Jay's Journal

Just a quick post to keep my commitment, but to also reflect a bit on my day. Coffee with my buddy this morning was great, it's always good to catch up with him. Work was busy again today, but once again, it was a good busy. Slight frustration over people who just refuse to do what they're supposed to do. All it does is force me to raise these issues with my manager, who raises it with their managers, and they end up having to do what I originally asked them to do in the first place. But not ...

Busy day today... probably the busiest in a while. But, it was a good busy, not a chaotic busy. I was able to make some good progress with my project team, and my focus was sharp today. Met up with my wife after dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant, and while they're always pretty good, they were ON POINT today. We like to meet up after work sometimes and just have a date. I fasted since Sunday night, and dinner was my first meal since then. I wasn't ravenous when we sat down, but once we...

Not much to share today, but I did spend most of the day learning more about Git and how to use GitHub and GitLab more for my daily tasks. I've also been reading more on how to use Git's version control for writing projects, and I think this is going to be pretty cool. The more I learn the more excited I get. I only had one meeting during normal hours today, and it felt great. Allowed me time to work on my work projects as well as my personal ones, too. I do have a meeting this evening with ou...

Today is Mother's Day, and my wife and I celebrated with her parents. We went to eat, got there early, right as they opened, and before hardly anyone showed up. By the time we were done eating, the restaurant was full, and there were people inside and outside the restaurant waiting for a table. We planned the timing and we do this every year. We've learned how to adjust our schedules to try to avoid the crowds and chaos that comes with them. It's sad, actually, that we have to adjust our schedu...

It seems that whenever I stumble onto something 'new', it's not really all that new. Which means that more times than not, I'm late to the party of the whatever I discover to be cool. Sometimes months late, but sometimes, decades late. Some examples include, but aren't limited to: Linux Minimalism Stoicism Outsourcing Rockabilly (fashion and music) Intermittent Fasting Internet Privacy and Security Inbox Zero Dynamic websites while sticking to MS Front Page, then using dynamic websites like W...

Well, it looks like the Universe isn't without a sense of irony. I just got word that the position I was a candidate for, and so conflicted about, is a no-go. It could have been a number of things. My salary requirements were too high for their liking, I came off as a know-it-all which may have scared them off, all or none of the above. This has truly been an up and down roller coaster, but, as I was good with it before, I'm still good with it now, although quite a bit of time was invested with...

I'm kind of an asshole. Well, not kind of, I am a full on asshole, especially when people who know they're wrong continue to push the issue as if they'll somehow be right, when the evidence is clearly stacked against them. So, the asshole part of me is that when a management decision comes down that basically vindicates my original and unwavering position, essentially shoving all the things wrong with the other person's argument down their throat, it makes me smile. It makes me smile big. When...

I just saw a post on the Listed blog called the '100 Day Writing Challenge' today, and this is so good, I must participate. In order for me to do this, though, I'm going to need to post to my Listed blog without images. This way I can focus on writing and posting, and not hunting for the perfect image to reflect the topic of a specific post. This should help streamline everything, plus, with this challenge, I can take the gloves off if you will. I can write whatever comes to mind, which I usua...

Part of how I 'relax' on any given day is to find new products and services that can help enhance my online privacy and security. And, when I find an online tool that isn't necessarily privacy focused, but would like to see if any privacy focused alternatives exist, I love going to AlternativeTo and seeing what privacy-based alternatives might exist. That's actually how I came about Standard Notes, and Listed. And now, I use both of these tools every day. However, in this case, I was resear...

Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels Unplanned Update The below post I'd written most of earlier in the week. However, today I had an interesting turn of events. The potential employer who wasn't willing to entertain my salary requirements has contacted my recruiter to say "they'll do what it takes to make it work." I was surprised, stunned, even shocked. I asked the recruiter what changed, and he said that the CEO said that no matter what ideas he had, and what he tried to do to move forward ...

