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| a-beginners-guide-to-tableau-conference-2019-edition | ryan | musings | The [Tableau Conference](https://tc19.tableau.com) 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 chanc… | 2019-12-17 | The [Tableau Conference](https://tc19.tableau.com) 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 … | A beginners guide to Tableau Conference - 2019 edition | https://www.ryancheley.com/2019/12/17/a-beginners-guide-to-tableau-conference-2019-edition/ |
| a-giant-pain-in-the-ass | ryan | musings | Content Warning: This is a highly personal post about a cancer diagnosis. On Feb 16, 2026 I was 'prepping' for a routine colonoscopy that was scheduled for February 17th at about 1pm. For those of you unaware what is involved in 'prepping' don't google it, but just know that your Gastroenterologist wants the 'end' of your GI tract 'clean' This also involves a lot of not eating. So you can get hangry. Or at least most people do. I had felt something wasn't quite right for a while. Nothing I could really put my finger on, I just didn't feel right. So when it came time for the prep it turned out I wasn't really hungry anyway. I couldn't really eat the weekend before either, and had been having issues sleeping. I was stressed about what my colonoscopy would show. At least subconsciously I was worried. On the day of my colonoscopy the staff at the office were all really nice. I even got a "First Colonoscopy" sticker! I was wheeled into the procedure room, introduced to the doctor and told to look at the wall. The next thing I knew I was being wheeled out to the recovery room. I laid there for a few minutes and then I saw my wife Emily. I was still a bit groggy from the anesthesia but I was _so_ happy to see her. It was the best feeling. She came next to the bed I was laying on and the doctor came over. He let Emily know that she may want to sit down. She said she preferred to stand. The doctor then told me that during the procedure they found a tumor. You have cancer I let the phrase sink in ... "You have cancer" ... "I have cancer". The doctor was not very comfortable delivering this news. You could tell this wasn't the type of thing he was used to doing. Emily even heard him saying "at the other place I don't have to tell patients this". I think he tried his best to be positive about the diagnosis, but honestly it was a pretty shitty delivery. He kept saying things like "you're young" (at the time I was 47) ... "you're good looking" ... "you're married" I didn't really understand why any of that mattered. … | 2026-04-06 | Content Warning: This is a highly personal post about a cancer diagnosis. On Feb 16, 2026 I was 'prepping' for a routine colonoscopy that was scheduled for February 17th at about 1pm. For those of you unaware what is involved in 'prepping' don't google it, but just know that your … | A Giant Pain in the Ass | https://www.ryancheley.com/2026/04/06/a-giant-pain-in-the-ass/ |
| a-goodbye-to-vin | ryan | musings | One of the earliest memories of my grandmother is visiting her in 29 Palms 1 2 in her permanent mobile home. I remember sitting on the davenport watching the Dodgers on a small 13" COLOR CRT TV. I remember that the game was broadcast on KTLA5. But what I remember the most is the voice of Vin Scully. I don't know what who the Dodgers were playing, but I remember how much my grandmother LOVED to listen to Vin call the game. And it stuck with me. I was probably about 7 or 8 and I thought baseball was "boring". To be fair, I thought most sports were boring, but especially baseball. Nothing ever happens! But, I loved my grandmother, and I loved hanging out with her 3 and so I watched the game with her. Years later I discovered that yes, I did like baseball, and no, it was not boring. And since my grandmother was a Dodgers fan, then I would be too. It was something that connected us. it didn't matter where I lived, or how old I was, we both loved baseball. We both loved the Dodgers. We both loved to hear Vin call the game. My grandmother died in 2007, but something that helped to connect me to her in the years since was watching the Dodgers. Listening to Vin. As Vin got older, he still called the home games, but he handed most of the road games to a new crew. I still loved to Watch Dodgers games, but I loved watching the games he called a _little_ bit more. At the start of each season I always kind of wondered, "is this the last year for Vin?". And in 2016 the answer was yes. I still remember the last game [he called in Dodgers Stadium](https://www.espn.com/mlb/game/_/gameId/360925119). I remember the back and forth. I remember the Rockies going up 1 run in the top of the 9th. And the Dodgers tying it back up in the bottom of the 9th. And I remember when [Charlie Culberson hit the game winning home run in the bottom of the 10th](https://youtu.be/HayOXW09kl8). I remember the last game [Vin called in San Francisco](https://www.ryancheley.com/2016/10/03/vins-last-game/). I remember the Dodgers lost ... but it was Vi… | 2022-08-05 | One of the earliest memories of my grandmother is visiting her in 29 Palms 1 2 in her permanent mobile home. I remember sitting on the davenport watching the Dodgers on a small 13" COLOR CRT TV. I remember that the game was broadcast on KTLA5. But what I remember … | A Goodbye to Vin | https://www.ryancheley.com/2022/08/05/a-goodbye-to-vin/ |
| a-new-project-at-work | ryan | musings | I was added to a work email that was requesting a not-so-small new project that was going to need to be completed. The problem that needed to be solved was a bit squishy, but it had been well thought out, and it had an importance to it that was easy to see. There was still some workflows and data that needed to be reviewed, but overall it was on a good path to having a `real project` feel to it. One question still outstanding is, what platform will this project be implemented on? In our EHR, or on a separate web app? During my weekly project review meeting with the Web Development team I let them know about the potential for this new project and that it would likely need to take priority over one of our current projects. The start is still a couple of weeks away so we have time to plan for it (as much as we can anyway). We looked at the project board and determined a ranking of the current projects. We decided on the project that would likely get bumped if this new one ends up with the web developers. And just like that we had a contingency plan for how to plan for this project given our current constraints. Now, this project may never make its way to the web development team, but having that conversation with the manager, and then during our standup today, to let the team know that this **might** be something that will need to be worked on by them felt right. No surprises in a few weeks. No randomness about what projects we'll be working on ... just a bit of planning to prepare for something that might never come. Eisenhower said, "Plans are nothing, planning is everything." The team appreciated being in the loop about a potential project and being able to align expectations moving forward. I felt grateful that this was brought to my attention well before it was submitted as a request. The requester now has a bit more information on who to speak with internally, and it really felt like we were working together to solve a problem in a very professional way. I wish all projects started like this. It would m… | 2025-06-15 | I was added to a work email that was requesting a not-so-small new project that was going to need to be completed. The problem that needed to be solved was a bit squishy, but it had been well thought out, and it had an importance to it that was easy … | A New Project at Work | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/06/15/a-new-project-at-work/ |
| a-summary-of-dale-carnegies-how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people | ryan | musings | 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… | 2018-05-23 | 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 … | A Summary of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/05/23/a-summary-of-dale-carnegies-how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/ |
| an-evening-with-post-modern-jukebox | ryan | musings | 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](https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottBradleeLovesYa). 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](http://www.mccallumtheatre.com) 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](https://youtu.be/td-_pUPVjdo) [Sweet child o mine](https://youtu.be/kJ3BAF_15yQ) [Just Like Heaven](https://youtu.be/Fjd1seT1mMQ) [Are you going to be my girl](https://youtu.be/Cdo0lfWoqws) [Africa](https://youtu.be/IUlRavyDP6o) [Lean on](https://youtu.be/nzFJNsij38c) [All about that bass](https://youtu.be/G-N3alxKyjE) ## Second Set [Umbrella](https://youtu.be/OBmlCZTF4Xs) [Story of my life](https://youtu.be/FASi9lrUoYM) [Since you been gone](http… | 2018-12-15 | 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](https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottBradleeLovesYa). I loved it so much that … | An Evening with Post Modern Jukebox | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/12/15/an-evening-with-post-modern-jukebox/ |
| an-introverts-guide-to-large-conferences-or-how-i-survived-himss-2018-and-2017-and-2016 | ryan | musings | The thing about HIMSS is that there are a lot of people. I mean ... a lot of people. More than 43k people will attend as speakers, exhibitors or attendees. Let that sink in for a second. No. Really. Let. That. Sink. In. That’s more than the average [attendance of a MLB game](https://www.baseball- reference.com/leagues/MLB/2017-misc.shtml "Average attendance") of 29 teams. It’s ridiculous. As an introvert you know what will drain you and what will invigorate you. For me I need to be cautious of conferencing too hard. That is, I need to be aware of myself, my surroundings and my energy levels. My tips are: 1. Have a great playlist on your smart phone. I use an iPhone and get a subscription to Apple Music just for the conference. This allows me to have a killer set of music that helps to drown out the cacophony of people. 2. Know when you’ve reached your limit. Even with some sweet tunes it’s easy to get drained. When you’re done you’re done. Don’t be a hero. 3. Try to make at least one meaningful connection. I know, it’s hard. But it’s totally worth it. Other introverts are easy to spot because they’re the people on their smart phones pretending to write a blog post while listening to their sweet playlist. But if you can start a conversation, not small talk, it will be worth it. Attend a networking function that’s applicable to you and you’ll be able to find at least one or two people to connect with. The other tips for surviving HIMSS are the same for any other conference: 1. Don’t worry about how you’re dressed ... you will **always** be underdressed when compared to Hospital Administrators ... you’re in ‘IT’ and you dress like it 2. Wear good walking shoes (see number 2 about being under dressed) 3. Drink plenty of water 4. Wash your hands and/or have hand sanitizer 5. Accept free food when it’s offered Ok. One day down. 3+ more to go! | 2018-03-06 | The thing about HIMSS is that there are a lot of people. I mean ... a lot of people. More than 43k people will attend as speakers, exhibitors or attendees. Let that sink in for a second. No. Really. Let. That. Sink. In. That’s more than the average [attendance of …](https://www.baseball- reference.com/leagues/MLB/2017-misc.shtml "Average attendance") | An Introvert’s guide to large conferences ... or how I survived HIMSS 2018 (and 2017 and 2016) | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/03/06/an-introverts-guide-to-large-conferences-or-how-i-survived-himss-2018-and-2017-and-2016/ |
| basketball-conference-finals-or-how-the-actions-of-one-person-can-fire-up-the-other-team-and-lead-them-to-win | ryan | musings | 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](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_Men%27s_Basketball_Tournament)) 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](http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=23627416) 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 … | 2018-06-08 | 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](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_Men%27s_Basketball_Tournament)) but I figured with 2 game 7s it might be interesting to watch. I was not wrong. On Sunday night … | Basketball Conference Finals OR How the actions of one person can fire up the other team and lead them to win | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/06/08/basketball-conference-finals-or-how-the-actions-of-one-person-can-fire-up-the-other-team-and-lead-them-to-win/ |
| big-data-and-healthcare-thoughts | ryan | musings | [Healthcare Big Data Success Starts with the Right Questions](http://healthitanalytics.com/news/healthcare-big-data-success- starts-with-the-right-questions) > > The last major piece of the puzzle is the ability to pick projects that > can bear fruit quickly, Ibrahim added, in order to jumpstart enthusiasm and > secure widespread support. * * * [Healthcare Big Data Success Starts with the Right Questions](http://healthitanalytics.com/news/healthcare-big-data-success- starts-with-the-right-questions) > > Moving from measurement to management – and from management to improvement > – was the next challenge, he added. * * * [Healthcare Big Data Success Starts with the Right Questions](http://healthitanalytics.com/news/healthcare-big-data-success- starts-with-the-right-questions) > > Each question builds upon the previous answer to create a comprehensive > portrait of how data flows throughout a segment of the organization. Ibrahim > paraphrased the survey like so: • Do we have the data and analytics to connect to the important organizations in each of these three domains? • If we have the data, is it integrated in a meaningful way? Can we look at that data and tell meaningful stories about what is happening, where it’s happening, and why it’s happening? • Even if we have the data and it’s integrated meaningfully and we can start to tell that story, do we apply some statistical methodology to the data where we aggregate and report on it? • If we have the data, and it can tell us a story, and we use good analytics methodology, are we able to present it in an understandable way to all our stakeholders, from the front-line clinician all the way up to the chief executive? • Are the analytics really meaningful? Does the information help to make decisions? Is it rich enough that we can really figure out why something is happening? • Lastly, even if we have accomplished all these other goals, can we deliver the information in a timely fashion to the people who need this data to do their jobs? | 2017-01-07 | [Healthcare Big Data Success Starts with the Right Questions](http://healthitanalytics.com/news/healthcare-big-data-success- starts-with-the-right-questions) > > The last major piece of the puzzle is the ability to pick projects that > can bear fruit quickly, Ibrahim added, in order to jumpstart enthusiasm and > secure widespread support. * * * [Healthcare Big Data Success Starts with the Right Questions](http://healthitanalytics.com/news/healthcare-big-data-success- starts-with-the-right-questions) > > Moving from measurement … | Big Data and Healthcare - thoughts | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/01/07/big-data-and-healthcare-thoughts/ |
| communication-and-checklists | ryan | musings | I've been thinking about communication ... a lot. How well people communicate (or don't communicate) is what drives nearly every problem, either at work or at home. Communication is essential to a feeling of **team** which can help to avoid communication problems in the first place. Once you feel like you are on a team, I think it's easier to engage in communication because you feel more comfortable asking questions, posing challenges when needed, and generally being happier with your surroundings. I'm almost finished with [Atul Gawande's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atul_Gawande) book [The Checklist Manifesto](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Checklist_Manifesto) and what struck me the most about it was the fact that checklists used by pilots, construction crews, and surgeons all had one thing in common. They **forced** communication amongst disparate people helping to start the formation of bonds that lead to a team. Whether constructing a 32 floor high rise building, flying a 747 or performing open heart surgery, these are all complex problems and they all have checklists. The use of these checklists help the practitioners focus on what's important by using the checklist to remind them of what needs to be done but is easily forgotten. All of this is interesting, but you can get to a 'so what' or 'and ...' point. While reading [Data silos holding back healthcare breakthroughs, outcomes](http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/data-silos-holding-back- healthcare-breakthroughs-outcomes?brief=00000152-14ad-d1cc-a5fa-7cff19540000) this line caught my attention: > > However, the MIT researchers contend that the health data divide can be > narrowed by creating a culture of collaboration between clinicians and data > scientists Here's the 'so what' point of all of this. Using **Big Data** to help patients should be what the healthcare industry is focusing on. But this is difficult because Clinicians and Data Scientists don't always have the vocabulary nor the incentives to collaborate in a meaningful way … | 2017-01-14 | I've been thinking about communication ... a lot. How well people communicate (or don't communicate) is what drives nearly every problem, either at work or at home. Communication is essential to a feeling of **team** which can help to avoid communication problems in the first place. Once you feel like you … | Communication and Checklists | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/01/14/communication-and-checklists/ |
