Hello, I must be going
It’s time to move! I didn’t know this was the case until I visited the leasing office of the apartment complex I’ve called home for just about 8 years now, but I was informed that my invitation to renew was rescinded, in its place a 60-day No-Cause Non-Renewal notice. How’s that for a good time? That “no-cause” part means they had no interest in providing any reason whatsoever, though I’m suspicious that they would like to take advantage of the increasing rents in the Las Vegas area and I’ve been holding mine to the renewal rate for too long. Maybe. Just a theory.
A mere 28 hours later, I was approved to move in to the other place I had liked so long ago when I moved in to this present spot, and I’ve already kicked off the operations and logistics of moving. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I had 60 seconds to get out of my home in Sunnyvale when it was on fire, 60 days is really not that difficult. Especially since I did grab the ONE spot they had available, which had only just become available the day before. Sometimes things do work out.
The tricky part? Move-out is Sep 8 or before, Move-in is Oct 19 or after. There’s a gap.
When I would move from one place to another in the Silicon Valley days, it was easy to align the move-out and move-in days (first day of the month?) and then spend the last week or so doing the local move (milk crates, not-packed items tossed in the back seat, etc). A cross-country move is a bit more challenging if it’s possible to get it all in one shot, which I mention because if you’ve only moved locally with the back-seat cheats, then organizing a one-shot move is a different thing.
Here, I will be doing a local move with a delay element, and given the dark times of 2020, I will be visiting my fully-vaccinated family for a few weeks, as a reminder why we don’t all live in the same house all the time… I kid, but things could have worked out in a much less convenient way, so come September we’ll be in roaming mode for a few weeks, which is a healthy exercise if I intend to return to Up in the Air business and life one of these days.
Pandemic and Vaccine Advice
I consume some content from local Vegas YouTubers as they wander around along the same paths on The Strip and on Fremont Street downtown, and when they aren’t wandering they pontificate on the state of Vegas, especially given the current situation with limited tourism and, now, increasing test positivity and hospitalizations and the just-announced recommendation to return to indoor mask-wearing.
It bothers me quite a bit to listen to vloggers and podcasters rendering their opinions about vaccination and mitigation measures and health and safety when they have no subject matter expertise in the slightest. I’ve found this to be true of the Vegas YouTuber set as well, as they render their opinions on what YOU should do if you live in or plan to visit Las Vegas (or anywhere, presumably).
If you’d like real advice in a form that is actually consumable by normal people like us, start with This Week in Virology with the Weekly Clinical Update by Dr Daniel Griffin. He is a legitimate clinician and is heavily involved in the details of this pandemic, and has been throughout. His motivations (as well as those of the rest of the Microbe.tv participants) are driven by science to keep people healthy, not to get views and likes stirring the pot.
Begin here, check out Microbe.tv, I do:
TWiV 780: COVID-19 clinical update #71 with Dr. Daniel Griffin
I stopped listening to the No Agenda Show, JRE, and a host of other “new media” productions as the deluge of conspiracy theory and misinformation got overwhelming. This is not medical advice of course, merely a pointer to subject matter experts, discussing something that continues to be important to everyone. Stay informed and follow up on what you hear from real experts!
If you’re tracking covid-19 in Vegas, I’ve been posting news links in an ongoing thread, which I began on May 17 around the time national mitigation recommendations (and thus, Nevada mitigation recommendations) were relaxed. Aside from a pithy comment here and there, the data and facts don’t need too much interpretation. Follow along if you like (this is the tail end of the thread as I write this newsletter issue):
Pinball Delays…
Speaking of pandemics, I still have a visit to the Pinball Hall of Fame on my to-do list, especially since that was going to be my birthday adventure here in Vegas once I returned from visiting Phoenix (which I’ll be doing again, as I mentioned, for a bit longer this time around). The surprise living situation news and my need to focus on entrepreneurial adventures are higher on the list, and now avoiding unnecessary exposure is right up there as well. I’m going to see when the boring times to go might be, likely during the week, and cross my fingers that I can get down there before things get much, well, worse here in the Vegas area as far as test positivity and other indicators of our public health.
Working On…
I mentioned projects from time to time, and that will continue, but I am keeping a profile page on Buy Me a Coffee with links to newsletters like this one, podcasts, and other such things as they become available. Why there? I figured an out-of-band profile page with a conveniently-accessible tip jar might come in handy, at least as an experiment.
Buy Dan a Coffee profile page
My relocation drill was a bit of a distraction for a couple of days, but now that the plan is coming together I can get back to work, believe it or not.
The interesting out-of-box thing is forming the CasaNunzia nonprofit, which I was initially concerned about with the move coming right in the demo window I’m aiming for. I think I’ve worked out how to proceed, but at the end of the day if it were easy everybody would be doing it, right?
Light Reading
I finished the audio versions of What theDog Saw and Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell (links to author’s website, non-affiliate) and as with all of the Gladwell content I’m consumed (TED talks, books, etc), interesting stories, a reasonable path to the overarching theme connecting the tales together, and as he did the reading for these audio volumes, I found the experience generally emersive and genuine (that is, he reads his words as he intended them). Some don’t care for Gladwell’s writings, I take them as more pixels in the big picture, and they succeed there.
I’m presently listening to Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss (author’s company website, book page, non-affiliate), which I’ve actually checked out from my local library twice before. Three times? Is it that good? Well, it’s an interesting set of stories that correspond to each of the elements he’s assembling into his overall negotiation strategy, and in general it’s interesting. Voss doesn’t actually read the words so it’s difficult to say whether the attitude is conveyed as intended, sometimes it’s a bit haughty. On the whole, though, there are some intensely useful pieces of advice in this book, which I’ve applied many times in my travels, and so it is worth a third listen (and maybe more after that).
How Funny
A little YouTube stand-up, which may come in handy if our un-vaccinated population continues to drive the big increases we’re seeing all over the country (especially here in Vegas…). That isn’t so funny, but luckily these people are:
Kjell Bjorgen is funny with some self-depracation right off the bat, because how do you pronounce that name? Good fun.
Chris Voth has a presentation style that can be tricky, I think. I don’t see it too often across a set but he does… make it work… mostly. You’ll see what I mean here, thanks to another YouTube recommendation (the DryBar is a common source of these, I’ve been made).
A compilation of bits about Tattoos! How can you go wrong? I need to get more clips and sets from non-DryBar performances, but try not to think about that right now and enjoy.