Politics.NET

One of the things about having only twins is that you get to experience certain parenting events just once. For example, both kids will go through the college process together. This means you go in with zero experience, learn on the fly and when it's over, you have all these knowledge and experience that's basically useless to you. Take the Terrible Twos...it's double the trouble for you but once it's over, it's over. Unlike those who space out their children and have to repeat the process 2, 3 years later. Or (oops) 10+ years later.  Both of my kids play travel soccer. Because soccer is literally my first love, everybody thinks I either pushed them into playing soccer or strongly encouraged them. Which is totally untrue. We put them in different sports...gymnastics, martial arts, basketball (a complete and total waste of money, these kids have zero basketball interest and ability), kids art and indoor tiny tots soccer. I love soccer but I don't expect anyone el...

Ron Rivera is an interesting coach. As a man, he's very well respected in the world of football. Maybe not loved but definitely very highly respected. Everybody speaks of his integrity, his leadership, his ability to command the respect of his players and no matter how bad the seasons gets, his players never seem to throw in the towel. Even in the back end of losing seasons (which is all he has so far with the Commanders), his teams find ways to win games they have no business winning.  So why then does he confound people with his words and actions? In the last 4 years as Commanders coach, there's hardly a criticism of his stewardship of the team without a prefix of "great man". And yet, he lies...a LOT! He changes his tune every time he speaks to the press. He throws players under the bus as a matter of routine (Landon Collins, William Jackson III, Chase Young, Jamin Davis, Emanuel Forbes are stuck to the bottom of Ron Rivera's bus). And with the latest leaks tha...

In 3 days, both kids start high school. It's crazy, where has the time gone? It seems like it was just yesterday they were starting kindergarten...look at this picture: This summer has been a crazy one with both kids trying out for high school soccer, making the teams and practicing and playing scrimmages. And parent meetings, New Student Orientation etc...I feel like I practically live at the school! And that's all before the first official day of school.  So yeah, high school is here. 🤯 PS Hopefully, in 4 years, I'll be back to say "college already? where has the time gone?!"

If you're lucky, a few days after your twins are born, the hospital just let's you walk out with them. In fact, they insist you take them with you. No training, no classes, no probation...they really just let you walk out with 2 humans. #fatherhood — Tundey A. (@realtundey) November 28, 2021 This was me 12 years ago: And now look at them. In a little over 6 months, they'll be teenagers!   Every time I look at them, I am reminded of Obama's quote on being a parent:  "One of my favorite sayings about having children is it's like having your heart walking around outside your body." — @POTUS — White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) October 21, 2015

 If you're a fan of the NFL, you've heard this term before, "Football shape". You hear it whenever a player is coming off injury and wants to get back into the action. The team says "Joe is getting back into shape but he's not in football shape  yet". The player (if young) may think he's ready, he may even be posting workout videos (shirtless of course) on Instagram showing off his physical fitness. But nope, he's not in football shape yet and can't get back on the field. Or he gets back on the field and he just doesn't have that burst. Well after a COVID-induced 1-year layoff from playing regular pickup soccer, I got back into it couple of days ago. Yeah I know, it's not the same level as the NFL. But boy oh boy, was I not in pickup soccer shape ! Physically and I think mentally too. Physically, I didn't have my normal endurance...couldn't play 2 hours without taking multiple stints as goalkeeper (a task nobody wants to do bu...

 On November 25th , I ordered a couple of items from Bed, Bath & Beyond. It was late on Thanksgiving, I was up and decided to take a quick look at early Black Friday deals. The air fryer I had been eyeing for a few months was finally on sale. And I needed a comforter set. So why not kill 2 birds with one stone? I ordered both items for delivery (2-3 business days). Whatever, not an urgent need.  Friday afternoon, I received an email from BBB, my items have been split into 2 shipments. The first shipment is on the way. Here's the tracking number. Oh nice...I clicked on the tracking number and got this: I do not list in NJ Go ahead, click on it and take a look at the dates. According to that tracking info, the package was shipped on October 13th! Yeah, that's the reason for the title of this post. Somehow, BBB issued an already-used tracking number for my shipment. It gets worse. Both shipments were assigned different used tracking numbers. Both tracking numbers were for pac...

