Because I have a couple of posts that I need/want to work on, and I have the time to work on them, I have of course decided to instead to update the theme on my blog because that was a way better use of my time 😂

Also, because the day is just too nice to not be sitting outside watching baseball (even if it's on TV ... and even if it's the ping of the bat and not the crack of the bat¹)

1. Since the MLB Lockout is still going on and there's no end in sight, I've resorted to watching NCAA Baseball. I have to say, it's really entertaining AND it seems like there's 100 games on each day! ↩︎

Posted by ryan on Sun 27 February 2022

I got a message on LinkedIn from a former colleague of my from Arizona Priority Care asking me:

Wanted to pick your brain on something. what do you think the outlook is for a data analyst? Debating a masters program in that and covers a few things but also includes certifications in SAS. Trying to decide if that will “pay off” in the long run or if I should explore different disciplines.

This was a really good question and I thought about it a bit. My response was:

I think Data Analysis (or Data Science, or Analytics) are all going to play a huge role in business going forward and that it would be a smart move to get a masters degree in one of those. I would avoid any certification programs though, just because they can be less rigorous and don’t seem to have the same weight as a full degree.

SAS is an interesting language, but I’d investigate what companies use SAS and make sure that you’d like to work for them (or in the industry). Many companies are turning towards open source Data Analytics tools (like R and Python). But in general, don’t get too hung up on the tool (SAS, Python, R) but really understand what you’re doing with them. Why would I choose this Standard Regression over Two Stage Least Squares. When do I wan to use a Logistics regression model and why. What does the output tell me, and what is it missing.

Developing that understanding will allow you to really standout.

Good luck with your decision. Let me know which direction you decide to go in,

Best,

Ryan

I hope that I was able to help my former colleague and was super happy that he reached out to me.

I wanted to write this into a more public form just in case in helps someone, or just in case I look back on it at some point and it helps me.

Posted by ryan on Sat 15 February 2020

The Tableau Conference was held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center this year (and will be again next year in 2020). I had the opportunity to attend (several weeks ago) and decided to write up my thoughts about it.

This is an introverted newbie’s guide navigating the conference.

The conference started on Tuesday with pre-conference sessions that you had to register (and pay for). I did not attend those.

Tuesday night there was a big welcome reception that I very nearly bailed on because of how many people there were, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I’m glad I did.

The welcome reception (as well as all of the meals) were held in the data village (basically the convention show floor) which was a little weird but it worked.

In the reception they had industry specific areas (healthcare being one of them). I didn’t know this going in ... I just kind of stumbled into it.

This was the luckiest break I could have had as I sat there there entire night and met about 10 people. Three of them (Josh, Kerry, and Molly) I spoke to the most, so much so that we decided that we’d go to the ' Data Night Out’ (the client party) together.

Being super introverted this was not my jam, but I’m glad I went, and I will go again next year.

Each day is jam packed full of sessions. I didn’t come across any sessions that were not worthwhile, although some were better than others.

You do have to register for the session in order to gain admittance to the room (they scan your badge to make sure you belong) but there seemed to be stand by room in most of the sessions I attended.

Keynote events

There are ‘Key Note’ events to kick off each day. They happen in the Mandalay Bay events center, but there is also an overflow room you can watch them from.

I would recommend going to at least one event in the events center, but as an introvert the overflow was really more my speed. A room that could sit 500 people with only 50 in it ... yes please!

Iron Viz

A take on Iron Chef, Iron Viz was a chance for 3 Tableau wizards to showcase their skills with Tableau and a shared data set. It was really interesting to see the different ways that the data could be presented and the different stories that each competitor told for their visualizations.

Data Night Out

I didn’t do this, mostly because by Thursday I was pretty overwhelmed and just needed a quite night in. I don’t regret not going, but I think I will make myself go next year

Data Culture

I’m going to write more on this once I get my head really wrapped around it, but suffice it to say, this is something that I think is going to be very important going forward for the organization I work for.

Posted by ryan on Tue 17 December 2019

My daughter Abby was in the Robotics class at school this year. This gave her (and us as a family) the opportunity to go to the Global Conference on Educational and Robotics which was held in Norman, Oklahoma.

Being in Oklahoma we had a golden opportunity to road trip from Oklahoma back to home in California, so we did.

The trip went like this:

Fly from San Diego to Oklahoma City via Phoenix. Once we landed we were in the Oklahoma City / Norman area for a week as Abby competed in GCER.

While there, Emily and I were able explore quite a bit visiting Down Town Norman very nearly every day we were there. The neatest part of the Oklahoma segment was our drive down to Washington, OK where Emily’s grand father was born (or spent time as a child ... I’m not really sure).

