I’ve had a full week. Really. I set goals. I made checklists. I made my to-dos and turned them into to-dones.
And for the most part it was a complete waste. My current “job” is to look for a job. It’s what everyone tells you when you are laid off. Your job is to go find another one. So, what’s my current job consist of? Mostly, it’s researching positions and filling out applications. Sending resumes. Writing cover letters.
Did you know it often takes 200 resumes sent out to find a job? I sent about 50 over the past few weeks. I’m 1/4 of the way there. . .if life worked by averages. But, I might find a job tomorrow, or it might take me a year or more. That’s the thing about averages.
But, tomorrow? I don’t know if I’ll find a job, but I will get to be useful. I’ve been useful this week. I repaired a dresser that was broken. I shampooed the carpets in my son’s old room. I patched the walls. I moved furniture. I fixed the slide on my grandkids’ play set. My reward for hours of filling out job forms is to get to work on my project list.
Tomorrow is Saturday and I’m taking a break from “my job.” Instead, I’m working a second job. “Daddy’s Garage” opens tomorrow morning. I have multiple appointments lined up.
A daughter is bringing her Camry in so I can replace the front rotors.
My son needs a new thermostat. Also in a Camry.
Another daughter is bringing her Ford Explorer in for an oil change. (Cheaper at Daddy’s Garage than the dealership.)
And I may do some work on my Yukon. It needs the e-brake fixed and some electrical work done.
As I look back at the end of the week, I will see the job search work as necessary, but ultimately not particularly fulfilling. Maybe I found a job this week. Maybe not. But, the work I do tomorrow will be real. And valuable. And useful.
I’ll be able to say it’s been a good week.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Do you know the difference between a columnist and a reporter? A columnist gets to make stuff up. They get to have opinions. They don’t even have to tell the truth (although it helps.) But, a reporter. A reporter is different. A reporter has to tell the truth. A reporter needs to be dispassionate. Reporters deal in facts, not opinions.
Being a columnist is fun. I write a monthly column for our local paper. Recently, I’ve started doing reporting as well. Last month I wrote an article about the first female Eagle Scout in our little town, Erin Williams.
This month, I decided I wanted to report on our roads. Pleasant Grove has terrible roads. A few years ago the city council passed a Transportation Utility Fee that would bring in about a million dollars per year. The city immediately got sued and the case is currently in litigation.
As a columnist I don’t do a lot of interviews. But, this month was different. What’s interesting about being a reporter is that you suddenly become popular. I sent a DM to a few of the city council members and told them I wanted to write a story about roads.
I heard back from three council members and they set up an interview with the city administrator. All within just a few days. I showed up and I was the center of attention.
Honestly, it was weird. They were unable to immediately answer a couple of my questions. “Let me get that information for you. Just a moment.”
Later that day I sent a DM to the person in charge of the institute that sued the city. Again, a quick response and plenty of quotes for my story.
Am I a real reporter?
It’s like asking if someone is a real writer. Writers write. A real writer is someone who writes.
My story will appear in the paper that comes out next week. It will have a byline and, other than any changes my editor makes, it will be the story I wrote.
I don’t always feel like a real reporter, but apparently I could play one on TV.
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Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Being out of work I’ve had some free time on my time. That means I have the opportunity to help out people in our neighborhood.
There was a woman who’s teenage son had just moved out. It was one of those uncomfortable partings. The son was angry. I’m not sure what he was angry about. I’m not sure he knew what he was angry about. But, it must have been his mother’s fault. I remember being 18.
Anyway, the son was gone, but the mom needed help with his room. It was in the basement and stairs were a challenge for her. I helped move the stuff out of his room and clean it out. Eventually, I got to the windowsill. The young man had carved an unpleasant word into the windowsill.
Stock windowsill. Not the actual abused windowsill
He was angry and it appeared to have been done recently. Perhaps he’d done it just after he was told he had to leave. We were already planning to paint the room, and the trim. I sanded the wood down and repainted it. The boy’s mother never saw it. I made sure of that.
But, as I was sanding out the letters, it struck me how simple I was able to repair the damage. When I was done, no one would know the difference. It was like the words were never there.
