Man, if I thought that March 2020 was a terrible time to start a sports blog, it was probably *also* a terrible time to start a job at SBNation trying to run most of their California-based blogs. At least the cost structure of W4C is sustainable.
Gosh, it would be sad, though. Lots of great writers are hurting right now, and it's not clear what sort of platform they'll have to come back to when sports start coming back.
"In the United States, the most popular last name is Smith. As per the 2010 census, about 0.8 percent of Americans have it. In Vietnam, the most popular last name is Nguyen. The estimate for how many people answer to it? Somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the country’s population. The 14 most popular last names in Vietnam account for well over 90 percent of the population. The 14 most popular last names in the US? Fewer than 6 percent."
Vietnam is obviously an extreme example, but I would expect the US to have more surname diversity just because the population is so much more heterogeneous.
I think it has a lot to do with government and industry. Korea has a lot of Lees, Kims, and Parks, because they all had periods of royalty. During a period without census polls, you ended up with a lot of fake Lees, Kims, and Parks, which is why there is actually a physical family tree that you get added to if you're from a legitimate main/branch line.
It came for two sources: The Chinese bureaucrats who ruled the country for 900+ years gave them their last names for tax purposes, and two, Vietnamese changed their family names to match their rulers; Nguyen being the last line.
one of my direct reports is Viet and her father is a Nguyen (she is not). After the war, he changed his name to Nguyen to make himself harder to find because he was anti-communist and had been in the South Vietnamese army. Apparently, many others did this as well and many of those got to the US as soon as they could (he came over in 1978)
I didn't know the exact numbers, but I knew the broad outlines of this, thanks to having grown up in Little Saigon and having 2 of my closest friends be Vietnamese (one of whom is unsurprisingly named Nguyen).
One of the problems with my wife being retired and around all the time, is I feel like I deserve a beer at lunch, since I strongly associate her being around in the day with the weekend.
Normally, I sleep very soundly, but yesterday, I couldn't fall asleep as fast as I normally do. Why not? My parents sent me a picture of a letter they'd received.
--
Dear Addressee,
The other day while uncluttering a box in my basement, I discovered a letter written by a girl named [TheBuckeyeBear]. It was dated 12/30/00 which is a year before I retired as Children's Librarian at [city] Ohio library. Also in the box were memorabilia which must have been given to me by [TBB] and other children who had Chinese heritage. I would love to know how [TBB] has spent the past 20 years since she moved from Ohio.
If you have any knowledge of [TBB] and her family, would you please let me know. Normally I do a lot of volunteering but not right now. The fear of the virus has kept us all close to home.
Thank you for any information you can give me. I am very appreciative of your time. Stay safe and well.
--
YOU GUYS. I'm so excited to hear from her. I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking of things I want to tell her.
Agreed that I'm curious and want to know more about the backstory. Do you remember this librarian? Do you remember what you gave her? Among all the things you want to tell her, are your internet friends among the top of the list.
I think we need some more background of why you sent her memorabilia and the letter, and what the special connection was that you felt with this librarian.
My mom's been taking me to the library since before I was born. She'd sit in the Cleveland State library while my dad was in school, reading with the book on her belly while I moved around inside and taking breaks by walking up and down the stairs. While we still lived downtown, she'd take me to the main public library, and I still remember this gigantic globe there.
Then, we moved to the suburbs and started going to the story hour at the public library there. I remember the Berenstain Bears (but not that spelling) and Dr. Seuss. When my parents were largely ignored at PTA meetings, they decided to contribute in a different way, so my mom started volunteering at my elementary school library. The school librarians encouraged her to apply when a page position opened up at the public library.
Recently, my mom told me that her English wasn't great, but the public library hired her because she was fast and accurate and shelving books, and also because "we all know your daughter."
I remember going to children's programs at the library, reading Sense and Sensibility, being so excited about the opening of the shiny new library building, going to a murder mystery party, and so many other things. My mom would bring home new books for me to read, and that was how I first became acquainted with Harry Potter.
We have a woven blanket with different landmarks from that city, and I think the librarians gave it to us when we moved away in 1999. I recently used it to insulate a bottle of Kavalan in my luggage when I flew back from Taiwan.
My mom didn't feel like she knew all the answers in this strange new place where she was living, but she was confident that we'd be able to find them in the library.
