Author Archives: Michael C. McGreevy

I am NOT Iron Man

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TL;DR Opener to this post – I was recently diagnosed with Iron Deficiency Anemia. I am working with several doctors to determine the cause and to resolve the situation. At the current time we have no reason to believe that there is any major underlying cause for this situation, but I’ve been getting a lot of lab work and tests done to make sure of that. Fatigue and low energy are two of the symptoms Iron Deficiency Anemia, and the emotional weight/uncertainty adds to the mix, so if we’ve seemed flaky, distant, canceled plans, or otherwise seemed preoccupied lately it’s probably got more to do with this than anything else and I’m sorry.

OK, so…Disclaimer out of the way to (hopefully) avoid seeming overly dramatic…

I give blood as often as I can. So much so that people who I’ve made friends recently have commented on the number of blood donor shirts I have (which is especially amusing to me because I don’t keep most of the shirts I get and I generally only wear them when I’m working out. The latest campaign at OneBlood has been super hero themed, though, and some of the shirts have been really cool). A few years ago, I started having issues with my Iron Levels being too low when I went in to give blood. Nothing startling, and they are usually able to get me into the acceptable range by warming up my hands, but I’ve had a few occasions when they have had to turn me away. My Primary Care physician was aware of it, and we’ve been monitoring the situation along with my regular lab work (I was already seeing her three times a year with lab work because of my Type II Diabetes). I was also taking Iron supplements, mainly so that I could keep giving blood.

In June of last years my Iron levels were high. In March of this year, they were incredibly high. I also have had very low blood pressure for a while and some circulatory issues, so my doctor suggested I stop taking the Iron supplements follow up with a heart specialist and a hematologist to have some routine tests done and see if anything else was going on.

The heart stuff was fine. More than fine, really. The doctor said that most people would envy the blood pressure levels I have and suggested that I should eat more salty snacks. No problems there. My tests there revealed two small cysts/lesions that he wanted me to have looked at via ultrasound (one on my thyroid, and one on my liver), but both he and my PCP have assured me that those are very common and not generally a cause for concern. The tests are a “you have insurance and it’s better to be safe than sorry” situation.

Now, the hematologist? See, the first thing I found out when I made the appointment was that hematologists seem to almost exclusive practice out of cancer centers. So that was fun. Nothing quite like sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of folks who are being treated for cancer to get the blood flowing. My PCP had ordered an upper GI for me last year because I, like my father before me, have GERD and it’s been several decades since I’d had a scan to see if I’d developed any complications from it (I have not). She also had me take a mail-order colon cancer test (the second one I’ve had since the low iron issues started), which again came back fine, so I wasn’t overly concerned with the cancer thing. Still, it was unnerving.

In any case, lab work and subsequent appointments with that doctor determined that Iron Overload was not my issue, and that my Ferritin levels indicated I had what he characterized as a “severe” Iron Deficiency. He asked me not to give blood for six months, told me to start taking Iron supplements again with the goal of seeing if I could tolerate two pills a day, and suggested that I get another Upper GI and a Lower GI just to be absolutely sure there wasn’t some kind of severe underlying medical condition.

This is the point where, in Eugene Morris Jerome’s family, they would whisper “cancer” at the dinner table.

Now what he thinks is happening is that this is all a result of my regular blood donations. Other than the tests and getting back on Iron, there’s nothing else to really be done at the moment. If I go back and see him at the end of summer and my Ferritin levels are still too low he’s going to administer a series of IV’s to resolve the situation. If not, and nothing came of the other tests, he’ll work with me to figure out how often I can donate blood and what my Iron supplementation routine should be.

In the meantime, I’m tired. Really tired. I’ve got some other situations I’ve been dealing with as well, including severe leg cramps, chest pains, numbness and tingling, and other circulatory issues that I had just assumed were the result of my Blood Glucose levels being too high. Which, fun thing to find out, can be the result of…IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA. My BG numbers have been steadily increasing over the last few years despite the fact that my diet, for the most part, hasn’t really changed…so naturally I chalked all my symptoms up to that. Oh, and the fatigue thing? So a symptom of high BG levels is frequent urination, so on top of being constantly tired I also wake up regularly (pretty much every two hours to the minute) to use the restroom…which adds to my fatigue.