| converting-writing-examples-from-doc-to-markdown-my-process | ryan | musings | # Converting Writing Examples from doc to markdown: My Process All of my writing examples were written while attending the [University of Arizona](http://www.arizona.edu) when I was studying Economics. These writing examples are from 2004 and were written in either [Microsoft Word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word) OR the [OpenOffice Writer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org) Before getting the files onto [Github](https://github.com/miloardot/) I wanted to convert them into [markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) so that they would be in plain text. I did this mostly as an exercise to see if I could, but in going through it I'm glad I did. Since the files were written in .doc format, and the [.doc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_\(computing\)) format has been replaced with the [.docx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML) format it could be that at some point my work would be inaccessible. Now, I don't have to worry about that. So, how did I get from a .doc file written in 2004 to a converted markdown file created in 2016? Here's how: ## Round 1 1. Downloaded the Doc files from my Google Drive to my local Desktop and saved them into a folder called `Summaries` 2. Each week of work had it's own directory, so I had to go into each directory individually (not sure how to do recursive work _yet_ ) 3. Each of the files was written in 2004 so I had to change the file types from .doc to .docx. This was accomplished with this command: `textutil -convert docx *.doc` 4. Once the files were converted from .doc to .docx I ran the following commands: 1. `cd ../yyyymmdd` where yyyy = YEAR, mm = Month in 2 digits; dd = day in 2 digits 2. `for f in *\ *; do mv "$f" "${f// /_}"; done` [\^1](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2709458/bash-script-to-replace-spaces-in-file-names)\- this would replace the space character with an underscore. this was needed so I could run the next command 3. `for file in $(ls *.docx); do pandoc -s -S "${file}" -o "${file%docx}md"… | 2016-10-07 | # Converting Writing Examples from doc to markdown: My Process All of my writing examples were written while attending the [University of Arizona](http://www.arizona.edu) when I was studying Economics. These writing examples are from 2004 and were written in either [Microsoft Word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word) OR the [OpenOffice Writer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org) Before getting the files onto [Github …](https://github.com/miloardot/) | Converting Writing Examples from doc to markdown: My Process | https://www.ryancheley.com/2016/10/07/converting-writing-examples-from-doc-to-markdown-my-process/ |
| did-you-try-restarting-it | ryan | musings | 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!”](/setting-up-itfdb-with-a-voice.html). 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. | 2019-04-07 | 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 … | Did you try restarting it? | https://www.ryancheley.com/2019/04/07/did-you-try-restarting-it/ |
| djangocon-us-2024 | ryan | musings | # DjangoCon US 2024 I was able to attend [DCUS 2024](https://2024.djangocon.us) this year in Durham from September 22 - September 27, and just like in 2023, it was an amazing experience. I gave another [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLYaAYY4JPc) (hooray!) and got to hang out with some truly amazing people, many of whom I call my friends. I was fortunate in that my talk was on Monday morning, so as soon as my talk was done, I could focus on the conference and less on being nervous about my talk! One thing I took advantage of this year, that I didn't in previous years, was the 'Hallway Track'. I really enjoyed that time on Monday afternoon to decompress with some of the other speakers in the lobby. One of the talks that I was able to watch since the conference was [Troubleshooting is a Lifestyle 😎](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7iUKbug82k) which had this great note: Asking for help is not a sign of failure - it's a strategy. I am bummed that I missed a few talks live ([Product 101 for Techies and Tech Teams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75M0MC66H2o), [Passkeys: Your password- free future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylv_k8TRpPk), and [Django: the web framework that changed my life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Urp3RsKLY)) but I will go back and watch them in the next several days and I'm really looking forward to that. There is a great [playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2NFhrDSOxgWqE_5w5CX2iUR7-P1D0ny7) of ALL of the talks from this year (and previous years) that I highly recommend you search through and watch! A few others have written about their experiences ([Mario Munoz](https://pythonbynight.com/blog/djangocon-2024) and [Will Vincent](https://wsvincent.com/djangoconus-recap/)) and you should totally read those. Some of the ## The Food DCUS via the culinary experience! Durham has some of the best food and I would go back again JUST for the food. Some of my highlights were * [Cheeni](https://www.cheenidurham.com/) * [Thaiangle of Durham](https://www.thaiangl… | 2024-11-17 | # DjangoCon US 2024 I was able to attend [DCUS 2024](https://2024.djangocon.us) this year in Durham from September 22 - September 27, and just like in 2023, it was an amazing experience. I gave another [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLYaAYY4JPc) (hooray!) and got to hang out with some truly amazing people, many of whom I call my … | DjangoCon US 2024 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/11/17/djangocon-us-2024/ |
| epic-family-road-trip-2019-edition | ryan | musings | 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](https://kipr.org/global-conference-on-educational- 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 … | 2019-07-28 | 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](https://kipr.org/global-conference-on-educational- robotics) which was held in Norman, Oklahoma. Being in Oklahoma we had a golden opportunity to road trip from … | Epic Family Road trip - 2019 edition | https://www.ryancheley.com/2019/07/28/epic-family-road-trip-2019-edition/ |
| error-culture | ryan | musings | ## What is Error Culture? It's inevitable that at some point a service 1 will fail. When that service fails you can either choose to be alerted, or not. Because technology is so important to so many aspects of work, not getting an alert for a failing service isn't really an option. So we enable alerts ... for EVERYTHING. This is good in that we know when things have gone bad ... but it's bad in that we can start to ignore these alerts because we get false positives. If you hear comments like, > Oh yeah, that error always comes up, but we just ignore it because it > doesn't mean anything or > We don't really know why that error occurs, but it doesn't seem to impact > anything, so we just ignore it This is what I am calling, "Error Culture". ## OK, but why is that bad? Initially, it might not _feel_ bad. **EVERYONE** knows that you can ignore that error because it doesn't mean anything. Of course, this knowledge tends to **NOT** be documented anywhere, so when you onboard new team members they don't know what **EVERYONE** knows ... because they weren't part of the **EVERYONE** that learned the lesson. Additionally, if you're getting error messages and nothing truly bad every happens, then a few things can happen: 1. People start to question ALL of the alerts. I mean, if this one isn't valid, why is this OTHER one valid? Maybe I can ignore both 🤷♂️ 2. You may be getting an alert about a small thing that can be ignored until it's a BIG thing. I think this image does good job of illustrating the point (found [here](https://naksecurity.medium.com/the-detriments-of-hero-culture-3fc455963d6e))  ## Why does it happen? In general, I've found that error culture can happen for a few reason ### Error Fatigue If you get 1000 alerts every day, you're not going to be able to do anything about anything. This is similar phenomenon to 'Alert Fatgiue' which can happen in software applications (my experi… | 2023-10-29 | ## What is Error Culture? It's inevitable that at some point a service 1 will fail. When that service fails you can either choose to be alerted, or not. Because technology is so important to so many aspects of work, not getting an alert for a failing service isn't really an … | Error Culture | https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/10/29/error-culture/ |
| error-culture-part-ii | ryan | musings | In my last post I spoke about the idea of [Error Culture](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/10/29/error-culture/). In that post I define what error culture. This time I'll talk about when it starts to happen. For a recap go back and read that before diving in here. # When does error culture start? Error culture can start because of internal reason, external reason, or both and are almost always driven by the best of intentions. Error culture starts to happen because we don't finish the alert process. That is, we set up the alerts, but we don't indicate why they are important or what to do about them when we're notified. ## Internal Internal pressures driving error culture can usually be traced back to someone (usually someone important 1) declaring that ‘we’ need to be notified of when ‘this’ happens again. In and of itself self, this is actually a really good idea. But if the important person doesn't identify **why** we need to be notified all that happens is that an alert is set up and NO ONE knows what to do when it fires off. The opposite side of the coin here is being proactive in wanting to be notified when a bad thing **might** happen and being notified **might** be useful. Again, if there is no definition for why the alert might be useful, you're simply creating noise and encouraging alerts to be ignored. ## External External pressures that can drive error culture are similar to internal ones. There are some slight differences though. For example, a consultant might indicate that it is `best practice TM` to be notified of an alert. However, they don't provide more context for why it's best practice. It could very well be that the recommendation IS best practice, but for a user base that is 100x your user base, or for an organization that is 1/10th your size. Context matters and while best practices should scale, they don't always. Another example of external drivers are software applications provided by third party vendors with default alerts enabled but no context or steps for resolution. Sometim… | 2023-11-09 | In my last post I spoke about the idea of [Error Culture](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/10/29/error-culture/). In that post I define what error culture. This time I'll talk about when it starts to happen. For a recap go back and read that before diving in here. # When does error culture start? Error culture can … | Error Culture Part II | https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/11/09/error-culture-part-ii/ |
| error-culture-part-iii | ryan | musings | # How can I tell if I'm in an error culture? In part 1 I spoke about the idea of [Error Culture](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/10/29/error-culture/). In that post I define what error culture. In part 2 I spoke when [Error Culture](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/11/09/error-culture-part-ii/) starts. This time I'll talk about how you can tell if you're living in an Error Culture, and what you can do about it. Below are a couple of tell-tale signs I've found to determine if you're living in an error culture. ## Email Rules You start your day and fire up your email client. As the application opens up you see the number of unread message go from 500 down to 20. You think back to a time when you would open your email client and have to trod through ALL 500 of those emails. Now though ... now you've outsmarted the email system by implementing several rules to ignore or hide those pesky emails that don't seem to mean anything. ## Instinct to just delete emails Maybe you don't know about the amazing opportunities that email client rules offer, so you start going through your emails. You delete the ones you **know** aren't useful or don't mean anything. Or maybe you do know about rules and of the remaining 20 you notice a few new emails that you don't need to act on. Your first instinct is to delete them, but you remember you are a smart email user and create a new rule to get rid of those emails as well. ## Why do I get this email anyway? If you use rules, you recall a time before you had them. A time when you would methodically read each email and write down a quick note to ask a co-worker, or your boss at your next one on one. But when you brought up the alerts you had one of two reactions: * Oh those ... yeah, you can just delete them. They don't mean anything * Ugh ... how do you **not** know what that is for? Fine, let me explain it to you ... **again** The first item is definitely error culture. The second response could be error culture if the person you've asked is just so overwhelmed with all o… | 2023-11-14 | # How can I tell if I'm in an error culture? In part 1 I spoke about the idea of [Error Culture](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/10/29/error-culture/). In that post I define what error culture. In part 2 I spoke when [Error Culture](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/11/09/error-culture-part-ii/) starts. This time I'll talk about how you can tell if you're living … | Error Culture Part III | https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/11/14/error-culture-part-iii/ |
| firebirds-2024-25-season | ryan | musings | The 2024-25 season for the [Coachella Valley Firebirds](https://cvfirebirds.com/) ended on [May 9th with a 2-0](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027712) loss to the [Abbotsford Canucks](https://abbotsford.canucks.com/). Overall, that series saw the Firebirds score * one goal in [Game 1](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027709) * one goal in [Game 2](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027710) * five goals in [Game 3](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027711) * no goals in [Game 4](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027712) This isn't surprising given exactly how young the Firebirds were this season, but it was disappointing. [Coach Laxdal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Laxdal) talked a lot about how young the team was and how on any given night we would have anywhere from seven to nine rookies that were in the starting lineup. And in a team of 24, that's a pretty big portion of guys out there who are very young. That being said the disappointment is palpable the this is the earliest that the Firebirds have ever exited the postseason. Granted this is only their third year but we are typically used to seeing hockey for another seven weeks. When put into that perspective, it is really disappointing. Still, I think there were some really bright spots from this year, including [Leyton Roed](https://theahl.com/stats/player/10083/88/lleyton-roed), [Jani Nyman](https://theahl.com/stats/player/10127/88/jani-nyman), [Nikke Kokko](https://theahl.com/stats/player/10186/88/nikke-kokko), [Ryan Winterton](https://theahl.com/stats/player/9766/88/ryan-winterton), and [Ty Nelson](https://theahl.com/stats/player/9764/88/ty-nelson). At the start of the season, I did indicate to a friend of mine (who also has season tickets) that I had pretty low expectations for the Firebirds and may have even indicated I wasn't sure that they would make the playoffs. The Pacific Division has 10 teams and 7 of them make the playoffs. I may have been a bit too pesimisitic in that analysis. During the first… | 2025-05-21 | The 2024-25 season for the [Coachella Valley Firebirds](https://cvfirebirds.com/) ended on [May 9th with a 2-0](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027712) loss to the [Abbotsford Canucks](https://abbotsford.canucks.com/). Overall, that series saw the Firebirds score * one goal in [Game 1](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027709) * one goal in [Game 2](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027710) * five goals in [Game 3](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027711) * no goals in [Game 4](https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1027712) This isn't surprising … | Firebirds 2024-25 Season | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/05/21/firebirds-2024-25-season/ |
| firebirds-inaugural-season | ryan | musings | On Wednesday June 21, 2023 the local sports puck team (i.e. Hockey), the [Coachella Valley Firebirds](https://cvfirebirds.com/) hosted [Game 7](https://theahl.com/stats/game-center/1025179) of the [Calder Cup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_Cup) Finals against the [Hershey Bears](https://www.hersheybears.com/). There are sports writers that can write on how the series went, better than I can so I'll leave that to the pros. What I will talk about is why watching that game and seeing the Firebirds lose in Overtime hit me so hard. I'm generally an introverted person. Even before the pandemic, I wasn't particularly fond of attending crowded events. The pandemic only intensified my preference for solitude. Suddenly, I found myself being advised to avoid social interactions altogether. As an introvert, the circumstances necessitating isolation weren't exactly ideal for me, but I did appreciate the fact that my family and I had to isolate. However, after 2+ years of isolating from most everyone, being in large groups would bring out anxiety. And when I say large groups I mean like 10, maybe 15 people. On December 18th there was work holiday get together, the first one since the pandemic started. There were about 100 people in a mostly enclosed space and I did not do well with it. Super anxious, wore a mask the entire time, and generally ducked into the closet that also serves as my office more than once just to get away from people. That same night was the home opener for the Firebirds at Acrisure Arena (due to construction delays their home arena opened 2 1/2 months after the start of the season). I didn't know it at the time, but it was a sell out (attendance of 10,087). This meant that I was going to a sporting event, in an enclosed arena with 10,000+ people. To say that I nearly lost my shit would be an understatement. The only thing that really got me to go was that the tickets I had purchased weren't cheap, and my wife and I were going with another couple friend. That [first home game](https://theahl.co… | 2023-07-01 | On Wednesday June 21, 2023 the local sports puck team (i.e. Hockey), the [Coachella Valley Firebirds](https://cvfirebirds.com/) hosted [Game 7](https://theahl.com/stats/game-center/1025179) of the [Calder Cup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_Cup) Finals against the [Hershey Bears](https://www.hersheybears.com/). There are sports writers that can write on how the series went, better than I can so I'll leave that to … | Firebirds Inaugural Season | https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/07/01/firebirds-inaugural-season/ |
