Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Observations From Lockdown
April 11, 2020
health lockdown coronavirus life virus covid-19

Well, I haven’t left our house in 16 days, and the last time I did, it was to drive to CarSense so that I could give Berta a ride home from dropping off Abby’s car for inspection. Before that, who knows how long it’s been. It’s both disconcerting and comforting that this has been going on too long to count the days.

It turns out that there is a back side to the bell curve of new “be at home all the time”-ness. At the beginning, you think things will be ok, since you won’t be doing some of the things you usually do, there will be more time for those things you’ve always wanted to get done. But on the back side of the curve, it turns out that “free time” was never the reason you didn’t do those things. With all of that “free time” available, you’re doing different things with that time, and just don’t prioritize that other stuff. Or maybe you plain don’t want to do it.

Fleeing COVID-19
March 22, 2020
virus covid-19 health work coronavirus

There’s a lot going on right now. I’ve been focused on getting my blog back up and running the way I want, and it’s still not there yet, but at least I feel comfortable now making some updates. Frankly, I’ve needed an outlet for long-form writing for a while now, especially during this, and I’ve been considering this softare issue a blocker. Yeah, I know it looks like everything has been working all this time, and no, it hasn’t quite.

Two weeks ago, I was on a trip to Columbus for work. The Coronavirus had just peeked its head out in China (and also the US, although people seem to have forgotten or ignored that) and we were starting to talk about whether it was a good idea to travel or not.

Hand Stamp Security
December 18, 2019
twitter security

A story I told today: Have you ever gone to a club/concert and gotten a hand stamp? And in the morning, you forget and do the typical cleaning in the shower, then as you dry yourself, you notice that the stamp is still there because you didn’t give it necessary extra attention?

A lot of people’s behaviors are like this. You shower to get clean. And the typical shower gets the job done reasonably well. But you went in there to GET CLEAN. So that you didn’t clean the stamp is a shower failure. Merely going through the practiced motions isn’t enough.

Vacation
August 05, 2019
vacation summer

Last week we took a family vacation to Toronto. We all loaded up our luggage into Berta’s new car and hit the road.

We spent the weekend in Johnstown so that Berta’s family could celebrate Abby’s graduation. There was a nice cake and pizza dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday, we stayed for dinner then headed out to Toronto.

What You Don't Know About Presenting
June 29, 2019
presenting speaking meetings

I spent a year at work as a side project learning and teaching people how to have more effective meetings. It’s always interesting to evaluate meetings (and presentations) to see where things could be improved.

To understand how to make the best improvements to your meetings and presentations, you need to understand the underlying purpose of having a meeting or giving a presentation in the first place. Meetings serve as a mechanism for communication. When you have a meeting, you’re not just deciding to communicate with others in a live, face-to-face setting; You’re intentionally choosing this mode of communication over other modes. For example, you’re making an explicit, conscious decision that email is not a better way to communicate these ideas than the meeting format.