I haven’t spoken “publicly” about all this for a variety of reasons, one of the main ones being that despite the fact that I am absolutely one of those people who gets a comfort out of sharing details about my life online, I’m also a person who finds thinks a lot of people exaggerate or dramatize health/mental issues to garner likes/popularity/sympathy and I think that’s really gross. Social media is rife with people being performative and I’m just not interested in being part of that. But I also recognize that I’ve made vague references to my health concerns on a few occasions lately and that some of this has bled over into our social interactions, so I wanted to at least put this out there to explain why maybe we’ve just not been as accessible or otherwise socially apt lately.

This is all against the backdrop of major personal issues that, while not directly impacting us are going to have long-lasting impacts on my extended family. These issues have been taking up a considerable amount of what little mental stamina I have, and they really came to a head back in late November/early December of last year.

Generally speaking, though? I’m “fine.” I’m tired. I’m dealing with some health issues that have the potential to be Very Serious but are much more likely to be easily solvable through supplements, diet, and exercise. I’ve had to focus very much on keeping my head on straight for a while now, so my interest in or ability to deal with static in our lives that isn’t related to these situations is virtually non-existent. I recently read about “fork theory”, which is like “spoon theory” but different in a way that resonates very strongly with me. On any given day I can deal with a certain number of forks being stuck into me before I’m “done.” The number of forks I can tolerate these days is minimal at best.

No Pride In Being Straight

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Straight Ahead

I’m a cis-gendered, heterosexual, white male. I’m completely ok with all of these things, and I do not feel like any of them make me lesser or better than anyone else. They are just facts about me, no different than the fact that I have blue eyes and shave my head on a daily basis, and they are not things I am proud or ashamed of. They just are.

I’ve recently realized, however, that I have a major problem with being referred to as “straight.”

I grew up in the 80’s during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. When I was in my early teens I was very much impacted by the culture of fear that was aimed towards the LGBTQ+ community at that time. My peers and I called things that we did not like “gay.” If a male did something even remotely effeminate, they were ridiculed for being a “homo.” I could quickly elevate my voice to a “girlish” pitch, loosen my wrist, and evoke peals and peals of laughter from my companions by pretending to be a “fag.” Along with the laundry list of N-word jokes I knew, I had an equal number of “gay” jokes in my arsenal that I could whip out at a moments notice to any unwitting audience that was willing to listen.

I started to change in high school. I attribute most of that to the fact that I was in an arts magnet program and was actually exposed to, and became friends with, LGBTG+ people as a result. One of the most influential teachers I had at the time, Jay Marley, died after developing AIDS during my sophomore year in the program, and his loss absolutely devastated me. Like many people of my generation, I also attribute becoming part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show crowd to have opened my eyes in many ways about lifestyles and people that were different from those I had been exposed to growing up. My Mother also got a job in a restaurant that was owned, operated by, and largely catered to an LGBTQ+ crowd, so I had additional exposure as a result of that. As all of this was happening, I did a lot of self-evaluation and did not like what I saw so I attempted to do something about it. One of the things I had to work the hardest on was not referring to things that I disliked as “gay.”

At that time, where I grew up, “gay” was a slur. Something that was “gay” was never, ever, good. Moreover, any time the word “straight” was used it was generally in terms meant to express superiority over being “gay.” You never heard someone describe themselves as being “straight” unless it was to directly disabuse someone else of the notion that you were “gay.” Even the “straight edge” movement that went through the punk scene was flavored with homophobia, with the proponents typically being racists and homophobes on top of being against the use of drugs and alcohol (a trend that continues in groups like the Proud Boys today).

The more my social circle expanded, the more I came to realize that the term “straight” had been co-opted by people whom, as a general rule, were not the kind of people I wanted to associate with. So much so that even using the term to give directions became something I jokingly asked people to do (“We go forward in this car. Never go straight. It will kill you.”)

Obviously, times have changed. Being labeled as “straight” is, more often than not, seen as the “bad” thing these days. “Straight” has become synonymous with boring, inflexible, close-minded, uptight, and/or some other word that basically describes lame. Whenever someone in my social circles use the term now, it’s not because they are describing something they consider to be a positive trait of the individual in question. I cannot recall a single time in recent memory when I have heard someone describe another person as “straight” without it being done so in a manner that implies the person is “less than”. At it’s most charitable, it comes across as being almost pitying. Like the poor souls can’t help the way they are because they are just so “straight.”