I'd like to be hopeful that we'll find a way to do an epidemiologically appropriate neighborhood happy hour when the weather picks up a bit, but I doubt it will happen.
I too would like to not be working. I should probably just pick a Friday in the coming weeks and take a 3 day weekend just for the relative luxury of not having to read email or be on conference calls all day.
When I was an auditor, one of my clients was Land O' Lakes. It wasn't the main Minnesota Land O'Lakes, but one of its procurement subsidiaries in California. I remember getting ready for the job with visions of rolling grass, faint smell of grass and cow manure, and dust on my pant legs on this job. Nope. It was one of those unremarkable 900 foot offices in San Ramon. In one windowless room was a fat guy with a phone and buzzing tube lighting. He was the west coast buyer for all of Land O' Lakes butter. You'd like to think he was checking on his dairy farmers to see how much milk was being produced. Nope, he was buying a specific grade of freeze dried powdered milk-fat.
Sure, they must have some cooperative producers of milk, but they are so huge that they have to buy from the market. He was buying a commodity. Hundreds of millions of dollars of powdered milk.
Not one that is traded on the Chicago CBOT or anything like that, but one of the thousand of over commodities that trade over-the-counter, person to person, at the time by phone. There is nothing special about Land O Lakes butter. From then on, I bought generic cooking butter because it is literally the same thing. I have Irish butter for straight consumption.
I once took a technology development management class, and some guys from Land O'Lakes Minnesota were there. They remarked how California Land O'Lakes tasted nothing like the Minnesota product. This is because the recipe included some bacterial cultures, and it was not legal to take these across state lines.
Ironically, now that I'm home I'm having espresso much more frequently. I have an espresso machine at home, but I never use it because I make my coffee at work.
I'm going on 4 years on Google Fi. I'm completely satisfied. It's worked all over the planet (Australia, Canada, Netherlands, all across the US including Alaska and Hawaii). And it's cheap--my bill for me and the Mrs is usually $50-60 each month.
they have a repeater you can plug into your router and get great signal. I think it's free and you just need to return it when you leave T-mobile. Or do wifi calling if your phone supports it.
It would work out to be about $20 cheaper / month for us as a family than whatever variant of AT&T unlimited that we have now. The overseas usage would be compelling once every so often. I discovered that if you have an iPhone XS forward, you can fight your way into having your provider transition you to an eSim and then use a local nano sim overseas, which is a handy alternative @for all those international trips that I'm taking@
"On Thursday night, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham had two “Drs.” on her program: that national epidemiologist and the one with a psychology degree. The former was Anthony S. Fauci, leading member of the White House coronavirus task force. The latter was Phil McGraw, who is not a practicing psychologist, much less a physician or an infectious disease expert."
Probably going to zoom into a virtual conference for some talks this weekend. Wasn't actually going to go to the physical conference (but that was also due to the high likelihood of me being in Germany right now if there were not pandemic), but it's now free to "attend".
Yeah. Actually if I wasn't in Europe and things were "normal", I might have driven down to DC for a day of it this weekend just to meet up with some friends. The April meeting (more particle physics) is not really attended by everyone since most experiments can only send a small number of representatives...unlike the much bigger March meeting (for the condensed matter folks).
do some work to get something out Monday morning. Maybe do the shifter rebuild on the Miata or wait until late next week when No 3 is here. Maybe change the oil in the Acura. Go for a run today, Sat, and Sun (hopefully).
Do a puzzle with my son. Fill the boat up with gas. Do a grocery/booze/home depot run. Try to expose myself to pollen in the PM to build up tolerance to local trees. Plant garden (pumpkins already accidentally planted by sowing in compost with still alive seeds from jack-o-lanterns).
Well I don't get to be at the FB Spring Scrimmage, or at the baseball field to umpire either day, both of which would be highly preferable vs not, and I mowed the lawn yesterday (since I didn't have other things to do), so I have quite a bit of flexibility!
1300 PST: It's my last day at the firm and I've managed to get 3 agreements approved for signature this morning, but have at least 7 more major things I hope to finish before I go.
My brother and sister-in-law and I are about to take a collective lunch break (turkey shepherd's pie leftovers from last night) and watch Jumanji 2.
