Not so much what I did as what I didn’t do. I was picking up a birthday cake for one of my kids and I was standing in line behind a lady who was obviously doing the same thing. Based on her appearance and the fact that she was fumbling through her wallet while on the phone with the bank, I got the sense that she was a little short on cash.

Something told me I should go ahead and pay for her cake. I could easily afford it so why not? For whatever reason I chickened out. I don’t know why.

I left there with my kids birthday cake, feeling very ashamed of myself. It was a small thing and yet to me it was a serious moral failure.

I think there were some legitimate concerns about the potential nuclear threat as well as uncertainty regarding Russia’s actual capabilities.

Now we’ve seen that Russia’s claims don’t hold any more water than a strainer, the west should be more aggressive with its assistance. The Ukrainians have already demonstrated that they are not just going to take it laying down and they’re the only reason Russia hasn’t moved on to invading other former Soviet states. I think we owe them all assistance we can give.

“Softly” by Gordon Lightfoot is one of my favorite songs. On the surface it appears to be about a woman but I don’t think it is. I was listening to it one time when it just popped into my head, “Holy shit. He’s talking about the moon.”

I thought about writing him to ask if I was right and I kind of regret that I didn’t while he was still alive. The man was a poet of highest caliber. If you like or can at least listen to folk music, the album “Gord’s Gold” lives up to it’s name.

Headlines a short time later…

“GOP Proposes Banning Sacrificial Death Miracles”

AP News - Decrying the seemingly miraculous events of last week as “blatant socialism” and, rather ironically, “part of the woke agenda”, house Republicans have introduced a bill that would make sacrificing ones life altruistically a felony. When asked how they planned to prosecute the rotting corpse of the accused were the bill to pass, House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged the steep uphill battle, stating, “we will leave no gravestone unturned when it comes preventing ordinary Americans from having God-like benevolence and generosity forced upon them against their will.”

Starts off OK but ends in disappointment?

It’s not just you. That pretty much is your thirties. Most of the people I know in their 20’s (at least their early 20’s) are still making a point to hang out. Most of the guys over 60 are playing golf or getting a beer.

And then there’s my group: the ones who are working at their job all day, working at the endless list of projects around the house in the evenings, and spending the few spare moments they have in between with their family.

Sometimes I think maybe it would be nice to have more actual friends. But it doesn’t really bother me that I don’t. I’m pretty busy being a husband and a dad and everything in between and I’m happy with where I’m at right now. I know the way things are now is not permanent and nothing is set in stone.

On another note, the 30’s are good times. My favorite decade so far. Not always fun, but still good.

Can confirm. Am 34 and, despite numerous setbacks, my 30’s have still been my favorite decade so far.

Don doesn’t love himself or believe anyone else could love him. That’s understandable since he grew up being told very clearly that was unwanted. He keeps trying to fill this massive void in his life with professional success, drinking, and philandering but it all just leaves him feeling empty.

Don needs some serious therapy, which would have been incredibly difficult to come by in the 1960’s.

The Brave Little Toaster. I loved that movie cause what little kid doesn’t want to watch a bunch of singing appliances? It’s actually a really good movie but the themes about existential crisis and the need for purpose are way over a kids head. Also, the clown scene gave me nightmares.

Don’t do anything you’re going to have to lie about. If you do, don’t lie about it. If you do, make it right as soon as possible.

This is something I learned from experience. I have plenty of problems in my life but a heavy conscience isn’t one of them.

Putler is [most likely] a sociopath. He’s has no morals but he’s not clinically insane. The only thing using nukes would guarantee for him is his own death, which he must certainly be aware of.

…if Russia even has any functioning nukes.

Bringing back Gnutella.

They couldn’t even keep track of the reactors from the nuclear powered lighthouses in Siberia.

if Russia nuked itself on its own territory.

The fact that it’s Russia substantially increases this possibility.

It’s kind of funny to me that a significant reason Russia is in its current predicament is because of rampant corruption. Putin runs the country like a Mafia state and then gets all surprised Pikachu Face when it becomes apparent that his underlings just stole all the money instead of using it to maintain their weapons stockpile, which is now aging and dilapidated.

You get what you pay for. Paying garbage prices [often] means you’re getting garbage.

That works when you have access to a SQL database instead of a bunch of massive CSV files.

And at least at my workplace, a lot of work processes use poorly-designed Excel spreadsheets for critical tasks, because it’s such a simple way to manipulate data.

I also find that when I need to do more complicated data analysis, Excel starts to become limited, and I find Python to be a more powerful and flexible tool.

Capability is a double edged sword. Any tool that is capable of doing something is going to be used by someone to do that thing, regardless of whether it should be. Excel gets abused and used for things that it shouldn’t be frequently in corporate environments because of its capabilities. I can understand being frustrated by that.

I use Excel for reporting and analytics because it makes manipulating and visualizing data very easy. Especially if you know what you’re doing. No need to write a UI or worry about portability between workstations, etc. At the end of the day it’s a tool. A very capable one. Like any tool, it’s not the right one for every job.

Lol. Don’t bother asking Chat GPT for help. You will get so many completely wrong answers. At least the answers will be formatted nicely. Complete bullshit. But easily readable bullshit.

You’re entitled to your opinion but I would say Excel is one of the best, if not THE best spreadsheet application ever produced. It’s one thing that Microsoft actually got mostly right and one of the only reasons I still pay for an Office 365 subscription.

If you’re just creating simple spreadsheets, there’s plenty of other options out there.

But, if you’re a power user doing a lot of complex data analytics, Excel is still the king.

My main gripe is that I still have to use VBA for a lot of stuff behind the scenes. Yuck.