But, what about that boy? (If he’s 18 and on his own, is he really a boy?) Those words were carved on his heart in anger. If he’s like most of young men, he would eventually change his mind. He’ll mature and want to have a relationship with his mother. And no matter how much he tries, nothing will remove those words from his heart.
He might soften them. He might work to replace them, but he can’t. He can surround them with love, tenderness, humility and tenderness. But, like a scar from youthful carelessness, it will stay with him.
If only it was as easy to replace the careless and harsh words we let loose as it is to sand and paint over the words on a windowsill.
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Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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About seven years ago, on September 9, 2014, the world got a free album. And they were really angry about it. The group was U2, one of the most popular and iconic groups in the world. Who wouldn’t want a free U2 album, right? I mean, even if you didn’t like U2, you could just throw it away, right?
Well, not quite. It was a digital download, so you just delete it. Problem solved. Who really cares?
It seems a lot of people really cared.
The problem was that U2 hadn’t bothered to ask anyone if they wanted a free album. They simply gave it to them. And because of Apple’s iTunes, they forced people to accept it.
Apple reached down inside of everyone’s copy of iTunes and inserted the album. It turns out people don’t really feel it’s a gift when they have no choice to accept it. Apple (and U2) learned a valuable lesson.
Amazon wasn’t paying attention in class the day they covered “forcing people to accept free stuff is a bad idea.” Introducing Amazon Sidewalk. Congratulations. You’re already enrolled.
Well, if you have an Amazon Echo or a Ring doorbell.
Sidewalk isn’t a terrible idea. (Just as U2’s album wasn’t a terrible album.) Sidewalk allows Echo and Ring devices to piggyback on your neighbors’ network signal if yours should be unavailable. And likewise, their devices can piggyback on yours if their signal becomes unavailable.
Great idea, right? Everyone’s system becomes a little more stable, because now your Ring doorbell won’t stop working if your router takes an unscheduled nap. What a wonderful idea?
Not so fast.
What about security? Should we be concerned that, you know, someone might hack my neighbor’s wifi and be able to access the video from my Ring doorbell?
Amazon assures us that they have taken all the necessary precautions to prevent unauthorized use.
That’s a relief. Wait, what? So, that might happen with authorized use? What if the government wants a peek? Amazon assures us they can’t. But, I’m betting the Patriot Act says they can. (Actually, they probably can even without Sidewalk, but why give them another threat vector?
And, I know all my neighbors. I like them. They’ve been in my house. I’m not sure I want them there uninvited. In fact, I’m sure I don’t want them there uninvited. The icky factor is even higher if you don’t know your neighbors.
Fortunately, you can opt out of Sidewalk. Google the name of your Echo or Ring device with t phrase “How to opt out of Sidewalk.” Honestly, the setting was kind of hard to find. I’m pretty good with computers and it took me a while to track it down.
Would I have opted in to Sidewalk if they had asked me to? Probably not. I only got a Ring doorbell a few months ago and I won’t allow Echo or Alexa devices in my house. But, they should have asked.
It seems like I don’t trust Big Tech to protect my privacy.
Absolutely accurate. I’ve worked with and for Big Tech too much to trust them any further than I can detect my wifi signal.
Oh, and that album that got U2 in trouble? In a fit of universal irony, the album was called “Songs of Innocence.”
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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A young man came to the door looking for work. He was a young man we’d known from the neighborhood. He recently moved out on his own and is quickly learning the reality of living on your own.
It’s not going well.
I need $20 for gas. Do you have any work I can do?
I’ve been out of work for about a month. Financially we’re still doing okay, but with no income, we are watching every doller. Still, we are willing to help the young man when we can.
We have some weeding that needs to be done in the garden. You know, get the Morning Glory out.
And that’s when negotiations kind of went off the rails.
The original Magnificent 7 movie featured a group of mercenaries hired to “shoo flies away from a Mexican village.” The villagers pool their money to hire Chris, played by Yul Benner, and as many mercenaries as he can recruit. Chris and Vin, played by Steve McQueen, approach O’Reilly, played by Charles Bronson.
We heard you got that Salinas thing cleaned up in five weeks.
They paid me $800 for that one.
And Johnson County in four weeks.
