Respite

 So, an interesting weekend  -- busy and good, mainly.  Another slow day at the OC Saturday... not sure why.  Stimulus checks affecting inelastic demand?  Someone noted that there are 11 or so places near us giving out food...which could be, but I wonder; people who go to one, go to others.  Anyways, we have plenty of stuff to give away.  More importantly, I am NOT in charge of the place for February, which is nice... my intention is to spend less time there this year -- I realize the pandemic affected things, but I can spend my Saturdays far more profitably, if you will, doing Mattstuff.

Watched "Losing Ground" a couple of days ago (753!); it's an African-American film about a married couple facing a mid-life/mid-marriage crisis.  It was....ok?  I mean, I liked it, but I really identify with it or the characters; that I cannot change.  I did appreciate the fact that it was largely a minorirt cast/directed film...

Continuing the basement clean; filled a garbage can and may do another, or at least cram everything into that one.  Odd; I didn't know half of this stuff was there, and in a lot of cases, it is a matter of "What do I do with all of this stuff?" now.  Some of it I will continue to pitch, some I will give away....the rest will probably go right back where it was...

Afternoon report

 So, one of my coworkers asked me yesterday if they shouldn't be banning apps like Robinhood, given their role in such thing as the GameStop stock surge.  I told him no, of course -- like any other form of gambling, the stock market is something you should be prepared for, and, well, a lot of people seem to be making out like bandits in it.  I think he knew my answer, of course, but his point was that just as people like Parler were as bad for the country, so too are stock-trading things like these, which just create artificial bubbles and can burn people.  He isn't completely wrong, quite honestly, but I think there is less sympathy in general for people who day trade (people just sitting around not working and playing the market) than other types of activity.  Now, of course, they have closed GameStop trading and people are complaining it is to bail out the hedge funds...but those guys lean left anyways, so...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/let-s-pretend-cleveland-isn-t-done-this-offseason/ar-BB1db8D1?ocid=hplocalnews

Interesting take; I for one think they will move Rosario (look at the savings) and then play Gimenez at SS, leaving Hernandez at 2B free and clear.  Not sure what they will get from him, but prospects and all those cash savings are likely enough for them.  Jones to LF will be interesting in a different way.  I think Johnson should get a crack at playing every day, but it seems he is stretched in CF, but Mercado's bat is stretched there (I see a bounce up not a bounce back) and in this age of K, I think you can sacrifice a little with the gloves.

Hats in the Ring

 A hiatus of sorts... work was busy, a friend was having some personal issues that I had to sort out (you must be far down in life if I am the most compassionate person you can find), and an attempt (ha!) to get to bed early.  So here we are now... not tired, though I should be.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/paula-bolyard/2021/01/26/gop-gears-up-for-a-fierce-primary-battle-to-replace-outgoing-sen-rob-portman-here-are-the-possible-contenders-n1409638

You know, there are a LOT of good candidates on that list -- I had forgotten a bunch of them.  I am not sure it is that much of a problem, mainly because 1) Not all will run and 2) I think the Ohio GOP has sort of figured out the succession; Yost will become governor, LaRose or Faber moves up, and there we go... the trick will be pulling the right name out of the ranks.  The other trick is...Jim Jordan; I think he is the one that could take the seat from "Lean GOP" to toss-up, which is what we don't need; I would rather have the boring GOPer.  As for the Dems, I would wet my pants if it were Chris Redfern....

Got a new haircut today; I asked her to do something different, so she sheared more off the sides and less off the top.  Not exactly sure how I am going to handle it, but it does look good, so so far, so good...

Frozen

 So, Thursday I watched UCONN-UT, and for a women's basketball game, it was pretty exciting and entertaining (the level of play will never be the men's, but I still like and appreciate it, especiallt the marquee matchups), and then last night -- after a thrilling, freezing, three-mile run, a friend clued me into CSU on the national stage of ESPN2... and it was also a thrilling, exciting basketball game. Today's Duke game was not so much, but...  I guess that;s what I prefer about college hoops; the games do mean more, at the end of the day.

