Weekly Update, November 23, 2020

Greetz internet friend and welcome back to this weekly update. Much to cover but not much time, so let’s get right down to business!

Politics

I don’t know whether what looks like a slow and incompetent coup in the United States actually is, but I am tired of the lack of opposition. I’ve written this countless times but the Democrats need to step up and stop goofing around! Donald Trump still has the Republican party captured and while the Democrats COULD be shoring up supporting among anti-racists and frankly anyone who isn’t a rich white man, what are they doing? Still fighting among each other, and it would be beautiful to watch if there wasn’t a slow moving coup happening!

Or perhaps there isn’t? No one really seems to know because the corporate media has been asleep at the wheel for the last five years. This week I’m going to have to start watching Democracy Now! again, because that is one of the few outlets doing seriously journalism these days.

I’m also upset that the Democrats decided to renominate Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House. I sent an email and also called my congressperson to tell him not to vote for her, but his office didn’t respond. Without being ageist, part of my problem with Pelosi is that she is out of touch with the younger and more progressive members of the party. That critique has nothing to do with her age, Bernie Sanders is in his late 70s and he gets it! Frankly, Pelosi is out of touch with most of reality and she does not have the strength of leadership that the party needs right now. She cannot match up with Moscow Mitch McConnell, as he continues to outmaneuver her.

It seems to me the Democrats just want to keep pleasing their corporate sponsors and not actually effect meaningful change. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I won’t hold my breath.

Black Lives Matter

Confession time – that article I shared last week, I started reading it and got distracted by ten other things and didn’t finish it. I hope you were able to read it, and I did find the first part interesting, but then I found this rabbit hole about WWII and the 761 Tank Division, which was called the Panthers.

However, let me pause here and say that Black Lives Matter! While it is great that Joe Biden got elected, there is much work to do and fighting racism is something that we have to do every day. Our society has a really long way to go, and it is important for everyone to work towards an anti-racist future.

I’ve given suggestions in the past, but this week I will not give any and just let you think about what you can do on your own.

Professional

So, I tweeted about this over the weekend, but I made a really stupid mistake last week. On Friday afternoon, fifteen minutes before I was supposed to be done for the day, I broke a production system. There is an old saying, and that is:

DO NOT PUSH TO PRODUCTION ON A FRIDAY!

For some, this is a cliché, or a joke. Person reading this, believe me when I tell you that this is not a joke! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, push to production on a Friday, and if you have to do it, don’t do it fifteen minutes before you are supposed to be done for the week.

Because after I broke it, I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour and a half trying to fix it before giving up. I do have one thing going for me though. I was able to reach out to the person who maintained the system previously and I got some good advice for how to fix it. I also reached out to another friend who is a wizard and he had great suggestions as well.

There was also some big news from last week that was really exciting but I cannot share just yet. All I will share is that my hard work feels like it is starting to pay off and I have a very exciting meeting in a few weeks I’m going to be thinking about, and preparing for, with seriousness and unity of purpose.

Over the weekend, I also invested time in watching some YouTube videos from a business leader I look up to, and learned a few important lessons about marketing.

Personal

Last weekend was an art weekend for me. I started working on two paintings, invested time in working on my novel (crossed over 21,000 words), and read some poetry to my wife. There was also time spent figuring out my RC-3 looper station pedal and the beats that came with it. I used it to lay down bass lines, and then grabbed my guitar and jammed with my Crybaby Wah Wah pedal over top. I almost like the RC-3 drum machine better than the other machine I have, though it’s functionality is much more limited. I’m not really looking for complicated drum tracks for jamming, and once I teach myself how to play breakbeats on the drums I’m going to record my own drum tracks and use them. It’s a slow process getting better at the drums, and it’s easier to let machines take over sometimes. :)

I also started re-learning and teaching myself algebra once again. When I was in college, I made sure to save my math books since they cost hundreds of dollars. Sitting next to me is a copy of Elementary and Intermediate Algebra and I’m teaching myself for three reasons. First, it will sharpen my mind. Second, my son is in the second grade and he likes math. My wife hates math and so that means I get to be the one who is able to tutor him. She’s a much better fine artist than me, and while I can teach him how to play guitar and other instruments, I want to also be able to teach him math. Third, I wasn’t great at math before but I am determined to change!

My New Year Resolution last year was to try new things. While it is a little funny, given the *Gestures Vaguely* you know, general state of things. However, trying new things has been really good for me, and I’ve managed to keep it up all year so far! Another new thing will be finding a way to love math, and going slowly should help.

My son is only in the second grade, it’ll be a while before he’ll get to algebra, but when he does get here, I’ll have already gone through the Calculus book that I have as well, and I’ll be ready!

There’s more I could say about personal stuff, but I’m out of time and want to finish this in the morning before work, rather than continue in the evening so I’ll end here.

People to follow

As I do every week, here are some tech and non-tech people you might consider following on Twitter.

Martin Luther King III - The son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bernice King - The daughter of Dr. King

@cetolyne - great friend, awesome programmer, super helpful!

@blenster - cool maker, very positive, well worth a follow!

@GWeessies - very smart person doing interesting research!

Marley - first place champ! Marley is one of the best on Twitter!

Null Coder - another awesome person to keep an eye on!

@EvilMog - creator of the DC MUD and an interesting person to follow.

TrakoZG – an internet friend who tweets excellent things

Sofia Rune – brilliant scholar who shares things that are both insightful and valuable

MildThrone – up and comer with a small following for now, but I think this account is on the rise!

Thanks for checking out this weekly post! Click here for the previous post and click here for the next post. Finally, I hope you have a very nice day and a most excellent week!