It's been a crazy week, full of ups and downs, and it's only Thursday. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a nice quiet day. I've only got a few meetings scheduled, and things are usually pretty slow on Fridays. Of course, last week, as soon as I logged in for work, I mean, the very moment I was online, I walked into a shit-storm. Way more drama than I needed on a Friday. So, I'm really hoping this Friday's going to be chill. In any case, this week I'd had a potential job fall through during s...

Sometimes I feel like Bruce Lee. Not that I can do flying roundhouse kicks and do pushups with my thumbs, heck, I'm not even in shape to do any kind of pushup. But, when he created his own martial art, Jeet Kune Do, he did it out of necessity. He felt that all the current martial arts were too rigid in their structure, and that rigidity was a weakness. So, what he did was take the best of several martial arts (including fencing and boxing), discarded what wasn't useful, and incorporated all ...

First off, I kind of cheated this weekend. I didn't write anything Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. On Friday and Saturday I'd emailed my subscribers an already written article from earlier in the month. And Sunday, I was working on other projects and gearing up for Game of Thrones, because priorities. In the strictest terms, that meant I failed in my commitment, which was to post every day for the month of April. And I was so close, too. Part of it was because I didn't have a topic readily come ...

Again, I seem to be taken back to random memories long past, seemingly for no reason. This time was the Christmas of 1985. I really need to stop sharing how old I am with the world, don't I? At least I'm single spacing. Ok, back to Christmas of 1985. I was a sophomore in high school, and I loved music. Still do, actually. My younger brother and only sibling was in middle school at the time, and he somehow got it in his head he wanted to be a programmer. At that time, there were nowhere near...

Photo by mali maeder from Pexels As I was proofreading yesterday's post, I noticed that one of my sentences had no space between punctuation and new sentence. It really stood out as being weird. And, instinctively, I put a single space between them. This, however, goes well against my ancient teachings of how to use a near-extinct machine that pre-dates the computer, laptop, and smartphone. I'm old enough to have needed to use a typewriter as my only word processor. Yes, that ancient relic t...

Photo by Hasan Albari from Pexels Well, it was bound to happen. I missed a day of posting, and I felt like I didn't fully accomplish my day as a result. However, I had a second interview yesterday for a new position, this time in person. I wanted to process my thoughts and feelings on all of it before I posted yesterday. So for me, I think this post deserved an extra day of introspection. The first interview was by phone, and I thought it went great. However, I always get this feeling of...

Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash Today is Easter Sunday for those that observe. And while me and my family don't do the church thing, we do have an annual tradition. We like to go to our favorite restaurant and have a great family meal together. There's not a lot of us since the kids are grown and gone, so it's just me, my wife, my in-laws, and a married couple who are great family friends. The place we go to is our favorite place, and they have really great food. Like, really great....

A penguin, a daemon, and a puffer fish walk into a bar... I don't usually geek out on this blog, but when I do, it's about non-Windows operating systems. I've got an older Chromebook that I bought off eBay for about $40. It's an Acer C720, which is a good model for supporting Linux. I'm pretty anti-Google, so I bought this Chromebook with the express purpose of loading anything other than ChromeOS on it. I started with GalliumOS, which is optimized for Chromebooks, and have tried out many ...

Do we do things for others out of selflessness, or because we get something out of it? I'm not sure the answer could be "both". Because selflessness and self-benefit are at odds with each by their very definition. As I read someone's LinkedIn update this morning, it got me wondering whether we do kind things for the true benefit others or really for ourselves. The post was about this person who witnessed a mom who could only afford $3.00 of gas. As she was about to drive away, the Good Sama...

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels Not every joke hilarious. Not every post engaging. Not every song a hit. Not every swing a home run. Not every movie wins an Academy Award. Not every painting is an instant classic. Sometimes not right away, but eventually your work gets noticed. Sometimes not at all, but there's more to you than just a single effort. And sometimes because it's not a gem, you'll actually produce more gems, because you've learned, experienced, and grew from the ones that...