OC duty today, and we had a grand crowd of...33.  Yes, almost a record.  Sad, as we had plenty of volunteers, and plenty of stuff to give away...so not sure what we are going to do now.  Ok, I put all of the stuff in the fridges and freezers, and we will order less for the next couple of weeks.  It was cold -- for the volunteers -- and that was no fun, but as 85% of the clients drive, I don;t think it was a factor; hell we were discussing how in pre-COVID days they would be lined up outside the door two-deep at 8 AM...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-case-against-democrats-nuking-the-filibuster/ar-BB1d0d1b?li=BBnbcA1

This could be me, but 1) they would be dumb to nuke it, but even if they did 2) We could always put it back when we re-take the Senate (ideally in 2022), so, aside from a two-year push (or putsch, as the case may be)...

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/trump-revenge-gop-impeachment-backers-461189

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/liz-cheneys-problems-pile-up-461218

I get a kick out of these articles; ok, I called Mary Cheney's issues a few days ago, and I think she is a dead (wo)man walking...as for others, I am not sure; I mean, if Christine Hagan is the best against Anthony Gonzalez, I think he should be happy.  I do believe it is more a matter of geography and opponent that level of anti-Trumpism, but...

 I also think the flip side is equally interesting -- all these guys like Cruz and Hawley getting defunded.  I don;t think we can discount the role of cash, but if they are smart -- and they are -- can't they use this to their advantage?  Us against them, the Swamp protecting its own, the big corporations crushing the little guys... I mean, I think an awesome commercial would say "vote for me and I will make their corporate lives hell," which would be even better if they actually went and did it...

Freedom Riding

So, we survived the Inaugural, yay, and now...the Dems will drive over us like a woman's foot.  :)  I liked the poem, sort of, in so far as I like poetry, I guess...other than that, it is "I will believe it when I see it."

Watched "The American Experience: Freedom Riders" yesterday (the timing was coincidental, I assure you), putting me to 752 on the National Film Registry. I liked it; it was interesting, and it was certainly good to see them trying to get as much of this as possible on film now.  Would have been interesting to get the perspectives from the other side, not that getting 80-year-old on film to admit this would have been terribly productive, of course.  They seemed to be askance at the governor of Alabama at the time, which amused me, because his successor wasn;t any better...

Took the day off today to burn days and run errands; funny, but yesterday was the first snow we have had in a while, and only a little bit...I know the farmers need the snow, but winter has been not that horrible this year, in general.

Got a full seven hours of sleep yesterday, rah.  One of the coworkers were discussing this -- the body needs sleep to build muscle of course, but we never do enough, so you are sort of cheating yourself at the gym... I am as guilty of this as anyone, but it is still not a good idea...

Pensees

So...I crashed hard last nite, conked out at 10, woke up at 3...  then changed and went back to bed. The night before I had been up twice -- once with low blood sugar, then with a charley horse (above the knee, to boot) so that was no fun...and in consequence I skipped the Monday AM workout.  I will probably skip tomorrow's AM shift as well, mainly due to the weather and the fact that my leg still hurts from Monday.  Oi.  Should be able to do a Friday fest, though...

Watched two movies a couple of days ago that I felt were quite interesting...one was a British film, "The Wild Geese," about mercenaries in Africa.  Didn't lack for star power -- Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris -- and I liked it, though it is not the sort of film that would be able to get made today. The second was "Theirs is the Glory," a 1946 film about Operation Market Garden from the British perspective -- many of the actors were actually men who fought in the battle.  Also interesting, although it didn't mention the intelligence failures that led to their downfall.

