Me to wife: "You’ve made me old with snapchat."
Disembodied 10 year old voice from the back of the house: "Yeah, you are old" "hahaha!" "Get wrecked." "W-r-e-k-e-d"
Year: 2016
I play the lottery for fun
Sometimes I see a little fantasy in purchasing a lottery ticket. When I do play, usually I buy a Powerball or Megamillions since the numbers are huge and the dreams match in scale. I rarely buy scratch offs. This week I purchased a $5 scratch off ticket. I enjoyed revealing the numbers needed to be matched and then uncovering the individual numbers. This ticket won $25! Great return on investment. Did I keep the money? An extra $20 in my pocket? NO! $5 was the cost of admission. I purchased a $25 scratch off. Who does that?! $25! I proceed to scratch off the numbers needed to match. Then I under cover each of the potential matching numbers. Sure enough one hits. I uncover the prize to reveal $10. But I’m confused. A friend once told me a winning ticket will never be less than the value of the ticket. Ah, a 2nd number matched! Another $10. Still less than the $25 cost of the ticket. And then a third hit. This $25 ticket turned into a $30 winner. $5 bonus. Wait, my initial investment was $5 so I’m $25 ahead! Do I quit? Of course not. I paid my $5 for this ride. So I turn the ticket in for a $30 scratch off. Alas, my luck ran out and no numbers matched. Was I disappointed? Initially but then I remembered I paid only $5 and received far more than that in the pleasure of playing the game. I walked away $5 poorer rather than $25 richer but I had fun and that is why I occasionally play the lottery.
Today a great man died
My father-in-law passed away today. This note will serve to hold this spot until I can wrangle the whirlwind of thoughts speeding through my mind and put them to words.
29 days in February! Let the mass unfollowings end.
2016 is a Leap Year meaning there are 29 days in February and mass unfollowing of friends occur as United States politics flood the social media networks.
As a reminder, citizenship is not passive. We have a civic duty to participate in politics to shape our nations. That includes voicing dissenting opinions among our peers. An informed citizenry can better shape its respective nation. When the citizenry, particularly the proletariat, can be convinced to not be bothered, corporations and politicians can more easily control the people.
If we decry political discussions on Facebook or other social media as a reason to block people or unfriend others, we are doing nothing less than putting our fingers in our ears and chanting nah nah nah nah nah.
We make progress by listening to ideas foreign to our own. A business meeting where everyone walks into a room and nods heads in agreement and pats each other on the back is a waste of meeting space and salaries. An echo chamber where everyone else says the same thing we already think does not further a cause. Both cases are nothing more than pep rallies and bandwagons.
A diverse population will never be in complete agreement. John Lydgate said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” If the Left implemented all of their philosophies with blatant disregard for the Right, you would have a significant portion of the population displeased and vice versa. Politics is about finding a happy medium where the Right and the Left find a middle ground which somewhat pleases both extremes. Our politician’s job is to seek this middle ground!
An elected official is supposed to represent the people; not just the people who agree with that politician’s ideals. A Congressman is a professional and should be willing to approach a vote with a Yea to represent its constituents’ wishes even when that Congressman’s personal beliefs say Nay. Consider your representatives’ histories as you go into the voting booths.
Regarding the political arena and social media, I implore you to resist the urge to take a dislike to someone you follow or even go so far as to block or unfollow them over their political posts. Instead, engage them. I did not say “insult them” or “fight with them” or “troll them.” Engage them. Be inquisitive. Try to understand their position even if they are unwilling to give you the same courtesy. Let’s make politics civil again.
From the mouths of babes
We asked the 10.5 year old to watch something other than Futurama or Simpsons. He begins his breakdown as I try to find Animaniacs or Pinky and the Brain.
Me: "Do you want to play some cards with me?"
Evan: "No"
Me: "Do you want to play a board game with me?"
Evan: "No"
Me: "Do you want to be in the same room with me?"
Evan: "I’m going to go take a bath."
Gotta geek
Took some time to myself today to finally get my laptop to begin serving SSL with a self-signed certificate. That was good!
And now drones are putting censors who put the black bars on videos out of work. What is this world coming to?!
(If you click play, you are going to see some naked backsides.)
You really should watch until the end.
A sample of my tech life
I use tools in my life that just feel like breathing to me. Thought it might be interesting to list the tools I use in a typical day. Tools include hardware and software. Today I used:
- Amazon Echo to turn off lights, check the weather, and check the time.
- I used Siri to send text messages while I was driving.
- I used Siri to find information on the web.
- I used Dreamweaver for coding as well as Notepad++
- I used Microsoft SQL Server Management Console
- Visual Studio 2013 and Crystal Reports
- I wrote code in Adobe’s Coldfusion, PHP, and ASP.NET’s c#.
- I wrote stored procedures in MS SQL and data manipulations in MySQL.
- I used Terminal to change ownership and permissions on files.
- I used multiple email clients.
- I chaired a change advisory board using a watered down version of Robert’s Rules of Order.
- I used Zoom for video conferencing and screen sharing in two different meetings.
- I configured a WordPress installation including customizations of plugins and writing my own functions for a child theme of the Advanced Newspaper theme.
- I used Coin (a single credit card which consolidates my other credits cards into one) for payment
- I used the Narrative camera for life logging with photographs
- I used Github Desktop for version control on one machine and Subversion for version control on another.
- I explored automating parts of my life with Alfred App’s workflows and Automator as well as Jenkins and Selenium.
- I used YNAB for budgeting and Hootesuite, Skype, Facebook Messenger, iOS Messenger, and Twitter for communications.
There was more but I am tired.
Just once
I’d really like to get through one day without uttering the words, "Goddamn dog."
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Ten years ago I asked you my first question.
Master: And you continue to talk to yourself!
Back to work
I spent yesterday, my last day of vacation, glued to the computer working on a client’s website. Today, I have returned to Cubeville to fulfill the duties of my day job. 2015 ended great! I am apprehensive about 2016 but so far so good.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
This is not a year in review post nor a resolution post.
I’ve been on a two week vacation and it has been heavenly. Perhaps I’ll publish details later. Today represents the last day of my vacation, or as Cathy likes to put it, the day Doug stresses, curses, begrudges tomorrow, and wishes he had taken a longer vacation…or every Sunday. But that was then this is now. I plan 2016 not as stress-free but as a stress managed year. Everything shall be taken in stride!
So what is on today’s plate? Client work, scout planning, personal planning (have to set some goals), family time, and then we will see if there is any time left for other things. January promises to be a trying month. It comes pre-packed with many activities and two incredibly immobile and important deadlines. This month, those two things will be my focus and everything else is secondary.