On the 3rd call of the day. First was from 8-9:20, 2nd was from 9:20 - 11:20, and this one started at 11:20. The only planned one was the one from 9:20-1120 which was supposed to start at 8 but I had to push that back to join an ad-hoc call at 8. UGH.
1040 PDT. Have completed four conference calls, dropped the F bomb on two of them, gearing up for call #5 in 20 minutes. Trying to build a presentation for a meeting with the FDIC, OCC and CFPB (all at once! woohoo!) next week but finding it not very inspiring. Wondering whether Second Breakfast is a thing.
1324 EDT: had originally been scheduled to be on a call, but was asked to reschedule to 1600 EDT, which is not my idea of a good time [dials into call, sound of a beer can popping]
I have to explain how we're fitting new storage into our existing server and security model. I'm the translator between the infrastructure team and the non-technical people who have to approve it.
It went better than expected! I am not a technical expert by any means but I've tried to listen and learn enough to translate what people want to do into terms that our VM guys can understand. I'm constantly struck by the extent to which members of our operations team don't understand anything about server virtualization, reason by analogy to desktop computers, and then get mad when that's not useful for requirements.
Tom Smykowski: "Well look, I already told you! I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to! I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?"
The reality is that you do need people like Tom Smykowski - the clients CAN'T JUST talk to the engineers. It's just that Smykowski wasn't very good at his job.
1156 EDT. Having woke up at 8:45am because... because I can. Had a cup of coffee. Heard my family upstairs working out. Had a second cup of coffee. Browsed the news. Browsed the DBD. Showered and dressed into "work" clothes (no pajamas). Did some laundry. Sat down to my computer, but found that I was hungry, so had lunch at 1137. Since I was in the kitchen, I decided to make a batch of chicken broth. So here I am ready to start my day at noon. But, first, time to check the DBD.
we needed this app in November. It took me 5 months to get approval to install a demo version. In the meantime, the person who recommended it has quit, the customer has subsequently changed how they want to review any potential software, the customer further claims they have no recollection of why we wanted this application in the first place, and now is acting like I'm some kind of an idiot for wanting this because it doesn't do X,Y, or Z tasks that we didn't want it for. So we wasted the time of the tech support / pre-sales guy, and then we get to have a debrief at 3 in which I again can be the asshole.
long term government support. I can't specify the agency (not because it's secret, just to be plausibly professional) and they have the WORST IT provision and governance processes I have seen since I've been doing this kind of work. Take 3 - 4 times as long to get anything done as my previous "worst case scenario" estimates.
(Started at 0630 PDT) Going through the overnight email, checking for all the systems and process status checks and completion notifications, and looking at system monitoring tools to determine if there are any problems that have to be addressed. Then it will be on to updating spreadsheets and working on prep for weekend system upgrades this weekend and next.
oh the joys of being the first one online! My colleagues have a bunch of weekend work scheduled over the next several weekends - really exciting stuff like server control firmware updates and such. Doesn't sound like fun to me.
Major furloughs at Vox, disproportionately at SBNation: https://awfulannouncing.com/online-outlets/vox-media-furloughs-9-percent-of-employees-many-at-sb-nation.html
i got a pay cut. not furloughed. i suppose it helps that i work on revenue and advertising related stuff.
Sorry to hear that, but yeah, you're probably safer working on those areas than in content generation, for sure.
Man, if I thought that March 2020 was a terrible time to start a sports blog, it was probably *also* a terrible time to start a job at SBNation trying to run most of their California-based blogs. At least the cost structure of W4C is sustainable.
Might prove to have been the best time to get ahead of the curve, which could well include the collapse of much of what was SBN.
Gosh, it would be sad, though. Lots of great writers are hurting right now, and it's not clear what sort of platform they'll have to come back to when sports start coming back.
Time to start the Write For blog empire!!
:(
Tensegrity
This table is 🔥🔥🔥
https://twitter.com/MC372/status/1250402301333954561
Airport Appliance is giving away appliances to non-profit, healthcare worker, or first responder.
Any suggestions?
what suggestion are you looking for? Something to donate?
Some one or non-profit to donate to.
Are there any non-profits that help out people with corona virus?
TIL
"In the United States, the most popular last name is Smith. As per the 2010 census, about 0.8 percent of Americans have it. In Vietnam, the most popular last name is Nguyen. The estimate for how many people answer to it? Somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the country’s population. The 14 most popular last names in Vietnam account for well over 90 percent of the population. The 14 most popular last names in the US? Fewer than 6 percent."