So, the Trump presidency ends tomorrow... not too hard to say, but had it not been for the virus... alas. I do think the Biden presidency will be normal (in terms of political convention), albeit completely wrong.  All the talk of the GOP recapturing the House (and expanding the Senate!) is on hold.  One thing I am quite interested to see is to the fates of the GOPers who called for the impeachment of Trump.  I think Liz Cheney and a lot of them could be primaried and lose their jobs there; this could happen even if Trump is impeached/under investigation/etc.,  Now, I wonder how the press would cover that; prolly fawning the fallen GOP martyrs, but as Bill Clinton used to say, good politics is good policy, and if you get primaried...that would imply bad policy, would it not?

Unfulfilled

So, it's Sunday midmight (technically Monday) I am not in bed.  Some of it is because I am making sure my blood sugar is ok before I hit the hay, some of it is I am clearing the bookmark backlog, and some of it is I want to blog. Funny this is, for all I had wanted to do today...I only did about half of it, alas, alack.

Weighed myself at the gym today; 4 pounds down from the last weigh in (FWIW); I have not snacked much this past week (only when I have needed to) which has helped; also trying to exercise more, such as by doing more and longer at the gym, and some of it -- like today -- by pacing around the house more while reading.  I am going to keep at it, both approaches; hell, I even took a walk outside today. I bundled up quite a bit (wasn't really cold under the layers) and did a nice three miles.  It was during the Browns game, and I think I counted 12 cars passing me by the entire time, and saw only one other fellow pedestrian....interesting, IMHO.  Anyways, depending on the weather, max gym time will continue, as will an extra stroll.

The downside is that I was not able to do some things today; the DVD from the library is defective and has to go back (along with the book I finished); no budget stuff or other projects; no deep-bleach house clean, though I did move some stuff around and away in the living room, and cleaned up some of the piles on the kitchen table.  Also had a lengthy conversation with a friend about his issues, leading me to consider hanging one of those signs Lucy used to have in the comic strip.

https://spectator.org/woke-church-american-spectator-print-magazine/

Quite true, but the answer is "A generous salary for the pastor and his family."

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/01/did-the-democrats-steal-the-presidential-election.php

Interesting take; I will admit I hadn't thought of this as such, but it does make more sense now...

Relief

 Well, that was an unexpected hiatus of blogging... I crashed hard last nite; just laid down and nodded off about 10, and when I woke up -- lights on and all -- it was 3.  Phew.  I do need the rest, I guess, but I had planned on doing more Friday night.

Tuesday I went to Superior Pho, on the outer limits of Chinatown (despite its being a Vietnamese restaurant).  I had to admit; the place looked a bit sketch from the outside, but once you actually enter the building... it was quite nice.  The food was pretty good; the sandwich was just meh, but the Pho itself (it's soup with rice noodles, bamboo shoots, and other goodies) was quite delicious, and the side of chicken cabbage salad I ordered was pretty awesome (and it was almost meal-sized in and of itself).  Definitely would go back!

OC duty today; on the whole it was an average day, but...there were spurts when we had four or five cars there, and then there would be ten minutes where it was nothing but sagebrush. Funny; yesterday I got an email from the operations manager; the Aldi she picks up from gave us a lot of stuff and it was "sort of chaos" in the sorting area.  Well, it was...not quite hot mess territory, but...so our clients got a lot of goodies, which they appreciated, even though (let's face it) the last thing many of them needed was... food.  One of the clients complained...he doesn't live in our zip code, so we couldn't serve him more...but all of the places in his zip code didn't give out as nice stuff as we did.  I told him I really couldn't help that...

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/how-silicon-valley-in-a-show-of-monopolistic

As a free speech advocate, this is 100% correct...

Resolution

 Last night I crashed, early and fairly hard -- a whole seven hours of sleep.  I needed it, and more; I was not exactly chipper and alert today, but I have to admit that had I stayed up -- despte the pileup of links and articles and bookmarkes -- it would have been worse.  Monday I was up watching the Buckeyes lose and, in the waning stages of the game, going through all of Mom's stuff from the nursing home. (Let's just say they included everything, so in some ways it was a real joy.)  It was nice, in a way, to go through everything; what to do with some of it I do not know, but at least the pile is gone.

