Bloviating Wildly
2024 was a year of doing stuff. It s entirely appropriate that I m finishing this post on New Year s Eve sitting in Logan airport getting ready to head home from the last trip of the year. In retrospect, it s entirely plausible that after COVID restricted our activity we overcorrected slightly. Maybe more than slightly. Maybe even Continue reading 2024 by the Numbers
Some months back I left my last employer and started a new gig, and as a result I am back at zero in trying to overcome my innate introversion for long enough to meet and integrate with a whole new team. It s a lot. It also is an opportunity to reflect on the misunderstanding a Continue reading Outspoken Introverts and Shy Extroverts
I watch a distressing amount of Christmas movies during the season, so this year I thought I d share my awkward obsession with you all in the form of a Christmas Movie Advent Calendar! Starting on December 1st, I posted a new holiday movie each day until Christmas Eve on social media with the tag #XMasMovieAdventCalendar. Below Continue reading 2022 XMas Movie Advent Calendar
Happy Holidays from Ger, Bowser, Yoshi, Koopa, and Jer! Both Ger and I fondly recall playing the games on the backs of cereal boxes (or looking on with envy at the much cooler games on the backs of sugar cereals were were not allowed to consume, in some cases!!), so this year s card theme is Continue reading 2022 Lance Family Holiday Card
I first ran across this thread in early 2021 a couple of months into the COVID pandemic response (and all the stress that came along with that), and I doubt a week has gone in the year since that I haven t thought about it. It lives in the top of my consciousness, and I highly Continue reading Leadership, Empathy, and Burnout
It will come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that books have played an incredibly important role in my leadership growth. The only thing that I can think of that has had as much an impact has been finding opportunities to be on both sides of mentorships, but books have been the most Continue reading The New Leader s Bookshelf
As is true for most of you, I didn t start 2020 with the intention of spending most of my waking hours in the same room in my home for months without end. My home office was, therefore, very much set up to accommodate my normal usage—playing video games, recording podcasts, and occasionally hobby coding—and to Continue reading My Diminished Universe
It s been five years since I first posted a playlist that I humbly referred to as the Best Christmas Album of All Time. The following year I, with nary a whiff of irony, posted a new playlist that also purports to be the Best Christmas Album of All Time, albeit a second volume. Doing a Continue reading The Best Christmas Album of All Time! (Volume 3)
All in this weekend you donated nearly $1300 and I am humbled by your generosity and your empathy. Based on the distribution of the donations (and given the guidance from the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the fact that the Black Visions MN fundraiser ended on Saturday) we are allocating our matching funds roughly proportionately to Continue reading Supporting the Protests
UPDATE: We ve just passed $500! Your generosity is humbling, thank you all so much, and keep spreading the word! If you re feeling as helpless as we are, you re probably looking for what to do to help the protesters in Minneapolis. This weekend, my wife and I are matching the first $1,000 in donations to any Continue reading Donations to Help Minneapolis Protesters
How s that for a melodramatic title? The End of an Era ? My narcissism knows no bounds! Today I have opted to resign from the Penguicon Board of Directors, ending more than a decade of service to the convention nearly half of which as a member of the Board. There are numerous reasons for this, but Continue reading The End of an Era
Periodically over the years I have taken the opportunity to reminisce on this date, the anniversary of my first day without drugs and alcohol. There are several posts to that effect, and I m sure there will be several more in the future. On today s clean date , I want to focus on gratitude. I am married Continue reading 16 Years of Gratitude
It is with a degree of trepidation that I return to Twitter after a month-long hiatus. There are numerous reasons, but my primary justification is that they ve finally started banning shitbags like Alex Jones, and you reward good behavior, even if it s late and reluctant. A more direct reason, though, is that for all of Continue reading Social Media Musings
I tweeted the other day about some quizzes I had taken that yielded results that were unexpected. Resulting conversations ran the gamut from the relative merits of requiring leaders of technical teams to be technical folk to simply commiserating about the impostor syndrome -triggering nature of failing even a badly done test—and I fully intend on writing Continue reading The Cleverness of Intent…
I began planning for this year s Penguicon with the best of intentions. I put together a handful of panels that I wanted to do and submitted them on time, like a proper planner. Then I agreed to be a panelist on a couple that seemed to be a good fit. Of course, I forgot about Continue reading Penguicon 2018 Panels
I ve always felt a little uncomfortable being thanked for my service; typically I wave it off with some reference to the wasteful, frivolous, and dangerous way that I spent much of my enlistment. I don t like to talk much about what my service meant to me, and there are so many amusing stories to tell Continue reading Thanks for your service
If you re in tech and you ve visited social media or read any news sites in the past week, you ve probably familiarized yourself with a certain sad and lonely manifesto that s been making the rounds. (If you re a woman in tech and you ve somehow avoided reading it thus far, it s probably a good idea to continue Continue reading Caught Unaware
As part of our move, Ger and I are getting rid of a number of things we no longer need. Our plan is to put a list below, if you want any of this, let one of us know and make an offer: we will accept the first reasonable offer for each item provided you Continue reading Moving Sale
For the past 20 minutes or so, I ve been sitting at a table at a professional conference—an impostor in the natural habitat of the Business Professional. This brief period has reinforced my outsider status in numerous ways. I don t know any of the words of power that they deploy so casually. I don t have any Continue reading Being a Professional
It has been quite a week for politics, hasn t it? In case you haven t been paying close attention, allow me to catch you up to just some of the goings on: On Tuesday, Trump fired the Director of the FBI, James Comey. He did so citing a letter from Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein recommending Comey s Continue reading Current Events, Russia, and Conviction