Just the first week...

Sure feels like the country is quite quickly going to hell in a handbasket.  The edicts from the White house are being implemented as efficiently as you would expect them to be given the speed at which they are being rolled out, the circus troupe running the show and any bit of intellectual honesty.  Let’s see, in the course of one week we have managed to go to such lengths to piss off our neighbors to the south that their President cancelled a state visit and driven the citizens to a point that they are calling for everything short of war.  We have shredded the moral standing of the country with this ban of refugees.  They have managed to target a single religious block with somewhere between limited and no entry to the country (except for those traveling from the country where the only outside “terrorists” to attack the US came from.) The only upside to that is that the courts have no particular agenda to be beholden to the chief of the circus and therefore will likely throw the whole thing, part and parcel, out as a gross breach of the Constitution.  And the fine party in charge, after feigning enough moral outrage when all these ideas where floated in the election, have either gone completely silent or have fallen in line for the clown brigade.  (I can’t begin to come up with a suitable political fate to wish on our noble Speaker of the House, the ideas man, the bridge between the establishment and the wackadoos.  He has done nothing short of selling his soul.  History seldom remembers the cowards which is unfortunate as Speaker Ryan will likely be a good cautionary tale of what happens when your positioning and brand vastly outstrip your abilities.)

I do honestly wish I had any guess as to how this is all going to turn out.  I have begun to worry however that at some point, with the near daily large scale protesting going on, that something is going to go very wrong.  A mistake will be made and it may be enough to set the whole powder keg off.  Let us not forget that the polls really were not wrong about the amount of support that this guy has.  (They were simply wrong on how that translated into electoral votes.)  The powerbase that he does have however is a volatile lot where they are not exceptionally old.  If things start to get worse, there is no telling what happens when one of his “constituent” groups decides to get overzealous.  Lord knows the bubble that is the WH will not do anything to stop them, even if they could.  And that is the scary part to me… the risk that protests and counter-protests meet up on the wrong street at the wrong time.  There are no inspirational leaders in Washington today, just those that will tell you that the country is going to hell and it is “their” fault and the only ones you can trust to tell you the “truth” is the group casting the message to begin with.  

The real risk we run is that the wrong people really start to believe them and then we will find out how slippery the slope really is.

Begin the end...

Today saw the beginning of the end… the start of a period that could be the most fundamental challenge to the American ideal since our nation’s founding.  I know that sounds like a hyperbole but, if anything, I believe it to be impossible to overstate.  Today President Trump began a two-day exercise to dismantle the American ideal.  Today’s act was the signing of two executive orders that target undocumented immigration to the US largely aimed at Mexico.  He starts with the building of a wall on the southern border, the building of detention centers to house immigrants awaiting deportation and then increases the forces to enforce his new grand vision.  In addition, he sets up a set of guidelines that will allow for the federal government to punish any state and local municipalities that are deemed to not be cooperating with the new administrative actions.  And if that was not enough, tomorrow he is widely expected to implement a complete halt to allowing refugees into the US and will implement a travel ban from “Muslim-majority” countries.  As much feigned outrage there was from even within his own party when he suggested this during the election, I’m sure it will be met with utter silence this time through as the GOP is too busy trying to create lists of legislation they will push through to notice the White House burning down any notion of the American Ideal.  This is what acquiesce looks like.

Ronald Reagan, for all his faults, knew how the American Ideal, American Exceptionalism worked.  It did not come from within.  It came from the perception of the outside world that America held the high ground.  That America, with all her internal flaws and challenges, would lead and those that followed would prosper.  America was the land of hope for those suffering through oppression albeit in Soviet Russia, underdeveloped Africa or in the oppressive tyrannical monarchies of the Middle East.  America was the light.  America was the rule of law and the moral compass.  America was, as Reagan put it, “The City on a Hill.” 