One thing that fascinated me was that some people were hoping for a train wreck regarding Ken Jennings' debut as guest host.  Much as I do not root against J! contestants, I don't root against guest hosts.  And you know what?  I think he nailed it.  The speeches at the start of the games on Monday and Tuesday were just right and truly heartfelt.  It's not quite the same, of course, but so far, I like what I see.  Now, I do like the idea of guest hosts (for now); no one can replace a legend, but one can succeed him, and a rotating series is a good way to do that (and certainly fun).  But I also suspect at the end of the day people watch to test their knowledge, and the host is...ancilliary?

Two broad observations about the OSU game.  One, the bend but don't break defense, to me, was...unwise?  Given Alabama's firepower, saying "march to the 20 and we will hold you" seems...well, admitting defeat.  Now, I would think that -- such as by how Wade played so far off the WRs -- this was plan... but I also don't think it was wise, as it just allowed them to march down the field, get rhythm, etc.  I didn't object to the overuse of LBs in the game.... to me, that was more of a strategic choice -- if you think that the DBs can't stop the WRs, then you use the bigger, stronger LBs to knock them around (Paul Zimmermann, the great SI football writer, said this was an underrated factor of the Wide Right Super Bowl; pretty good read, if I recall).  Now, that plan didn;t work, but I could see where it came from.

Which leads me to point two, which is that nothing OSU could have done would have stopped 'Bama, so... alas. Such happens in life.  Two football miracles were not on the agenda.

I stepped on the scale at the gym a couple of days ago...whoa.  I can feel it in my pants, but... I am now carrying about 8 more pounds than I normally do, and that is simply unacceptable!  Some of it is not beng outside on long walks, some of it Xmas excess, some of it is low blood sugar at night, but mainly I am snacking more, and that is not cool.  Hit the gym twice today and Monday and am pacing around more (to say nothing of cutting snacking)... I do not expect immediate improvement, but if this holds...

Respite

 Today was a much more languid day...  the usual Mass, food pantry, and then the gym.  My sister and I met at the hovel and started to go through some of Mom's things -- mainly the paperwork.  Mom kept a lot of it, especially related to medications and such.  It is sort of funny; on the one hand, say, nutritionally, she was not concerned, but pill-wise... she was quite meticulous.  Oi.  Anyways, most of it can be shredded...especially the stuff that is two presidents old, if you get my drift.

Took another one off the National Film Registry, watching a six-minute short, "Kid Auto Races at Venice,: which is the first (extant) Charlie Chaplin as Tramp film out there.  I wouldn't think it is all that special, namely the Tramp getting in the way of motor car races and camera shots, but you can the genesis of his future roles and gigs in the movie, which I thought was interesting.   For the record, the count is now 751.

Looked over the restaurant list today; a bunch of them are more upscale/costlier places.  But not all (and I certainly afford to hit the pricier ones).  Anyways, depending on the schedule and weather, I may make a little culinary road trip this week... as I have taken to saying, Restaurant Lives Matter....

A Man in Motion

 Today was a day where I felt as if I was on "tilt."  Got up at the crack of dawn for food pantry duty.  Not terribly busy but steady.  Then I left early for a Funeral Mass -- a good friend from church, so of course I had to go.  Then back to the OC to help close, take inventory, that sort of thing.  Hit the credit union to play some money games.  Aldi, Acme, home for a bit for a quick lunch...then off to the gym (arms) and the jewelry store (watch batteries).  Sorted some stuff at the hovel, came home.  All the while...sorting through texts and other messages about various things.  It doesn't sound or seem mentally taxing, but... just good to be home.

I note that I need to start crossing places off my list of restaurants, but a lot of them are closed or carryout only, and while I am not exactly opposed to this...some places I want to just sit and enjoy the ambiance, sample an app... that sort of thing.  My list is long, so I can prolly figure something out, but...

