Game of Thrones, Season 2: Kings and Spoilers

I had thought to write blogs about Game of Thrones Season 2 chronologically, maybe one blog for every 2 episodes. But then I finished watching the whole season before penning even the first blog, and it became hard to remember what happened in which order. Thus I've chosen instead to write about Season 2 more thematically. I believe that will make for better blogs, actually.

Season 2 aligns mostly with the second book of the series, Clash of Kings. In the wake of the passing of King Robbert Baratheon in Season 1, several claimants to his throne wage war on each other. In the books it's named War of the Five Kings. Depending on how one counts it, though, there are between 3 and 7 kings (and queens) vying for the throne. Some really want to rule, while others are just spoilers. ...And, no, I don't mean spoilers as in giving away plot surprises; I mean spoilers as people whose definition of winning isn't coming out on top but merely hurting someone they have a grudge against and seeing them lose.

Here's a quick rundown of these kings, would-be kings, and spoilers. With spoiler protection! 😅

( Spoilers for Season 2 of Game of Thrones )

Spoiler policy: Comments discussing Seasons 1-2 are welcome. No spoilers for subsequent seasons.

Busy at Work? Schedule EVERYTHING!

For several weeks now I've been fairly busy at work. To look at my calendar is to see something that looks like a jigsaw puzzle that is nearly complete. There are almost no unscheduled gaps (blank spaces) left. But partly this is intentional. To cope with a busy schedule from numerous demands I've taken to scheduling everything.

"Schedule everything" means, of course, scheduling meetings. Everyone grasps that. But it also means scheduling a lot of things people otherwise might not think to place on their calendars. Here are three:

1) Lunch. Years ago I wouldn't actually schedule lunch, I'd just take it. There was always time in my day for it. I figure part of that was working with colleagues in the same office. We all expected to eat lunch at similar times of the day, so meetings scheduled around lunch were uncommon. With the shift to remote work, and especially with companies shifting to highly distributed workforces, I have to protect my lunchtime now or I'll lose it. Oh, I'm willing to move my lunchtime around (within reason) to accommodate meetings, and I'm willing to shorten it from an hour to 30 minutes occasionally, but I won't give it up.

2) "Extra innings" for meetings that typically run long. For example, I have a 60 minute daily work session with one client right now that often goes at least a little long. To avoid frequent crises of having to reschedule other meetings, or leave that meeting early, when it goes long, I've added a 30 minute "Extra innings" block to my calendar. If the meeting itself doesn't go that long I generally use the time anyway on issues related to that customer, such as followups and debriefs.

3) Prep time. Everyone knows that formal meetings require an appointment on the calendar, but how about time to create or review materials for those meetings? A perfect example is a technical workshop I'm delivering on Friday this week. I've blocked periods of time yesterday, today, and tomorrow to prep for it. Even though I'd delivered this workshop at least 10 times at this point, I'm using the time to dry-run the latest version of it, verifying that everything still works smoothly. And it's a good thing I started this four days in advance because I've already found showstopper problems twice! And again, the reason I block this time on my calendar is because if I didn't, other commitments would get placed on my calendar and I'd be scrambling to fix busted workshop materials after-hours the night before. The likeliest result of that would be mission failure. 😨

Up, Up, Up. Nobody Cares.

It's been a while since I wrote a Tier Tuesday blog. My last Tier Tuesday check was 7 weeks ago. What's changed since then? Well, it's basically "The same, but more." Per my primary source of numerical data, The New York Times's Coronavirus in the U.S., average new case rates are up 30%, the hospitalization rate is up 40%, and the daily average death rate is up 65%.

These are not good numbers! They were too high to be ignored 7 weeks ago and they're clearly worse today. Good luck getting more than a few people to care, though. The country is locked in such a political state of paralysis that even the leaders who previously spoke about the importance of sound public health policy have given up asking people to do anything.