Once we left Oklahoma we started the road trip in earnest. I’ve tried to create a Google Maps version of the trip, but the number of places we stopped is more than you can enter into a trip in Google maps.

Here are the vital statistics:

• miles driven: 3730
• cities visited: 17
• national parks visited: 7
• Baseball games seen: 3

And here are the details:

• Norman, OK
• Joplin, MO
• St. Louis, MO
• Hermann, MO
• Jefferson City, MO
• Kansas City, MO
• Omaha, NE
• Sioux Falls, SD
• De Smet, SD
• Pierre, SD
• Black Hills, SD
• Box Elder, SD
• Rapid City, SD
• Jewel Cave
• Wind Cave
• Hot Springs, SD
• Cheyenne, WY
• Greely, CO
• Denver, CO
• Grand Junction, CO
• Arches National Park, UT
• Cedar City, UT

We got to watch the OKC Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Kansas City Royals all play and in each case the home team won. This was good because none of the MLB teams we saw were playing the LA Dodgers, and it’s always fun to see the home team win.

Finally, I also learned some things on the trip:

• There's a ton of stuff to do in Norman
• Missouri is really into World War I and its kind of weird
• Omaha is the Silicon Valley of the midwest ... so much so that they call it the Silicon Prairie
• Denver isn't actually in the mountains. It's just really high in the Great Plains on the way to the Rockies
• Grand Junction In NOT a mountain town
• Cedar City is more than just the little Main Street that I've seen before ... we stayed at a farm while we were there

The family is all glad to be home, and tomorrow it’s back to normal life. I have to say, I’m really looking forward to it.

Posted by ryan on Sun 28 July 2019

The number of times an issue is resolved with a simple reboot is amazing. It’s why when you call tech support (for anything) it’s always the first thing they ask you.

Even with my experience in tech I can forget this one little trick when troubleshooting my own stuff. I don’t have a tech support line to call so I have to google, and google and google, and since the assumption is that I’ve already rebooted, it’s not a standard answer that’s put out there. (I mean, of course I rebooted to see if that fixed the problem).

I’ve written before about my ITFDB and the announcement from Vin Scully “It’s Time for Dodger Baseball!”. With the start of the 2019 season the mp3 stopped playing.

I tried all sorts of fixes. I made sure the Pi was up to date with apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. I thought maybe the issue was due to the version of Python running on the Pi (3.4.2). I thought maybe the mp3 had become corrupt and tried to regenerate it.

None of these things worked. Finally I found this post and the answer was so obvious. To quote the answer:

Have you tried rebooting?

It's a total shot in the dark, but I just transitioned from XBMC to omxplayer and lost sound. What I did:

apt-get remove xbmc

apt-get autoremove

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade

After that I lost sound. 10 minutes of frustration later I rebooted and everything worked again.

It wasn’t exactly my problem, but upon seeing it I decided “What the hell?” And you know what, it totally worked.

I wish I would have checked to see when the last time a reboot had occurred, but it didn’t occur to me until I started writing this post. Oh well … it doesn’t really matter because it works now.

Posted by ryan on Sun 07 April 2019

About a month ago I discovered a kitschy band that did covers of current pop songs but re-imagined as Gatsbyesque versions. I was instantly in love with the new arrangements of these songs that I knew and the videos that they posted on YouTube. I loved it so much that I’ve been listening to them in Apple Music for a couple of weeks as well (time permitting).

I mentioned to Emily this new band that I found and she told me that they would be playing at the McCallum Theatre and I was in utter disbelief. We bought tickets that night (DD 113 and 114 ... some of the best in the house!) and we were all set.

To say that I’ve been looking forward to this concert is an understatement. For all the awesomeness that the YouTube videos have, I knew that a live performance would be a major event and I was not disappointed.

I think this is a concert that anyone could enjoy and that everyone should see. This was the first concert where I was both glad to be there AND glad that I had gone (usually I’m just glad that I have gone and have a hard time enjoying the moment while I’m there).

I have the set list below, mostly so I don’t forget what songs were played. It’s also really cool because some of the performers at the concert were the ones in the YouTube videos. Miche (pronounced Mickey) Braden was an amazingly soulful singer, and her part of ‘All about that Bass’ was on point and breath taking!

It was such an awesome concert. I can’t wait to see them again!