They paid me $500 for that one.
You cost a lot.
Yeah, I cost a lot.
The pay is $20.
Twenty dollars? Right now, that’s a lot.
The young man on our porch had definite ideas about what he was worth.
We figure you can get a good part of the garden weeded in two to two and a half hours.
That’s less that $10/hour.
Yes. How long did were you planning on working for $20?
I was thinking an hour. I mean I typically make over $13 working for Bacon gigs.
Sorry, we aren’t going to pay $20/hour for weeding.
There may come a day when the young man decides that $20 is enough money to work for a few hours.
When the Mexicans first offer Chris the job they explain that they have collected everything of value from their village. Chris responds,
I’ve been offered a lot for my work, but never everything.
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Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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RansomWare has recently been in the news. That’s where a hacker takes over your computers, encrypts the hard drive and then asks you to pay a ransom to unlock them. It’s a global problem. The US FBI director just likened it to the threat on 9/11.
You have people in your IT department who spend their entire day worrying about RansomWare (and MalWare and viruses and Trojans, and worms, phishing, and spear phishing, and whaling, and lots of other threats that you probably have never even heard of.) Thy spend their time working on it so that you don’t have to. (But, don’t click the links. NEVER click on links in an email.)
Have you ever wondered about those faceless IT guys who spend their days and nights defending your network? They have a lot of access to network resource. I mean, they are the guys you call when you are locked out of your system. So clearly they can get around network protections that stop us mere mortals.
Should you be worried about them?
In a word, No. You should do background checks when you hire them. You should certainly hold them accountable, but you should not try to build systems to try to keep them out.
It won’t work. And, it will prevent your teams from being able to do the work they need to do. I worked in an IT org one time where it was decided that local desktop engineers could no longer change permissions for users.
That probably seemed like a reasonable precaution. After all, elevation of privilege is a threat vector that hackers often use. In fact, it so common it’s actually called “elevation of privilege.” Yeah, let’s bump that ability up to the desktop leads.
Oh, except now my local DEs cannot get into some of the services they need. They have to ask a Lead to allow them in. The Leads are now spending part of their time granting access to the engineers who are supposed to be doing the work.
Later the same company made a change to the local firewalls. They decided they didn’t want to allow uses to access personal email, (gmail, Microsoft mail, etc.) So, they changed the firewall. Now if you tried to get to live.com, you got an error.
That’s more secure right?
Not so much. Remember the guys who guard the network also know the network, better than any of the executives. So, simply using your computer on the local network wouldn’t allow access to personal email sites.
But, if you use the corporate VPN, you connect to a system in India and the local network limits don’t apply. Personal email is accessible just fine.
You might think that the network engineers, and informed users would let management know that they missed a spot.
No. Because your IT guys like to be trusted and if you don’t trust them, they are going to do their jobs anyway, but not put up with your silly security restrictions.
But, you should still never click the links. Seriously, don’t click the links in emails.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Okay, my fault shared with the late, great Robin Williams.
This is a board game called Pandemic. (Yeah, we used to do this stuff for fun!) Pandemic is fun because unlike most games, it’s a cooperative game. You either all win together, or you all lose together. You each take on a separate role: Researcher, Dispatcher, Medic, etc. Each role is important to the game. You have to work together to combat viruses and prevent outbreaks.
This particular version of the Pandemic game is a little different. It’s still cooperative, but it’s also designed to be played as a series of games. Each time you play the game represents a new month. You either win or lose each month and that changes the setting for the next month. The more you win, the harder it gets. When you lose, the game gives you a little extra help the following month.
My sons and I started playing the legacy version a couple of years ago. We did very well for the first few months. We won the game for January, February, March and April. But, in May we lost. And it was at that point we quit playing. We didn’t rage-quit. We all intend to continue playing. . .eventually. One son went on a mission. One son is in college in Logan, Utah, a few hours away.
We didn’t pause because we lost. At least I don’t think we did.
I’m reminded of the original Jumanji movie with Robin Williams. The game gets suspended and the problems continued until the game could be completed. My son suggested that maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t have stopped the game in the middle of a pandemic.
As the world has made it’s way through the COVID-19 pandemic, one major difference between the game and real life has become evident.