 How it started: How it ended Good riddance. Congratulations to Joseph Robinette Biden, the 46th President of the United States.

 What a horrible year. 100% would not recommend.

 Item # 19: Infant. Age 1. Described as "Strong, Likely Boy" $400.00

I recently bought one of those wireless earbuds from Amazon. I spent some time researching all the available options and finally picked this particular one. It was highly rated on Amazon 5 stars from 54 reviewers (most of them "verified purchase"). Not great but not bad. Anyway, the earbuds arrived and I found this in the box: Hmm, OK. Very mysterious. As instructed, I sent them an email for further information. Here's what I received: Funny thing is I really like the ear buds. Excellent build quality and thus far, great performance. They reconnect to my phone 2-3 seconds after taking them out of the case. It's easy to create a good seal...sometimes so good I get that underwater feeling one gets with noise cancelling headphones. Even without the 40% incentive, I would have written a review...that's how much I like the ear buds. But now I feel weird about doing it. I wonder how many of those 54 5-star reviews were motivated by a 40% discount. As for the 4...

Saw this on Whisper : The way I see it, this dude has 3 options: Reject the $55K increase and stick with his old job that he loves (dribble out of bounds) Take the $170K to his current boss and negotiate for a raise (layup) Take the $170K job, stick with it for a year and then bounce (dunk) The first option is what I call a poor person's advice. It sounds very noble...very "get a job you love and you'll never work". Well I am here to say that's bullshit (mostly). This is business; you should always get the most you can. Besides, this is a chance for this dude to change his baseline salary for future jobs. At his current job, getting that $55K will take several years because corporate America isn't going to offer you more than a token raise each year. My advice would be to take the $170K offer to his current manager and get him/her to match it or raise his current salary. That's the layup option. It's not too money-hungry and doesn't ...

This is a sad blog for me to write. A product I absolutely love is now being used for evil 1 by the creators. If you have ever done any database work with Microsoft SQL Server, you've probably heard or maybe even used Redgate 's various database tools. Those tools are a godsend and I can't imagine using SQL Management Studio (SMS) without Redgate 2 . It's literally the first thing I install after installing SMS. It's a tool that if my job didn't pay for it, I'll buy it with my own money. I love it that much. So imagine my surprise yesterday when I realize that Redgate had made a few changes to their products. Originally, the licensing was pretty straightforward. You pay for a number of licenses, get your license key(s) and put it in the product. That's it. It was based on the honor system (i.e. that you aren't using it on more servers than you paid for). I am not naive enough to think people wouldn't have abused the system. It's the softwa...

Last Tuesday morning, as I was getting my kids ready for school, I checked my calendar to see what my day was going to be like at work. I had taken the previous day off and wanted to see if there was any unplanned meeting I had been dragged into. First thing I noticed was that my boss had double booked me for an event I knew nothing about. This was unlike her so I decided to see what this new event was about. Turns out, the "small" company I have worked for for 16 years had been acquired by a much bigger company ...you might have heard of them... Booz Allen Hamilton ! Yeah, that behemoth. Needless to say the past week has been very eventful, very hush-hush and filled with a lot of FUD. I get that in acquisitions of this magnitude ($250M to be specific), secrecy is of utmost concern. I also get that CEOs typically don't send an email saying "Hey guys, we are shopping the company around". So by their very definition, these things will always come as a surprise. ...

I feel like I should preface this blog post with some things about me: I am a far left liberal on social issues I am a moderate on fiscal issues I don't recall ever voting for a republican Now that we've establish my meager bonafides, I have come to a sickening realization that Trump will win this election. Don't get me wrong, he has no business winning. He's a crystallization of every qualities of a right wingnut job. He may not have started the birther movement but he adopted it as his child and did a fine job raising that racist myth as his own child. He's a dangerous moron that thinks he can solve complex problems outside his realm of expertise. For a guy that rich, he demonstrates a shocking lack of knowledge of basic economic issues.  He's publicly said he would be dating his daughter if she weren't his child and he wasn't married. Seriously, he said this. Not once, not twice...multiple times. Finally, when asked what his 1-year old daugh...