The result of all this is that when the term is used to describe me, I bristle. In a way that even I find surprising. It’s a visceral reaction I physically feel, and it immediately puts me on the defensive. Even as I write this, I realize my reaction isn’t logical and this is one more thing I should add to the list of issues to talk about with my therapist, but for now it is what it is. Part of it is also because of the fact that while I’ve become very accepting of the fact that I am, in almost every way, utterly and completely average (and I’m happy with myself in that state), I still haven’t quite gotten over the hurdle of being OK with other people denigrating me personally for being so. I have found great comfort in the fact that many aspects of my life are routine, predictable, and unexciting. I’m not so good with people looking down on me as a result of it.

Before I wrap this up, I want to make something perfectly clear. I ascribe no ill intent to anyone who has ever referred to me as straight or to people who use that term to describe others or themselves. The whole reason I wrote this post is because I knew that my reaction to the term was not something that was necessarily rational, but one I needed to figure out for myself so that I could clearly express it. I’m also not going to hold it against anyone who designates me as straight in the future, whether they have read this post or not (although I will reserve the right to ask that they not if it happens). This is really just a data point I needed to sus out for myself and one I thought might be interesting to share.  

Media Bias

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I get very annoyed when people blame the state of the world on The Media. Not because I think that The Media is some kind of infallible institution that is operating solely to make the world a better place. Far, far from it. I think The Media, on the whole, is driven exclusively by the desire to make money, with little to no regard for anything beyond doing so (including, unfortunately, actually reporting the truth).

And it’s not at all their fault.

It’s ours.

We get what we pay for, and we pay for sensationalism. We pay for sound bites. We pay for shoddy reporting that focuses on being first instead of being right. We pay for 24 hour news cycles that are filled with opinionated, blustering pundits. We pay for style over substance. We pay for a news cycle that looks more like The Real Housewives than Sixty Minutes.

We lap it up. Every. Single. Day.

So of course they give it to us. They have to if they want to survive. Look at the number of institutions who were once heralded as being stalwarts of integrity that are constantly diving deeper and deeper into the muck in an effort just to keep operating on a day-to-day basis. Why? Because we can’t be bothered to spend a little money to get the content that would have twenty years ago because we think that online should equate to “free.”

This, for the record, is also why we get the politicians we have. It’s not because of the media, and it’s not because of lobbyists, and it’s not because the Illuminati is pulling the puppet strings. It’s because we vote using the same criteria we use to choose what we consume for news and entertainment.

This is why manufacturing in the United States is a complete joke and why so much of our goods are produced in other countries. We want cheap TV’s, cheap phones, and cheap cars. We don’t care about the number of jobs that get lost or communities that are devastated because the companies in question cannot possibly produce the goods we want and the price we’re willing to pay. This is why we shop at Wal-Mart instead of the locally owned general store.

This is why so many restaurants struggle to provide quality food to their customers. We want a delicious, hand-made cheeseburger on a freshly baked bun with hand cut fries and a craft beer but we are only willing to pay $5 for it (oh, and let’s not forget how our gratuities decrease as the price of that burger goes up). This is why so many of the places we eat at that aren’t flat-out chain restaurants might as well be because their entire menu consists of food that can be purchased in bulk from Sysco.

It’s us. We have done this to ourselves. It’s our fault.

It is my fervent hope that we’ll come to our senses at some point and the market will respond accordingly, but as of right now all I can do is look around at the world and nod along with our old friend Pogo.

Image of the cartoon character Pogo, created and drawn by Walt Kelly.
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” – Walt Kelly

Write about what makes you feel strong.

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It’s kind of amusing to me that I got this question today, because I was just thinking about this concept during my morning walk. I’m currently listening to The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker because I figured it was about time I went back to the beginning to learn more from the guy who pretty much kicked off most of the modern management/leadership philosophies that I practice and teach on a daily basis. One of the things that Drucker puts forward in the book is the notion that you should take time to figure out what you’re actually good at and do your best to structure your life around it (if I recall exactly the allusion he uses along that lines that an athlete who is really good at running track is probably not going to make the best defensive lineman on a football team). Unless I miss my guess, this notion is what gave birth to the Gallup “strengths” based movement.