First Set

Thriller

Sweet child o mine

Just Like Heaven

Are you going to be my girl

Africa

Lean on

All about that bass

Second Set

Umbrella

Story of my life

Since you been gone

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

Heart of glass

Habits - Tove Lo

Time after time

Encore

Stacy's mom

Creep - Radiohead

Such Great Heights

Band

Hannah Gill - vocals

Demi Remick - Tap

Miche Braden - vocals

Natalie Angst - vocals

Casey Abrams - MC / vocals

Ryan Quinn - Vocals

Ben the Sax Guy - Sax and clarinet

Dave Tedeschi - drums

Steve Whipple - bass

Logan Evan Thomas - Piano

The trombone player was amazing, but I wasn’t able to find him on the PMJ Performers page.

Posted by ryan on Sat 15 December 2018

There’s this new commercial by Apple called Share Your Gifts all about a young creative woman that keeps all of her creativity to herself.

She does a really good job through the entire video of creating neat things, some seen, some not, and then making sure that no one else sees them by stuffing them into her idea box.

Her ideas are only shared when her dog opens the window to her apartment at which point her ideas are spread throughout the city.

People on the street see the ideas as the horrified young creator watches her creations get shared.

And you know what happens? People are genuinely happy about the creations that have been shared with them.

The creator’s fear that people would not appreciate or understand her creations were unfounded. People laugh and smile and enjoy what she’s shared.

It’s a hugely impactful video for me because I, like most creative people I’m guessing, are terrified of sharing what they’ve created.

What if what I made isn’t understood? What if no one likes what I've made? Worse, what if no one notices what I’ve made. What if people make fun of what I made. What if ... what if ... what if ... ?

I like this commercial because it takes those “what if’s” and turns it on it’s head! What if people connect with what I’ve made? What if people enjoy what I’ve made? What if people are happy because of what I’ve made?

The act of creating, for me at least, is less about any external validation, and more about trying out something new and learning, but I still am afraid to share.

These feelings, these “what if’s” can hold me back from sharing some truly fun things I’ve done. Who knows, maybe some of them are amazing.

So what if someone doesn’t like what you’ve made? So what if someone makes fun of what you’ve made? If you hold yourself hostage to the naysayers, and the potential negativity of the world, you rob the world of something truly extraordinary ... you.

And so, with this in mind, I am going to worry less about the potential negatives of what I create when I share it, and focus more on the happiness that it brings me, and the happiness it might bring to others.

Here’s to sharing your creativity ... here’s to sharing your gifts with the world!

Posted by ryan on Tue 27 November 2018

I have been wanting to put shelves up in my office above my desk for some time. The problem has been that the ones that are sold at Lowe’s or Home Depot are not really what I wanted (too short) and I’m not a super handy guy with building stuff (that’s more my dad and brother) so I’ve just been putting it off. For an embarrassingly long time.

Last a couple of weekends ago my dad had volunteered to help me out in putting up some shelves.

On Saturday at 8:30 we started. All in all the process went really, really well. Only one extra trip to the hardware store (it’s usually about 3) and the shelves were nice and level.

Since I wanted the shelves above my desk we needed to move it, and all of the electronics that were on it, and plugged into the outlet behind it. This included a UPS / Battery backup that all of my electronics were plugged into.

We moved everything away from the wall, and then I moved it back. No. Big. Deal.

Now, the timing may have just been coincidental, but the next morning I needed to do some work for my job-y job from home. I took my laptop into my office (with the brand new shelves) and plugged it into the UPS.

I noticed the lights flicker and discovered that the WiFi router (my trusty AirPort Extreme) seem to have reset itself.

No big deal. I just rebooted and we were all good.

Later that day I plugged in my iMac and then stuff got real. The lights went out. I figured that the breaker tripped, but the sprinklers next to the breaker were on so I waded out through to the box and turned the breaker back on. Or so I thought. I came back in and the lights were still off.

At this point I freaked out because, well, that’s kind of what I do. I went back out and turned the breaker off and then back on. Lights are back.

OK, lets try this again. I plug the iMac back in and ... crap. Lights are off again.

Back to the breaker (at this point the sprinklers are off) so off and on the breaker went.

OK, one last time and ... mother f!

Somehow I was able to go from being able to have my UPS plugged in and everything being fine, to not.

OK. Swap out the UPS and put back the Surge Protectors. Everything powers on and we’re good.

Except we’re not. The light on my AirPort Extreme is suddenly not a solid green, but instead a flashing amber. I consult the internet and get a very unhelpful message

These are some typical reasons for the status light to flash amber:

The base station hasn't been set up, or it was reset and needs to be set up again. Use AirPort Utility to set up your base station.

A firmware update is available for the base station.

The base station is set up to use Back to My Mac, but Back to My Mac isn't working or the password is incorrect. If you've upgraded to macOS Mojave, you should remove the base station from your Back to My Mac network, because Mojave doesn't support Back to My Mac.