Vietnam is obviously an extreme example, but I would expect the US to have more surname diversity just because the population is so much more heterogeneous.
I think it has a lot to do with government and industry. Korea has a lot of Lees, Kims, and Parks, because they all had periods of royalty. During a period without census polls, you ended up with a lot of fake Lees, Kims, and Parks, which is why there is actually a physical family tree that you get added to if you're from a legitimate main/branch line.
It came for two sources: The Chinese bureaucrats who ruled the country for 900+ years gave them their last names for tax purposes, and two, Vietnamese changed their family names to match their rulers; Nguyen being the last line.
one of my direct reports is Viet and her father is a Nguyen (she is not). After the war, he changed his name to Nguyen to make himself harder to find because he was anti-communist and had been in the South Vietnamese army. Apparently, many others did this as well and many of those got to the US as soon as they could (he came over in 1978)
totally unsurprising. Never knew very many Viet folks, but for sure knew some named Nguyen.
The reason is interesting
I didn't know the exact numbers, but I knew the broad outlines of this, thanks to having grown up in Little Saigon and having 2 of my closest friends be Vietnamese (one of whom is unsurprisingly named Nguyen).
One of the problems with my wife being retired and around all the time, is I feel like I deserve a beer at lunch, since I strongly associate her being around in the day with the weekend.
You said "problems" and yet I did not see a description of a problem... 😁
Calories :(
Normally, I sleep very soundly, but yesterday, I couldn't fall asleep as fast as I normally do. Why not? My parents sent me a picture of a letter they'd received.
--
Dear Addressee,
The other day while uncluttering a box in my basement, I discovered a letter written by a girl named [TheBuckeyeBear]. It was dated 12/30/00 which is a year before I retired as Children's Librarian at [city] Ohio library. Also in the box were memorabilia which must have been given to me by [TBB] and other children who had Chinese heritage. I would love to know how [TBB] has spent the past 20 years since she moved from Ohio.
If you have any knowledge of [TBB] and her family, would you please let me know. Normally I do a lot of volunteering but not right now. The fear of the virus has kept us all close to home.
Thank you for any information you can give me. I am very appreciative of your time. Stay safe and well.
--
YOU GUYS. I'm so excited to hear from her. I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking of things I want to tell her.
Agreed that I'm curious and want to know more about the backstory. Do you remember this librarian? Do you remember what you gave her? Among all the things you want to tell her, are your internet friends among the top of the list.
I think we need some more background of why you sent her memorabilia and the letter, and what the special connection was that you felt with this librarian.
My mom's been taking me to the library since before I was born. She'd sit in the Cleveland State library while my dad was in school, reading with the book on her belly while I moved around inside and taking breaks by walking up and down the stairs. While we still lived downtown, she'd take me to the main public library, and I still remember this gigantic globe there.
Then, we moved to the suburbs and started going to the story hour at the public library there. I remember the Berenstain Bears (but not that spelling) and Dr. Seuss. When my parents were largely ignored at PTA meetings, they decided to contribute in a different way, so my mom started volunteering at my elementary school library. The school librarians encouraged her to apply when a page position opened up at the public library.
Recently, my mom told me that her English wasn't great, but the public library hired her because she was fast and accurate and shelving books, and also because "we all know your daughter."
I remember going to children's programs at the library, reading Sense and Sensibility, being so excited about the opening of the shiny new library building, going to a murder mystery party, and so many other things. My mom would bring home new books for me to read, and that was how I first became acquainted with Harry Potter.
We have a woven blanket with different landmarks from that city, and I think the librarians gave it to us when we moved away in 1999. I recently used it to insulate a bottle of Kavalan in my luggage when I flew back from Taiwan.
My mom didn't feel like she knew all the answers in this strange new place where she was living, but she was confident that we'd be able to find them in the library.
this is story so cool. You obviously made a difference in this librarian's life. thanks for sharing it.
<3
She also made a difference in my life. Thanks for reading it!
I love this
In terms of the "What do you wish you could be doing right now if there were no quarantine?"
I would rather not be working, mostly. I would like to go somewhere and have someone bring me food, and then clean up the dishes after.
I'd like to be hopeful that we'll find a way to do an epidemiologically appropriate neighborhood happy hour when the weather picks up a bit, but I doubt it will happen.