So what are my strengths? What are the things that make me feel strong? Let’s make a bulleted list and find out!

  • I’m a great student. I can pick up new concepts quickly and use those concepts in a practical manner in fairly short order.
  • Along the same lines, I’m very adept and understanding abstract concepts, particularly around math. I’m not a mathematician, but I have a fundamental understanding of how numbers work.
  • I genuinely believe in the concept of constantly working to be a better person and devote a considerable amount of my time and energy doing so.
  • I am, for the most part, consistent and reliable. I’m also 100% ok with being Average in just about every way, and I’m also pretty content with the fact that being so means that I’m never going to be the first kid picked in gym class.
  • I’ve managed to have a decent career as a professional actor within the scope of my ability to do so while balancing those activities with my day job.
  • I’m a good father, and a good partner. Again, I’m not the best. I know I have shortcomings in both of those areas, but I try to fulfill my role in both instances to the best of my ability every day.
  • My Mom is proud of me. I’d like to think that if my Dad was still around he would be, too.

What is your favorite quote and why?

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I got an email a few days ago from the folks over at WordPress.com inviting me to take part in something they are calling “Bloganuary,” which is a daily writing prompt gimmick with a horrible name that they are currently using to promote the platform. My Mother and Uncle are just winding up a years’ worth of weekly story prompts that I purchased for them from Storyworth.com, though, and getting those little weekly emails with their stories was really enjoyable for me so I figured I’d go ahead and join the “challenge” to see what kind of prompts I would get (amusingly, the notice came about ¾ of the way through the month so I’ve missed most of the prompts at this point, but maybe they’ll keep them going).

I got my first prompt on Saturday. “What is your favorite quote and why?”

Considering the day we had on Saturday, it was a bit on the nose in terms or appropriateness, but I suppose the universe really wanted me to focus on a message. I honestly cannot say that this is my favorite quote, but on the day I got this prompt it was the only one I could think of.

Hugh McLeod Quote
http://www.hydle.com/blog/2012/08/totd-your-sliver/

You cannot have it all. You can only have a sliver of it all. So pick your sliver well, my friend. – Hugh McLeod, gapingvoid.com

My wife Lisa introduced me to this quote not too long after we started seeing each other back in 2012. At that time, I didn’t know how or why it was so important to her. I just thought it was a really neat inspirational post that I could relate to as well. I think I’ve only just fully realized why it resonated so strongly with her, and why that last line in particularly was so poignant that she had it inscribed on an iPad she purchased that year.

Pick your sliver well, my friend.

I’ve known for many, many years that you cannot have everything you wanted in life and that for the overwhelming majority of us a life “well lived” is one in which you realize that fact and focus your efforts accordingly. What is becoming more and more clear to me as I continue learning the lessons that life often feels the need to beat into my head is that this is not an invitation to throw all caution to the wind and seize the day to follow whatever whim is bound to make you happy in the moment.

Pick your sliver well, my friend.

Pick your sliver well.

The time we have on this planet is minimal. Infinitesimal in the grand scheme of the universe, especially if you’re like me and you do not hold the belief that you get some kind of “do over” if you muck it all up this time around. This is it. From the day you are born until the day you die, everything you do in between that time is all you get. When it’s over, it’s over.

And it could be over in the blink of an eye.

Pick your sliver well, but more importantly recognize that there are always trade offs when you do so. The choices you make today could cost you far more than they are worth in the long-term if you do not pick them wisely, especially if those choices harm those around you.

Pick. Your. Sliver. Well.

I recognize now, more than ever, that this part of the quote isn’t intended to be inspirational. It’s a warning.

A Con of Dragons

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After I returned home from DragonCon in 2019 I decided that I needed to re-evaluate my relationship with the convention and whether I would ever go back. I had cut the trip short due to an impending hurricane and a general sense of misery and unease being there.

This was about a month before I quit drinking, when everything I did from a leisure standpoint basically revolved around alcohol. I started drinking when I got on the plane for Atlanta, and really did not stop (except for the morning hours and the times I was on duty…mostly). I was already at a point when even leaving our house was annoying because it just got in the way of being able to drink as much as I wanted, and when you factor in the cost of travel AND the expense of drinking hotel priced booze? Well, it just was not worth it.