| getting-asked-for-advice-on-being-a-data-analyst | ryan | musings | I got a message on LinkedIn from a former colleague of my from [Arizona Priority Care](https://azprioritycare.com) 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. | 2020-02-15 | I got a message on LinkedIn from a former colleague of my from [Arizona Priority Care](https://azprioritycare.com) 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 … | Getting asked for Advice on being a Data Analyst | https://www.ryancheley.com/2020/02/15/getting-asked-for-advice-on-being-a-data-analyst/ |
| himss-2017-day-0 | ryan | musings | I'm in Orlando for [HIMSS17](http://www.himssconference.org) and and pretty pumped for my day one session tomorrow which is titled: Business Intelligence Best Practices: A Strong Foundation for Organizational Success. Conferences are always a bit overwhelming, but this one is more overwhelming than most. More than 40,000 people all gathered in one convention center to discuss Healthcare Tech. Kind of awesome and scary! I'm looking forward to visiting some booths in the exhibition hall, and wandering around and stumbling onto some great new things / ideas. I'm going to write up my impressions of the days events, hopefully including notes, and links to tweets because the tweets will be raw and most uncensored impressions of what I'm seeing / hearing. Here's the HIMSS 2017! | 2017-02-19 | I'm in Orlando for [HIMSS17](http://www.himssconference.org) and and pretty pumped for my day one session tomorrow which is titled: Business Intelligence Best Practices: A Strong Foundation for Organizational Success. Conferences are always a bit overwhelming, but this one is more overwhelming than most. More than 40,000 people all gathered in … | HIMSS 2017 - Day 0 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/02/19/himss-2017-day-0/ |
| himss-day-1-impressions | ryan | musings | I was able to make it to 5 educational sessions today. And the good thing is that I learned something at each one. I think the highlight of the day for me was actually my first session titled, _Stacking Predictive Models to Reduce Readmissions_. A couple of key things from that presentation was the idea of focusing on a patient that readmits, not just from a clinical perspective, but from a human perspective. There were lots of technology that they used to help the care coordinators identify who was going to readmit, but the why of the readmission was always done via human interaction. I think that may be the single most important thing to remember. Something else that was mentioned was that the grou got their tool out quickly instead of trying to be perfect. It went through a couple of iterations in order to get a tool that was usable by all their various clinics. Some other key takeaways from today: * We need to focus on Augmented Human Intelligence instead of Artificial Intelligence (from **How Machine Learning and AI Are Disrupting the Current Healthcare System** ) * Don’t treat Cloud Service Providers as **Plug and Play** vendors (from _HIPAA and a Cloud Computing Shared Security Model_ ) * Creation of a committee of ‘No’ to help flesh out ideas before they are implemented (from **Intrapreneurship and the Approach to Innovation From Within** ) * Think about how to operationalize insights from data, and not just explore the data (from **Beyond BI: Building Rapid-Response Advanced Analytics Unit** ) That’s a wrap on day 1 at HIMSS. Day 2 looks to be just as exciting (meet with some vendors, attend some more educational sessions, go to a sponsored luncheon). | 2018-03-07 | I was able to make it to 5 educational sessions today. And the good thing is that I learned something at each one. I think the highlight of the day for me was actually my first session titled, _Stacking Predictive Models to Reduce Readmissions_. A couple of key things from … | HIMSS Day 1 Impressions | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/03/07/himss-day-1-impressions/ |
| himss-day-2 | ryan | musings | Day 2 was a bit more draining than day 1, but that was mostly because I made my way into the exhibition hall for the first time. That many people and that much cacophony always leave me a bit ... drained. On the flip side I went to several good presentations (a couple on Block Chain). Today’s sessions were: * Empowering Data Driven Health * Blockchain 4 Healthcare: Fit for Purpose * The Use of Blockchain to Improve Quality Outcomes One of the more interesting things I heard today was that in Health Care, tech spending has gone up (over the last 20 years) but so has overall health spending. Usually we see Tech spending go up and other spending levels off (or goes down!). Something else to consider (that I never had) was that “we need to think about doing what’s most cost effective for a person in their **lifetime** not just episodically! The Blockchain sessions I went to were enlightening, but I’m still not sure I understand what it is and how it works (perhaps I’m just trying to make it more complicated than it is). That being said, the consensus was that Blockchain is not a panacea for all the ails us. It is a tool that should be used in conjunction with current systems, not a replacement of those systems. Something else of note, there isn’t a single implementation of Block Chain, there are almost 20 variations of it (although the IEEE is working on standardizing it). This leads me to believe that it is simply too new and too ‘wild’ to be implemented just yet. That being said, I think that if/when Microsoft bundles or includes BlockChain (in some way) into SQL Server, then it might be the time to look at implementing it in my organization. In my last session (another on eon BlockChain) the idea of using BlockChain to effect quality measures was discussed. The main point of the speaker was that Blockchain may allow us to give agency to patients over their health data. Another interesting point was that Blockchain may be able to allow us to dynamically observe quality measurement instead of just a… | 2018-03-08 | Day 2 was a bit more draining than day 1, but that was mostly because I made my way into the exhibition hall for the first time. That many people and that much cacophony always leave me a bit ... drained. On the flip side I went to several good presentations … | HIMSS Day 2 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/03/08/himss-day-2/ |
| himss-day-3 | ryan | musings | One of the issues that any medium- to large-organization can encounter is how to deal with requests that place a requirement of work from one department to another. Specifically, requests for something shiny and new (especially technology). In the first educational session of the day, **Strategic Portfolio Management: “Governing the Ungoverned”** I heard [Effie Econompolous](https://www.linkedin.com/in/effie-economopoulos-94a23a6/ "Effie Economopoulos") discuss UI Health’s transformation from an organization that had very little control over their IT projects to one that has transformed into a highly regulated Project Management Organization. My key takeaways from this talk were: * segregation of Projects (with a capital P) from Incidents and Problems * The IT Roadmap was posted on the intranet for all to see * Projects that are ‘IT’ related don’t just include the time of resources from IT, but also time and resources from impacted departments throughout the organization These are some amazing points. My only real question was, If you segregate Projects from Incidents and Problems, how do you ‘train’ users for Project submission. How are they do know the difference between the two (sometimes users aren’t even sure which system is broken when reporting problems in the first place). I’m not sure of the answer, but I’m sure it’s just thought more education and tighter controls over submission of requests. There was a real time poll during the session which asked, ‘What is the most significant challenge in your organization?’. Fifty percent of attendees that responded indicated inconsistent priorities as the (which is what I answered as well). Turns out, we’re not alone. A lot of the talk focused on the process that UI Health uses which had gone through 3 iterations in 2 years. It seemed like it would work for a large(ish) hospital or hospital system, but seemed too bureaucratic for my organization. Overall, a very good talk and I’m glad I went. I believe I have some real actionable ideas that I can take… | 2018-03-08 | One of the issues that any medium- to large-organization can encounter is how to deal with requests that place a requirement of work from one department to another. Specifically, requests for something shiny and new (especially technology). In the first educational session of the day, **Strategic Portfolio Management: “Governing the …** | HIMSS Day 3 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/03/08/himss-day-3/ |
| himss-recap, Conferences | ryan | musings | I've gone through all of my notes, reviewed all of the presentations and am feeling really good about my experience at HIMSS. Takeaways: 1. We need to get ADT enabled for the local hospitals 2. We need to have a governance system set up for a variety of things, including data, reporting, and IT based projects Below are the educational sessions (in no particular order) I attended and my impressions. Mostly a collection of _interesting_ facts (I've left the Calls to Action for my to do list). **Choosing the Right IT Projects to Deliver Strategic Value** presented by [Tom Selva](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-selva-49207351) and [Seth Katz](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethjeremykatz) they really hit home the idea that there is a relationship between culture and governance. The culture of the organization has to be ready to accept the accountability that will come with governance. They also indicated that process is the most important part of governance. Without process you **CANNOT** have governance. In addition to great advice, they had great implementation strategies including the idea of requiring all IT projects to have an elevator pitch and a more formal 10 minute presentation on why the project should be done and in what way it aligned with the strategy of the organization. **Semantic data analysis for interoperability** presented by [Richard E. Biehl, Ph.D.](http://iems.ucf.edu/mshse) showed me that there was an aspect of data that I hadn't ever had to think about. What to do when multiple systems are brought together and define the same word or concept in different ways. Specifically,, "Semantic challenge is the idea of a shared meaning or the data that is shared". The example on relating the concept of a migraine from ICD to SNOMED and how they can result in mutually exclusive definitions of the same 'idea' was something I hadn't ever really considered before. **Next Generation IT Governance: Fully-Integrated and Operationally-Led** presented by [Ryan Bosch, MD, MBAEHS](https://www.linkedin.c… | 2017-02-25 | I've gone through all of my notes, reviewed all of the presentations and am feeling really good about my experience at HIMSS. Takeaways: 1. We need to get ADT enabled for the local hospitals 2. We need to have a governance system set up for a variety of things, including data, reporting … | HIMSS Recap | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/02/25/himss-recap, Conferences/ |
| himss-review | ryan | musings | I had meant to do a write up of each day of my HIMSS experience, but time got away from me, as did the time zone change, and here I am at the end of HIMSS experience with only my day 0 notes down on _paper_. Day 1 started with a rousing Keynote by Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM. The things that struck me most about her keynote were here sense of optimism about the future sprinkled with some caution about AI, Machine Learning and Big Data. She reminded us that the computers that we are using for our analyst is are tools to help, not replace, people and that it is incumbent upon us, the leaders of HIT, to keep in the front of our minds how these BIG Data AI/ML algorithms were trained. As the old saying goes, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" I also was able to record a bit of [her keynote speech](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ou0kgdfnwyrxdsa/Ginni%20Rometty.m4a?dl=1) just in case I need to find and listen to it later. I tweeted a couple of times during the keynote (and even got some likes and retweets ... not something I'm used to getting) > `Transparency in the Era of Cognition with the help of @ibmwatson #himss17` > > `Artificial intelligence is out of its winter ... I sure hope so, but time > will tell #himss17` > > `Integration in workflow is the key to adoption #himss17` > > `Don't let others define you. Great words from @GinniRometty #himss17` > > `Growth and comfort never coexist. Another great gem from @GinniRometty > #himss17` I spent almost all of my time on day 1 in educational sessions. One things that I noticed from my first class was just how _FULL_ it was 15 minutes before the session even started! > `The Emerging Impacts of AI on HIT was full 15 minutes before the session > started! Something tells me lots of ppl interested in AI #HIMSS17` Sometimes the session title were a bit misleading, but eventually most of them would come around. A class with a title of _Connecticut Hospitals Drive Policy with Geospatial Analysis_ was more about the Connecticut Hospitals and less about the Geospatial Analysis, but i… | 2017-02-23 | I had meant to do a write up of each day of my HIMSS experience, but time got away from me, as did the time zone change, and here I am at the end of HIMSS experience with only my day 0 notes down on _paper_. Day 1 started with … | HIMSS review | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/02/23/himss-review/ |
| hosing-my-wifi-set-up | ryan | musings | 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 i… | 2018-11-05 | 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 … | Hosing my WiFi set up | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/11/05/hosing-my-wifi-set-up/ |
| how-to-ask-why-without-sounding-like-a-jerk | ryan | musings | As technical folks working with non-technical folks sometimes the asks that come through are unclear. In order to get clarity on these we want to ask questions to get clarification on the ask, but it can be challenging to not sound like a jerk when we ask. This can happen even IF we do our best to come across in a positive way. When trying to ask for more details on a project or request I find it's usually best to get to the source of the issue. I like to ask, "What problem are we trying to solve here?" or something similar. This helps to put you and the requester on 'the same team' trying to 'solve the problem' and not in a potentially negative 'why are you asking me this stupid question' sort of light. I can't say that I have 'one weird trick' that will always make this not a problem, but recently at my $dayJob I had an experience that might be helpful in seeing how to navigate this particular process. ## The problem I received an email that went something like this > Please see below. It seems that delivery of paper reports via courrier could > be automated by sending them to a portal. What are your thoughts? My initial thought was, "Yes, if we could automate these reports and send them electronically to a portal that would be more efficient." However, there are some deeper questions here that need to be asked ... like: 1. Why are we sending these reports in the first place? Just asking this question though puts us into a potential state of conflict, i.e. it's similar to sounding like you're asking, "why would you do this stupid thing". In order to avoid this I reframed the question into 3 deeper questions that tried to frame 'the problem' and put me and the requester 'on the same team' to 'solve the problem' 1. What are the reports? 2. What are the recipients of the reports supposed to do with them? 3. Do the recipients of the reports find them helpful, or do they just put them in the shred bin? My first response to the sender was > Ideally any reports that are being delivered on printed … | 2024-08-22 | As technical folks working with non-technical folks sometimes the asks that come through are unclear. In order to get clarity on these we want to ask questions to get clarification on the ask, but it can be challenging to not sound like a jerk when we ask. This can happen … | How to ask why without sounding like a jerk | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/22/how-to-ask-why-without-sounding-like-a-jerk/ |
| how-to-pick-a-team-to-root-for-when-the-dodgers-arent-playing | ryan | musings | I’ve been thinking a bit about how to decide which team to root for. Mostly I just want to stay logically consistent with the way I choose to root for a team (when the Dodgers aren't playing obviously). After much thought (and sketches on my iPad) I’ve come up with this table to help me determine who to root for: * * * Opp1 / Opp 2 NL West NL Central NL East AL West AL Central AL East **NL West** Root for team that helps the Dodgers NL Central Team NL East Team NL West Team,unless it hurts the Dodgers NL West Team,unless it hurts the Dodgers NL West Team,unless it hurts the Dodgers **NL Central** NL Central Team Root for underdog NL Central Team NL Central Team NL Central Team NL Central Team **NL East** NL East Team NL Central Team Root for underdog NL East Team NL East Team NL East Team **AL West** NL West Team,unless it hurts the Dodgers NL Central Team NL East Team The Angels over the A's over the Mariners over the Rangers over the Astros AL West Team AL West Team **AL Central** NL West Team,unless it hurts the Dodgers NL Central Team NL East Team AL West Team Root for underdog AL Central Team **AL East** NL West Team,unless it hurts the Dodgers NL Central Team NL East Team AL West Team AL Central Team Root for underdog (unless it's the Yankees) * * * The basic rule is root for the team that helps the Dodgers payoff changes, then National League over American League and finally West over Central over East (from a division perspective). There were a couple of cool sketches I made, on real paper and my iPad. Turns out, sometimes you really need to think about thing before you write it down and commit to it. Of course, this is all subject to change depending on the impact any game would have on the Dodgers. | 2018-04-02 | I’ve been thinking a bit about how to decide which team to root for. Mostly I just want to stay logically consistent with the way I choose to root for a team (when the Dodgers aren't playing obviously). After much thought (and sketches on my iPad) I’ve come … | How to pick a team to root for (when the Dodgers aren’t playing) | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/04/02/how-to-pick-a-team-to-root-for-when-the-dodgers-arent-playing/ |