The base station can't connect to the Internet, such as when Internet service is down at your location, the base station can't acquire an IP address from your primary router, or the WAN Ethernet connection to your router isn't working.

The base station is set up to wirelessly extend the range of your network, but is too far away from the primary Wi-Fi base station.

If your base station is an AirPort Time Capsule, its internal hard disk is experiencing an issue that requires repair.

And suddenly my entire WiFi is down. And I am sad.

I tried a ton of things to get the AirPort Extreme Back, but nothing is working. I finally throw in the towel and decide to to use the WiFi access point from my Fios router.

This means that I have to update the WiFi on:

• 3 iPhones
• 2 iPads
• 1 MacBook
• 2 MacBookPros
• 1 iMac
• 2 Wemo Switches
• 2 Raspberry Pi
• 3 Apple TVs (2 4th Gen and 1 3rd Gen)
• 1 WiFi connected Scale
• 1 Ring Doorbell
• 1 Ring Chime (connected to Ring Doorbell)

It also means that I need to plug my Netgear switch into my Fios router instead of the AirPort Extreme. No big deal, right? Except that it was because I forget that the port that the Cat5 cable is plugged into on a router is important.

I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out why my Sonos and Hue Lights weren’t on my network.

Emily kept telling me to take a break and relax and that was, in that moment, the last thing I wanted to do.

I was able to get all of the iOS and MacOS devices connected back to the internet (via WiFi) and decided that I needed to forget the network and watch game 5 of the World Series.

By the end of the 7th we had the game off and were catching up on CW Comic Book shows.

It was a rough day. But I learned a couple of things:

1. LAN Port 1 on the Fios Router is the right port
2. Sometimes, you just need to take a step back and think instead of just react
3. I have a crap ton of WiFi devices

I'm still working on trying to get the AirPort Extreme back to working so that I don't need to get a new WiFi router ( have I mentioned how awful the Fios one is? ).

Posted by ryan on Mon 05 November 2018

Last weekend I watched both games 7 of the NBA conference finals. I have no particular affinity for the NBA (I prefer the Madness in March associated with the NCAA) but I figured with 2 game 7s it might be interesting to watch. I was not wrong.

On Sunday night Cleveland was hosted by Boston in a rematch of a game 7 from 2010. One of only 2 game 7s that LeBron James had lost.

This game had all the makings of what you would want a game 7 to be. A young upstart rookie (Tatum) with something to prove. A veteran (James), also with something to prove.

What really stuck our for me, for this game, was what happened at the 6:45 mark in the fourth quarter. Tatum dunked on LeBron (posterized is the term ESPN used) to put the score at 71-69 Cleveland. What happened next though, I think, is why the Cavs won the game.

Tatum proceeded to bump his chest up against the back of LeBron’s shoulder, like a small child might run up to a big kid when he did something amazing to be like, “Look at me ... I’m a big kid too!”

LeBron just stood there and looked at Tatum with incredulity. The announcers seemed to enjoy the specticle more than they should have. But LeBron just stood there, the Boston crowd cheering wildly at what their young rookie had just done. To dunk over LeBron, arguably one of the greatest, in a game 7? This is the thing that legends are made of.

But while the crowd and the announcers saw James look like he was a mere mortal ... what I saw was the game turning around. The look on James’ face wasn’t one of ‘damn ... that kid just dunked on me. It was, “Damn ... now I’m going to get mine and I have a punk to show how this game is really played.”

From that point on the Cavs outscored the Celtics 16-10 ... not a huge margin, but a margin enough to win. What the score doesn’t show is the look of determination on LeBron’s face as he carried his team to the NBA Finals. Not because he scored all 16 points (he only scored 7) but because he checked his ego at the door and worked to make his team better than the other team. In short, he was the better team mate than Tatum in those last minutes and that’s why the Cavs are in the Finals and the Celtics aren’t.

Tatum’s reaction to dunking on LeBron is understandable. Hell, if I had done something like that when I was his age, I would have pumped my chest up too.

But it the patience and reservedness (that perhaps come with age) that make you a great player or team member. You don’t really want to rile up a great player because that’s the only reason they need to whoop your butt.

Perhaps Tatum will learn this lesson. Perhaps he won’t.

Because you see, acting like a a little kid isn’t just the right of a rookie.

James Harden pulled some immature shenanigans too in his team’s loss to the Warriors. At one point, with the Rockets up 59-53 with 6:13 in the 3rd, Harden when for a layup and was knocked down ... accidentally in my opinion.

