I went for my morning walk this morning. There was a couple of inches of snow on the ground and my legs got quite a workout.
Exercise is good.
J.P.
Art.
So the family went to the Museum of Contemporary Art today. Jamie wanted to check out a limited run exhibit for a grad school project and we came along for the fun. I’m a big fan of the art museums in our fine city. This was my first visit to MOCA.
Whenever I go to an art museum I feel inspired to take a mundane photo in an artsy way in an attempt to embrace my inner geek. I’ve taken photos of washing machines in a laundromat, random shots on the ‘L’, etc. Today I took a photo at a nearby by M Burger.
I called this one “Jaunty”.
Posing.
Truman is starting to enjoy his new home and cat condo. It’s time for an obligatory “posing for animal crackers” photo.
Truman.
Earl and I have been talking about having a cat move in with us here in Chicago. It’s a conversation we’ve been having for the past month or so. I’ve missed having a feline companion since Tom passed away five and a half years ago.
I was a little worried about inviting another cat to live with us since in early 2014 we brought Scooter into our home and he wasn’t really happy. Looking back, Scooter was a barn cat that we moved into a suburban house and honestly, it just wasn’t the right fir for him. I’m happy we were able to find him a place to live where he’d be happier.
So we’ve been talking about finding an indoor cat that needed a good home here in Chicago. We’ve been looking online for the past couple of weeks and today we visited PAWS Chicago. It was there that we met Truman.
There was another couple considering adopting Truman when we first got there. He was super friendly in the room he was sharing with four other cats. The back half of the right side of his body, one of his paws, and under his chin is currently shaved. The Chicago Animal Control folks found him in an alley with a large cut on his right side. They stitched him up, made sure he was doing OK, gave him all his medications, and the brought him to PAWS Chicago for adoption. He was neutered, chipped, and his stitches were removed on Thursday.
The couple that was interested in adopting him decided to go look at dogs instead, so we visited with him for a bit, visited with some other cats as well, and then decided that Truman needed to come home with us.
The records were reviewed, the paperwork was signed, we made a stop at the PETCO across the street to pick up supplies and then we brought Truman home.
We were advised to introduce him slowly to the home but if he felt comfortable just let him do his thing. As soon as we let him out of his box and started calmly walking around the condo mapping out every nook and cranny in his head. He then went back around and did it again.
He helped me put together a five foot high cat condo perch arrangement thing so he has a nice view of the city. He’s plopped himself on both our laps and various times during the night and he’s run around this place at 100 MPH. He’s very curious about every noise he hears but he never runs and hides. He’s very inquisitive.
He also loves chasing the laser pointer light.
The thing that strikes me most about him is he feels very grateful. He’s already showing off a big personality and I like that. I wonder what brought him to that alley to end up with a big cut the runs up his side.
I hope he’s as happy to be here as we are to have him here. Earlier today I had a brief “impression” of our old cat Tom rubbing up against my leg, like it was OK for us to help another have a happy life .
Welcome to the Truman show.
News?
So, is there anything going on in the news today? I hear Ann Coulter is not happy because Trump did not heed her words. She spat a spite tweet and tried to garner more notoriety for herself. Her brand is notoriety.
Earl and I are watching The Rachel Maddow Show this evening. Earl’s been watching the news all day today. During my workday I monitored the slowing down of the nation’s airspace due to staffing issues at key Air Traffic Control Centers in Jacksonville and Boston. Once air traffic in and out of the New York airports started happening, it was only a matter of time before Trump finally caved and realized he isn’t going to get money for his stupid wall.
I unfriended a few Facebook “friends” this evening. They were going on and on about illegal immigrants spreading disease. I think they were thinking the illegal immigrants were coming into their town from Mexico, New York. There’s no way these “friends” had traveled any farther south than the New York-Pennsylvania border. I’m pretty sure illegal immigrants aren’t flocking to Oswego, New York to rip NASCAR opportunities away from the natives. A couple of these “friends” may have been related by blood. I just hit delete delete delete.
When I was younger I never realized the stark differences in political beliefs between my paternal and maternal sides of the family. There’s a reason I’m little bit country and little bit rock ‘n roll.
Apparently Bernie Sanders is announcing his intent to run for the presidency again. Someone needs to tell Bernie that his services are not required. He won’t make the spotlight this time around.
It’s way too early to decide who I like for presidential candidates for next year’s election. It’s interesting to see how the field is starting to fill up. I have pretty middle of the road standards for presidential candidates. Despite my rantings and ravings during this miserable, failed hissy fit of an administration, I am solidly in the political center. Since it’s going to be cold this weekend I’ll probably write more; perhaps I’ll share an updated bullet list of my political beliefs.
It makes for fun reading.
Cold.
I snapped this photo during my walk this morning. It is currently a third of the temperature it was when this photo was taken and it was 15ºF during my walk. Right now it’s 5ºF. On the bright side, it’s above zero.
Wednesday is suppose to have a high of -5ºF.
Snow doesn’t bother me. I don’t mind snow all that much, even when we have feets and yards of it. But cold? Yeah, I’m not a fan. I don’t like the feeling of cold out there. It’s better than oppressively hot, but I’d be happy with a nice 68ºF year round. I guess I’m finicky.