I'm hoping to be able to gather the family for a back yard BBQ again.
Attending a Major League Baseball game
Umpiring a high school or youth game. Beautiful day; 100% sure I'd be working a game if they hadn't been cancelled.
me too
I too would like to not be working. I should probably just pick a Friday in the coming weeks and take a 3 day weekend just for the relative luxury of not having to read email or be on conference calls all day.
I've been taking a day off a week during our Shelter in place order, since I don't get to work from home.
Farewell knee-bewbs
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/land-o-lakes-native-american-indian-logo-butter-maiden/
15 Billion annually in butter? WTF?
It's a big country...
I set up a soft ball, but no one took it.
...and getting bigger all the time.
When I was an auditor, one of my clients was Land O' Lakes. It wasn't the main Minnesota Land O'Lakes, but one of its procurement subsidiaries in California. I remember getting ready for the job with visions of rolling grass, faint smell of grass and cow manure, and dust on my pant legs on this job. Nope. It was one of those unremarkable 900 foot offices in San Ramon. In one windowless room was a fat guy with a phone and buzzing tube lighting. He was the west coast buyer for all of Land O' Lakes butter. You'd like to think he was checking on his dairy farmers to see how much milk was being produced. Nope, he was buying a specific grade of freeze dried powdered milk-fat.
Sure, they must have some cooperative producers of milk, but they are so huge that they have to buy from the market. He was buying a commodity. Hundreds of millions of dollars of powdered milk.
Not one that is traded on the Chicago CBOT or anything like that, but one of the thousand of over commodities that trade over-the-counter, person to person, at the time by phone. There is nothing special about Land O Lakes butter. From then on, I bought generic cooking butter because it is literally the same thing. I have Irish butter for straight consumption.
I once took a technology development management class, and some guys from Land O'Lakes Minnesota were there. They remarked how California Land O'Lakes tasted nothing like the Minnesota product. This is because the recipe included some bacterial cultures, and it was not legal to take these across state lines.
Kerrygold!
my wife and daughters noticed that the other day on a tub of same
Nam with the heart-warming tweet of the day:
https://twitter.com/AGuyNamedNam/status/1251037079603044352
the funny thing is, it's been pretty obvious from the get-go that he's been completely smitten
This makes me so happy! And, gives the rest of us single people renewed hope that it exists and can be found.
Just having an espresso at home. One day, will again be able to go sit in an outdoor cafe on a nice day.
Ironically, now that I'm home I'm having espresso much more frequently. I have an espresso machine at home, but I never use it because I make my coffee at work.
same. had my morning espresso. read a book for 30-45 min and now working for the morning.
Google Fi _almost_ works with Apple eSim, which is a smart move by them https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/16/21223943/iphone-google-fi-activate-esim-dual-sim-ios
I'm going on 4 years on Google Fi. I'm completely satisfied. It's worked all over the planet (Australia, Canada, Netherlands, all across the US including Alaska and Hawaii). And it's cheap--my bill for me and the Mrs is usually $50-60 each month.
Google phone, T-mobile plan, $80/mo.
T-mobile literally does not work in my house - you walk in the front door, the signal drops. Not encouraging 😒
they have a repeater you can plug into your router and get great signal. I think it's free and you just need to return it when you leave T-mobile. Or do wifi calling if your phone supports it.
Plus you get free MLB at bat with TMobile.
that is not a meaningful incentive for me
"MLB"
Too soon...
yeah I know.
It would work out to be about $20 cheaper / month for us as a family than whatever variant of AT&T unlimited that we have now. The overseas usage would be compelling once every so often. I discovered that if you have an iPhone XS forward, you can fight your way into having your provider transition you to an eSim and then use a local nano sim overseas, which is a handy alternative @for all those international trips that I'm taking@
Our Crumbling Representative Democracy
Fox News is designed to make America dumber:
"On Thursday night, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham had two “Drs.” on her program: that national epidemiologist and the one with a psychology degree. The former was Anthony S. Fauci, leading member of the White House coronavirus task force. The latter was Phil McGraw, who is not a practicing psychologist, much less a physician or an infectious disease expert."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/17/lets-explore-exactly-why-dr-phils-coronavirus-arguments-are-so-obtuse/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most
Mr. Phil is no longer licensed to practice. He surrendered his only license (TX) in 2006.