| how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-game-play | ryan | musings | ## Game Structure Hockey has some stuff in common with live theater. No ... really! 😁 They both have dressing rooms and they both have intermission ... but that is probably where the similarities end. Each hockey game is split into three 20 minute periods. There is an intermission between each period that lasts 18 minutes. During the intermission the players go back to the dressing room to regroup and chat about the previous period a strategize for the upcoming period. Out in the arena there are chances for you to get overpriced refreshments, stand in long lines to use the facilities, or just stay in your seat and watch the silly intermission games. Some examples I've seen of silly intermission games are Fuego Pong (like quarters, but with soccer balls and large 5 gallon buckets), ice bowling where a player is put into a giant slingshot on the ice and hudled towards inflatable bowling pins, and the dress up game. It's also during this time that the ice is resurfaced by a [Zamboni](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_resurfacer) to make it nice and clean for the next period. If at the end of the third period the game is tied then you're in luck because you get free hockey, also known as Overtime. One thing to keep in mind is that the overtime rules during a regular season game are different than a postseason game. ### Regular Season Overtime Rules At the end of the third period there is a 1 minute 'intermission' and then a 5 minute overtime period starts. The overtime period will feature 3 skaters from each team as well as their goalie. If a penalty occurs in Overtime (or is carried over from the third period) the period starts with four players on the power play team and 3 on the short handed team.1 Each team tries to score a goal first. If they do, then they win in overtime. If, at the end of 5 minutes of play, the score is still tied then a shootout happens. In the shootout each team has 3 chances to score a [penalty shot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penalty_shot_\(ice_hockey\)). Essentially a ska… | 2025-01-29 | ## Game Structure Hockey has some stuff in common with live theater. No ... really! 😁 They both have dressing rooms and they both have intermission ... but that is probably where the similarities end. Each hockey game is split into three 20 minute periods. There is an intermission between each period that lasts … | How to Watch a Hockey Game - Game Play | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/29/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-game-play/ |
| how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-reading-the-standings | ryan | musings | This is the fourth part of my How to Watch a Hockey Game Series. You can catch up on previous articles [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how-to- watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/) ## Game Outcomes In many North American sports when reading the standings there are typically just Wins (W), and Losses (L).1 Hockey is a bit different. When you look at the standings for Hockey you'll see 4 headers: * W: Wins * L: Losses * OTL: Overtime Losses * SOL: Shootout Losses As discussed [earlier in this series](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/29/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-game- play/), if a game is tied at the end of regulation, a five-minute overtime period is played. If either team scores during this Overtime period then the winning team gets a Win, while the losing team gets an Overtime Loss (OTL). If they're still tied then a Shootout is played. Once a winner is declared in the Shootout they get the Win, while the losing team gets a Shootout Loss. Because of this, values are assigned to each type of outcome: Outcome | Points ---|--- Win | 2 Loss | 0 OTL | 1 SOL | 1 This might best be shown with a concrete example. ## A Concrete Example Let's say that the Coachella Valley Firebirds have played 39 games so far. They have won 21 games and lost 13 games. They've also played in 5 games that went into overtime and lost. Their overtime losses are one (1) in the Overtime period and 4 in Shootouts. Their record would look like this: Coachella Valley Firebirds: 21-13-1-4 Points Calculation: * Wins: 21 × 2 = 42 points * OTL: 1 × 1 = 1 point * SOL: 4 × 1 = 4 points Total: 42 + 1 + 4 = 47 points The Firebirds play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and the standings might look like this: Team | GP | W | L | OTL | SOL | PTS | PCT ---|---|---|---|---|---|---|--- Calgary | 41 | 27 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 55 | 0.671 Coachella Valley | 39 | 21 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 47 | 0.603 Colorado | 36 | 21 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 46 | 0.639 Ontario | 37 | 22 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 46 | 0.622 San Jose… | 2025-02-03 | This is the fourth part of my How to Watch a Hockey Game Series. You can catch up on previous articles [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how-to- watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/) ## Game Outcomes In many North American sports when reading the standings there are typically just Wins (W), and Losses (L).1 Hockey is a bit different. When you … | How to Watch a Hockey Game - Reading the Standings | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/02/03/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-reading-the-standings/ |
| how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules | ryan | musings | I've written a few times before about hockey. I love watching my local sports puck team1 and really wish more people watched it. So, I'm going to write a beginners guide to watching hockey so that you too, dear reader, can become an avid fan. Hockey is a pretty fast paced game at the professional level. In the 90s Fox Sports had broadcast rights to hockey in the US and to help its viewers they had a glowing halo on the puck called [FoxTrax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FoxTrax) which allowed fans to more easily find it. This practice was discontinued at some point, and I honestly think it was one of the better innovations that Fox Sports did and really wish that it would make a come back. ## The Rules As a beginner hockey observer there's only three rules that you really need to know to be able to follow the game. 1. Offside2 2. Icing 3. Power Play / Penalty Kill ### The Set up The ice rink can be broken into 3 sections from the perspective of 1 team. Let's assume we have two teams, A and B. Let's root for team A.  1. The Defending zone - This is where team A's Goal is located. It starts right behind team A's goal and goes to the right toward the blue line 2. Neutral Zone - This is the center of the ice between the two blue lines; it also contains a red line that is called 'Center Ice' 3. The Attacking Zone - This is where team A are trying to score. It starts at the OTHER blue line and goes back behind Team B's goal ### Offside Offside is defined as ... actually that's not important. What is important to understand is that a player on the offense cannot enter their Attacking zone before the puck does. If they do, then that player is called Offside. When an Offside happens a face off takes place outside of the Attacking zone (i.e. in the Neutral Zone) where each team will try and gain control of the puck. ### Icing Icing, or icing the puck, is when a player in their half of t… | 2025-01-27 | I've written a few times before about hockey. I love watching my local sports puck team1 and really wish more people watched it. So, I'm going to write a beginners guide to watching hockey so that you too, dear reader, can become an avid fan. Hockey is a pretty … | How to Watch a Hockey Game - Three Rules | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/ |
| how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-what-to-watch | ryan | musings | In [a previous post of this series](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how- to-watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/) I laid out some basic rules of hockey. In this post I'll hopefully provide some tips on what to watch during your first few hockey games. ## What should I 'watch' though? This is a tough question and depends on if you're watching on TV or in person. ### On TV If you're watching on TV you're limited by whatever the camera and director are showing you. Hopefully they're pretty good at what they do and they'll help to show you what is interesting. You'll also have the benefit of replays. 1 Watching the action on TV will be your best bet. The commentators will do a reasonable job of explaining the play. For some of the best NHL broadcasts you'll want to watch a Canadian feed. This might not be an option depending on where you live, but in general, watching a Canadian feed of a Canadian team will be really helpful. If, for whatever reason, you're watching an AHL game2 the best broadcasts to watch, in my opinion, are the Lehigh Valley Phantoms called by [Bob Rotruck](https://www.phantomshockey.com/staff/bob-rotruck/) and Cleveland Monsters called by [Tony Brown](https://www.tonybrownpxp.com/). Each of these is a single broadcaster doing both the color commentary and the play-by-play ... and they honestly get **so** excited it's hard to NOT get excited with them. ### In Person For your first in person game, just try and follow the puck as best you can. If for whatever reason you can't do that, pick a spot on the ice to concentrate on, preferably near one of the goalies. Which one? The goalie of the team you're not rooting for is a good choice! Then you can just kind of watch the action there. Keeping in mind [the rules](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how-to- watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/) start by focusing on just one rule - either icing or offside - for an entire period. Once you feel comfortable recognizing that rule during gameplay, switch your attention to watching for the other rule… | 2025-01-31 | In [a previous post of this series](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how- to-watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/) I laid out some basic rules of hockey. In this post I'll hopefully provide some tips on what to watch during your first few hockey games. ## What should I 'watch' though? This is a tough question and depends on if you're watching on … | How to Watch a Hockey Game - What to Watch | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/31/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-what-to-watch/ |
| its-science | ryan | musings | I have a 10 year old daughter in the fifth grade. She has participated in the Science Fair almost every year, but this year was different. This year was required participation. dun … dun … dun … She and her friend had a really interesting idea on what to do. They wanted to ask the question, **“Is Soap and Water the Best Cleaning Method?** ” The two Scientists decided that they would test how well the following cleaning agents cleaned a white t-shirt (my white t-shirt actually) after it got dirty: * Plain Water * Soap and Water * Milk * Almond Milk While working with them we experimented on how to make the process as scientific as possible. Our first attempt was to just take a picture of the Clean shirt, cut the shirt up and get it dirty. Then we’d try each cleaning agent to see how it went. It did not go well. It was immediately apparent that there would be no way to test the various cleaning methods efficacy. No problem. In our second trial we decided to approach it more scientifically. We would draw 12 equally sized squares on the shirt and take a picture:  We needed 12 squares because we had 4 cleaning methods and 3 trials that needed to be performed > > 4 Cleaning Methods X 3 Trials = 12 Samples Next, the Scientists would get the shirt dirty. We then cut out the squares so that we could test cleaning the samples. Here’s an outline of what the Scientists did to test their hypothesis: 1. Take a picture of each piece BEFORE they get dirty 2. Get each sample dirty 3. Take a picture of each dirty sample 4. Clean each sample 5. Take a picture of each cleaned sample 6. Repeat for each trial For the ‘Clean Each Sample’ step they placed 1/3 of a cup of the cleaning solution into a small Tupperware tub that could be sealed and _vigorously_ shook for 5 minutes. They had some tired arms at the end. Once we had performed the experiment we our **raw** data: # Trial 1 Method Start Dirty Cleaned * * * Water  and [Thor: The Dark World](https://itun.es/us/7tLNR), [Iron Man](https://itun.es/us/sLibP) and [Guardians of the Galaxy](https://itun.es/us/KoVM1). It's not a lot, but we're working on it. I've mapped out the [Marvel Cinematic Universe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe) movies for us to watch, and it's OK, but there wasn't a easy way to link into the iTunes store from the list. I decided that I could probably use [Workflow](https://appsto.re/us/2IzJ2.i) to do this, but I hadn't really worked with it to do it, but today I had a bit of time and figured, "what they heck ... why not?" My initial attempt was clunky. It required to workflows to accomplish what I needed. This was because I had to split the work of [Workflow](https://appsto.re/us/2IzJ2.i) into 2 workflows: * Get the Name * Get the Link Turns out there's a much easier way, so I'll post the link to that workflow, and not the workflows that are much harder to use! The workflow [Add Movie to Watch](https://workflow.is/workflows/66f269ed34cb42469df4de8dcb7739e7) accepts `iTunes products`. The workflow then does the following: * It saves the `iTunes products` URL as a variable called `iTunes` * It then gets the `iTunes` variable to retrieve the `Name` and sets the value to a variable called `Movie` * Next it asks 'Who is the movie being added by?' This is important for my family as we want a common list, but it's also good to know who added the movie! * This value is saved to a variable called `User` * Finally, I want to know when the movie was added so I get the current date. We take all of the items and construct a bit of `text` that looks like this: `[{Movie}]({iTunes}) - Added on {Input} by {User}` Where each of the words above surrounded by the {} are the variable names previously mentioned ({Input} is from the get current date and doesn't need to be saved to a … | 2016-11-28 | One thing I like to do with my family is watch movies. But not just any movies, Comic Book movies. We've seen both [Thor](https://itun.es/us/ieifP) and [Thor: The Dark World](https://itun.es/us/7tLNR), [Iron Man](https://itun.es/us/sLibP) and [Guardians of the Galaxy](https://itun.es/us/KoVM1). It's not a lot, but we're working on it. I've mapped out the [Marvel …](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe) | Keeping track of which movies I want to watch | https://www.ryancheley.com/2016/11/28/keeping-track-of-which-movies-i-want-to-watch/ |
| looking-back-at-the-half-marathon-streak | ryan | musings | # Looking Back at the Half Marathon Streak ## How It Started In February 2012, a half marathon was being held in Palm Springs, and one of my walking friends asked if I wanted to do it... about 5 days before it was set to happen. I said I wasn't interested, and she said "Where is your sense of adventure?" ... though it was in slightly more colorful language. Six days later, I was participating in my first half marathon. Now, I hadn't really run too much up to that point. A 5K here and there, and for the most part, I wasn't running much during those "runs". At the start of the half marathon, I looked at my friend that had persuaded me to participate and said something like, "We're just going to walk, right?" She said we had to run at least some of it. Eight miles later, I was still running and enjoying it. She wanted to walk a bit. So we did, and then she encouraged me to start running again, so I did. ## The First Taste of Success I finished that first half marathon in something like 2h30m, but I was suddenly hooked. I thought, "I bet if I actually _trained_ for a half marathon, I could do better." So I set out to train for a half marathon. I started a training schedule using [this plan](https://www.halhigdon.com/training-programs/half-marathon- training/novice-1-half-marathon/) and was able to complete the San Diego Rock 'n Roll half in a little more than 2 hours. I continued to run medium distances (up to 12 miles on weekends) and really enjoyed it. I got to a point where I was in the best shape of my life. I had a resting heart rate of something like 50 with blood pressure that was pretty low (almost low enough that my doctor was concerned!) but my labs were good, and I felt GREAT! ## The Birth of the Streak I was looking at half marathons in 2014 and saw the Palm Springs one again, but also saw one in a local city called [Desert Hot Springs](https://www.cityofdhs.org/) in December 2013. Then there was the Carlsbad half in January 2014. Another one looked interesting in Zion National Park (sort of) in… | 2025-01-17 | # Looking Back at the Half Marathon Streak ## How It Started In February 2012, a half marathon was being held in Palm Springs, and one of my walking friends asked if I wanted to do it... about 5 days before it was set to happen. I said I wasn't interested, and … | Looking Back at the Half Marathon Streak | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/17/looking-back-at-the-half-marathon-streak/ |
