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Thoughts From Abbott’s Inbox March 18th, 2022

Thoughts From My Inbox

March 18th, 2022

Big Spiders, Expensive Footballs, and NFTs Gone Wrong

Five minutes after I sent out last week’s update, one of my team members strolled into my office and told me what a poor effort it was.  Wow.  Sometimes there’s just not a lot of interesting stuff coming through the inbox.  Add to that the fact that I was out on Monday and trying to get caught up the rest of the week, and it definitely wasn’t one of my better editions.  

For those of you who are reading today and not caught up in March Madness (it’s great to be able to stream YouTube TV to my phone while sitting at my desk) or recovering from yesterday’s green beer, there was lots of interesting stuff this week; from Tom Brady’s footballs to giant spiders and the usual security updates.  There’s no ransomware or bad passwords though…  maybe the hackers took a week off?!?!

 

Something About…

 

Giant Spiders
First it was murder hornets. Now it’s spiders as big as the palm of your hand (when they’re flattened and spread out).  I can’t stand spiders. Kind of reminds me of Indiana Jones’ comment about snakes.  

 

We’re Still Hiring
I posted a link to our open engineering position last week, and am doing so again, today.  We’ve recently signed two new managed business technology clients in the past two weeks and there are a few more out there yet to come. Add to that various Microsoft 365 migration projects, a few wireless network upgrade projects, and those couple of prospects who just aren’t ready to admit what a mess their current providers are, and we’re pretty buried.  If you know somebody who is ready to find a new job, please share this with them.   If you’re the person who refers us to a new hire, I’ll even buy you lunch!

  

 

Cryptos and NFTs
Think NFTs are about as logical as the guy who tries to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge?  Not sure what crypto currency is, and whether it’s just another fad (like NFTs)?  This site has article after article about NFTs and crypto, how much money people have lost, how they’ve been scammed, and some of the stupid things they’ve done as they try to get rich quick.

 

 

Daylight Savings
I’ve never really understood all the fuss about daylight savings time.  You set your clock backward or forward by one hour before you go to bed on the given spring or fall night.  You wake up the next morning and you go along your merry way.  Maybe you’re hungrier an hour earlier or ready to stay up an hour later, but by the next day, you’re back on schedule.  Big deal.

Now, the Senate has unanimously voted (so much for my theory that politicians would argue about the color of the sky and the grass, just because they refuse to agree with one another) to eliminate clock changes and to have permanent daylight savings time.  Of course, “the experts” are now arguing whether this is better or worse for our health, our mental states, and our gasoline consumption. While extra daylight on summer evenings is nice, I’m not liking getting up in the dark right now.  Now we’ll see what Congress comes up with.

 

 
Footballs
The football used for Tom Brady’s final TD pass sold over the weekend for over $500K.  And then he announced he was coming back.  That ball isn’t worth very much any more!
Helping Ukraine
Our friends at Elevation Group (Wonderstruck- formerly LaureLive) are doing their part to help the people of Ukraine.  The first 500 people who donate at least $175 (cash or in-kind) to Medwish will receive two tickets to one of Elevation’s summer events (Wonderstruck, Wonderbus in Columbus, or WonderRoad in Indy).  You can get all the details from their press release.  

 
Puzzles

What nine letter English word remains a word each time you remove a letter? (Note- it’s not necessarily taking a letter off the end- it can be anywhere in the word).  See below for the answer.

 
Shared Netflix
Everybody shares their Netflix accounts, right? We have so many different streaming options at home that I don’t even know which ones we pay for.  I know we ‘borrow’ our son’s Hulu account and we borrow his ex-girlfriend’s parents’ HBO account (I think they might use our Netflix account), and I’m not sure whether we pay for both Prime and Netflix or if one of those belongs to him. 

In any case, Netflix, which just raised prices, is now trying to figure out how to charge people more for sharing accounts.  That’s all well and good, but let’s call a spade a spade.  Netflix seems to have no problem in putting out plenty of content, yet they claim that the sharing issue impacts their “ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”  Just say you want to get your fair share and be done with it!
Pi Day

Monday was Pi Day.  Did you celebrate? 

Ted Lasso

Regular readers know that I love Ted Lasso.  It started with the show’s marketing efforts through social and otherwise, and then I actually watched the show. I just wish it was around when I was still coaching baseball, hockey, and lacrosse.  Lots of good wisdom that I could’ve passed on to the kids.   

 

I haven’t watched 60 Minutes for a couple of years, but this story from last week’s episode made it to my inbox.  Pretty interesting story about the show and how it became so popular.  

 

 

Before I send you off to basketball or figuring out the Browns quarterback situation, I also had a few good videos appear this week.  One of Mikaela Shiffrin winning a World Cup downhill and thus the overall title for the season, and a second involving Extreme Balloon Popping.

 

If you made it this far, congratulations.  Maybe you were just trying to get the answer to the puzzle above so that you can impress your friends.  It’s ‘startling’. Starting, staring, string, sting, sing, sin, in, I.

 

Have a great weekend,

 

Jim

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