During the game, each player works in concert with the other players. The group, as a whole decides on the best course of action and then executes it. The team acts rationally and cohesively. What we’ve seen in society’s response to the COVID pandemic, is that not everyone even agrees there is a pandemic. Responses have been at times coordinated and at other times disjointed and disorganized.
At times people have even worked against their own self-interest. They have refused to wear masks. They have deliberately exposed themselves to COVID positive situations. Game designers assumed that in a pandemic, everyone would work together to try to beat the virus.
Reality is not nearly as clean-cut as fantasy.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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We ended our Memorial Day vacation a day early. Everyone went home on Saturday. We rested up on Sunday and planned an informal family BBQ on Monday. Many of my kids live within a few miles of our house. They came by for basic burger and dogs.
A few years ago my family gave me a fantastic six burner grill. There was plenty of room for a couple dozen burgers and an upper rack for the same number of hotdogs. I also toasted the buns on the grill. Nothing quite like a fresh burger on a toasted bun.
Anyway, the food was good, but nothing special. My lovely wife opted for a fruit salad instead of her famous potato salad, which is a lot more work.
The BBQ took place in my backyard. We spent last year working hard on our backyard. We poured concrete pavers. We installed a “sun sail.” We added patio furniture to go along with grill. We built a fence. And we added a playset for the grandkids.
And we dug up lots of the ground and installed new sprinklers. All the additions immediately added to the beauty of the yard, except the sprinklers. They made it look worse last fall. The grass was dead and dying. The trenches were strips of mud through the yard.
This Spring we set our sprinklers added some fertilizer and hoped for the best.
It.was.awesome.
Two of my daughters commented on the lawn.
What did you do to your yard?
Yeah, it’s great.
It feels almost artificial.
It’s hard to impress your kids. But, when it happens, it’s awesome. And the lawn did look really good.
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Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Memorial Day weekend is a busy travel holiday. And this year was even more than busy than most. We’ve all been cooped up for months and finally have a chance to get out. And, if where you were was like Utah, the weather was perfect.
We went to Alamo Ranch. I’m guessing that you’ve never heard of Alamo Ranch. I don’t blame you. I hadn’t heard of it prior to this weekend. It’s the name that my daughter and son-in-law have decided to name their 300+ acre ranch in Central Utah. It’s located in Holden, Utah. But, the big town is Delta, Utah. If you go up the road a little you can get to the bigger town of Nephi.
Never heard of those towns? Well, you clearly are not one of the thousands that live in Central Utah.
The point is that the location is gorgeous.
Their house is small, so we all slept outside. My lovely wife and I were in the tent trailer. Kids were in tents and a some slept in their cars.
It wasn’t a major event. Really, we just got together, had some food, went to the lake and then went home.
Sure, there was the time my daughter got her car stuck in the sand at the lake and my son-in-law and I had to push it out since he couldn’t get his truck in a position to pull her out.
And there was the flat tire we had on our way home on Sunday and Google said the tire shop was open, but the angry guy at the end of the phone number on the door said they were closed. So, I had to change it myself. A spare that hasn’t been used in 15 years will be just a little light on tire pressure. (15 lbs instead of 44.)
But, it’s not like there were any accidents or stories to write home about.
My daughter, the owner of Alamo ranch left on the Sunday before Memorial Day to head overseas. She’s a captain in the United States Army and is being deployed to South Korea for a year.
Our reunion was Thursday through Sunday and we were south of Salt Lake City. The traffic on Friday and Monday was much worse than what we had to deal with.
Hopefully you had a chance to get together with family and friends and honor the service members who gave their lives for our three-day weekend.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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“DigitalFirst Leadership” was written by Richard Bliss. The similarity of our last names is not lost on me. There are at least three different Richard Bliss’ that I’m aware of. One of them was accused of being a spy in Russia in November of 1997. One died in a workplace shooting in Florida on March 12, 2018. And one is a Top LinkedIn trainer, founder of BlissPoint Consulting, author of DigitalFrist Leadership. . .and my brother.
Can I be objective in reviewing a book written by a family members? No, I can’t. You can read my review of “Make Bright The Arrows” by our sister Jennifer Bliss here.