Our response to 9-11 began to chip away at that ideal, where we began crossing the very lines that we fought to establish.  Military led revenge became the policy of choice but without the commitment to rebuilding in the light of victory.  The results were, in our attempts to feel safer, we sowed chaos.  We took an area of the world that struggled to maintain any sense of stability let alone progress and pushed it into the abyss without even considering how to pull it out again.  Even how we conducted our ill-considered campaign was contrary to our own standards.  We adopted the very techniques that we often tried failed states and dictators for employing.  We created an infrastructure to hold people in such a way that we would not have to consider their rights.  And now, we are going to close our borders to those most in need from the destruction we have reaped.  Oh, it is a much easier narrative to accept if we frame it as Islamic fundamentalists charging after us and our way of life.  Much easier to say “we don’t know what is going on” or even to just blame them because they hate us.  No causality in sight (at least to do with us) and clearly no responsibility.

So here we are.  We will just bar the doors, build a wall and turn our back to a world that once looked up to us.  We will no longer be the beacon of hope, will no longer hold the high ground.  If Trump is to be believed, we no long desire to be the City on the Hill.  You can’t lead when you only think of your own best interests.  You can’t win when you always demand surrender.  “Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled masses…” was as much of the American moto as anything else.  It is the ideal that brought us all here in the first place.  It is our collective history.  America can be great again but not until we remember who we are and be willing to pay the costs of being “on the hill.”  Unless we do that… we will lose, huge. 

And we can’t hope for a change in direction without the application of resistance.  

Freeze....

So, my whole family is sick and I am not feeling all that great myself.  Started with # 1 son getting strep and running a 103 temp with hives.  Moved on to the wife and is now progressing.  Have to love it.  Anyway…

One of the first acts of the newly elected President was to freeze federal hiring.  Now aside from the complete lack of a justifiable reason to do this (other than some deeply rooted dislike of federal bureaucrats) I also tend to think that this is an especially poor economic choice.  When you look at the monthly Non-Farm Payroll numbers the number of new jobs attributed the federal government is only about 2500 or so a month.  That in and of itself is not going to have a significant impact on the employment situation.  Add in the rates of retirement in an increasingly aging federal workforce and the impact becomes more noticeable.  A recent BAO study showed that recent retirement rates of federal employees ran at about 3.5%.  Based on federal employment of about 3,000,000 you get a negative impact to the jobs numbers of almost 10,000 per month assuming that the rate doesn’t accelerate (which given the love shown by the new administration in the early days is not a forgone conclusion.)  The same study estimated that by 2017, nearly 30% of the federal workforce could be eligible for retirement.  It is not a reach to think that the retirement rate could tick up significantly.

 

Where I think, this could begin to become an issue is in the execution of work on behalf of the government.  Federal projects require federal employees to manage the very complex requisition process that is required to engage private companies.  In addition, much of the planning and oversight of projects is dependent on having employees in the seats to take on those roles.  Given the potential downdraft in federal employees, this could have the real effect of slowing and even halting projects that otherwise would have been undertaken.  This would then create a multiplicative effect of the shrinking federal workforce into the private sector.  As the President, has already show an unwillingness to ever admit an error, it is reasonable to think that even as the effects begin to show themselves (which is likely into the second half of the year) the administration would be slow to course correct. 

Now the argument is going to be that the other things that the administration is doing will have so much more of a positive effect that any slowing caused by the federal hiring freeze would be overwhelmed.  That could be true but the fact is that the freeze is in effect today and nothing that will add stimulus to the economy is (if anything the higher interest rates, renewed uncertainty around ACA and other regulations and just the current tone is all adding unknowns to the markets which equals slowing (always.))  Everything told I think the downdraft will more than offset any token job adds that the President is currently getting.  Given the economy’s frail recovery despite exceptionally low interest rates and I think we could be in for a rocky ride.  

I think the President is going to learn that everything has an effect… even throw away executive orders that were meant to be more symbolic than anything.

First few days

It has been quite a start to the new administration.  I somewhat expected the surrealness to begin to ware off but honestly it just keeps getting odder and odder.  The most normal actions were the executive order around the ACA which is almost completely non-understandable in its scope and implications.  Pulling out of the TPP and renewal of anti-abortion “gag order” are symbolic at best.  All of this going on while the WH is sending out the press secretary to argue alternative facts which were neither an alternative nor, as it would be, facts of any sort.  He then went on to chide the press for not reporting them properly.  It did not take an expert at all to look at comparable pictures from the past two inaugurations to say that there were fewer people at this one than the last.  It was nothing short of complaining that the press was not reporting that the sky is, “in fact,” green.  And then there was the substance of the President’s speech itself which was… startling.  It provided such a bleak view of the country that seemed utterly contrived to simply support his view that Washington has been robbing the people blind.

