What I’m Doing Right Now
Personal
Annie and I continue to patiently away the arrival of our first grandchild in November.
I visited Little Rock, Arkansas. Stayed in a lovely historic hotel: The Baker
I went up into the Catskill Mountains to visit Hobart, New York, which is famed as “The Book Village of the Catskills.” It has about 500 people, and seven bookstores. The mountains were lovely this time of year.
I visited NYC, but…didn’t. I stayed out in Newark and only saw Manhattan from the back of an Uber as I drove to a meeting in Brooklyn. You can’t get from New Jersey directly to Brooklyn – you have to go under the Hudson, through Manhattan, then over the East River. In other news, Newark’s airport has been remodeled, and it’s really nice.
I’ve gotten totally hooked on Strands, from the NY Times. It’s my go-to game now, even more so than Connections, which is also great.
Professional
Work at Valtech is going quite well. I completed a consulting project, which was the first time I’ve been back in services for a long while. I enjoyed it. I’m about to embark on a workshop and blog post series.
I’ve spent some time organizing and publishing some of my code from over the years. There you’ll find some practical things, but also a lot of pie-in-the-sky stuff that didn’t make a lot of sense, but investigated some neat questions and theories. I’ll keep adding to this.
I spoke at the WIN Workforce Summit in Sioux Falls in September. I don’t speak in Sioux Falls often, so it was different. I talked about how remote work might be having a negative impact on employee development over time, since there is no incidental contact with remote work, and those “gaps” are where a lot of development happens. I don’t think there’s video, unfortunately.
Listening
I’ve re-discovered Neil Cicierega. I’d like to describe him to you, but… I can’t really. His music is just bizarre and amazing. You think you know those songs, but you absolutely do not.
Jelly Roll was awesome on the season premier of SNL.
Watching
I’ve almost gotten through the entire 13-season run of Archer. The animation style is amazing, especially the seasons 8, 9, and 10 (the “coma seasons”). The profanity gets a little tiring, but it’s whip-smart and the cultural references are great.
I found this clip from Letterkenny which is – for my money – the greatest ending to a TV season in history. Katy catches Dierks cheating, and the rest of the gang shows up to take their revenge. It fundamentally gets to the core of Letterkenny, which is about community, friendship, and loyalty.
My wife persuaded to me to go to It Ends With Us, based on the Colleen Hoover novel. I absolutely loved it. Great movie.
I cannot forgive SNL for not inviting Chloe Troast back. I just don’t understand – she was truly the best new cast member in years. But, Nate Bargatze is hosting again this weekend, so I will swallow my anger and try to put it behind me.
Reading
A book about the theoretical treasure at Oak Island was kind of hilarious, because I can see how people get obsessed with that place. The legend is almost abusive.
I read a long book about the Bush family. It was really informative – I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about a dynastic family – but it devolved into petty gossip by the end. Kitty Kelley’s reputation as a rumor monger is deserved.
From Strength to Strength is shaping up to be an amazing book which hits me right at stage of life I’m wrestling with
Paper Towns was a fantastic novel; an absolute page-turner. I should watch the movie.
Random Thoughts and Trivia
Buy sport coats at Goodwill. They hardly get worn, so they basically never wear out. They never touch your skin or anyone else’s, so who cares that they’re used? And no one really even considers them – you wear them into a room, people mentally acknowledge that you have one on, then you usually take it off when you get into the meeting. I got my last two sport coats at Goodwill for $7.50 and $12.00.
The history of the name Chevy Chase is kind of interesting
I learned the meaning of the word diegetic which has fascinated me. It refers to whether or not narration or music in a show or movie should be audible to the characters in the show, or if it’s just for the viewer’s benefit. It raises some really interesting questions.
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