2020
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We are now eight months into the pandemic and it is weighing heavily on people. Here in the midwest it feels very different than it did in Spring. It is all around us. Most people know someone or several people that have had Covid-19. I have a lot of relatives in North Dakota and I’m hearing multiple reports of people in very small towns in rural North Dakota getting Covid-19. It is front and center in more peoples lives. It is everywhere. This is no longer something happening only in big urban locations. People are tired of it, and there is no end in sight. Looking for that light at the end of the tunnel is very difficult.
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We are seeing businesses close all around us. We know people that have lost their jobs. I’m getting pleas on a daily basis from organizations that are trying to help those that are struggling. Trying to get food to families that have lost their income. A lot of people are hurting, and it is hard to know where to start.
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The systemic racism that was made visible by the murder of George Floyd has focused us on improving and determining how to reduce this systemic bias. This is emotionally difficult work. It’s incredibly important work too. It requires us to dig deep and ask ourselves challenging questions. Introspecting in the face of so much uncertainty is challenging.
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I’m writing this on the eve of the US Election which has been positioned in the most apocalyptic terms possible. People are anxious, worried, scared. Sadly I feel this is very engineered and intentional. Making people scared and amplifying the stakes are great ways to get people to take action, but it simultaneously is toxic to us. I suspect there are a lot of people that cannot get the election off of their mind, and it is going to impact their relationships, their work, and their emotional balance.
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The first four things are all individually hard, but layering them all on top of each other is a level I personally have never even considered. While dealing with all of that, we are staring at our phones, endlessly scrolling social networks, and never disconnecting from an infinite rage cycle. Great for Facebook’s advertising revenue, corrosive and damaging to our psyche. Or we are ignoring the real world and forgetting our troubles in a saccharine stream of cat pictures. That may help for a minute, but it doesn’t make any meaningful improvement to your emotional situation.
Taking Inventory
Let’s take an inventory for a moment.
So how are we doing? Not well. People are anxious and worried. Just last week I was in the office and came down to my car to a scene I had never experienced. In the first level of our parking ramp were two men standing by a line of cars screaming at each other. They were yelling about politics. Not a disagreement amongst coworkers, but a full on screaming match. I was worried it was going to escalate to a full on fight, but one of them yelled a final declaration and marched off before that happened. The background stress that causes people to boil over is so high.
At the same time, we also deserve to give ourselves some grace and applaud our adaptation. We are experiencing an extreme amount of change and disruption. While we may be anxious, we are successfully putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward. One day at a time as they say. Those non-profits and their repeated pleas for help, are getting that help. It’s time for us to double down on civics, and minimize the politics. It’s time for us to bring the empathy to those that have lost friends and family to this pandemic. We need to focus on main street and not be placated by Wall Street. We need to continue to have difficult conversations on race and bias. And we are…
It’s a good time to take inventory. Take time to assess where we all are individually, as families, in our communities, with our coworkers and teams. It’s not weak to be honest with where you are. Find a friend and have a chat on the phone. We all need to help each other out as we work through challenges, through these tests.
Celebrating the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s 30th Anniversary by converting from an annual to a monthly supporter. Join me and donate today!
Lightroom is giving me troubles, and Photos is too. My iMac is stuck at “Restoring from iCloud…" and is behind other devices. Articles online suggest there isn’t much to do but wait, sometimes for days, and let it work. 🤦♂️
I’ve been trying to export a single photo taken in 2008 from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC. It has taken over 15 minutes of time loading various bits from the cloud. For some reason running this one app requires no fewer than five applications (all but Lightroom hidden). The amount of memory and CPU being chewed up is ridiculous. This needs a better solution.
Seems like a mixed message.
First time playing Trekking the World. Game setup took a bit to figure out but we got the hang of it fast enough. Was cool to learn about the world and enjoy a game at the same time.
Working on my bartender skills. Old Fashioneds and Lemondrop Martinis. 🍸
Happy Halloween! 🎃
Madison Lake, Minnesota.
These results are incredible, and seem almost unstoppable.
“America’s biggest tech firms reported dizzying figures, as each surfed on the pandemic’s waves. Amazon’s third-quarter sales grew 37% year-on-year, to more than $96bn; it hired 50% more staff to cope with the demands of locked-down households. Alphabet was the only giant whose share price strengthened, as Google’s ad sales recovered, especially on YouTube. Apple’s iPhone sales were even weaker than expected, while overall revenue and profit held steady. Facebook blew past glowering governments’ scrutiny to report quarterly revenue growth of 22%, with a prediction of better to come over the holidays.” — The Economist Espresso, October 30th, 2020
Lasagna assembly! 👨🍳🇮🇹
Got a new PR this morning in Kendall Toole’s 30-min Metal Ride. 🤘 405 kJ, +3 kJ over prior. Redlined the entire last half of the ride. #FitByFifty
Tyler and I are playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons together and we are using ACNH Exchange to get good prices for Turnips. I’m using it as an opportunity to introduce him to spreadsheets and basic financial concepts. 😊💰
I wonder how many Neural Engines the iPhone will need before it can properly adjust exposure for snow scenes. 😖
Won afternoon game of Trekking the National Parks. Me 47, Tyler 42, Mazie 36, and Tammy 33.
Fun #TeamSPS project for a Friday afternoon. Enlisting the kids to help with decorating. ☝️
Lucky went out during lunch and got herself into a good bunch of mud! 🤦♂️
I did a 10-min full body stretching program on Peloton tonight. My flexibility is very lacking. Ouch. #FitByFifty
With a team in Kyiv I’ve been keeping an eye on COVID-19 cases in Ukraine. Infection rates have been growing steadily since mid-summer.