Now here’s the thing… to a certain degree, I don’t think that his view is that far off from how many see the country today.  I think that there is a divide that a good portion of the population vastly under recognizes even after the election.  It is this group that Trump has been able to channel.  It is in some way the same group that supported Sanders.  They are the ones being left behind.  The ones that see the rise of the cities and the coast with skyrocketing wealth and don’t see how they are sharing in the benefits.  I don’t believe that they cling to a time when the opportunities were better necessarily as much as they reach back to a time when the differences weren’t so obvious.  They look for a time when it didn’t feel like they were falling farther behind.  They are looking for answers to a world that increasingly looks less like them and is increasingly difficult to understand.  While the elites speak in a language all their own about financial derivatives, international trade and the high finance of governmental financing the town, schools and states have never recovered from the financial crisis.  Schools are not keeping up with the pace of innovation, police are chronically underfunded and infrastructure seems to be crumbling under their feet (especially forgotten the father they are from a major city.)  These concerns are real and they are valid.  They also have zero chance of getting solved or even of being addressed by the new republican singularity in Washington.  This is largely due to the fact that the GOP is almost universally on the wrong side of the solutions to these issues.

 

I honestly wish the new President would address these concerns but I have little hope that he will.  Just look at the first few days almost completely consumed by their performance in the theater of the inauguration.  A couple of swipes of the pen to make the far right happy but nothing for the angry that they seem to channel.  I suspect the ACA will get gutted in the coming days with no hope of a grand replacement that forgoes the countless people that will lose coverage and will, because of it, die sooner than need be.  That is the unavoidable facts of it.  In addition, the administration froze government hiring because of the inherent evil of the bureaucracy apparently.  No mention that the federal government is the largest single employer in the country and the effect of a hiring freeze will have on the economy.  No mention of the contracts and projects employing countless other Americans that will not happen because the federal resources needed to define and manage those projects are not in place.  Ah but political points were scored and if not reported to be of the benefit of all Americans, then the press is corrupt.

There is a great need for help in this country.  A great cry that helped usher in the current administration. A constituency that can already begin to see has been duped and will be discarded… until the next election that is.

XXX Xander Cage a review

So, couple big things to write about today.  Obviously the first one was the inauguration… Don’t even know where to start.  Honestly, I need a day or so to process it all.  Leave it to say that I still find it all so surreal, like it couldn’t really be happening.  Anyway, more on that tomorrow perhaps.

So, let’s go with the other big event today… the release of “XXX The Return of Xander Cage.”  Needed a good, fun movie to blow away the day so I figured this was worth a shot.  Let’s set some ground rules first, one does not go to see this movie expecting Academy award winning performances.  The bar for the story and writing is set at two notches above completely ridiculous.  If you go into this with that mindset, XXX sort of delivers.

The story revolves around Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) returning to the service of the American spy industry to help recover a piece of hardware that can break into encrypted things including satellites (which it can force to fall out of orbit, survive reentry and cause big explosions when they hit (remember our viewing ground rules.)  Cage assembles his team to steal back the devise from a likeminded group who stole it in the first place.  Without giving any details that you wouldn’t already expect from a movie of this genre, gun battles, chase scenes and hand to hand combat ensue.  In the fight scenes, it become clear that Vin Diesel is not the star of this movie other than in name.  The real star power on the screen come from Donnie Yen in the character of Xiang and from Deepika Padukone as Serena Unger.  Yen shows off some of the same martial arts moves that we saw in his other mainstream film this year (a little indie film called “Roque One.”)  While he isn’t going to light you up with his acting (again the rules) his fight scenes will remind you a lot of a young Jackie Chan.  Padukone on the other hand shows that there is some depth behind her super model bio.  Again, this isn’t exactly Shakespeare but she was asked to handle the most “complex” character in this and she did it well along with providing her own action scenes as well.