| making-better-meetings-maybe | ryan | musings | To say that I attend a lot of meetings is a bit of an understatement. However, as a manager that is part of my job and I accept that it is something I need to do. What I have been trying to do at my office is lead more effective meetings, but also to encourage my colleagues to have more effective meetings as well. It's been challenging as the organization I work for is large and all I can do is lead by example with the meetings that I am in. Until now ... maybe I read an article on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com) titled [Tired of wasting time in meetings? Try this](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tired- wasting-time-meetings-try-oisin-grogan) and there were several suggestions for better meetings some of which I already knew: 1. Define the purpose of the meeting 2. Define the outcome of the meeting 3. Have a timed agenda and someone in charge And others that I didn't: 1. Facts - not opinions! 2. Keep people on-point. (Only talk about matters relating to their job) I think that number 4 is a key idea for any meeting (that isn't a brainstorming meeting) but number 5 is a bit too much. Keeping people on point is an important aspect to any meeeting, but only allowing people to talk about matters related to their job ... what is the dividing line between 'my job' and 'not my job'? This seems like it wouldn't actually have the intended outcome. I think people who are already quite will be encouraged to stay quite as the topic isn't related to their job (even if it might be) and those that talk too much already will assume that everything is related to their job so they will still contribute inappropriately. I think that point 5 is much better when restated as: 1. Keep people on-point, only talk about the current agenda item The article did include a nice diagram that you can download (need to provide an email address first). | 2017-02-04 | To say that I attend a lot of meetings is a bit of an understatement. However, as a manager that is part of my job and I accept that it is something I need to do. What I have been trying to do at my office is lead more effective … | Making Better Meetings ... maybe | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/02/04/making-better-meetings-maybe/ |
| mentors | ryan | musings | Having just finished up my second round of Djangonaut.Space (which I wrote about [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/29/reflections-on-djangonaut- space-session-2/)) I wanted to write a bit about mentors ... how to find one, how to work with one, and how to be one. ## Finding a Mentor One of the best ways to find a mentor is through a program like [Djangonaut Space](https://djangonaut.space/). You're put into a cohort of other Django / Python programmers with a Captain and a Navigator. A program like this offers up ready made mentors in the form of the Captains and Navigators. Even your fellow participants can act as mentors. The thing about a mentor, and finding one, is that what you're looking for isn't ONE mentor ... you're looking for a mentor in a specific aspect of life, whether personal or professional. In Djangonaut.Space you'll get a couple of mentors in Python / Django, but you may also find that you get a mentor who helps with thinking about / dealing with / finding developer jobs. ## Working with a Mentor Working with a mentor isn't just showing up and hoping that all of their knowledge in the specific aspect of life you're looking to be mentored on will suddenly flow from them to you like a fountain. You need to do a bit of homework too! Mentors can provide lots of guidance, but like any guide, you kind of need to know where you're going ... even if it's just a vague direction. Having a goal of > I want to be a programmer is a bit vague and difficult to help on. A mentor can provide some guidance for that, like > Try Python but a goal like, > I want to learn programming to help automate some of these things will definitely lead to more focused advice. Now the mentor can say, > That's great! Check out this book, these blogs, and follow this YouTuber ... > also, here are 10 people you might find interesting on Mastodon (or your > preferred Social Media platform of choice) When working with a mentor they might provide open ended advice or guidance and expect that you'll have done som… | 2024-09-16 | Having just finished up my second round of Djangonaut.Space (which I wrote about [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/29/reflections-on-djangonaut- space-session-2/)) I wanted to write a bit about mentors ... how to find one, how to work with one, and how to be one. ## Finding a Mentor One of the best ways to find a mentor is … | Mentors | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/09/16/mentors/ |
| migrating-from-square-space-to-word-press | ryan | musings | This weekend I migrated my site from [Square Space](https://www.squarespace.com "Spare Squace!") to [WordPress](https://www.wordpress.com "WordPress!"). I had been planning to do this for a while (ever since a [Hover](https://www.hover.com "Hover!") ad read on [ATP](https://www.atp.fm "Accidental Tech Podcast") earlier this summer). This weekend was the last weekend before my [Square Space](https://www.squarespace.com "Spare Squace!")subscription was set to expire so I finally made the switch. ## Why I did it [Square Space](https://www.squarespace.com "Spare Squace!") offers a beautiful interface and great templates to get you started. They make everything about setting up a blog, portfolio or online store as easy as it can get. But ... that’s kind of where it ends for me. While the set up is amazingly easy, the actually content posting (for me this means my writing) was more difficult than I would have liked. In order to get something posted to my [Square Space](https://www.squarespace.com "Spare Squace!") site I would write something in anyone of a number of Plain Text Editors ([BBEdit](https://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/), [Drafts](https://agiletortoise.com/drafts/), [Editorial](http://omz- software.com/editorial/), [Ulysses](https://ulyssesapp.com)). Then I would preview the generated `HTML` to verify it looked the way I wanted it to. Finally, I would post my `MarkDown` to the [Square Space](https://www.squarespace.com "Spare Squace!") Blog App on iOS and do it All. Over. Again. To say that it was frustrating is a bit of an understatement. I looked really hard to see what `API`s existed and found that there _used to be_ an API but that Square Space removed them for some reason. So no direct posting to my blog by my favorite text editors. So, with Hover having a discount on domains, and me getting an [AWS](https://aws.amazon.com "Amazon Web Services")account where I could host WordPress and a rich set of WordPress `API`s to post directly from some of my favorite text editors, it seemed like a no br… | 2017-10-01 | This weekend I migrated my site from [Square Space](https://www.squarespace.com "Spare Squace!") to [WordPress](https://www.wordpress.com "WordPress!"). I had been planning to do this for a while (ever since a [Hover](https://www.hover.com "Hover!") ad read on [ATP](https://www.atp.fm "Accidental Tech Podcast") earlier this summer). This weekend was the last weekend before my [Square Space](https://www.squarespace.com "Spare Squace!")subscription was set to expire so I finally … | Migrating from Square Space to Word Press | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/10/01/migrating-from-square-space-to-word-press/ |
| migrating-to-raindrop-io | ryan | musings | With the announced [demise of Pocket by Mozilla](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket) I needed to migrate all of my saved articles to 'something else' by the end of the month. I've actually tried to migrate from Pocket a few times over the years. I landed on [Instapaper](https://www.instapaper.com/) for a while, but it never really clicked for me. I tried a service called [Devmarks](https://devmarks.io/) that [Adam G Hill](https://indieweb.social/@adamghill) runs, and I really liked it, but for whatever reason I stopped using it. I had also previously tried [Raindrop.io](https://Raindrop.io/) ... and I'm not really sure what drove me away from it, but it didn't stick for me at the time. Since I didn't have a choice about Pocket I did a bit of purusing my options, and finally landed on Raindrop.io again. The process of migration is pretty painless. I just export out the links from Pocket and then import them into Raindrop. No fuss ... no muss. Raindrop even checks for duplicates and allows you to not import them! So, I imported everything (all 11,500+ articles!) and started to incorporate Raindrop into my workflow. This basically just means saving things to Raindrop instead of pocket, and then checking Raindrop instead of Pocket every week to make sure I'm all caught up on my articles to read. Over the last weekend I was looking at how all of the imported items in Raindrop were put into the 'archive' collection and decided that I could probably do something about putting them into proper collections. With the help of Claude Code, I was able to put them into better collections. There were some stragglers and I decided that I could categorize them on my own (there were less than 100). I started going through these last ones I kept coming across articles for iOS7, or an app that I think I liked in 2015 but isn't on the App store anymore. I came across [this article](https://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/what- the-internet-of-things-will-look-like-in-2025.html) (which I also [tooted](https://mastod… | 2025-06-19 | With the announced [demise of Pocket by Mozilla](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket) I needed to migrate all of my saved articles to 'something else' by the end of the month. I've actually tried to migrate from Pocket a few times over the years. I landed on [Instapaper](https://www.instapaper.com/) for a while, but it never really … | Migrating to Raindrop.io | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/06/19/migrating-to-raindrop-io/ |
| new-theme-who-dis | ryan | musings | 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](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33347425), 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! ↩︎ | 2022-02-27 | 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 … | New Theme, who dis? | https://www.ryancheley.com/2022/02/27/new-theme-who-dis/ |
| podcasts-i-like | ryan | musings | # Podcasts I like: * [Accidental Tech Podcast](http://atp.fm) * [Cortex](https://www.relay.fm/cortex/) * [Free Agents](https://www.relay.fm/freeagents) * [Connected](https://www.relay.fm/connected) * [Talk Python to Me](https://talkpython.fm) * [Canvas](https://www.relay.fm/canvas) * [Robosim](https://www.relay.fm/roboism) * [Ben, Ben and Blue](https://www.benbenandblue.com) * [Mac Power Users](https://www.relay.fm/mpu) * [Upgrade](https://www.relay.fm/upgrade) * [Back to Work](http://5by5.tv/b2w) | 2017-09-24 | # Podcasts I like: * [Accidental Tech Podcast](http://atp.fm) * [Cortex](https://www.relay.fm/cortex/) * [Free Agents](https://www.relay.fm/freeagents) * [Connected](https://www.relay.fm/connected) * [Talk Python to Me](https://talkpython.fm) * [Canvas](https://www.relay.fm/canvas) * [Robosim](https://www.relay.fm/roboism) * [Ben, Ben and Blue](https://www.benbenandblue.com) * [Mac Power Users](https://www.relay.fm/mpu) * [Upgrade](https://www.relay.fm/upgrade) * [Back to Work](http://5by5.tv/b2w) | Podcasts I like | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/09/24/podcasts-i-like/ |
| realign-the-ahl | ryan | musings | # What is the AHL [The AHL](https://theahl.com/), or American Hockey League, is a hockey minor league based in the US and Canada. It's widely considered to be the step right below the [NHL](https://www.nhl.com/) which is the top Hockey League in North America. There are 32 teams in the AHL, and [23 of them make the playoffs](https://theahl.com/qualification-rules). The teams play for the [Calder Cup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_Cup). # What are the Calder Cup Playoffs? The Calder Cup Playoffs are the name given to the AHL team vying for the Championship Calder Cup. The [2023 Calder Cup Playoffs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Calder_Cup_playoffs) started on April, 18 2023 with 14 teams playing in 7 different series while the other 9 all had byes, that is, they did NOT play in the first round. One thing to note is that the first round is essentially a play in1 round of the playoffs, but it's not an evenly divided play-in. The current format has round 1 with a best of Three Games, rounds 2 and 3 with a best of Five Games, and both the Conference Finals and Calder Cup Finals with a best of Seven Games. # Why Realign? The ultimate goal is to enhance competitive balance and foster new rivalries, making the playoff race and outcomes more reflective of team performance throughout the season. The current structure of the AHL divides the entire league into 2 conferences, and each conference has 2 divisions. In the Eastern Conference, you have the Atlantic and North divisions. The Atlantic has 8 teams, while the North has 7. Out in the Western Conference, you have the Pacific and Central division. The Pacific has 10 teams, while the Central has 7 teams. Now an interesting thing about the playoffs is that the top 7 (of 10) teams from the Pacific make the playoffs, while the top 5 (of 7) teams from the North and Central make it. The Atlantic sends its top 6 (of 8) teams to the playoffs. Each division will have a certain number of teams with a bye-round, that is they don't have the play in the first … | 2024-02-24 | # What is the AHL [The AHL](https://theahl.com/), or American Hockey League, is a hockey minor league based in the US and Canada. It's widely considered to be the step right below the [NHL](https://www.nhl.com/) which is the top Hockey League in North America. There are 32 teams in the AHL, and [23 …](https://theahl.com/qualification- rules) | An Argument to Realign the AHL | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/02/24/realign-the-ahl/ |
| reflections-on-djangonaut-space-session-2 | ryan | musings | A few weeks ago I completed my second session as a [Djangonaut.Space](https://djangonaut.space/) [Navigator](https://github.com/djangonaut- space/program/blob/main/navigators.md). The Djangonaut.Space program is an opportunity for people to be introduced to contributing to Django and Django adjacent projects. In this most recent session I was a Navigator for Team Mars with a fantastic Captain [Tobe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-katchy). Our Djangonauts were [Andy](https://softwarecrafts.uk/), [Maryam](https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryam-yusuf/), and [Rosana](https://rosanarufer.blogspot.com/). Among the 3 of them they took on 7 tickets, pushed 7 PRs and closed 5 tickets. As part of the program we would meet weekly to talk about any blockers and try and work through them. These meetings also provided a platform to encourage one another. One week we spoke about being a professional software developer working with Django which was a great conversation. I really like this program for what it offers both the Djangonauts, and the mentors. I learned so much as part of this program. As we were coordinating our first meeting I realized that the rest of my team were in time zones that were 7 - 8 hours ahead of mine! I was a bit worried initially that we'd have a hard time finding a common time to meet, but we settled on Wednesdays at noon and this turned out to be pretty perfect for all of us. Each of our team meetings was similar to a [standup](https://www.agile- academy.com/en/scrum-master/daily-standup/) where we'd talk about what work had been done the previous week, and any struggles that we were having. The djangonauts on team Mars were absolute Rock Stars. They picked up some pretty gnarly 1 issues and worked them to completion each time. Working on a project like Django can be daunting and scary and time consuming. However, the amount that you can learn from working on a large project and code base like this is immeasurable. Working to form a consensus on an issue or idea, whether it's code or docum… | 2024-08-29 | A few weeks ago I completed my second session as a [Djangonaut.Space](https://djangonaut.space/) [Navigator](https://github.com/djangonaut- space/program/blob/main/navigators.md). The Djangonaut.Space program is an opportunity for people to be introduced to contributing to Django and Django adjacent projects. In this most recent session I was a Navigator for Team Mars with a fantastic Captain … | Reflections on Djangonaut Space Session 2 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/29/reflections-on-djangonaut-space-session-2/ |
| remember-the-colosseum | ryan | musings | ## The Roman Colosseum After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 497 CE the Colosseum fell into disrepair. Rightfully so! Who can worry about keeping up a giant megalith made by people centuries ago while you're just trying to figure out where your next meal may come from, or the ranging hordes of barbarians showing up and taking the food you did find! However, during the medieval period, while Rome's population declined dramatically and many ancient structures fell into disrepair or were repurposed, the Colosseum remained a prominent landmark. There are stories that as the centuries progressed, the inhabitants of Rome forgot who built it. While some fantastical legends did develop around it, the basic historical facts of its construction by the Flavian emperors and its original purpose remained part of common knowledge among educated Romans. For the non-educated Roman's there were lots of misconceptions about the colosseum. The non-education Romans would have created stories1 about the large building. It was haunted. It was used for pagan rituals and no good Christian would go in. Folklore would rise up around it. As many of us have seen or experienced, in the absence of information, people will make it up.2 ## The Story of the Legacy System OK, but why is this important from a technology perspective? Imagine if you will a large system, built 10 years ago, by a group of developers, that have all left the organization. No one left knows how it works, or how to make changes to it. Most people don't even really know WHY it's there in the first place. There isn't any documentation that can be referred to. Either because it wasn't ever created OR it was destroyed by Barbarians, I mean well meaning IT processes that 'clean up' unused files. So what happens? The people remaining create stories about the system. Stories like the long timer 'Bob' that once caused the entire system to Crash and then an old copy backup copy had to be restored, and months worth of work was lost. No one ever saw Bob after that.… | 2025-01-21 | ## The Roman Colosseum After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 497 CE the Colosseum fell into disrepair. Rightfully so! Who can worry about keeping up a giant megalith made by people centuries ago while you're just trying to figure out where your next meal may come from, or … | Remember the Colosseum! | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/21/remember-the-colosseum/ |