Trump eggs on two states with protests/political rallies against stay-at-home orders, minutes after being shown on Fox News.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EV0MZ75XsAYvUl6?format=jpg&name=large
I saw this; it's really talked out of both sides of his mouth. This is going to come to a head, one way or another.
Three states! Virginia too.
He really is a menace.
The fact that so many of these idiots will be whining about wait times at their Dr/Hospital in two weeks is really increasing my blood pressure.
Weekend Plans (hahahahahahaha)
Weekend? What's a weekend? What are "weeks" anyway? I'm not convinced we're not trapped in a loop where March 2020 lasts forever.
Time is a social construct.
I've been trying to talk to people about things that will be happening in May, but I say March every time
Lousy Smarch weather...
Nah, it's a flat circle, man.
Sat: Silent Book Club virtual meeting, watch Met Opera's Madame Butterfly, practice piano, Movie TBD Netflix Party with college friends
Sun: Sci Fi Book Club virtual meeting, DnD with my brother, watch Natl Theatre's Treasure Island, Zoom dinner party with high school friends
Whoops, Sunday Zoom dinner is actually next week, but Zoom karaoke is Sun afternoon
Probably going to zoom into a virtual conference for some talks this weekend. Wasn't actually going to go to the physical conference (but that was also due to the high likelihood of me being in Germany right now if there were not pandemic), but it's now free to "attend".
APS?
Yeah. Actually if I wasn't in Europe and things were "normal", I might have driven down to DC for a day of it this weekend just to meet up with some friends. The April meeting (more particle physics) is not really attended by everyone since most experiments can only send a small number of representatives...unlike the much bigger March meeting (for the condensed matter folks).
do some work to get something out Monday morning. Maybe do the shifter rebuild on the Miata or wait until late next week when No 3 is here. Maybe change the oil in the Acura. Go for a run today, Sat, and Sun (hopefully).
Paint the chicken coop I built last weekend. Do some more gardening. Go for a ride on the bike.
Are there chickens in the coop yet?
Grocery/Farmer's mkt (?)/Ace. Need to look at my garage roof closely, I think we might have some issues.
Do a puzzle with my son. Fill the boat up with gas. Do a grocery/booze/home depot run. Try to expose myself to pollen in the PM to build up tolerance to local trees. Plant garden (pumpkins already accidentally planted by sowing in compost with still alive seeds from jack-o-lanterns).
Ooh, a puzzle. That's on my list for next week!
Replace a kitchen faucet. Move firewood, set up a new firewood rack, move firewood back.
Sleep in until 7 at least one day!
I have a 7AM conference call 7 days a week at the moment and I LONG to be able to sleep past seven again.
7 days a week?! What on earth about?
Coronavirus shit. Lotta scrambling at banks right now.
I've noticed that.
Sorry they're making you suffer!
that is DISGRACEFUL
what sort of awful organization does that?
Big Evil Worldwide Banking Corporation (a.k.a. BEWB Corp)
that's ambitious
Well I don't get to be at the FB Spring Scrimmage, or at the baseball field to umpire either day, both of which would be highly preferable vs not, and I mowed the lawn yesterday (since I didn't have other things to do), so I have quite a bit of flexibility!
I'm glad you've got options for how to use your time
Pro
ESPN: NBA players will get 25% of their salaries withheld under force majeure clause starting next month.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29050090/under-plan-nba-players-receive-25-less-paychecks-starting-15
Cal
Not a good look here at all.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/high-school/star-football-players-a-declined-prosecution-accusations-continue-to-haunt-eastside-catholic/
No not good at all.
Rivals: Interview with Coach Sirmon
https://cal.rivals.com/news/why-they-coach-defensive-coordinator-ilb-coach-peter-sirmon-part-one
Tomorrow is hatch day for the Campanile falcon's four eggs. One can watch live tomorrow. Q&A session with falcons experts tomorrow at 3 PDT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2D9IwzgAIU
#Go Bears.
Right Now
1300 PST: It's my last day at the firm and I've managed to get 3 agreements approved for signature this morning, but have at least 7 more major things I hope to finish before I go.