Also, last week my grand plans to hit the gym twice a day three times came to...none.  Just ones.  Part of it I was tired (waking up at night with low blood sugar) and then I would oversleep a bit, so no time...and some of it was, I think, just the fact that I am so sleepy...even last night seven hours was a rare event for me!

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2021/01/01/cnns-zakaria-dirty-little-secret-trump-was-tough-russia

I get a kick out of stuff like this; I mean, I certainly chronicled the President's soft stance on Russia many times here...  the more serious thing though is that when people claim Biden stole the election, some of it is just that nothing POTUS did could be seen in a positive light; for all of the talk of Putin love, in policy, it was quite different.  The media, of course, should be held accountable for this, but won't be.

https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/politics-after-trump

Good and interesting read!

Recent Events

 So, yesterday was a banner day for American democracy... I don't know what they were thinking...I mean, really... now and in the future. How the hell can Republicans win any races; any ad the Dems will run will include scenes from yesterday.  How can we contend to be the adult party after this?

The funny thing is... for all of the articles like this:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-damage-trump-did-to-the-gop-in-georgia/ar-BB1cwr0Q?li=BBnbcA1

Which I think is 100% correct, in this case...but anyways, prior to yesterday, you could look at something like:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-deep-origins-of-latino-support-for-trump?utm_source=pocket-newtab

...and say...yes, that's about right; someone who is less divisive -- Josh Hawley certainly has some populist credentials -- but who can retain the message of Trumpism can keep the new voters in the fold and retain the old ones (certainly, people like Hawley and Cruz are Establishment enough) and you can start winning elections again.  There is certainly an argument for all of the GOPers who held their noses and came home in 2016, they stayed home or crossed over (the shitshow), and running someone less divisive could do the trick.  Certainly, no one on our side is discounting the ability of Joe to fuck things up. The point is, all you had to do was hold serve for two, four years, run a good candidate....

As for now... well, where do you go from here?  Hawley and Cruz and ilk seem to be in the shitter (for now; I don't think that will last, depending on how things go in the Senate), and the Tom Cotton wing of the party will ride ascendant for a bit.  I don't really think the Donald will go away, for a bunch of reasons, but as to his ability to win anything... well, there is this:

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/07/trumps-grip-on-gop-grassroots-456062

Which I think is also largely correct (to a point); on the other hand, I also think there are a lot of people in the GOP (especially voters) who still love the guy but also realize he is toxic and no one will win anything with him on the ticket. I am not sure how much say they will have, but unlike in 2016, I can certainly see them unifying on the "anyone else" candidate, whoever that will be.  Even if some voices have been eclipsed by certain recent events.. there are certainly others.  Pence might have helped himself.  Tom Cotton is a strong choice.  DeSantis is picking fights with CNN reporters, which is not an unwise move for a GOP candidate.  I can certainly see a road for, say, Rob Portman, if the party wants someone more milquetosat, though I do not think we are there yet...

Catching Up

 Wanted to blog yesterday, but ended up having a TV night; first, an interesting documentary on TCM about Churchill, his friendship with Alexander Korda, the filmmaker, and their role in making films about...well, the need to be strong/confront Germany.  Then, Dr. Pimple Popper, who is back making episodes and reshaping lives.  After that, I settled in to one of the books I got for Xmas:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+last+temptation+of+rick+pitino&crid=19UTB8PN4YBUF&sprefix=the+lat+temptation+of+r%2Caps%2C197&ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_1_23

It's pretty good; I knew most of the stuff but not all, of course.  One caveat is that the author has written a couple of books with John Calipari, the UK coach (one not unknown to scandal), so I can imagine he might he have some bias... anyways, one thing that struck me was that for all of the emphasis on Coach as CEO (and thus responsible for everything that happens), it's really not true.  I mean, that is the case in a lot of places, but I would argue that in the world of college basketball recruiting, it would seem that a lot of decisions are made before any coach/assistant/university staffer meets a player; a lot of the access and such is handled by people far removed from any semblance of "institutional control."  The book devotes a couple of chapters to this, and while it doesn't exonerate the coaches... in some ways they are sailing on an ocean they did not create and certainly cannot control...