When a player from the Warriors tried to help him up he just sat there and then flailed his arms until one of his teammates can to help him up. Big man there Harden.

By the end of the 3rd quarter the Rockets were down 76-69. By the end of the game they’ve lost 101-92.

You see, when it comes down to it a great teammate will do what’s best for the team, and not do what’s best for their ego. It doesn’t seem to matter, old or young, rookie or veteran, not having the ability to control your emotions at key points in a game (or in life) can be more costly than you realize.

Sometimes it’s game 7 of the NBA Conference finals, sometimes it’s just a pick up game with some friends at the park, but in either case, being a good teammate requires checking your ego at the door and working to be the best team mate you can be, not being the best player on the court.

To put it another way, being the smartest person in the room doesn’t make you the most influential person in the room, and when it comes down to moving ahead, being influential trumps being smart.

Posted by ryan on Fri 08 June 2018

This is mostly for me to write down my notes and thoughts about the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

I’ve noted below the summary from the end of each section below (so I don’t forget what they were).

The first three sections seemed to speak to my modern sensibilities the most (keep in mind this book was published in 1936 ... the version I read was revised in 1981).

I have the summaries below, for reference, but I wanted to have my own take on each.

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

This seems to be a long way of saying the “Use the Golden Rule” over and over again. The three points are:

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want

Six ways to make people like you

The ‘rules’ presented here are also useful for making small talk at parties (or other gatherings). I find that talking about myself with a total stranger is about the hardest thing I can do. I try to engage with people at parties and have what I hope are interesting questions to ask should I need to. Stuff I tend to avoid:

• What do you do for a living?
• Where do you work?
• Sports
• Politics

Stuff I try to focus on:

• How do you know the host / acquaintance we may have in common
• What’s the most interesting problem you’ve solved or are working to solve in the last week
• Have you been on a vacation recently? What was your favorite part about it? (With this one I don’t let people off the hook with, ‘being away from work’ ... I try to find something that they really found enjoyable and interesting

These talking points are usually a pretty good starting point. Sometimes when I’m introduced to a person and the person introduces them as their job, i.e. This is Sally Jones, she’s a Doctor at the local Hospital, I’ll use that to parlay away from something work focused (what kind of doctor are you) to something more person focused, why did you want to become a doctor? Where did you go to Medical School? Did you know you always wanted to be a doctor? I try to focus on getting to know them better and have them talk about themselves.

The tips from the book support my intuition when meeting new people. They are:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people
2. Smile
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
4. Be a good listener. Encourage to talk about themselves
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interest
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely

How to Win People to your way of thinking

This section provided the most useful and helpful information (for me anyway!). It really leads to how to have better influence (than winning friends).

One of the problems I’ve suffered from throughout my life is the need to be right about a thing. This section has concrete tips and examples of how to not be the smartest person in the room, but working on being the most influential person in the room.

My favorite is the first one, which I’ll paraphrase to be “The only way to win an argument is to avoid it!” I’d never thought about trying to avoid arguments, only how to win them once I was in them. The idea reminds me a bit of War Games. At the end, Joshua, the super computer that is trying to figure out how to win a Nuclear War with the USSR, concedes that the only way to win is to not play at all. Just like an argument.

The other piece that really struck me was get the other person to say ‘Yes’. This is kind of sales-y and could be smarmy if used with a subtext of insincerity, but I think that the examples given in the book, and using it in the context of trying to win friends AND influence people it can go a long way.

The tips from this section of the book are:

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say “You’re wrong”
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically
4. Begin in a friendly way
5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers
8. Try honestly to see things from the other persons perspective
9. BE sympathetic with the other persons ideas and desires
10. Appeal to the nobler motives
11. Dramatize your ideas
12. throw down a challenge

Be a Leader: How to change people without giving offense or arousing resentment

This section has the best points, but the stories were very contrived. Again, this goes to how to win influence more than winning friends. Some of the items are a bit too 1930s for my taste (numbers 2, 3, and 6 in particular seem overly outdated). But overall, they are good ideas to work towards.

The tips are:

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation
2. Call attention to the person’s mistake indirectly
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders
5. Let the other person save face
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise”
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
8. Use encouragement. make the fault seem easy to correct
9. Make the other person gabby about doing the thing you suggest

Overall I’m really glad that I read this book and glad that my CHIME mentor Tim Gibbs recommended it to me.

I’ve been actively working to include these ideas into my work and home life and have found some surprising benefits. It’s also helping to make me a little less stressed out.

If you’re looking for a bit of help in trying to be a better influencer in your organization, or your personal life, this book is well worth the read.

Posted by ryan on Wed 23 May 2018