Image by wwwslonpics from Pixabay Have you ever heard of the 'Hemingway Method' of writing? It's founded on Earnest Hemingway's mantra of "Write drunk, edit sober". And while I do like the idea of writing drunk, I don't. What that really means is that if you embrace the Hemingway Method, you just write. You write down your thoughts, your phrases, your ideas, just let it all flow. The key here is that you're supposed to write down everything, no censoring, no correcting, just a stream of consc...

Being that I'm somewhat of a lifehack geek who loves everything about time management and efficiency, imagine my frustration when I encounter someone wasting both. You could say it's a pet peeve of mine, and yet it is so rampant. I value time as my most precious commodity. It's the one thing you can't get back once you've spent it, and when you're out of it, you can't make more of it. The best you can do is make the best use of it while you have it. Frugality is key, my friends! So, if there...

Photo by Lacey Williams on Unsplash Do our actions really align with our goals? On a daily basis, do we live our brand that we want to be known by? And by brand, I don't mean like an Instagram influencer, or some social media maven... no, the brand of who we are and what we want our name to be attached to. Whether personal or professional, we all carry some kind of brand attached to our names. Is that brand a good one or a bad one? We're well within our power to determine which one it is. B...

Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash When I think of a goal, I'm reminded of a song from a children's Christmas special. Usually children's songs and TV specials have positive messages wrapped in song, and "One Foot In Front Of The Other" from Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer is no exception. Yeah, I'm sure on the surface, this sounds like a really cheesy post in the making. But, if you stick it out, you'll see where I'm going with this. The pure and simple message of the song is so true. One s...

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash This morning there was a nice thunderstorm. Wasn't in the forecast, but there was plenty of rain, and a nice gentle thunder. Almost like I was listening to one of those sounds of nature you have Alexa put on when you're trying to fall asleep. I was about to go back to sleep when I remembered what I wrote about earlier this week about taking the time to enjoy the little things. So, I woke up, and consciously listened to the rain and thunder. I didn't need to s...

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay In the grand scheme of life, this shouldn't even be a blip on my radar, but it frustrates me anyway. I try to be a good citizen, team member, and all around good egg. I'm also somewhat obsessed with time management and efficiency. Therefore, I've integrated little habits into my daily life to try to shave time off tasks wherever I can. And when it comes to my calendar, I always manage my meetings and appointments. I'll let people know if I'll be late or ca...

Sometimes random memories just pop into my head... among many other random things. Recently, I had a memory take me to a time when I was hired to manage a technology I didn't know anything about, but I did have industry experience. It's happened before, a few times, actually, but this was the first time I remember it happening. It was to manage the email system for a mid-size bank. And not just any email system. It was an aging, failing, overworked, underpowered email system that required con...

Photo by Jessica To'oto'o on Unsplash I don't think I appreciate the little things enough. It mostly has to do with not slowing down and taking the time to soak in the moment. What's around me? What do I see? What do I smell? How am I even breathing? For all my pursuits around personal development via minimalism and writing, trying to be a better me, I'm lacking in this one very big thing: taking time to appreciate the little things. Even though I pay someone to keep my yard well manicured,...

Photo by Bethan Abra on Unsplash When I worked at a consulting firm a few years back, my assigned career mentor would always tell me, "Jay, you gotta specialize! You need to find a niche that you can own and be the expert at. This way you can always be the go-to expert for that specific technology!" I was always like, "Uh huh, sure, ok, I'll work on that." But I wouldn't really work on that. And that's for a couple of reasons. First, it was really difficult to specialize in one technology and...

Photo courtesy of Mad Men Fandom Wiki I remember the day I joined Facebook. It was an early morning in 2006, about 5:00 in the morning, and I couldn't sleep. So, I decided to try this new Facebook thing everyone was talking about. Shortly after making my first post, I was hooked. Thoughts and ideas of all the cool possibilities of using a platform like Facebook started running through my head. The biggest of which was the ability to let my friends and my family know how me and my family are ...