However, even allowing for my personal bias, DigitalFirst Leadership is a book that I liked. . .a lot. And I think you will too.
DigitalFirst Leadership is a book for and about the age of social media. Bliss’ choice of medium for his lessons is LinkedIn! If you are not on LinkedIn you might think the book is not for you. You’re incorrect. The book will explain very well why you should be on LinkedIn.
I’ve had a LinkedIn profile for a long time. I originally used it, like many people do, as an online resume. And while that’s still the case, it also does so much more. Almost 20 years ago I was working for Microsoft shortly after it was started in 2002. I was talking with a friend from high school who was president of a major TV studio.
Hey, Kevin, I’m trying to find your profile on LinkedIn. But, there are a lot of people with your name. Which one is you?
I think they all might be.
What do you mean?
Well, I keep getting these invitations to “connect” and since I don’t know what that means, I just click okay and create a new profile each time.
Ah. . .okay. Maybe we should talk a little about what LinkedIn is for. I think it could be really useful for you.
He would absolutely have benefited form reading DigitalFirst Leadership. Eventually, Kevin figured it out and now is very active on the platform, not as a resume, since he’s not really applying for jobs, or likely to. But, as a platform for promoting his studio and their shows.
But, DifitalFirst Leadership is not a sales pamphlet for a specific social media platform. It just happens that LinkedIn is the platform that is used for business. He also addresses Twitter and Instagram, which also have business application.
DigitalFirst Leadership is targeted at leaders who, like my friend Kevin, could benefit from using it, but may not even know it. As technology specialists, we sometimes think everyone understands technology the way we do.
But, they don’t.
I once worked for a very conservative non-profit organization. It was right around the time that Skype and similar “chat” programs occurred. As a technology manager over messaging, I worked hard to get our organization to allow a chat program. We wanted to our employees to be able to take advantage of the instant communication possible with chat programs that is not possible with email.
Chat? You mean like my grandkids do with their phones? Why would we want that? We don’t need our employees sitting around “chatting” all day.
Eventually we convinced them to approve the project. Our employees were thrilled. Our productivity went way up. And our senior managers learned something new.
But, even when companies or departments are technologically “hip” they sometimes still fail to understand the power of social media. While working at Teleperformance, the company created a “Social Media” policy. It included the normal restrictions against sharing company secrets, or posting pictures from company events, or talking about people at the company.
And then they said we were not allowed to post the name Teleperformance or its logo.
So, what about LinkedIn?
What do you mean?
Well, my LinkedIn profile has my job history including my current job, so I how do I keep that updated without using Teleperformance’s name or logo?
Oh, I don’t think we considered that.
Eventually, an exception was written to our company policy allowing us to keep LinkedIn updated. Had our management read “DigitalFirst Leadership” they would have not only made an exception, but they would have designed a policy that incorporated the strengths of social media in general, LinkedIn specifically and Teleperformance individually.
What I Liked
A lot of it. Bliss not only talks about concepts and philosophies, he takes you through real world examples, and offers a pre-assessment to help you gauge your current position and chart your future course. In fact, his advice and informaiton is so relevant that I found myself reading his chapters while logged into LinkedIn so I could make real-time updates to my profile. I also saw my profile views increase dramatically as a result of the updates he recommended.
What I Didn’t
Make no mistake, while this book give a passing nod to other social media platforms, this is a LinkedIn book. If you don’t have LinkedIn and see absolutely no value in it, this book is not for you. Even if you do use LinkedIn, Bliss’s focus is executives. There is a lot of useful informaiton for any user of LinkedIn, but he is speaking directly to the C-Suite. Many of his examples and personal experiences are directly from senior executives. While it’s interesting to be a fly-on-the-wall during an executive coaching session, ultimately, it’s not particularly applicable.
What It Means To You
If you are a LinkedIn user, this book will help you use it better.
If you are a c-level executive this book will be like a private coaching session with someone who is really good at helping people just like you maximize their use of social media. At 158 pages, the book is a quick, but information-packed read.
My Rating
For anyone not in the C-Suite: 3 out of 4 stars
For the CxO folks: 4 out of 4 stars
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