This was, honestly, how many of my vacations looked before I stopped drinking. Just an excuse to drink even more than I did at home. I had a similar experience at Gen Con earlier that year. Skipped out on the final event in the tournament that Alexander and I pretty much went there for so we could stay at the AirBNB and drink.

The fact of the matter is, though, that when I first went to DragonCon I hardly drank at all. I could not afford it, for one thing, but more importantly drinking was not a big deal in my life. What thrilled me was the convention itself, and the things I loved doing there had nothing to do with getting my drink on.

I had already decided to take 2020 off so I could really sort out my feelings on the subject, but then the pandemic happened and I had another level of emotion to sort out. One of the reasons I loved going to conventions is because they made me feel connected to people who shared the same passions I did, or who were equally as passionate about things I was not but could at least relate to. Being cut off from that while also being cut off from pretty much the rest of the world made me miss attending the show even more than I would have had the pandemic not happened, so I went ahead and made a reservation for the 2021 show and committed to going.

Now it is just a few short months until DragonCon returns, and I am following through with what I told myself I was going to do and sorting out my relationship with DragonCon. A relationship that will not, for the first time in a very long time, revolve around (or even include) drinking. Why do I want to be there? What do I want to do?

Seems like the perfect occasion for a bulleted list…

  • I want to see and spend time with the friends I have made, and only see, during the convention.
  • I want to dance. Preferably while looking spooky.
  • I want to see and take pictures of cool cosplayers.
  • I want to have dinner at the restaurant owned by Kandi Burruss (Old Lady Gang Southern Eatery)
  • I want to play some games. This could possibly include running the 5th Edition D&D module “The Lost Tomb of the Bitchin’ Chimera”
  • I want to stare forlornly at the vacant spot where the GLC café used to be and dream of the falafel I will not be having. Ok, I do not WANT to do this, but I will.
  • I want to buy a new kilt that fits properly, get my kilt belt sized down, and purchase some new t-shirts.
  • I want to express my gratitude to as many artists whose work I have enjoyed in my life as I can fit in my schedule.
  • I want to sit in a room full of loud, exhausted volunteers eating food made from questionable ingredients while trying to hear whether I have won a raffle prize I will never be able to use.
  • I want to resist the urge to break my streak of walking four miles a day.
  • I want to play and possibly purchase at least one new game.
  • I want a cool new coffee mug.
  • I want to go to karaoke.
  • I want to discover new and interesting beverages to consume that are not alcoholic. Craft Sodas!

I could probably think of more, but if I were to accomplish everything on that list it would be a hell of a holiday weekend. Which is exactly what it used to be like back before having a drink in my hand the whole time was not my priority.

See you in Atlanta, Geeks.

Estimates are dead. Long live estimates.

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The act of estimating work brings no value to your customers.

This is not to say that there is no value in estimating work. There certainly can be. But in terms of benefiting the customer the amount of time and effort spent in coming up with estimates is worthless. A customer does not care whether you hit your deadlines, unless missing a deadline adversely impacts them. Conversely, a customer does not care whether you made a deadline or finished a project early, and for the same reasons. This is also not to say that there is no value in delivering a project within a certain time frame. There can be tremendous value in that, from being the first to market on a new offering or just putting something into production that begins generating revenue or cost savings.

But the act of estimating in and of itself, and the act of basing project milestones on those estimations, has little to no value. Human beings are notoriously bad at estimating, and no matter how much effort is put into attempting to define processes that can help in that effort the fact remains that the larger and more complex the work is the less accurate your estimates about how long it will take to complete will be, so time spent trying to come up with estimates is wasteful.

So why do we estimate at all? Why do I, as an Agile Coach, teach teams about things like story points or relative sizing? What that’s the point?

Being able to predict when you’ll deliver value to your customers.

That’s it. That’s the only reason to estimate work. The methods of estimation that I teach are tools that a team can use to predict what value they will generate during their next iteration, and the more mature a team is the less time they will spend coming up with those estimates. The goal is to eliminate the need to use estimating tools entirely. A high performing, mature team should be able to accurately plan the value they will generate in the next iteration (sprint) without needing to put a numeric value on that work.

