My blog post will be sporadic.
Joel Embiid has agreed to a supermax contract extension. He became eligible for the super max by making 2nd team all NBA. The extension is 4 years and is worth 196 million. He its now signed thru 2027. He has 6 years 260 plus million coming his way. Here is hoping that a championship comes at some point over the next 6 years.
As I turn 3^3+3×3 I wanted to reflect on being 35. It was a year of positives and negatives (not a COVID reference). Right before turning 35, we began the process of purchasing a new home as we prepared to get married. We were very fortunate during the process and was able to get an amazing interest rate and buy our first home together.
The day we moved, I found out that my uncle Elton only had weeks to live. After a battle with heart issues he passed away less than 2 weeks before our wedding. I wish that he could have been there.
The wedding went great, we decided not to postpone and elected to have a very small ceremony. We are grateful for those that could make it and saddened that more could not celebrate with us. We catered a Pizzeria Vetri food truck and had our reception in our new backyard.
We on a honeymoon in Cape Cod where we packed some good excursions. We went searching for great white sharks and shark a 13 foot shark and several other great white sharks too. We also went fishing, not the best weather but we have great conversations with the captain and Jess caught a fish. We also visited Martha Vineyard on a chilly and rainy day and did some light shopping for souvenirs.
In January I launched my Bedtime Chess series www.Bedtimechess.com ! I wrote the first drafts of the some of the books in May of 2019 but first published the first one right before new year eve 2020. It has been a big learning experience navigating get a book illustrated and then self published. The experience led me to creating my own publishing company which is in the works www.VetsPublish.com The goal being to empower other veterans to tell their story whether it’s about their time in the military or something related to their passion.
After almost 6 years I changed jobs and left my previous company. I learned a lot working in the NJ Medicaid arena and now have the opportunity to provide value based healthcare at the national level.
In April I lost my last uncle on either side of my family. My uncle Jeffery fought hard against cancer for many years.
In one year :
New House
Married
New Job
Baby on the way 🙂 !!! Baby Girl Hallback coming soon.
I am looking forward to being 36.
The final book of the my initial series Bedtime Chess A King Story will be available June 6th 2021 (My Birthday) It is available for preorder via Amazon https://amzn.to/3fdGez1 and Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bedtime-chess-a-king-story-daniel-hallback/1139365171?ean=9781955364102
Here are some items that may make great gifts
Even the best of are wrong a lot and that is okay. We must be willing to “check our answers” otherwise we will continue to think we are always right .
In baseball a .300 batting average is good. Basketball .400 three point shooting. Football .90 Field Goal made is good . Hockey .915 or better is good.
Even those who are great will miss sometimes, let a goal in. We are not perfect . We all can do better.
Am I always right ?
No.
Are you always right ?
Scenario 1 Person A- I think this Person B- Well I think this Person A+B (in unison) you suck or you're stupid Scenario 2 Person A- I think this Person B- I think this, why do that? Person A- I think this because... why do you think that ? Person A- I think this because... Person A+B Thank you for explaining, I still think this... or maybe one person changes their mind. I am hoping for more Scenario 2 over the coming months. Maybe we won't change each other minds every time but we should be open to actual dialogue. Take you learn from the other side to adapt your argument, maybe you can bring them to your side.
Playing as Black I was able to win with 0.1 seconds left.
As we leave July 2020 and we get closer to the end of 2020 I want to say that the lead up to July was tough. Beginning around Father’ s day and thru the fourth of July was a very difficult time. I did my best to remain productive as I could in both my personal and professional life.
As we head into office I want to be optimistic for the days ahead. There are some big milestone coming up in my personal life and I look forward to the changes to come. I also have concerns about how our country will proceed heading towards November 3rd 2020. Despite many wanting 2020 to be over now we all will have to make it through the increased waves of politic ads and debates. Even before November we hav e to figure out how to safety provide education to children across the country.
It is important to be open to dialogue, the current pandemic does not need to divide us. We need adknowledge the importance of listening and what do when both sides can not agree. Fact checking will be increasing important…. which can be difficult based on where we receive our information and how we go about fact checking.
Please remember its natural to disagree as we are an opinionated species, however lets try to acknowledge that we don’t have to agree to try each other with respect.
At a certain point the best defense turned into offense… and luck.