With all the stuff going on during the Government Shutdown for a wall that no one wants, I really worry about the folks that are working their full-time job but will still get a paycheck of zero tomorrow because President Coulter dictated she wouldn’t support the idiot in the seat unless he got his wall built. I worry about the unpaid government working staying warm, I worry about them feeding their families, I worry about them having a roof over their head. Despite the fact that Trump thinks you can buy groceries on a line of credit, I’m pretty sure even Ike Godsey stopped that practice some time during World War II.
The United States of America is a very cold place right now. It’s a shame I’m not talking about the weather.
Forgiveness.
Very early in my professional career I worked for Digital, otherwise known as Digital Equipment Corporation, commonly (but erroneously by corporate standards) called DEC. At the time I was with the company it was the second largest computer company in the world. I was one of about 120,000 employees. This was back in the late 1980s.
One of the mantras at Digital was to always do the right thing. You could always ask for forgiveness later. Even at age 19 I took this approach with my career and I made changes in software that turned out great in the long run, but I had to ask for forgiveness for going outside the development processes that had been in place long before I joined the company.
The company I currently work for is primarily a Microsoft shop, even though we use Linux all day and every day on our servers. A while back I was given a Windows 10 laptop to replace the Mac I had insisted be present for me to join the company; it seems they wanted to go all Windows on the desktop and Macs just weren’t fitting into that scheme. The company does offer a BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device program and many opt to do this. When the Windows 10 laptop arrived I registered my work MacBook Pro into the Bring Your Own Device program, which kept it alive on the corporate network. I’m lucky that I work remotely; the MBP can’t be plugged into the network at an office.
As a “ Crazy One”, I am able to get a lot of work done on my Mac. I even spent hours over the holidays comparing my workflow on the Windows 10 computer versus my workflow on the Mac and how much of a difference it made in my levels of productivity. I am 34% less productive on a Windows machine, mostly because of a lack of cohesiveness in the software experience on Windows, and because of the number of reboots required during the day (the company uses a mix of 32 and 64 bit software which I think makes Windows 10 cranky).
Plus, the fan is running all. the. time. on the Dell laptop they gave me.
I don’t know if the BYOD program is going to remain alive forever at work, but I’m going to continue using this MacBook Pro for as long as I can.
If someone doesn’t like it, I’ll ask for forgiveness later.
In the meanwhile, I’ll continue to dazzle to the best of my ability. I mean, getting things done is what it’s all about, right?
Quiet.
After a weekend of being relatively unplugged from the Internet, I shared this tweet this morning:
Please stop being outraged. Listen, consider, and breathe before you tweet. This is my new mantra.
Scanning through my Twitter timeline I realised that a good chunk of the content was people shouting. Now, some have good reason to shout, as I have several Twitter friends that work in some role with the U.S. Government and they’re going on nearly a month without a paycheck. That’s a really good reason to shout. They get a pass, and more.
Other than that, there were too many people shouting from their digital rooftops about how awful Trump is, how terrible the events in D.C. were this weekend, and how ridiculous Rudy Giuliani is.
I’ve been an avid tweeter since 2007, taking a few breaks here and there. At one time it was a good way to keep tabs on what was happening in the world.
These days it’s a bunch of noise.
Social Media may prove to be a failed experiment. There has to be a better way to connect with people.
I hope we find an answer soon. In the meanwhile, I may retreat to the quiet.
Driving.
I love roads. I went to school for Civil Engineering because I love roads. I find the way expressways and roads wind their way across the United States to be absolutely fascinating.
That being said, I am not a fan of urban driving. As an urban dweller in the third largest city in the United States, I am a proud public transit kind of guy. I believe if the ‘L’, METRA or bus takes me where I want to go, or if I can walk there in a reasonable amount of time, the car should stay in the garage.
Driving around the city makes me crazy. It feels so unnecessary. I get driving to a shopping center if you’re hauling home a Mac or something, or if you’re bring home a haul from the grocery store, but if I’m going out for brunch?
I want someone else to drive.
AA 2667.
I am currently on a flight from Raleigh-Durham to OHare after a wonderful weekend with friends. We are flying at FL240 because the winds aloft are so high and they’re trying to get as much ground speed as possible. This is making for some great views as we cross the Appalachians.
They’re not the Rocky Mountains but they’re bumpy.
I’m seated in an exit row again and it is enjoyable. The seat to my left is empty. Another score for roominess on my second flight in a row.
I am a little surprised the beverage service hasn’t started yet. Perhaps it will start soon. Earl and I have lunch plans when we get back home. It will hopefully be somewhere warm since it’s currently 9°F.
Everyone can calm down, the cart was just led down the aisle.
Being relatively off the grid this weekend, as well as being mostly unplugged from news has contributed to this centered feeling I am experiencing. I feel like the stress of the holidays has melted away, work feels like it will be under control (I even cleaned out my inbox this morning), and the days are getting longer.
One of my goals this week is to find reliable sources of news (political and technological), with as least spin as possible. I think part of that goal involves finding sources that are not dependent on ad clicks and solely ad revenue. PBS, NPR, and newspapers come to mind. I might even have to subscribe to something.
My goal is to be informed, not to be told what to think. Find the good. Be the light.
And avoid the high winds aloft.
