I actually spent about a half hour writing a (sort of bitter and angry) response to this... but I just deleted it because the world doesn't need more negativity. I feel bad for this guy. He's not old, but thinks he is. He's resigned to complain about "the way things are" in a shallow reflection of "how things were".

But I'll give him his nostalgia (which I find to be privileged, white, misogynistic, and sad).

if I never hear "OKR" again I'll be a happy man.

Family

grateful for health, which in general, has been quite good. one kid gets surgery on Friday which should be uneventful, but recovery will be tricky and slow. school drama seems to be at a minimum.

Work

still good and on the right trajectory. new boss is quite great. a member of my team is occasionally combative, regularly unpredictable, and sometimes volatile. Balancing between giving someone emotional space to work through issues and not being a punching bag is occasionally tricky.

Life

health experiment is going well(ish). reducing calories and changing what you eat is bizarre. On the one hand, it's super easy. you just decide what the plan is, and execute it. on the other hand... when you spend decades associating food with pleasure and social exchanges and a love language and then basically shut that off - it's an adjustment. Maybe I'll write about this someday when I'm further along in the experiment.

Miscellaneous

I vacillate between "it will all be fine" and "there will be blood in the streets" as I loosely follow headlines about top secret documents, mid-term elections and other news stories. I think that maintains a low-level amount of constant anxiety that requires tending to.

Thank you for your courageous vulnerability about seeking therapy. I know hubski is a fairly progressive place, and we tend to talk about mental health in positive ways around here... but I really wanted to specifically celebrate you talking about it here. Many of us have struggles, understand (academically) the importance of healthy choices to work through things... and still don't seek help or even talk about it (mostly pointing a finger at me). So thank you for being vulnerable. Thank you for reminding me to pause and assess. I see you, and I appreciate you.

Really considering trying to start one of those up

mk and I had a pirate radio dream years ago... never got it off the ground. I hope you do!

I don't really like the products we're making. I wouldn't recommend them to a friend. And soooo many jobs are like this. Do I really care if Twitter's ad board is more efficient? Or Johnson and Johnson are able to automate away 40 inspector jobs etc.

I'm going to DM you...

start a boardgame cafe somewhere

do this. a friend opened a card shop selling magic, Pokemon and other gaming cards during the pandemic... sounded like a crazy idea... he just quit his other jobs and is doing it full time. Going gangbusters. I saw your messages in chat but didn't take the time to respond. Keep researching the where, but seriously - do this.

I'm in a real, real weird place.

Home is great. Healthy, relatively wealthy (by whole world standards).

Work is great. Challenging, but that's a good thing.

Physically not so great. I've been walking. Probably need to lift or do something to further strengthen this aging bag of bones. Biking season is back too.

Emotionally - I gotta figure some stuff out. I'm like... mid 40s, but I feel like I'm 25 and I find myself looking to people much younger than me for answers and approval on work stuff. It's weird. I do not have the confidence I feel like I should have at this point in my life and my career. I gotta figure some stuff out.

I took a break from my day job to work the side hustle this morning on a video shoot. I'm realizing that most of my gear is out of date, lacking in features, and just... tired. Lots of dead/dying batteries. Lights that don't really cut it any more. It's time for me to stop doing the side hustle or reinvest. I have the luxury of not doing it anymore (and have for a few years - hence the aging gear).

And it has me wondering if it's something I enjoy anymore.

It's 50 degrees in Colorado today... it was 70 last week. This is not normal.

On the one hand... feeling climate change anxiety but on the other hand enjoying not wearing my winter jacket to go outside and I will drive to lunch with a friend with the top down.... in December... in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

ok... the anxiety is coming back.

edit: I really don't mean to downplay the serious climate crisis I think we're in. I guess I'm just noticing the comfy chair I have on the titanic.

she told me that her daughter has social anxiety and has a hard time chatting with people! ... except me

that is fantastic my man. there's a place in teenagers' lives that cannot be filled by parents. It will be filled by others. When you can fill in that place as a good person, it leaves little room for others who may also try to fill that place. I am so glad for her that she has you as that person.

I count myself fortunate to have had a couple of great people like you when I was a teenager. It truly saved my life and created so many opportunities. Thanks for being an awesome neighbor and person.

“One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine,” Brytney Cobia wrote. “I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”

live shows pushing back the dark

I'm in Erda, Utah right now at my wife's family reunion. Being able to work from anywhere is fantastic - I count myself very fortunate. And yes, by "work" I mean browse hubski.

Yesterday afternoon when I was done with "work" we spread 12 yards of "fines" (a.k.a. gravel), expanding his driveway substantially. Something about working on a farm is so rewarding. Every time I come out here I am almost overcome by my "farm dream". This morning I am achy, but oddly invigorated. There are spreadsheets to build and data to analyze and people to manage.... but my heart would rather be setting fenceposts and moving sprinkler pipe.