There is a lot that must happen for that goal to be met. A key component of that is for external forces (i.e. managers, supervisors, executives) to trust that the team wants to, and will be, as productive as possible without constant scrutiny. That’s a big ask, but without it the whole house of cards collapses.

So when I see leadership teams fret about an organization needing to get better at setting realistic timelines for project completion I worry, because when I see that I see delivery teams spending extra time trying to come up with “accurate” deadlines that are, ultimately, going to be wrong. What’s more, that the time spent coming up with those bad estimates could have been spent doing things that generate value for the customers. The only true value generated by asking a team to estimate is that it gives someone removed from the work the ability to absolve themselves from blame when the work is not completed on time (which is, of course, one of the many factors that lead to teams inflating their estimates).

This is always the point when someone looks at me and asks if I’m advocating some sort of system in which there are no deadlines or expectations and teams just churn out whatever they want in their own time without any kind of external influence.

No, of course not.

What I’m advocating is that dates and deadlines should be focused around value.

I’m going to turn to Star Trek to explain my point because that is, as the saying goes, how I roll.

In the original Star Trek series, Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott is often referred to as being a “miracle worker” because he always seems to provide his Captain, James T. Kirk, with what is needed to save the day despite Captain Kirk giving him unrealistic deadlines. In a typical exchange, Captain Kirk will explain to Scotty what the problem is and ask how long it will take to solve it. Scotty will quickly give him an answer (say, for example, “three hours”) and Kirk will respond that he has 10 minutes. Somehow, Scotty always manages to deliver in those 10 minutes. Scotty eventually revealed that he always inflated his estimates to Captain Kirk because “Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. But the secret is to give them only what they need, not what they want.”

I realize that I run the risk of offending by saying that this applies to business leaders as well as starship captains but, frankly, it does. Estimates and project deadlines are ways that we try to force a scenario in which we get everything we want, not what we need. Without that focus we cannot even begin to have the conversation around delivering with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) mindset.

So how could this work in the real world?

By setting deadlines tied to customer/business value and cost of delay, we flip the conversation from “when will this be done” to “what can be done in this time frame?” This encourages everyone involved to focus on delivering instead of “moving cards to Done” to meet expectations. In a healthy and trusting environment, it also can provide opportunities for external stakeholders to remove impediments that are preventing value from being delivered in a timely fashion. If, for example, the reason that a team cannot deliver value by a set deadline is because they are still working on other projects those projects could be delayed or, even better, stopped altogether (which also requires the existing projects to be organized in an MVP factor AND for the organization as a whole to resist the trap of the sunken cost fallacy).

Some questions inevitably arise when contemplating this kind of scenario. The answer to most of them ultimately boils down to “you have to trust your teams” but I will address a few in particular.

Doesn’t Parkinson’s Law state that work will expand to fill the time allotted?

It does, but that is a result of the kind of behavior that I’ve talked about here. When someone knows that they are being held to a deadline, and that often the deadlines they are being held to are arbitrary and meaningless, they understandably tend to take advantage of scenarios that develop that allow them to take some breathing room. In a high trust environment if a team becomes idle and literally cannot find things to do that are valuable uses of their time they will let you know.

But we’re not doing the work! How can we possibly tell a team when it should be done by?

By focusing on the value instead of focusing on finishing a “project.” Tell the team what you need. Tell them when you need it by. Let them tell you if they can do it, and if not let them tell you what they can do in that time frame. If that’s not satisfactory, ask them what they need to meet that time frame. If you can give that to them, do it. If not, modify your expectations. Don’t change your dates, change the scope of your request. If you’re being unrealistic your teams will tell you. Listen to them. Trust them.

Does this mean I won’t ever get everything I want out of a project?

Maybe it does. That’s ok. To paraphrase yet another frequently cited business world axiom, “80% of the value comes from 20% of the effort.” If your teams can focus on delivering value often and regularly instead of meeting deadlines, you will likely find that it’s ok to not get everything you want. More importantly, you’ll find that getting everything you want can be incredibly wasteful.

What if we’re wrong?

What if you are? Will the world end? Will you go out of business completely? Chances are the answer to both those questions is “no.” If the work your teams deliver does not generate the value that you expected, focus on getting better at predicting value, not deadlines. Ask your teams to do the same. Learn from each other. Run short experiments. Take risks. Spend less time planning and more time doing.

