under spring sunlight
bees moving between petals
gentle ocean breeze
Category: Personal Reflections
Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection
Today’s Dad Joke
Two satellites decided to get married. The wedding wasn’t much, but the reception was incredible.
Ah, fun, fun, fun! It was a lovely day here just north of Seattle. The morning was cool and cloudy. By early afternoon, it was clear and sunny. I hope your day was good.
Dad Joke of the Day
Let’s start the day with a bad…er…dad joke
So a duck walks into a pharmacy and says “Give me some chap-stick… and put it on my bill”
This one just quacked me up, though some might be upset at the fowl language.
Thanks for humoring my humor. I much appreciate it.
A Random Observation and the Dad Joke Of The Day, May 23, 2023
A Sandwich walks into a bar, the bartender says “Sorry, we don’t serve food here”
And the random observation: Coding things makes you feel like a wizard! Whether that’s a website, or an Excel function. It’s pretty nice!
Do search algorithms have a sense of humor?
Yesterday I set up a YouTube livestream and, as part of that, needed to whip out a thumbnail. Canva is my go-to tool of choice for such work. As this is for a preschool choir, I searched templates for “youtube children choir”, and THIS shows up in the results:
I found this…fascinating…and absolutely hysterical. Maybe the global AI is just trying to brighten my day.
Some thoughts on the job search
I’ve spent most of the past year working part-time and doing some freelancing. It’s been fun! But I’m also seeking a permanent FTE role. This has been fascinating.
I have my resume out on LinkedIn, as well as a few other job boards. I was pretty selective, as I’m not even close to desperate. I’m looking for perfect, with a small delta. Results? I’ve had a few interviews with great teams and great companies. Few. Mostly, though, I’ve received spam, scams, and just misdirected communications. I’ve lost track of how many opportunities to sell insurance or pre-paid legal services. A few crypto scams. And then there are all the opportunities in New Jersey, California, Florida, and, today, Dallas. And these aren’t hybrid roles. They’re onsite (required). I’m in Seattle. Perhaps the recruiters need better search functionality. I don’t know.
It is somewhat frustrating, but, you know, first world problems.
Oppenheimer: The Movie
So, Dr. Oppenheimer has long been a scientific hero of mine. Besides his expertise in nuclear science, he had an amazing breadth and depth of knowledge that was truly breathtaking. Hence, how he could rattle off a quote from the Bhagavad Gita at the Trinity Detonation (“I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds”), which certainly isn’t standard reading for most of us in the West.
Thus, this film deeply interests me. This trailer, as trailers are wont to do, peaked my interest. I look forward to seeing reviews and all that. Though, perhaps, I seek it out regardless of the critics opinions.
What about you? Are you interested in this film?
Modern Life & Green M&Ms
Some one (God bless them) left a bag of Key Lime M&Ms in my office kitchen.
Well, for some reason, my brain went immediately to this meme:
My brain can be a strange place…
Update: I see the watermark on the image and dug for seconds on the Google. This Twitter account looks to be the originator of the mem: @jojofrmojerz.
A few thoughts on Twitter, and it’s latest kerfuffle
This morning I read “Elon Musk Backs Off Legacy Checkmark Purge“. As a long time Twitter user, and someone who held Musk in high regard, I’ve been following the acquisition by Musk with a personal interest. This particular situation has been…fascinating.
Ultimately, Musk fails to understand the value of verification. Yes, it provides some value to the user, but far more value comes to Twitter. Knowing that this person posting REALLY is Steven King, Will Shatner, etc, brings value to Twitter since we KNOW who we’re interacting with. By building that direct connection between fans and creators, Twitter gains.
In his rush to monetize everything (anything?) on the platform, he has lost focus on what makes Twitter interesting and valuable. Which is sad. Over the years, I’ve met amazing and wonderful people. People who’s friendship I value as deeply as anyone I’ve met In Real Life. I’ve learned a huge amount from them.
Fortunately, it’s not been too hard to tune out Musk’s antics. But the increase in hate speech and right wing rage making its way into my feed has deeply detracted from my experience. I still post, but much less often. And I spend far less time on it (which certainly is a net positive).
Will Twitter survive Musk? Possibly. Will it return to what it was before? No. But the platform has evolved considerably since its launch and will continue to. What it looks like next year is extremely hard to predict. We’ll see, I guess.
Vegan Cakes and Killing it as a Department Admin
One of my favorite bloggers, Pooja over at Life’s Fine Wine had a great post today: A VERY HAPPY APRIL TO EVERYONE. One thing she mentioned was getting a vegan cake for her birthday. Years ago, one of my team members that I was the admin for, mentioned the he never eat any of the cakes I’d got for the team celebrations. His commitment to his vegan principles were challenged. So, for his next birthday, I made it a point to track down a vegan cake. Seattle had some vegan options, but they were pretty….inferior. I was not going to settle! I finally found a GREAT vegan bakery, with carrot cake that even non-vegans loved. My friend was delight. And he appreciated that we valued him enough to do this. I was quite proud of it.