could be another interesting year.

The pups are treating me like a high dive. Go over to Lisa, come climb up on the couch, slide over my leg-rest, then take the plunge. I think Rosy is on her third or fourth jump so far this morning. Lily, not as many, but there is a pattern.

I’m trying to ignore the news. Lots of discussion about Super Tuesday primaries. Nikki Haley is dropping out of the GOP race, and it’s going to be Trump v Biden again in the fall, each with very different agendas. One is trying to protect democracy, one is trying to protect himself.

I’ve got a couple of sessions today, one case study to work on with my attendees, and this afternoon we’ll have an open Q&A session regarding our course content. We’ve got a two-hour block for that, but if history is any indicator, we’ll likely close that out with some time to spare.

Tonight, it will be time to game a little bit with the guys. I’m not sure which game we’ve got going tonight.. or whether my character is on the verge of everlasting doom. We’ll get it sorted.

In the meantime…

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 355

Good morning, and a happiest of Taco Tuesdays to you all. Today is 5 March 2024.

Tonight there will be tacos! I’ll plan an extra order of chips and salsa for the basketball game. Tonight is Senior Night for the KU men’s basketball team as they host the cross-state rival, the KSU Wildcats. KU lost on the road in Manhattan, KS a few weeks ago. Tonight is likely the Jayhawks’ last real chance for a win this regular season.

Lisa and I talked the other night about some of the differences between being a technical trainer and a college professor. One of the key differences is who grades whom. In her classes, she has to monitor her students’ work and hand out grades every semester as her students matriculate toward a degree in mechanical engineering. In my case, I am the one that gets graded every single week by the folks that attend my professional certification courses. That distinction radically affects the approach an instructor takes in delivering content.

The news is filled with info about the Super Tuesday primaries for federal office, including the Presidency. The candidates are pretty much decided – Biden will be the DNC candidate, as he is the incumbent and Trump is the presumptive GOP candidate. There will be third-party candidates as there always are, but from my experience, third-party candidates do nothing more than create a spoiler role for one candidate or another. Ralph Nader affected the election in 2000, Ross Perot affected the election in 1992, and, more recently, the Libertarian and Green Party candidates pulled enough votes away from the DNC candidate to lean the vote towards the GOP candidate, one of the few times in US history that one party win the popular vote while the other party won the Electoral College – the second time this century, however, as Al Gore lost the Electoral College in 2000, but won the popular vote.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in a couple of hours, getting ready to co-deliver a cloud solutions architecture course with one of my favorite coworkers.

It’s about time for me to get a pot of coffee going and some eggs whipped up for an omelet.

For tonight, I wish you all peace, happiness, and tacos… after all, they’re all kind of the same thing.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 354

Good morning, and welcome to the beginning of a new work week for many. Today is 4 March 2024.

This week I start a new project and endeavor to stay focused on a couple of others that are ongoing. My virtual classroom makes a little shift, as I roll into a “Blended Learning” project with another trainer. She and I will be delivering a course that we regularly teach in four days, but we’ll be working in smaller chunks, and spreading the course out over four weeks. I enjoy the format, as it gives me a chance to work with the same trainer for several weeks, as well as the opportunity to work with the same group of learners for a longer period of time as well.

The wind has really been blowing the last few days. “In like a lion” for sure. The winds certainly cannot be helping the firefighters in Texas that are battling the range fires there. Last I heard, there were over a million acres consumed by the fire and hundreds of homes.

We watched a couple of games over the weekend. Kansas men’s basketball has struggled on the road and this past Saturday was no different, as the Jayhawks fell to Baylor. The good news was the KU women beating the league champion Oklahoma Sooners at Allen Fieldhouse as OU and Texas leave the Big 12 to join the SEC. Bye!

Kansas has their last home game for the men tomorrow night, with a chance to avenge an earlier road loss to the KSU Wildcats. The Kansas team has lost more games in basketball this season than any other season under Coach Bill Self. I think the Jayhawks will bounce back after they get out from under a recruiting cloud. They’ll need a little help with the addition of strong sports programs from out west.

I had a good afternoon gaming with the guys on Sunday. All of our characters lived to fight another day.

Time for me to get coffee going and get something in my stomach. My tummy is making some noises.

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

Peace y’all.