Be, I don’t know, Agile?

So that’s done…

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I’m gonna be honest here, my friends. Well, I feel like I’m always honest here but that’s besides the point. Anyway…

The last four years have been rough. Living in a country that elected that vile excuse of a human being and everything that went along with it was a challenge. If it had been realistic to do so we would have left, and trust me when I say we had a lot of discussions around it (you might be surprised to learn that there aren’t a lot of countries that are really chomping at the bit to let Americans move there). I watched the new President give his inaugural address, and I realized as I was doing so that it was the first time I’ve willingly watched the President of my country speak since the last inauguration, when I sat there in open mouthed horror as Cheetolini extolled the kind of “virtues” that had not been publicly embraced to that extent in decades.

I’m really looking forward to going back to the President not being part of the daily discussion, and not cringing every time that person speaks.

But in the spirit of unity that President Biden is calling for, here’s a few things I’m going to commit to…

  • I won’t use President Biden’s name as a weapon. We have removed our yard sign, and I won’t be wearing my Biden/Harris mask any more.
  • I won’t begrudge the people who want to say that Biden is not “their” President, but I will not hesitate to remind them that he is the President.
  • I will continue to have open dialogue with people who disagree with me on the way the Government should run, but I reserve the right to continue lambasting Nazis, white supremacists, racists, and others who were emboldened by the 45 administration.
  • I’m also going to continue making fun of anyone who still thinks Q is a reliable source.

Gotta get back to work, but I wanted to get those thoughts out.

Momentum

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Perfection is the enemy of good. That’s how the saying goes, isn’t it? I’d take the time to look it up but that’s kind of antithetical to what I’m writing about today. As is typical for me by now, when the year rolled over I glanced at my neglected network of blogs and committed to do better by them in the coming year. I even created a Trello board called “editorial calendar” that has three lists of topics, and I promised myself I’d write three posts a week.

That was three weeks ago. As you can see, no blog posts as of yet.

I almost opened up my editorial calendar to see what I should have written about in this blog on Monday three weeks ago, but I decided not to. I just wanted to get some words down. Get things moving. Get some momentum.

That would certainly be a nice change after 2020.

Don’t get me wrong. In a lot of ways, if I’m being honest, 2020 was pretty good to me personally. I lost more weight. My wife and I committed to making some serious inroads into our financial future and we have done so. I kept up my walking routine and completed a good number of virtual distance challenges. I’ve remained alcohol-free. I listened to a lot of books and podcasts. My team and I have received many accolades and are held up as being highly influential employees in the organization. I’ve continued to go to therapy every two weeks, and I’ve really learned a lot about myself as a result.

But, of course, 2020 was 2020. Pandemic. 45. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. We’re coming up on a year since the lockdowns began, and all the related factors are of course impacting all of us, and I’m not immune to that. The virus has mutated and that version is making the rounds, so it looks like another extended period of extreme lockdown.

I’m also writing this 10 days before the second anniversary of Christopher’s death, and almost a week after what should have been his 20th birthday. We continue to do our best to heal, to be there for each other, to figure out what life is supposed to even look like now in what we refer to as the “after.” It’s been hard. It will continue to be hard. Most of the people around us probably don’t even think about his suicide when they think about us, and that’s completely normal, but it’s still very much a part of who we are now. Part of who we will always be.

I don’t mean to be maudlin here, and I don’t feel like what I wrote above doesn’t even qualify for that if I’m being honest. It’s not a sad fact. It’s just a fact. It is, as my step-son says, what it is.

So there is a post. I hope there are more to follow. That I keep up the momentum. At this point I have to agree with my Mother, who loves to say that as long as she keeps moving she keeps living. She’s living proof that is true, so all I can do is hope to emulate her.

Facts and Figures

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I was inspired to write today after seeing the post below on the Facebook timeline of a relative of mine. I had to go specifically searching out said post because the relative put me on mute a few years ago after vague posting about me being too negative and hateful to follow any more, but because I actually love this person I do check in every once in a while. I would have posted as a comment there, but I have also been accused of only saying anything to them when they post something political. So it goes. Besides, I just spent a lot of time researching my response and I figured why not post it here where people beyond the cesspool of Facebook might find it.