One thing I think has been under-mentioned in the debate about the Electoral College vote tomorrow:  most of the people objecting to this are GOPers who, I think, are simply going through the motions to either 1) preserve future political options and (more importantly) 2) are trying NOT to be primaried the next time around.  Even if the Trump campaign apparatus/bully pulpit is much less than will be expected, there will still be plenty of GOP voters who will remember if a guy was less than robust in supporting President Awesome.  You'd think some people -- seasoned, cynical reporters, perhaps -- would be mentioning this point, but I haven't seen much of it...which seems odd.

Normalcy and Its Return

 Sort of an odd couple of weeks coming to an end tonight; not much work!  I took some off days, then the holidays, then the funeral... been at the home office very minimally over the past two weeks, and tomorrow it will be back to the old five days (unless I take one of my 28 off days or so).  Not that I am opposed to it -- cash is good, and working from home is hardly a slog -- but it will take some mental discipline to get back to the same old.  At least the weather is fairly good (for this time of year).

Got started on the new crop of entries to the National Film Registry today by watching "The Devil Never Sleeps."  It was written by a Mexican-American woman, and it is about her investigation of her uncle's death.  It was...not exactly scintillating.  Alas.  750 though... I ordered some from the library, and between that and the usual suspects... I expect to make heady progress (if not steady).  Even cleared away a couple of links this afternoon...though, honestly, I had expected to do more.

One thing I did do is make steady progres on The Great Pestilence, a book that is about a century old, but a look at the Black Death in England, mainly through an examination of the clerical records; i.e., you can tell who died by the records of vacancies.  It's interesting (if not timely) in how people are trying to survive and function in the pandemic of the day, even as death and worse stormed about you.  I think we tend to underestimate human resilience, no matter the circumstance...

The New Year

 A new year, a new blog post... that was an impressive OSU win last night; I don't know, but it seems that Ryan Day is just a completely different game caller than Urban Meyer, and it seems to be the road not taken... for the better, I think.  Of course, Alabama is probably the best team out there, and if OSU spent its emotional bolt after this game...  In other news, I find it fascinating that Tom Herman is out of a job and Jim Harbaugh will keep his for most of this decade (for now).

OC duty today.  Rah.  Actually, it was pretty slow -- 50 clients, it seems people have been conditioned to think that we are NOT open (it is a holiday weekend!) even though we didn't say so.  Shame, as we had lots of produce to give away and a good set of volunteers who had very little to do.  Aside from the usual cleaning and stock rotating, everyone just slow-worked and chatted. Alas.  One funny thing...one of the volunteers complimented me on how I have adjusted to the single vocation, and that I was really good at it.  It was all I could do to NOT tell him that maybe I am just a selfish asshole...

I hate to say this, but...2020, certain events at the end of the year notwithstanding, wasn't that bad for me.  Working from home is going ok and I certainly saved wear and tear on the car. Hitting the gym more often (two a days a couple of times a week) has helped in some ways. My finances are improved a bit (spending less on gas, paying down debt) and I can see more improvement this year if things continue.  I purged some toxic people from life (mostly) and made better friends in the process.  I need to get more book reading done, of course; that can be solved by not fucking around with other stuff and reading stuff online (which isn't that bad, of course).  I need to drop a few pounds; might start walking a bit outside on the cool and dry days, at the very least (or pace around the house more).

Another thing -- and this is a Sisyphean one -- is to clean out the stuff I have bookmarked; there are a bunch of reasons why I have a bunch no matter what, but...I need to start achieving things, if you will, and get to work...