My kids are spread out everywhere on floors and on the trampoline and in hammocks enjoying endless cousin time. We're normally an early to bed, early to rise bunch - but this week it's play until you drop time... and they are. Family reunions basically suck for adults... but oh man - watching my kids have this much fun is amazing.

anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers can all claim they are vaccinated

ohhhh... so you've met my sister-in-law. Yes. Now she says "I identify as vaccinated" so that she can not only insult science, but throw a little side-jab at the trans population.

ahhhhhh family.

I’d say this is unthinkable... but her campaign was a nightmare to watch. She’s a rootin tootin cowgirl wannabe who will get out of this by saying “I didn’t tweet where Nancy was... I tweeted where she wasnt”.

What an embarrassment for our country and for the state I live in. I certainly hope there is an investigation and trial.

have a great time.

enjoy every single moment.

you don't need to justify yourself to us.

we love you.

You know... I originally posted a picture of a friend of mine with Downs and jokingly said “my other friend Ben said you can eat a bag of dicks”.

But I had to delete it. This Ben would never say that. Frankly, he’d never say anything mean like that. Ben reminds me of all that is good in the world. He is a man filled with love. He lights up a room. He is happy.

So I deleted the picture of Ben because he would be sad if he knew that I weaponized him because I was frustrated with your disregard for his life. He would hug you and tell you he “loves you too much”.

So you don’t get a picture of Ben with a snippy response from me. Instead you get this response. Which is me being sad for you. Sad that you’re so angry at the world that you would rob the humanity from people who are often times the best of us. I’m embarrassed that I sunk to your level.

hugski.

They found her yesterday. Alive.

I was completely shocked by this story. I was in Utah when the story first ran about her being found, but there were ZERO details. I don't know how well you know Zion, but it ain't that big compared to how many people visit. And according to that article, "authorities found Courtier "in a thickly vegetated area along the Virgin River." That's like... the main corridor of traffic. It's not even a mile across that canyon. It makes more sense now that I know she bonked her head pretty hard and was more or less just laying there disoriented. I was having a hard time imagining someone getting lost in the main section of Zion. Regardless, I'm super stoked she made it out alive.

Empire Strike Back

Hubski is like the anti-2020

That’s gotta be a candidate for a sticker design of ice ever heard one.

The one thing that most everyone seems to agree on is that the site has declined,

This is interesting... I feel like this... but I acknowledge that it's mostly my lack of interaction that both contributes to this feeling for me, AND others. I don't know that the site has changed... people have. We get different jobs. We have births. We have deaths. We get new jobs. We graduate. People are in different places at different times, and the traffic on the site ebbs and flows. Sure... it's in a pretty big dip these days... but I'm not convinced it's a mechanical thing.

and that commenting is not great.

I still don't understand (but am trying). There's no doubt that chat has become an EASY way for me to interact quickly with the users on the site without dipping in to the bigger pool. When I have ten minutes, it's easier to pop in to chat and have some laughs than to read a goodlongread and then discuss it at length. In that respect, perhaps chat has reduced my commenting... but arguably, it brings me here more often than not, and then I stick around to read. In the end think comments here are so much better than anywhere else on the web.

woke up salty. b_b called me out, and rightfully so. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday! I plan to.

lookin sharp in those dress grays pabs!

huh... so.... talented musician AND a talented painter.

We can all say "we knew him when"

And more to the point... some denominations of some religions are exacerbating the current situation. Others shut everything down before state and local governments; before restaurants bars and movie theaters; before schools and offices. So while I understand your personal anger and frustration with religion in general, broadly blaming this pandemic on religion is as inaccurate as religious zealots blaming this pandemic on a sinful world.

Stay healthy my friend.

Why so cynical?

lazy thinking/word choices.. election season burnout... excuses.

You raise excellent points. I actually don't hate any of them. I have just been let down in little ways by most of the candidates except Warren who really started connecting and resonating with me. So somewhere between hearing that she doesn't have a chance, and thinking of voting for a white, male septuagenarian... I was a little bitter.

Bur you are actually right. We have a lot to celebrate. Every one of the candidates (sans Bloomberg) would be a massive improvement... and even Bloomberg would be some kind of improvement over the orangutan in chief.

I genuinely appreciate the challenge on this one my friend. Sometimes I need to be reminded of the reasons to hope and be positive.

Ref in the mitten?!?! Oh man. I miss all of you!

It’s not as terribly far as you may think. And I can confirm... it’s worth the trip. Here is the box I mailed it from:

On this street corner:

It's interesting watching Trump fall apart

I wish I was so optimistic. Having checked in on hubski several times last week, impeachment and removal felt imminent. Then over the weekend I was at dinner with some folks that reminded me that there are WHOLE SWATHS of the country that think this is a distraction and that "grab them by the pussy" wasn't even worth conversation. I can't figure out what's happening.

I've been solving it every day. It's pretty awesome.

I haven't been doing it every day - but it was fun to work through all of the family's birthdays and then a couple of days last week. It is really awesome. I want to buy more as gifts. <cough cough> mike <cough>

This was my brother's bike. It's what I learned to ride on... and rode as much as I could.

After a few years of trying to use his bike all the time, I wanted a HARO bike but couldn't afford it, so I bought this and put HARO stickers on it:

several years later I saved up and bought one of these - which was one of the first mountain bikes around.