Now I am a big fan of Diesel.  For his genre of film, I think he is as big as it gets.  I would even go out on a limb to say, at times, he is even under rated as an actor.  That said, this was not one of the times.  This felt, for lack of a better term, mailed in.  His lines were flat, his action scenes were ok but nothing spectacular (easily being overshadowed by his fellow cast.)  There was little of the sly humor that he brings to any of his roles nor any of the edginess.  This was a franchise that Diesel left a while back and hasn’t helped it in its return.  This is the biggest disappointment in XXX as this could have been another, different vehicle for us to see more of Diesel.  In the end, I actually wished there was less of him.

I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to Rory McCann as Tennyson Torch who provides a good deal of the comic relief throughout.  A fun role from someone most will recognize as “The Hound” from HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”  His few seconds caught singing “What a Wonderful World are almost worth the price of admission by themselves.

So, all it told, “XXX” is not a great movie (and never had a chance to be) but isn’t completely terrible either.  If you are a fan of Vin Diesel you will likely be disappointed as this is far from his best work.  Yen and Padukone are the real stars of this one (which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising given the prominence of the East Asia funding for the movie) and they really are good.  So, a good mindless action movie to escape with for a couple hours but little more but Diesel’s best part of it was in the previews for the latest F&F before the actual movie began.

Soggy burger...

At the half hour point it had already felt like an entire day of waiting.   

The constant comings and goings of individuals, groups, families and who knows who else in various stages of frantically weaving their way thought the other portions of the crown who tended to wander aimlessly along.  For a location that is entirely built around the idea and practical implementation of schedules, there is always an inordinate number of people who seem completely oblivious to the passage of time.  Perhaps their wait is so long as to render the mundane, minute to minute schedule that most travelers are on to be insignificant. 

There are always those people who are the “seasoned travelers.”  They stride through the airport with a sense of purpose and determination that is impossible to miss.  While most travelers spend half their time looking down at their tickets to somehow reassure themselves that they are at the right gate or that they have the correct departure time.  Like it would change somehow.  Not the seasoned traveler.  They often never need to even look at their boarding pass after clearing security as they have an innate feel for where all the planes are organized throughout the terminal.  More often than not they have already been on the particular flight several times, know a crew member or two, figured just the right way to talk to the gate clerk to secure the exit row window seat. They are to be envied in a way and pitied in another.  They are much like someone who is very good in a pie eating contest striving for the first prize which is… more pie.

Most airports are remarkably uncomfortable places, likely by design.  Most, not all, offer a splendid array of mediocre food served by cranky people with nothing but plastic silverware.  But at least it is overpriced as well.  You never see seasoned traveler at any of the main eating establishments.  Every once in a while, you will find them at the trendy wine bar that has only 12 seats (they of course knew how to secure one immediately upon arriving (and it already had their favorite chardonnay waiting for them.)  Meanwhile if you must eat, the only available seats will be at the scaled back version of the Chili’s and then it will be a center seat next to the family of 7 sitting at a table for 4.  Don’t worry because the $20 burger and fries will manage to be cold, dry and soggy all at the same time.  Your Coke refill will be brought out right after you get up to finally see that your flight has been delayed yet again (of course to check that you needed to relinquish your oh so cozy seat at the Chili’s with the now fresh Coke at it and there is no possible way it will ever be available again on this trip.  That’s ok because the middle seat, with no armrests, awaits for yet another hour until the next delay in your flight (preceded by two gate changes (one of which they bothered announcing.)

At an hour, it must have been half a week…

This I believe

This I believe…

I believe that we are truly all created equal in that we all have the capacity to lead a good and fruitful life.  I believe that (to paraphrase Rawls) the roll of the dice that is the position in which we are born should not determine our lives.  The guarantee of this should be the primary goal of government.  This is likely best addressed through access to quality education for all, to health care for all and for a commitment to support the ambitions of our children to be better than their parents and their grandparents before them.

I believe those that have benefited the most in society have the most to give back to society.  This is not about redistribution of wealth, it is about supporting the system that has allowed for their individual success.  No man is an island and nothing is accomplished in a vacuum.  The idea that someone can succeed without the support of the society they live in is nothing less than a delusion.  At a minimum, the safety and security required to succeed in life is a debt that cannot be overvalued.  That says nothing of the rule of law and civil society that are requirements for even considering pursuing anything above simple self-sustenance.  Without the support of the society life would be simple, cruel and short (channeling Hobbes.)