This is a first. I have never done a product review on my blog. To head off questions, no I am not being paid for this. No, I did not receive this item as a sample or promotional item. Yes, I paid full price for it. With that out of the way, Anker RoboVac 10 is an automatic self-docking robotic vacuum cleaner. Basically, it's a Roomba. But is a rose still a rose if it goes by a different name and costs far less? I don't know. Never had a Roomba but I bought this Anker RoboVac last week on Amazon and it arrived couple of days ago. Setup was quick and easy but the vacuum wasn't pre-charged (more on this later). So I charged it overnight, set it to clean at 7:30 am and forgot about it. At 7:30 the next morning, it very quietly went to work. While the kids ate breakfast, "Robby" (as my daughter christened it...yeah we have a habit of naming everything...I am typing this on Maggie4) cleaned 2 bedrooms, a dining area, a hallway and the kitchen. Robby was still cleani...

Blogger's note: I wrote this last year but never posted it. It's still pertinent; so enjoy. The past few days I have been thinking about failure. Not personal failure but professional failure. It occurred to me that while organizations are very good at highlighting success and awards, very few highlight how they handle failure. And even fewer job applicants are interested in knowing how a future employer handles failure. I have been conducting interviews for 5-7 years now and I have yet to have a job applicant ask me about my failures or my employer's failures. I think this is a very important issue. Because, let's face it, success is very easy to handle. Failure, by contrast, shows you way more about a person's/an organization's character. If you are about to join a new organization, ask them what happens when they encounter failure. Do the managers look for scapegoats? Do the employees shift blame? Do managers and employees focus on solving the problem, ...

I wrote about this in 2013; apparently Microsoft must not be listening to me (the horror!) since the option is still there in the business version of Outlook. In fact, I think it might be the default because I had to change it to "Reply" from "Reply All" today. Why would Microsoft include this option, much less make it the default? I have no doubt there are some people who use "Reply All" every time but surely they have to be in the minority. Besides, that's just bad behavior and it shouldn't be encouraged, even minimally, by having an option for this. Dear Microsoft, it's 2016...stop encouraging bad internet etiquette.

Have you ever blogged? This is what Microsoft baked into SharePoint as their blogging platform: In 2016! Seriously, this is the interface Microsoft expects people to use when composing blogs. Fuck, I don't even want to tweet 140 characters using this crappy layout. This looks like the UI I would have come up with 10 years (you know before the age of great web UI). I am no UI expert but I am self aware enough to know that: this is crappy you can "borrow" better UIs  Microsoft, please stop with this nonsense. SharePoint is SharePoint; stop half-baking features like this into it. I have been around SharePoint for years now and I have yet to see any company where people actually use all the social features Microsoft is baking into it. All they've done is made SharePoint even more bloated.  BTW, notice how there's an asterisk by the Title field in that screenshot? Why does a blog, which is sometimes a stream of consciousness writing, require a title? B...

On October 11th, I wrote the playbook . On November 13th, I wrote an update to that post . Today is the final installment in the series. In the first two, I laid out how law enforcement officials use the system to a) kill minorities and b) ensure that the killers are not brought to justice. All while seeming to be doing their hardest to ensure justice. How do you do it? Part 1 : You intentionally sabotage your own case to the grand jury Part 2 : You put the victim on trial and leak information damaging to the case against the killer cop Part 3 is the inevitable result that most killer cops are never indicted . In the Tamir Rice case, part 3 was dropped today: no indictment. Shocker, right? The DA did everything he could to ensure the grand jury would not indict. Do black lives matter? I guess it depends on who you ask. To the cops and DAs in these very high profile cases that never indict or never get conviction because they deliberately over-charges and fails to get an i...