So here is the content of the original copy/paste post…

I am making this post so it will show back up as a future memory on my timeline: Today is three days after the 2020 election. Gasoline is currently $1.80-2.10 per gallon. Interest rates are 2.65% for a 30 year mortgage. The stock market closed at 27,848, even though we have been fighting COVID for 9 months. Our GDP growth for the 3rd Qtr was 33%. We had the best economy ever until COVID and it is recovering well. We have not had any new wars or conflicts in the last 4 years. North Korea has been under control and has not been testing any missiles. Isis has not been heard from for over 3 years. The housing market is the strongest in over 20 years. Homes have appreciated at an unbelievable rate and sell within hours of going on the market, with multiple offers. I hope our new leadership can build on these things and can keep them going, but if I were a betting person I would bet that the only place we will see these results will be in this post

And here is my response…Sources are linked inline.

Based on data collected between 1993 and today, gasoline prices peaked in July of 2008 at $4.16 per gallon during the height of the economic recession. They bottomed out in January of 2009 at $1.73 per gallon during the first month of the Obama administration. The average price per gallon began to rise as the economy recovered and stayed over $3 a gallon until December of 2014, but it had been steadily dropping since June of that year. The average has fluctuated up and down between $2 and $3 a gallon ever since with a few exceptions, but the lowest it has been since the recession was in March of 2016. Prices have been trending higher since that time but dropped rapidly in 2020 $2.63 a gallon in January to $1.94 in May. This was due largely to the lack of demand because of the worldwide impact of COVID-19. As of November of 2020 the average price per gallon is $2.20.

Mortgage interest rates are historically low right now, but that is not necessarily a good thing. Those rates are based on the Federal Interest rate, which is almost zero at this point. There has been talk of that rate going negative, which in simplest terms means that the government would be paying entities to loan them money. The reason why the rate is so low is because the economic conditions in the country are tenuous at best. As of September of 2020, the unemployment rate was 7.9%, and that didn’t factor in the estimated 5 million people who are not currently looking for work due to the pandemic. This also does not factor in the nearly 2.3 million individuals in our prison system, with 56% of that population being Black or Hispanic. The housing and used car markets are indeed great right now – for people who can afford to take advantage of the fact that interest rates are terrible. Meanwhile, savings, certificate, and money market rates are hardly worth paying attention to. You haven’t even been able to buy paper savings bonds at banks since 2012, and even if you could the rate is just as bad on those as it is for any other type of traditional low-risk investments. The only way to significantly grow your money right now is to invest it in the stock market, which excludes approximately 48% of the population (and heavily favors white households with over $100k in annual income).

The GDP did grow by 33% in the third quarter of 2020. It also dropped by 31.4% in the second quarter and 5% in the first quarter. Before that, GDP has had statistically flat growth for the last 25 years, with the exception of the economic recession in 2008.

The stock market has been growing at a steady pace since the economic recession of 2008 but took a major hit in March of 2020. During the pandemic.

North Korea conducted missile tests in March of 2020, and during a parade in October unveiled what appeared to be an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

ISIS Claimed credit for an attack that killed 4 in Vienna on November 3rd of 2020, and has claimed credit for many attacks over the last three years.

There are several upshots to everything I’ve just written here…

  • The President of the United States, as an individual, as virtually no impact on the overall economy.
  • North Korea is still a threat to the United States. So is ISIS. But, according to the F. B.I., the biggest threat Americans currently face domestically comes in the form of antigovernmental, right-wing groups of white supremacists. These groups were emboldened due to the messages sent by the administration over the last four years, starting during his initial campaign and becoming official during his inauguration in which he took an “America First” stance. The America First party was founded in 1943 and was an isolationist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist movement.
  • Most importantly – It took me maybe an hour to fact check and write my rebuttal to this post, largely because I wanted to make sure I cited credible sources and had my figures right. I did not know many of the statistics above until I started my research. I didn’t know about recent North Korea or ISIS activity. Because I work in finance I was aware of the trends in the economy but I did not know any actual numbers. One of the amazing things about living in modern times is that we literally have the sum of all human knowledge to us available at our fingertips. Far too many of us do not use it. Read more. Research more. Find your own answers and do not let memes, headlines, and pundits dictate how you think. And whatever you do, stay the hell away from YouTube videos.