| rogue-one-a-star-wars-story | ryan | musings | Rogue One - A Star Wars Movie: My Thoughts Today I watched [Rogue One](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_One) and I wanted to jot down my thoughts while they were still fresh. First, what I didn't like: 1. The Rogue One Font at the beginning on the movie. There was just something about it that wasn't as strong as the Original Franchise 2. The jumping around done at the beginning of the movie with the planet names (again, with a weak font). 3. There were no [Bonthans](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bothan) either dying or otherwise. OK, not that's out of the way. What did I like: Every. Thing. Else. Jin's character had the depth needed to be a protagonist you would both believe and want to follow. I think the most surprising thing (maybe ... I still need to think about this) is that from a writing perspective you know **ALL** of your characters are going to be throw away characters. They won't appear in Episodes 4-6, although the actions they take drive those movies. As I realized this, I realized that each lead character was going to die. It can't really be any other way. And while I was sad to see that premonition come to fruition, I was also glad that the writers did what the story called for. Make the story a one-off whose characters can't influence the canon in any way other then how they already had. Maybe I went into the movie with low expectations, or maybe it was just **that** good. Either way, I would see this again and again and again. The story was strong, with dynamic characters. A mix of good and bad for the rebels (as it should be) and all bad, but with depth for the imperial characters. I liked this so much I have already pre-purchased it on [iTunes](https://itun.es/us/mn6tgb). | 2016-12-22 | Rogue One - A Star Wars Movie: My Thoughts Today I watched [Rogue One](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_One) and I wanted to jot down my thoughts while they were still fresh. First, what I didn't like: 1. The Rogue One Font at the beginning on the movie. There was just something about it that wasn't as … | Rogue One - A Star Wars Story | https://www.ryancheley.com/2016/12/22/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story/ |
| share-your-gifts | ryan | musings | There’s this new commercial by Apple called [Share Your Gifts](https://youtu.be/3dJCroCMBPM) 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 c… | 2018-11-27 | There’s this new commercial by Apple called [Share Your Gifts](https://youtu.be/3dJCroCMBPM) 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 … | Share Your Gifts | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/11/27/share-your-gifts/ |
| spring-of-transition | ryan | musings | I've written before about the [Theme's that CGP Grey](https://youtu.be/NVGuFdX5guE?si=-9zFaB0xjmxOEh26) has discussed and I think they're great! I've just recently completed my 'Spring of Transition'. So what is the Spring of Transition? For me it meant focusing on that last bit of time that my daughter will be living with me and my wife full time. She just graduated from High School and is getting ready to go off to college in the Fall. I've taken the last quarter to really try and focus on spending quality time with her, and enjoy the last bits of her living here with me and my wife. One of the things I am eternally grateful for is that when my daughter was a baby/toddler I started a [WordPress](https://wordpress.org/) blog to keep track of all of the adventures we got into. This was 2008 - 2010 and while Facebook was _kind_ of a thing, Instragram was **NOT** a thing. I used this blog to post pictures with a fun caption of the context of the picture. I would also write a monthly letter to her and recap what fun adventures we had, or what changes I had noticed. I did this for a couple of years, but then life got in the way and the changes that she was going through were harder and harder to see, and capture, with a camera. This made it very hard to write about as well. I ended up taking down my site, but I kept a backup of the WordPress XML just in case1 I would want to use it again. At one point I stumbled upon a journalling app called [Day One](https://dayoneapp.com/) that I used to journal. I used it for a couple of years and then found a feature that allowed me to import my WordPress blog data. I played around with this a bit and finally made the plunge to import the data. It may be the best decision I've ever made with respect to tech. Over the last several years I focused on trying to journal every day. One of the grear features of Day One is 'On This Day'. After I journal I'll click on that tab and look back at what I've written "On This Day". The best entries are from the blog. Small reminders o… | 2024-06-20 | I've written before about the [Theme's that CGP Grey](https://youtu.be/NVGuFdX5guE?si=-9zFaB0xjmxOEh26) has discussed and I think they're great! I've just recently completed my 'Spring of Transition'. So what is the Spring of Transition? For me it meant focusing on that last bit of time that my daughter will be living with me … | Spring of Transition | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/06/20/spring-of-transition/ |
| struggle-determines-success | ryan | musings | On Sundays mornings I wake up pretty early, make myself some coffee and read through all of the interesting articles I came across during the week (usually from [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com)). Last weekend I came across an article, [You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a way better question](https://getpocket.com/explore/item/you-probably-know-to-ask- yourself-what-do-i-want-here-s-a-way-better-question-1149529539) I was struck by several passages in the article: > > If you find yourself wanting something month after month, year after year, > yet nothing happens and you never come any closer to it, then maybe what you > actually want is a fantasy, an idealization, an image and a false promise. > Maybe what you want isn’t what you want, you just enjoy wanting. Maybe you > don’t actually want it at all. >> >> I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love not with the fight but only the victory. And life doesn’t work that way. >> >> This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes. So choose your struggles wisely, my friend. When I was younger I wanted to be many things, a Physicist, an Architect, an Engineer, a Professor ... but none of those things ever got any closer. I'd be really engaged in the ideas of one of these for weeks or months at a time. I remember being so enamoured with the idea of Civil Engineering I convinced my parents to get me a drafting board that I had in my room and I used to 'design' a prototype of a Martian Habitat. But, as soon as I got bored I would move onto something else. From Physics to Architecture to Engineering and back to Physics. I would always stop when it either got too hard **OR** something else looked more interesting. I was always awed by my peers that could stay laser focused on a single hobby or dream job and was amazed at the amount of sacrifice they would be willing to make in order to achieve their goals. It wasn't until I got to college wh… | 2017-01-27 | On Sundays mornings I wake up pretty early, make myself some coffee and read through all of the interesting articles I came across during the week (usually from [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com)). Last weekend I came across an article, [You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a way …](https://getpocket.com/explore/item/you- probably-know-to-ask-yourself-what-do-i-want-here-s-a-way-better- question-1149529539) | Struggle determines success | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/01/27/struggle-determines-success/ |
| success-through-failure | ryan | musings | One of my goals for 2017 has been to read more. According to [Pocket](https://www.getpocket.com) I have been in the top 1% of 'pockters' in both 2015 and 2016, but even if that's true (and I'm not entirely convinced it isn't just marketing **stuff** ) what I'm reading are web articles, some long form, but mostly short form articles. This isn't the kind of reading I want to focus on in 2017. I've got a list of (mostly) science fiction books I'm planning on reading this year. I'm also listening to audio books through [Audible](https://www.audible.com) during my commute to work. Those books are a little more varied in their content so far, and exclusively non-fiction. But why does this matter? As I [do](https://www.ryancheley.com/blog/2017/1/26/struggle-determines-success) I was reading an article on [Isaac Asimov](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimovs) entitled [Isaac Asimov: How to Never Run Out of Ideas Again – Personal Growth – Medium](https://medium.com/personal-growth/isaac-asimov-how-to-never-run-out- of-ideas-again-b7bf8e09cc91#.tbua3lk49). From the article 4 points really struck me: * Read widely. Follow your curiosity. Never stop investing in yourself. * Diversity is insurance of the mind. * We fail. We struggle. And that is why we succeed. * After all, never having ideas means never having to fail. Although I had planned on reading more **before** having read the article, after reading it I'm even more dedicated to making sure I read as much as I can this year. The last 2 points are also something I've been trying to work on. One of the reasons for this site is so I can showcase the ways in which I _fail_ and what I am able to learn from those 'failures'. The ideas that failure and struggle lead directly to success is something I'd never really connected, but I can see the connection between them now. I like the idea that Isaac Asimov failed at things, but that they didn't prevent him from accomplishing those (and other) things. This article really helped crystallize an idea that… | 2017-01-28 | One of my goals for 2017 has been to read more. According to [Pocket](https://www.getpocket.com) I have been in the top 1% of 'pockters' in both 2015 and 2016, but even if that's true (and I'm not entirely convinced it isn't just marketing **stuff** ) what I'm reading are web articles, some … | Success through failure | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/01/28/success-through-failure/ |
| summer-of-writing | ryan | musings | In keeping with my themes for 2024 this summer was to be 'The Summer of Writing'. This theme didn't have a specific post or word count, but I knew I wanted to write **more**1. I had a few things I needed to do to get this started. One of them included starting a writing cohort. I wasn't sure how I would do that but it turns out in early June [Lacey](https://hachyderm.io/@lacey) was [having similar thoughts](https://hachyderm.io/@lacey/112550334978638433). [Mario](https://hachyderm.io/@pythonbynight@fosstodon.org) and [Trey](https://hachyderm.io/@treyhunner@mastodon.social) had some interest as well and so we formed a writing group! We meet every Wednesday (more or less) for about an hour. I had really hoped that the forming the cohort would give me the encouragement and accountability I needed ... and it HAS! But I also quickly realized that all I had calendared (really) was the Wednesday writing session, and so I set out to have a 30 minute daily writing session on my own. Life has a way of kicking you in the ass though when you least expect it. Roughly 10 days into my 'Summer of Writing' a work thing came up and kind of consumed all of my thought and energy. I realized quickly that something had to give, and so I looked ahead at my Autumn theme and borrowed from it a bit, while still keeping the spirit of trying to write. The next theme was going to be 'The Autumn of Mindfulness' which included starting a meditation practice so I dove into that. I also decided that I needed to try to find something to do from a physical activity perspective. I live in the desert of southern california so the summers are brutal ( daily highs that can average 110F+) and being outside isn't something I really like, even in the early morning, before the sunrise, the temps can be mid to high 80s ... sometimes even the low 90s. I decided that I would pick up swimming and going to the gym to help alleviate some of the stress from work. That, in addition to the writing, seemed to be a good thing to work on. During my Summer … | 2024-10-03 | In keeping with my themes for 2024 this summer was to be 'The Summer of Writing'. This theme didn't have a specific post or word count, but I knew I wanted to write **more**1. I had a few things I needed to do to get this started. One of … | Summer of Writing | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/10/03/summer-of-writing/ |
| technical-solutions-to-people-problems | ryan | musings | > "If you think technology will solve your problems, you don't understand > technology and you don't understand your problems" > > ~ attrib. Laurie Anderson From a [Toot](https://mas.to/@natureworks/113917094844091858) by [Jake Rayson](https://mas.to/@natureworks) In a previous post, I wrote about how to [ask why without sounding like a jerk](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/22/how-to-ask-why-without-sounding- like-a-jerk/). This is a slightly related concept (at least in my head). Sometimes, as technical people, we are asked to solve problems. The more we dig into them, the more we discover that the problem that needs to be solved isn't a technical one but a people one. In many cases, it's just getting two groups to actually talk to one another. This can be hard and awkward, so people may want to avoid it. Creating a report telling someone they're doing something wrong is way easier. No hurt feelings! However, I've found that the approach tends to create more problems than it solves. ## The situation The situation is a real one, and I'm obfuscating details to help 'protect the innocent'. At the start of each year, large amounts of new data are needed to be added to a system. The additions are, by their nature, very manual1 and so the team responsible for them spends much of their time trying to get the data added. Another team is highly dependent on this new data being added in order to process their widgets2. The widgets get loaded into the system and checked to see if the data from team A is complete. If it isn't, then the widget gets flagged. This flag directs the members of Team B to reach out to Team A to get clarification on the state of the data needed to process the widget. Only, that's not how Team A understands it. While they are furiously trying to update data, there is some basic data that covers roughly 80% of the widget processing data needs that are already available. So, the vast majority of the time, there is no need for Team B to reach out to Team A because the information they need … | 2025-02-06 | > "If you think technology will solve your problems, you don't understand > technology and you don't understand your problems" > > ~ attrib. Laurie Anderson From a [Toot](https://mas.to/@natureworks/113917094844091858) by [Jake Rayson](https://mas.to/@natureworks) In a previous post, I wrote about how to [ask why without sounding like a jerk](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/22/how-to-ask-why-without-sounding- like-a-jerk/). This is a slightly related concept (at … | Technical Solutions to People Problems | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/02/06/technical-solutions-to-people-problems/ |
| the-invisible-decision-makers-why-systems-ignore-their-users | ryan | musings | ## The Origin of Systems When thinking about systems it's easy to think that they have always been there, or been that way. This isn't true of course. The systems that are in place were put there, by people. People that made decisions. Decisions are what I want to focus on here. In general when making a decision about the implementation of a system you would want to engage with the stakeholders of that system. This of course implies that you can identify at least some of those stakeholders. But sometimes there aren't any key stakeholders other than regulations, or best practice, or some other nebulous thing that needs to be met. These are the decisions I really want to focus on. ## The Illusion of Success Take a security system for instance. The basic tenets of the security system are that it keeps 'something' safe. If the thing to be kept safe is still safe after the implementation of the security system then the people that implemented the system can claim success. They can look at the evidence that since the security system was put into place the thing has been kept safe. Of course, it's entirely possible that the thing was never in danger, and that the previous system was doing just fine. In fact, it could be that the security system is actually making it harder to keep the thing safe. It's just harder to see because all you're looking at are potentially meaningless metrics like. Questions like is the thing safe after implementation of the security system don't take into account if the thing was 'unsafe' before? This can lead you to think that the new security system must be responsible for the safety of the thing. Something else that can be happening is that the security system has caused the people responsible for keeping the thing safe to work more hours, hire more people,who are oftentimes keeping the security system running. ## Questioning Purpose The more we look into a system like this, the more we might ask, "Why is it there?" There can be a couple of reasons, but I'll focus on one in partic… | 2025-03-31 | ## The Origin of Systems When thinking about systems it's easy to think that they have always been there, or been that way. This isn't true of course. The systems that are in place were put there, by people. People that made decisions. Decisions are what I want to focus on … | The Invisible Decision-Makers: Why Systems Ignore Their Users | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/03/31/the-invisible-decision-makers-why-systems-ignore-their-users/ |