I believe that the great questions address by the various religions of the world are, in fact, more important than the answers they try to provide.  Religious freedom requires not just the acceptance of those that believe differently from you but a deep acceptance that they may, in fact, be right.  Too often we give lip service to the acceptance of others while still harboring the notion that they are somehow less than us because their beliefs are inherently wrong.  True religious acceptance requires a very high bill be paid.  One that can only be satisfied by the relinquishing of any claim to predominance and the power that goes with it.  That is a high hurtle that few can clear but one that we must strive to.

I believe the world would be a considerably better place if people could accept living by the creed of “Do onto others as you wish them to do onto you.”  This simple, elegant notion will seldom lead us astray of the best path.  If one is looking for true religion, something to believe in above everything else, it can be found in that simple mantra.  While a simple call to arms, it is not always a battle easily won.  It requires you to simultaneously to be able to empathize with your fellow man and be truly introspective for what is right.  Do onto others, requires that we view ourselves as not just individuals but rather part of a community.  A community with no boarders or arbitrary separations.  There is no qualification in the “others.”  It stands for all people of all beliefs and backgrounds.  There is no geography embedded in “others.”  “Others” makes no distinction for sex, appearance or affections.  “Others” is unequivocally everyone.  Do on to everyone as you would have them do on to you… what a wonderful world it would be.

This I believe…

Reflection

The suggested topic for yesterday was reflection on reaching the halfway point in the challenge.  It does seem a worthy topic to spend a bit of time on.  To this point I have written 15 days of 500 words or more (except for one day where I fell a hundred or so short.)  One average I have been coming in just short of 600 which doesn’t seem to bad given that prior to this I had not written for more than a couple consecutive days since college (at least.)  I don’t think any of my essays are going to set the world on fire but that really was not the point this go around.  This, as I have said was help build the habit (and to prove to myself that I could do it.)  Additionally, I had hoped to develop a “voice” that I could use in, perhaps, a more serious attempt at putting my thoughts out into the ether for all to see.  On this note I seem to be progressing.  The writing is becoming easier and the thoughts and topics are flowing freer. 

I am particularly happy with my product from yesterday.  I can honestly say that was the first piece of pure fiction that I have written since… I couldn’t even recall when (aside from an occasional haiku when I was trying to give that a shot.)  Again, I don’t think it is going to win any awards but at the same time I was able to translate a picture I had into words on the page with some level of intricacy and description.  Pardon my few moments of pride in my baby step into a whole different world.  Not sure I will ever follow my cousin into creating entire works of fiction but, then again, every book started with a page.

I also enjoyed writing my movie review.  I may, in fact, try to research doing a little more of that.  I remember writing a review of a movie we were assigned in my freshman year of college.  This predated modern, useful word-processing so I was left to look words up as a went (which always seemed a ridiculous proposition… here’s a book of how to do it sorted by the correct answers, how we did anything else other than prove when we were spelling wrong is proof of man as a higher being.)  I remember never getting very good grades on the writing assignments up to that point mainly due to spelling and, occasionally, grammatical errors.  Then came the movie review which, despite my usual smattering of errors, I received an A+ with a note from the professor that I should consider writing reviews from the school paper.  Funny that, more than a number of years later, I still remember that movie and the criticisms I laid out.  I was a story of a man who was born in China and moved to the US, returning as an adult with his family to the city where he grew up.  (Truth be told, I can’t really recall if it was China or Japan.  The context clues I recall leads me to China but…)  The movie wasn’t too terrible but it wasn’t Citizen Caine either (which was likely the professors intend as it had just enough rope…)  Anyway, I remember really enjoying writing it… as well as the grade.

Well another day in the books… 570 or so (in 20 minutes.)  Not too bad for day 16.

The Entrance..

As he entered the great hall the room fell in to an eerie quiet.  If the events of the last two months had taught them anything it was reverence for the 14-year-old boy who would now become King, emperor or whatever title he decided to adorn his new office with.  They had learned reverence… and fear.  For his part the boy king seem seemed at peace as he entered the far end of the long ancient space.  He paused to survey the attendees in such a way that he seemed to make eye contact with every individual in the room.  It was a skill that the Order had been training him with since he was considerably younger that he was today.  And it was a skill that, along with his other abilities, he had sharpened to the point they he may have well have shouted his arrival at the door.  The moment he stepped into the ingress was the moment that everyone was keenly aware of his presence and his power.  The effect was not unlike when children get caught playing by the clergy walking into church.  No words need to be spoken as the message is perfectly clear.

