Category Archives: Personal

Personal

2024 – Thanksgiving

The past few years have been pretty much WTH. The constant feeling of waiting for the next shoe to drop. If it’s not transitioning the parents into assisted living, it’s jury duty… If it’s not a hurricane, it’s having another appliance go bellow up right before a holiday. It’s hoping I still have a job after the next re-org. It’s hoping the next 4 years won’t completely bankrupt my retirement. It’s frustration laden with anxiety, without being able to see a silver-lining… And now, I should be thankful.

I found this menu in my parents stuff. It’s where my grandfather served in Europe, during WWII. It’s about 6 months before the end of the war… the war had been going on for about 5 years before, with no real end in sight.

In perspective, what we’ve been going through now is minor… almost a mild annoyance in comparison. We owe a lot to our parents/grandparents. And I’m thankful that my grandfather served food and supplies, rather than on the front lines. He survived and flourished.

…I read the prayer in the above menu, and wonder if “democratic society” still translates or what the prayer would read for modern times…

Geek, Personal, Travel

Splunk .conf 2024

I’m back in Las Vegas to experience CriblCon & Splunk .conf 2024. I wanted to get a good picture of the Sphere, but couldn’t find a good enough angle from the convention center, or Uber. There was a One Piece promotion going on at the time & wasn’t able to get a good video of it. :-/

Since Cisco bought Splunk, the conference felt a little different this year… Or I’m just getting old. The vendor area seemed smaller. The excitement didn’t seem a grand as before. Should be interesting if Cisco continues the conference, or if it gets folded into the bigger Cisco conference.

This was the view from in front of the hotel.

Personal, Travel

Japan

We finally made it to Tokyo, Japan. The flight was exhausting, but not terrible. We got checked into our hotel — The Blossom Hibiya. We loved it — the rooms weren’t too small, the bed was comfortable, the location was not far from a train station, the morning meal was delicious, the view from the lobby was just spectacular. We will definitely stay here again, if we find ourselves back in Tokyo.

Our fist full day in Tokyo, we went to Shibuya Scramble Crossing & the Tokyo Skytree.

Our second full day in Tokyo, we visited the Sensō-ji temple.

Otaku, Personal, Travel

Japan Bound?

We are coming up on the end of May. I haven’t had much to write, between the changes at work, planning off/on for our trip to Japan & dealing with things as they crop up… First it was issues with boarding our dogs at our vet… then moving dad into a VA nursing home… being backed into when trying to pull out of a parking spot after putting in a money exchange order (no one was hurt or much damage to the car, but annoying)… then dealing with a new boarding place wanting a “certificate of completion” from a trainer… It’s literally been one thing after another either making my wife want to postpone the trip and me stressed out.

This seems to happen whenever I plan a vacation… I was making plans to do a European LEGO event months before Covid-19 spread across the world. I had booked hotel & flights… planned out our activities… Was researching somethings (local towns to explore) that I thought my wife would enjoy doing that wasn’t 100% LEGO related… But all in all, I think I’m just having flashbacks to 2020, where it was bad news on top of bad news…But to keep things in perspective, what happened with Covid was way worse/sad/world-changing/heart-wrenching than a few personal set-backs and a selfish desire to travel.

Our track-record hasn’t been good… We had to change up what we had planned to do for our honeymoon, and even after postponing it, we traveled a few days after 9/11 for it…

The silver lining for this trip; we’ve had friends that spent 2 week in Japan before we fly out… Sending us tips and warnings — the touristy spots are very crowded, buses and trains are packed like sardines.. plan to do a lot of walking… pack light, hauling suitcases are a pain — as well a sharing fun things try/do — bullet trains are cool… spend time on “kitchen street”… had the best sushi of my life… Makes me more upset/sad/jealous if we have to postpone.

Anyway, back to the 2,000 things we need to take care of before the trip… And if you can’t figure it out from the pictures, the HOA sent us an email saying we needed to power wash our drive way… Because wasting water is fun and helps with stress!

Personal

The End of 2022

We’re coming up on the end of 2022… It was better than 2020, but still not back to normal… If I look back through my pictures last year, the things that stand out:

  • my niece graduated collage
  • the wife and I went to a few drag show despite the political climate in FL
  • went to Las Vegas for a conference, then spent a few days afterwards on a mini vacation with the wife
  • survived a hurricane, but had to cancel travel plans to a LEGO event in Seattle
  • attended a good friend’s wedding
  • went on a cruise on the new Disney ship
  • tried a few new places to eat (conveyer belt sushi…)
  • and a lot of pictures of our two furry dogs…

Work is work… we started going into the office a few days out of the week. But I’m still a lot on Zoom calls — I don’t see that changing when half of our team is in a different time zone.

And I’ve spent a lot of time sorting out my LEGO collection…

Personal

Daily Life

If I think about this web-site and what the last few posts have been about, nothing has gone as planned… the pandemic, things getting back to normal, our personal lives… it’s all been chaotic. Our trip to Japan has been pushed out another year — the country did open to visitors about a month before the time we set aside to go, but the restrictions were still too great (had to be apart of a tour group) for what we wanted to do. Not to mention, ended up going to a conference for work — which was a nice distraction, but hard not to feel like we traded one tourist trap for another..

And now, it’s too hot to do much outside without suffering bouts of heat exhaustion… Although, the rainy season hasn’t kicked in yet…

Photo is from the Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden

Personal

Happy Craptastic New Year!

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Happy New Year! 2020 was a craptastic year; this one doesn’t seem to be much better.

When I started this post, I was going to be optimistic or thoughtful about the previous year. There’s been enough negativity about last year on FB — between the pandemic… friends being put on furlough at work.. having to cancel all and any vacation plans… a very blurred line between the work/life balance, with no clear break… then going into this year, expecting a peaceful transition of power — instead we get a pouty ex-girlfriend that just wont accept that it’s over…

The pandemic has claimed many lives and business victims. I don’t understand how the stock market can do so well…