| the-la-marathon | ryan | musings | How pretty it was On Sunday March 18, 2018 I ran the [LA Marathon](https://www.lamarathon.com). It was my first one and it was an amazing experience. I never thought I would be able to compete in, let alone finish, a marathon, but on Sunday I did. I started training, like **really** training, for the marathon last August. I would wake up every morning and walk for 45 minutes. This was to get me back into a shape that would allow me to run a bit. On Sunday, September 24 I completed my first run since February 25th (basically 7 months between runs!). It was a 45 minute run that covered 3.82 miles. Over the next 6 months I slowly increased the distances I would run from that modest 3.82 run up to an 18 mile run. In total, I completed 89 training runs which covered 441.92 miles and spent 79+ hours running (see table below for details). * * * Month Distance Time Runs September 14.68 3:03:14 4 October 62.96 12:12:05 17 November 87.70 16:52:06 20 December 37.42 7:03:57 7 January 90.80 17:09:12 18 February 69.49 14:16:52 17 March 43.06 08:29:11 6 **Total** ** 441.92 **** 79:06:37** ** 89** * * * With all of the training that I did, there was a bit of December where I had pulled my right calf on a training run that forced me to rest for a couple of weeks. The only good news of that was that it coincided with a family trip to Utah where I would not have been able to really run while there (the average day time highs were in the teens and the ground seemed to be constantly covered in ice). Also, with all of the training that I did, there isn’t really any way to train for race day itself. You get up early (in my case 3:50) and you take a shuttle to the start line and then wait. For hours. I got to Dodger stadium at about 5:00am but the race wasn’t set to start until 6:55am. So I waited, with my running buddies, for the run to start. It was cold (about 48 degrees) and crowded. Once the race started it took nearly 20 minutes before I was able to cross the start line (there were nearly 25,000 people that ran). None o… | 2018-03-21 | How pretty it was On Sunday March 18, 2018 I ran the [LA Marathon](https://www.lamarathon.com). It was my first one and it was an amazing experience. I never thought I would be able to compete in, let alone finish, a marathon, but on Sunday I did. I started training, like **really …** | The LA Marathon | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/03/21/the-la-marathon/ |
| the-sports-center-effect | ryan | musings | This last weekend was the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. There were 3 really good games and the game that the Patriot played in. This is unfortunate because I only had the Patriots game on the calendar for the weekend so that meant other things could get scheduled whenever and I would end up missing many, if not all, of the other games. Sunday had 2 amazing games. The Steelers lost to the Jaguars in an upset and I got to see the last drive that put the Steelers down by a Field Goal as time expired. It was simply amazing to see how hard they played even though they must have known that they weren’t going to win. When I got home from being out the New Orleans at Minnesota game was at half time with Minnesota up 17-0. It looked like it was going to be a route and I was glad that I wasn’t really watching it. I started to do the chores that needed to be done (laundry, straightening up, getting ready for the week) and had the game on in the background. And then the improbable started to happen. Drew Brees played an amazing half of football and all of a sudden it’s 21-20 New Orleans. After a couple of field goals are exchanged it’s 24-23 New Orleans with Minnesota in possession of the ball. Case Keenum had made a couple of errors earlier in the game (one interception lead to a touch down and really helped the Saints get back in the game). It looked like he was on track to do something similarly ill-advised. Then, with 10 seconds left the bar is snapped and he passes the ball to Stefon Diggs who catches the ball. And just as he catches the ball Marcus Williams, a defensive back for New Orleans is cued up to make an ordinary tackle in an extraordinary situation. I was only on my high school football team for 2 years, but one thing the coaches were always on us about was wrapping up the ball carrier when we were going to tackle. “Wrap him up” they’d scream at us. Over and over again. It became something we did just so they’d stop yelling at us (for that anyway). So Marcus Williams is getting ready to tackle… | 2018-02-04 | This last weekend was the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. There were 3 really good games and the game that the Patriot played in. This is unfortunate because I only had the Patriots game on the calendar for the weekend so that meant other things could get scheduled whenever … | The Sports Center Effect | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/02/04/the-sports-center-effect/ |
| the-technical-debt-of-others | ryan | musings | # The Technical Debt of Others Technical Debt as defined on [technopendia](https://www.techopedia.com) is: > a concept in programming that reflects the extra development work that > arises when code that is easy to implement in the short run is used instead > of applying the best overall solution. In the management of software development we have to make these types of easy- to-implement-and-we-need-to-ship versus need-to-do-it-right-but-it-will-take- longer decisions all of the time. These decisions can lead to the dreaded **working as designed** answer to a bug report. This is infuriating. It’s even more infuriating when you are on the receiving end of this. A recent feature enhancement in the EHR we use touted an > Alert to let proscribing providers know that a medication is a duplicate. For anyone in the medical field you can know what a nightmare it can be to prescribe a duplicate medication from a patient safety perspective, so we’d obviously want to have this feature on. During our testing we noticed that if a medication was prescribed in a dose, say 75mg, and stopped and then started again at a new dose, say 50mg, the Duplicate Medication Alert would be presented. We dutifully submitted a bug report to the vendor and the responded > The Medication is considered a true duplicate as when a medication is > stopped it is stopped for that day it is still considered active till ( > _sic_ ) the end of the day due to the current application logic, which > cannot be altered or changed. What your providers/users may do is enter a > DUR Reason and Acknowledge with something along the lines of "New > Prescription". These DUR reasons can be added via Tools > Preferences > > Medications > DUR > Override Reason tab - type in the desired DUR Override > Reason > Select Add > OK to save. > > If functionality and logic outside of this is desired this will need to be > submitted as an Idea as well since this is currently **functioning off of > development's intended design.** ” Then the design is broken. From a… | 2017-07-28 | # The Technical Debt of Others Technical Debt as defined on [technopendia](https://www.techopedia.com) is: > a concept in programming that reflects the extra development work that > arises when code that is easy to implement in the short run is used instead > of applying the best overall solution. In the management of software development … | The Technical Debt of Others | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/07/28/the-technical-debt-of-others/ |
| the-why-of-a-decision | ryan | musings | As a a manager no one will ever agree with every decision you make. Not the people you manage, and not the people that manage you. But if you always know why you made a decision and you can articulate that decision, then you’ll be on a good footing when someone asks you, “How did you know to do that?” or “How did you know to make **that** decision?” One of the best lessons I learned from my boss LB is that the decision is less important than the **why** of the decision. Make no mistake, bad decisions are bad decisions, but they are much less likely to be made if you know why you made it. Once I was able to internalize that lesson, it freed me to actually make decisions. When faced with a decision, I tend to ask these questions: 1. What do I know? 2. How do I know it (i.e. how confident am I in the information I know)? 3. What do I gain by waiting for more information? 4. What’s the worst that happens if I make the wrong decision? 5. What’s the worst that happens if I make no decision now? 6. Who can I talk to about this decision? Having answers to these questions doesn’t guarantee that my decision will be right, but it does help me to understand why I’m making the decision that I’m making. It will also help me to explain the decision later on if needed. One of the things I try to tell the people I work with is this: > > The decision itself is less important than why you made the decision. If > you don’t know why you made a decision, then you shouldn’t be making the > decision yet.” Know **why** you made a decision and you’ll be better equipped **to make** the decision. | 2017-08-24 | As a a manager no one will ever agree with every decision you make. Not the people you manage, and not the people that manage you. But if you always know why you made a decision and you can articulate that decision, then you’ll be on a good footing … | The why of a decision | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/08/24/the-why-of-a-decision/ |
| updating-my-linkedin-profile | ryan | musings | I've been trying to update my [LinkedIn Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-cheley/) for a couple of weeks now (maybe a couple of months) and I keep hitting a roadblock. Not really sure why ... Since being 'promoted' from Director of NextGen Support Services to Director of Business Informatics, I've wanted to update the Profile but haven't really had the 'time' to do it. So a couple of weeks ago I decided that start in earnest on the update. I've done more research than I can stand but I don't feel like I'm any closer to an update that I like. I think part of the problem is that I don't really know* ~~what~~ who the summary is for. Is it for me or for other people. People that are reading my summary (for whatever reason people read LinkedIn summaries)? If it's for me then I guess I'd write about the things that I really like to do, like data analysis and bits of programming to get to solutions to hard problems. If it's for other people then I guess I need to be genuine about who I am while also 'selling' myself to the prospective others. Maybe the best thing is to write it for me and then hope for the best. I kind of like that. Besides, if someone else reads it and they don't like it then that's a good indication about how well I would get along with that person in a professional setting anyway and might be best to avoid them. And if they do like it then all the better that they will also like me ... the real me. | 2017-03-13 | I've been trying to update my [LinkedIn Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-cheley/) for a couple of weeks now (maybe a couple of months) and I keep hitting a roadblock. Not really sure why ... Since being 'promoted' from Director of NextGen Support Services to Director of Business Informatics, I've wanted to update the Profile but … | Updating my LinkedIn Profile | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/03/13/updating-my-linkedin-profile/ |
| using-claude-for-non-tech-stuff | ryan | musings | For my wedding anniversary my wife and I went to the mountains of Southern California to get out of the heat of the desert. The weekend started of really nicely. The crisp clear air next to Big Bear Lake and the sounds of nature really helped to relax us. We were staying at an AirBNB within walking distance of the village. This was great because one of the things we really like to do is walk. This is very hard in the desert in the summer. We arrived on Thursday and spent that first day just enjoying the weather and being outside. On Friday the cool mountain breeze picked up a bit, but nothing too bad. My brother-in-law and his wife have a place in Big Bear Lake as well. They receieved a text message from the local power company that the power may be turned off that day due to 'high winds'. Now, where we were there weren't any high winds, but the power transmission lines that bring the power up to Big Bear Lake were in a potential high wind area. The estimated time for the power to be turned off was 3pm Friday. Well, 3pm Friday came and went and the power was still on. We didn't think much of it as we walked to a restaurant for dinner. After dinner we walked to a different place for dessert. We even closed the place down!1 We walked back to the house and at just about 9:30pm the power went off. This was disappointing. We figured that the power would be back on the next morning so we went to bed. The next day at 6am the power was still out. At 9am the power was still out. As far as I know, the power was out until the end of day Sunday, but we didn't stay to find out. By 10am on Saturday we had decided to leave and come back home. Not only was the power out at our place, but it was out everywhere. Like, litterally everywhere in town. The restaurants, the shops, but grocery stores. No power was to be had. The reason that a power company can just turn off the power like this is due to a California Law (law needed). It's couched in terms of saving lives, but in my opinion it allows power companies to not perfor… | 2025-06-26 | For my wedding anniversary my wife and I went to the mountains of Southern California to get out of the heat of the desert. The weekend started of really nicely. The crisp clear air next to Big Bear Lake and the sounds of nature really helped to relax us. We … | Using Claude for non-Tech Stuff | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/06/26/using-claude-for-non-tech-stuff/ |
| vins-last-game | ryan | musings | Twelve years ago today Steve Finley hit a Grand Slam in the 9th to clinch the NL West title against the Giants. Today, the Dodgers have already won the NL West title so we won't have anything like that again, but it is Vin Scully's last game to be called. EVER. </p> I remember watching Dodgers games on KTLA with my grandmother in the 80's. I thought baseball was slow and boring, but the way that Vin would tell stories was able to keep me interested. </p> Vin is able to call a game, with no emotion, just tell the story of the game. Dropping tidbits about this player or that player. Always knowing more about the people in the game while also knowing so much about the game. </p> He's quite literally seen everything. From perfect games to triple plays. He called Hank Aaron's historic record breaking home run. He even saw a pitcher throwing a perfect game through 7 get pulled (I'm looking at you DAve Roberts). </p> In the last game he ever called the Dodgers are in playoff form. This ... is not a good thing. The Dodgers are historically an awful performing playoff team, and so far, they have managed to lose 4 of their last 5 and are working on making it 5 of 6. </p> It's a dark and dreary day in San Francisco. It's raining in San Francisco. Kenta Maeda is pitching for the Dodgers. </p> Dodgers first out of the game is a Stikeout of Hunter Pence ... but the Dodgers are down 0-2. Might be a long one today </p> ... </p> The game ended not with a win, but a whimper as the Dodgers lost to the Giants 7-1. </p> As Vin gave his last call it wasn't a great call like Charlie Culberson's Home Run to win the West (and the game) last weekend. It was a pop fly that sent the Giants back to New York to face the Mets. </p> Five years ago I never wanted him to retire. This season, I'm glad he decided to put the microphone up. A l… | 2016-10-03 | Twelve years ago today Steve Finley hit a Grand Slam in the 9th to clinch the NL West title against the Giants. Today, the Dodgers have already won the NL West title so we won't have anything like that again, but it is Vin Scully's last game to be called … | Vin's Last Game | https://www.ryancheley.com/2016/10/03/vins-last-game/ |
| web-scrapping-passer-data-part-ii | ryan | musings | On a previous post I went through my new found love of Fantasy Football and the rationale behind the 'why' of this particular project. This included getting the team names and their URLs from the [ESPN website](https://www.espn.com). As before, let's set up some basic infrastructure to be used later: from time import strptime year = 2016 # allows us to change the year that we are interested in. nfl_start_date = date(2016, 9, 8) BASE_URL = 'http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/schedule/_/name/{0}/year/{1}/{2}' #URL that we'll use to cycle through to get the gameid's (called match_id) match_id = [] week_id = [] week_date = [] match_result = [] ha_ind = [] team_list = [] Next, we iterate through the `teams` `dictionary` that I created yesterday: for index, row in teams.iterrows(): _team, url = row['team'], row['url'] r=requests.get(BASE_URL.format(row['prefix_1'], year, row['prefix_2'])) table = BeautifulSoup(r.text, 'lxml').table for row in table.find_all('tr')[2:]: # Remove header columns = row.find_all('td') try: for result in columns[3].find('li'): match_result.append(result.text) week_id.append(columns[0].text) #get the week_id for the games dictionary so I know what week everything happened _date = date( year, int(strptime(columns[1].text.split(' ')[1], '%b').tm_mon), int(columns[1].text.split(' ')[2]) ) week_date.append(_date) team_list.append(_team) for ha in columns[2].find_all('li', class_="game-status"): ha_ind.append(ha.text) for link in columns[3].find_all('a'): # I realized here that I didn't need to do the fancy thing from the site I was mimicking http://danielfrg.com/blog/2013/04/01/nba-scraping-data/ … | 2016-11-18 | On a previous post I went through my new found love of Fantasy Football and the rationale behind the 'why' of this particular project. This included getting the team names and their URLs from the [ESPN website](https://www.espn.com). As before, let's set up some basic infrastructure to be used later: from … | Web Scrapping - Passer Data (Part II) | https://www.ryancheley.com/2016/11/18/web-scrapping-passer-data-part-ii/ |