My brother and sister-in-law and I are about to take a collective lunch break (turkey shepherd's pie leftovers from last night) and watch Jumanji 2.
about to have my 37th and final call of the week. I am burnt out and am ready to turn off my computer
On the 3rd call of the day. First was from 8-9:20, 2nd was from 9:20 - 11:20, and this one started at 11:20. The only planned one was the one from 9:20-1120 which was supposed to start at 8 but I had to push that back to join an ad-hoc call at 8. UGH.
He's probably
Dabbing on three dollars
Worth of that bathroom Polo
But he don't know
I must have slept awkwardly because I woke up with some major hip discomfort. #LOLD
1040 PDT. Have completed four conference calls, dropped the F bomb on two of them, gearing up for call #5 in 20 minutes. Trying to build a presentation for a meeting with the FDIC, OCC and CFPB (all at once! woohoo!) next week but finding it not very inspiring. Wondering whether Second Breakfast is a thing.
If you're a hobbit, sure.
1324 EDT: had originally been scheduled to be on a call, but was asked to reschedule to 1600 EDT, which is not my idea of a good time [dials into call, sound of a beer can popping]
Speaking of scheduling calls, what do we have to do to get you on the DBD Zoom call?
4PM calls on a Friday are a special circle of hell.
I've had 8:00PM Friday work calls. Those are really horrific
A 4 PM Friday *WORK* call had better be a legit breaking emergency, since there is a good chance it won't get timely attention anyway.
I have to explain how we're fitting new storage into our existing server and security model. I'm the translator between the infrastructure team and the non-technical people who have to approve it.
I feel your pain, and appreciate your problem!
It went better than expected! I am not a technical expert by any means but I've tried to listen and learn enough to translate what people want to do into terms that our VM guys can understand. I'm constantly struck by the extent to which members of our operations team don't understand anything about server virtualization, reason by analogy to desktop computers, and then get mad when that's not useful for requirements.
Tom Smykowski: "Well look, I already told you! I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to! I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?"
The reality is that you do need people like Tom Smykowski - the clients CAN'T JUST talk to the engineers. It's just that Smykowski wasn't very good at his job.
OTOH, sometimes it encourages folks to be more efficient and productive because people want to get going on their weekend already
not the person I'll be talking to though
12:19 EDT. Just finished lunch. I'll peruse the interwebs for a bit before looking over some material ahead of a 1pm meeting.
At the office. At work at 8:00 PDT. Need to get out and do some outside stuff. But checking in on the DBD is an 'essential' activity.
1156 EDT. Having woke up at 8:45am because... because I can. Had a cup of coffee. Heard my family upstairs working out. Had a second cup of coffee. Browsed the news. Browsed the DBD. Showered and dressed into "work" clothes (no pajamas). Did some laundry. Sat down to my computer, but found that I was hungry, so had lunch at 1137. Since I was in the kitchen, I decided to make a batch of chicken broth. So here I am ready to start my day at noon. But, first, time to check the DBD.
Drinking coffee, reading the DBD
1117 EDT - second conference call of the day - software demo.
oh lord. kill me now for software demos.
we needed this app in November. It took me 5 months to get approval to install a demo version. In the meantime, the person who recommended it has quit, the customer has subsequently changed how they want to review any potential software, the customer further claims they have no recollection of why we wanted this application in the first place, and now is acting like I'm some kind of an idiot for wanting this because it doesn't do X,Y, or Z tasks that we didn't want it for. So we wasted the time of the tech support / pre-sales guy, and then we get to have a debrief at 3 in which I again can be the asshole.
#consultantlife?
long term government support. I can't specify the agency (not because it's secret, just to be plausibly professional) and they have the WORST IT provision and governance processes I have seen since I've been doing this kind of work. Take 3 - 4 times as long to get anything done as my previous "worst case scenario" estimates.
Sounds like they learned their process from Higher Ed.
Truly superlative...
0955 EDT: cleaning up my task backlog (in a Kanban sense) and getting ready for the first conference call of the day. Woo!
(Started at 0630 PDT) Going through the overnight email, checking for all the systems and process status checks and completion notifications, and looking at system monitoring tools to determine if there are any problems that have to be addressed. Then it will be on to updating spreadsheets and working on prep for weekend system upgrades this weekend and next.
oh the joys of being the first one online! My colleagues have a bunch of weekend work scheduled over the next several weekends - really exciting stuff like server control firmware updates and such. Doesn't sound like fun to me.