| web-scrapping-passer-data-part-iii | ryan | musings | In Part III I'm reviewing the code to populate a DataFrame with Passer data from the current NFL season. To start I use the `games` `DataFrame` I created in [Part II](https://www.ryancheley.com/blog/2016/11/18/web-scrapping-passer-data-part- ii) to create 4 new `DataFrames`: * reg_season_games - All of the Regular Season Games * pre_season_games - All of the Pre Season Games * gameshome - The Home Games * gamesaway - The Away Games A cool aspect of the DataFrames is that you can treat them kind of like temporary tables (at least, this is how I'm thinking about them as I am mostly a `SQL` programmer) and create other temporary tables based on criteria. In the code below I'm taking the `nfl_start_date` that I defined in [Part II](https://www.ryancheley.com/blog/2016/11/18/web-scrapping-passer-data-part- ii) as a way to split the data frame into pre / and regular season `DataFrame`. I then take the regular season `DataFrame` and split that into home and away `DataFrames`. I do this so I don't double count the statistics for the passers. #Start Section 3 reg_season_games = games.loc[games['match_date'] >= nfl_start_date] pre_season_games = games.loc[games['match_date'] < nfl_start_date] gameshome = reg_season_games.loc[reg_season_games['ha_ind'] == 'vs'] gamesaway = reg_season_games.loc[reg_season_games['ha_ind'] == '@'] Next, I set up some variables to be used later: BASE_URL = 'http://www.espn.com/nfl/boxscore/_/gameId/{0}' #Create the lists to hold the values for the games for the passers player_pass_name = [] player_pass_catch = [] player_pass_attempt = [] player_pass_yds = [] player_pass_avg = [] player_pass_td = [] player_pass_int = [] player_pass_sacks = [] player_pass_sacks_yds_lost = [] player_pass_rtg = [] player_pass_week_id = [] player_pass_result = [] player_pass_team = [] player_pass_ha_ind = [] player_match_id = [] player_id = [] #declare the player_id as a l… | 2016-11-19 | In Part III I'm reviewing the code to populate a DataFrame with Passer data from the current NFL season. To start I use the `games` `DataFrame` I created in [Part II](https://www.ryancheley.com/blog/2016/11/18/web-scrapping-passer-data-part- ii) to create 4 new `DataFrames`: * reg_season_games - All of the Regular Season Games * pre_season_games - All of the Pre Season Games … | Web Scrapping - Passer Data (Part III) | https://www.ryancheley.com/2016/11/19/web-scrapping-passer-data-part-iii/ |
| weezer-live | ryan | musings | I started college in 1996. In 1997 one of the most influential albums of my early adulthood was introduced to me ... [Weezer's Pinkerton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_\(album\)). I hated it. I wanted the [Blue Album](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weezer_\(Blue_Album\)) again but different somehow, and Pinkerton was NOT it. However, a weird thing happened. Once I moved into my Sophomore apartment with a roommate that I can only describe as 'hard to live with' I retreeated into two things: 1. [Final Fantasy VII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII) 2. Music Final Fantasy VII is a whole blog post on it's own, so I won't try to cover it here, but music ... and specifically Weezer were instrumental to me surviving my 'hard to live with' roommate. ## Listening to too much Weezer I probably listened to Pinkerton 1000 times (no exaggeration) over my time in college (this was not so hard because it's only a 35 minute album!) I loved that album, and listening to it STILL brings me back to living in a small, shitty apartment in San Luis Obispo with a 'hard to live with' roommate. I saw Weezer live in March of 2001 at [RIMAC in La Jolla at UCSD](https://ucsdtritons.com/facilities/liontree-arena/2)1. I still remember the show. Lots of hipster Weezer fans in their skinny jeans, nerd glasses, and a lot of earnestly trying really hard trying to not try to be 'cool'. I was (still am) a bigger guy that can't fit into Skinny jeans to save my life, so this wasn't really my scene, but I really wanted to see Weezer and I didn't want to care about the hipsters. I also remember needing to be back in San Luis Obispo the next day for work or school or something. So after the show was done at midnight I got in my car and drove the roughly 4 hours back to San Luis Obsipo so I can do whatever I needed to do the 'next' day. It was a long day, but it was awesome. I got to see Weezer. And for me, that's kind of where Weezer stopped making music. A few months later Weezer released the Green Album and I tried… | 2024-11-26 | I started college in 1996. In 1997 one of the most influential albums of my early adulthood was introduced to me ... [Weezer's Pinkerton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_\(album\)). I hated it. I wanted the [Blue Album](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weezer_\(Blue_Album\)) again but different somehow, and Pinkerton was NOT it. However, a weird thing happened. Once I moved into my … | Weezer Live | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/11/26/weezer-live/ |
| whoops-or-how-i-broke-my-website-by-installing-nginx-with-apache | ryan | musings | I’ve been working on a project to create a [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com) based website. Over the weekend (Saturday I think) I tried to get it up and running on my [Linode](https://www.djangoproject.com) server. However, after a couple of failed attempts I decided to use the free hosting coupon1 I had for [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com) to see if that allowed me to reply more easily deploy … the short answer … meh. What I didn’t realize over the weekend is that while I had been trying to deploy my Django site, I had installed [Nginx](http://nginx.org) on my Linode server that was also running [apache2](https://httpd.apache.org). This lead to them both trying to listen on port 80 but because Nginx was the last thing I had kicked off, it was _winning_. While I was working on my Django site I should have realized that something was up when I tried to connect to the blog for the site (still a Wordpress site on my Linode server) and it returned a ‘Can not connect to the server message’. I didn’t pay much attention because I figured (incorrectly) that I had done something specific to that subdomain, and not that I had made all of the sites on my Linode server inaccessible. Last night at about 9 I thought, “Well, it shouldn’t take long for me to figure out the issue with the new blog. ” By 10:15 I tried everything the internet had told me to try and I was still unable to get apache2 to reload. I googled a bunch of stuff, but nothing was helping. When I tried to get the status on apache2 I would get this: ● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; bad; vendor preset: enabled) Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d └─apache2-systemd.conf Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2018-05-01 05:01:03 PDT; 5s ago Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8) Process: 7718 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/apache2 stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Process: 7703 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/apache2 start (code=exited, … | 2018-05-01 | I’ve been working on a project to create a [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com) based website. Over the weekend (Saturday I think) I tried to get it up and running on my [Linode](https://www.djangoproject.com) server. However, after a couple of failed attempts I decided to use the free hosting coupon1 I had for … | Whoops! Or how I broke my website by installing Nginx with Apache | https://www.ryancheley.com/2018/05/01/whoops-or-how-i-broke-my-website-by-installing-nginx-with-apache/ |
| why-ulysses-is-awesome | ryan | musings | I started writing my last [post](http://www.ryancheley.com/) on my iMac but because Apple Photos is a bit ... finicky with the iCloud syncing a screenshot I had taken on my iPad wasn’t there. No fear, just keep writing in Ulysses, then move from the iMac to the iPad and drop the image in. It worked, no problems no fuss. It just works. Now, if only iCloud would just work ... | 2017-12-15 | I started writing my last [post](http://www.ryancheley.com/) on my iMac but because Apple Photos is a bit ... finicky with the iCloud syncing a screenshot I had taken on my iPad wasn’t there. No fear, just keep writing in Ulysses, then move from the iMac to the iPad and drop the … | Why Ulysses is Awesome | https://www.ryancheley.com/2017/12/15/why-ulysses-is-awesome/ |
| winter-of-learning | ryan | musings | ## Winter of Learning Retrospective Have you heard the good word about themes? If you haven't, take a look at this great video by [CGP Grey on Themes](https://youtu.be/NVGuFdX5guE?si=auqXL9SMfYeftcup) and how they can work. For the last couple of years I've been doing yearly themes ... with limited success. This lack of success was entirely due to me not actually reviewing the status of my themes until the end of the year ... and by then it's too late! This last December I decided that I'd do the themes, but this time I'd do seasonal set of themes instead of one BIG annual theme. My current theme ended yesterday (March 18th) and this time I'm going to actually take stock of where I am and how 'well' I did. Since my theme started on December 21, 2023 which is the Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice, I decided to have a seasonal theme of 'Winter of Learning' with the following things I wanted to learn more about: * [Tailscale](https://github.com/ryancheley/til/tree/main/tailscale) * [Docker](https://github.com/ryancheley/til/tree/main/Docker) * Postgres * [CSS](https://github.com/ryancheley/til/tree/main/css) * GitHub Actions To help me keep track of this I dusted off my [TIL github repo](https://github.com/ryancheley/til) and started to write down some TILs. Over the course of the 88 days of my Seasonal theme I added 28 TILs. I also had 16 other, more personal, TILs that didn't make it into the repo for a total of 44 TILs. With 88 days that's a 50% hit rate on writing down stuff that I learned. This is much better than I thought I had done. I'd been pretty down on myself because I had meant to write a TIL every night, but I didn't. I over estimated the number of times I **didn't** write a TIL and thought I had done much worse on it than I had. Now, just because I wrote a TIL doesn't mean that it was one of the topics above that I had indicated I would WANT to write about, but that's OK! The point of a TIL is to document some stuff that you learned and the topics above were only ever meant to be g… | 2024-03-19 | ## Winter of Learning Retrospective Have you heard the good word about themes? If you haven't, take a look at this great video by [CGP Grey on Themes](https://youtu.be/NVGuFdX5guE?si=auqXL9SMfYeftcup) and how they can work. For the last couple of years I've been doing yearly themes ... with limited success. This lack of success … | Winter of Learning | https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/03/19/winter-of-learning/ |
| year-in-review-2023 | ryan | musings | I've never done a year in review, but this seems like a good a time as any, right? I had a rough outline, but after reading the great Year in Review from [Tim Schilliing](https://www.better-simple.com/personal/2023/12/30/my-year-in- review/), [Paolo Melichore](https://www.paulox.net/2023/12/31/my-2023-in- review/), and [Velda Kiara](https://dev.to/veldakiara/djangoconus-2023-a-wish- fulfilled-2mmc), I was inspired to **actually** finish mine. # Professional In the moment it can feel like I don't really get anything done at work. Looking at my [time tracking stats](https://track.toggl.com/shared- report/9091b753451ad2edafbb36f18be33d82/summary/period/last12Months), I do spend A LOT of my time in meetings (nearly 40%) and administration (almost 45%) which is expected for someone in management I suppose, but I really do miss getting to write code more often. That being said I was able to complete some pretty significant projects at work with the help of my team that I'm really proud of. ## Migrations Change is hard, and we underwent a few BIG technology changes that have gone really well. The first big change implemented was to migrate from a few Atlassian products ([JIRA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jira_\(software\)) and [Confluence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_\(software\))) to [YouTrack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTrack). I know there are lots of people out there that HATE JIRA, but I loved it and my team liked it. I think that a big reason for that is when JIRA wasn't doing what we needed it to do, I was able to make changes to it. We didn't have to pass it through some change control committee, or get buy in from some high level manager. We just made it work for us ... and it really did work well for us. The reason we had to migrate from these products was that Atlassian announced in February of 2021 that they would end-of-life the server versions at the end of February 2024. I looked to see if we could migrate to one of their data center versions, but because I'm in Health Care any… | 2023-12-31 | I've never done a year in review, but this seems like a good a time as any, right? I had a rough outline, but after reading the great Year in Review from [Tim Schilliing](https://www.better-simple.com/personal/2023/12/30/my-year-in- review/), [Paolo Melichore](https://www.paulox.net/2023/12/31/my-2023-in- review/), and [Velda Kiara](https://dev.to/veldakiara/djangoconus-2023-a-wish- fulfilled-2mmc), I was inspired to **actually** finish mine. # Professional In the moment … | Year in Review 2023 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/12/31/year-in-review-2023/ |
| year-in-review-2024 | ryan | musings | I did my first [Year in Review](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/12/31/year-in- review-2023/) last year and have decided to carry on the tradition to make sure I know what I did! I've written about themes before, so I won't go over it again here. Below is a high level of what my 2024 themes were * [Winter of Learning](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/03/19/winter-of-learning/) * [Spring of Transition](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/06/20/spring-of-transition/) * [Summer of Writing](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/10/03/summer-of-writing/) * Fall of Mindfulness Overall my themes were pretty successful. I do wish I had been a bit more mindful, and am now left to wonder if I shouldn't have gone with Autumn of Mindfulness instead of Fall of Mindfulness, because I seem to have taken a step back on some of my hopes for mindfulness 😄 ## Professional Last year I said > In the moment it can feel like I don't really get anything done at work I've felt this way pretty much every year for probably since I first became a manager, but I'm starting to embrace it a bit more as I get older I guess. For some context, in 2024 I worked 2235 hours with the following breakdown: Category | Hours | Percentage ---|---|--- Administration | 1193.5 | 53.4 Meetings | 838.1 | 37.5 Coding | 93.5 | 4.2 Conference | 55.5 | 2.39 Commuting | 54 | 2.42 There were a couple of highlights from work this year though that I wanted to call out I celebrated 16 years with my current employer which means that my career is now old enough to drive in the US! My team finally was able to migrate our SQL Database version control from Subversion to Git. I wrote about the migration to git last year in my year in review and this was the last project that needed to be migrated over. There are still some things to do to help with the migration to make it easier for the teams that work with this project, but the first couple of steps have been completed which is nice. One of the big things I wanted to focus on was the validation is… | 2025-01-02 | I did my first [Year in Review](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/12/31/year-in- review-2023/) last year and have decided to carry on the tradition to make sure I know what I did! I've written about themes before, so I won't go over it again here. Below is a high level of what my 2024 themes were * [Winter …](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/03/19/winter-of-learning/) | Year in Review 2024 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/02/year-in-review-2024/ |
| year-in-review-2025 | ryan | musings | I was hoping to have this written and posted last week, but for Christmas this year Santa brought me a cold which knocked me on my butt for a few days. I had done a bit of prep, but wow, when I look back at 2025 it was a pretty big year for me personally. ## Professional I celebrated 17 years at my [current employer](https://www.mydohc.com). While this isn't a nice round number sort of anniversary, about 6 months before the actual anniversary date I was promoted to an Associated Vice President and joined the Senior Management Team. This has been a goal of mine since about 2010 and after a lot of hard work (and honestly more than a bit of good luck) I "made it". In addition to the promotion at work, I also helped to lead a multi department team to a successful upgrade for a major application AND helped to lead a major network migration for our EHR that went really well. Two major projects accomplished in the same calendar year was a pretty good feeling. We also do annual employee satisfaction surveys and my department had a 96% satisfaction rating. This is a really good feeling as a leader. We get shit done AND people are happy to do it! Since 2021 my department has consistently scored above 90%. This isn't just me though! I have a great management team that helps to make this happen. Over this same time period I've had 7 people leave the department1. Five of them because of retirement. I really like that where I work is a place you retire at more often than not! That, along with the high satisfaction rates, suggest that my management team and I are doing something right. ## Django and Python On the Django and Python side it was also a really big year. In February I [spoke](https://youtu.be/FBMg2Bp4I-Q?si=tzHCWboxaEa8vEh3) at [PyCascades](https://2025.pycascades.com/) in Portland, Oregon. In September I [spoke](https://youtu.be/aZwKCo5kwJU?si=eel7u86Czjzl-CsV) at [DjangoCon US](https://2025.djangocon.us/) in Chicago, Illinois. This was my THIRD talk at DjangoCon US2 I was also active with [Django Common… | 2025-12-31 | I was hoping to have this written and posted last week, but for Christmas this year Santa brought me a cold which knocked me on my butt for a few days. I had done a bit of prep, but wow, when I look back at 2025 it was a pretty … | Year in Review 2025 | https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/12/31/year-in-review-2025/ |
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