The hush nervousness of the gathered assemblage was only broke by the sound of his footsteps against the ornate thousand-year-old floors.  A slow methodical gate that itself gave off the air of control and mastery while at the same time showing no rush to get anywhere.  It, like everything he did, was calculated to provide exactly the impression he wanted to project.  No signs of weakness. No signs of fear.  Now it could be argued that after the outcomes that had led to this moment that he really did have little to fear from this room on this day.  While that was likely true for the day, nothing could be left to chance.  Nothing to give discord, or even the hope for discord to latch on to.  No, today was about laying a future.  A future where all those gathered could look past the conflicts of the past and accept the rule of the one who was equal part savior and conqueror. 

But while there was no doubting the legitimacy of his position today, it would take some time for this, the noble class, to accept that they would now be ruled by someone from outside their ranks.  Even the simple brown and green that he wore today was not aligned to the colors of his family or guild but rather were chosen to represent the green hills of the land of his birth.  Again, nothing left to chance and every opportunity to send a message was taken.  The Lords and Ladies gathered knew that he was supreme and they knew that their time was over.  What was left to be decided was just how much of the old order would be swept away.  Already, many of the trappings of the old system were being cast aside.  The very fact that this reception was taking place here in the Grant Hall of the Mariner’s Guild rather than the King’s keep was already trying to be understood by those looking to predict his next moves.  Unknown to the gathered however was that this location was chosen by him more because he had always liked the space, even since coming here as a boy, than it was to send a message.  Although the lack of a specific meaning in the location was also a useful tool to keep the “analysts” on their heels.  He took a certain pleasure in knowing that the location choice would, in the words of his trusted advisor; “Give them fits for better part of a month alone.”  

GoT v Castle v Marco and Dresden

I have in recent month become a big fan of Game of Thrones on HBO.  We got a try subscription of HBO on Demand in December for 90days and I am trying to get through the entire series before our time is up (although we have watched quite a few things on there so we will see.)

The way HBO has adapted the books to the screen has almost created its own genre of tv seriel.  One only must look at the other subscription only offerings to see shows that clearly took their stylistic ques from GOT.  On Netflix, you have Marco Polo which was watchable for the two seasons it lasted.  It was so clearly “influenced” by GOT that you could not help but compare the two and in that like MP did not do well.  It chose that same edgy approach to sex and violence that GOT did (which is to include as much of it as one can get away with.)  In MP, however the gore and nudity were at such levels that they were a distraction.  Unfortunately, the story was to as well told as GOT and often I was left wondering which version of the character we were going to see as their attitudes, temperament and views seemed to change from episode to episode.  I was one of the oddest bits of writing inconsistencies I have ever seen.  The characters themselves were interesting enough, especially that if Ghingas Kahn, with the exception of Marco Polo himself who was just not very interesting.

Amazon has its own, albeit different, GOT competitor in Man in the High Castle.  Although it must be view in the same class, it is a very different type of story and production.  MinHS is much more of a cerebral story.  Although dark and tense throughout it does so in a clam quiet manner.  Where the other two beat you over the head with the R+ material, Castle is much more PG with occasional scenes that jump up the ratings meter.  The effect of those scene is much more dramatic than in the other because it lulls the viewer into thinking the is a safe “regular tv” show before it hammers you with 10-15 seconds that are clearly not.  It is not every episode either which adds to the tension.

I got thinking about what other books I would love see get the GoT treatment.  I have seen a bit of West World as well and it seems incredible smart.  I would love to see one of them take on Dune in the same long form format.  The book series is almost tailor made for it.  Foundation would also play well over the course of several seasons (although the lack of visual drama may make it tough.)  The David Brown books would have likely done much better in this format that the box office approach which has gone well unless you just count the ticket receipts.  My top wish list would be however the Jim Butcher “Dresden Files.”  While Sci-Fi tried to make a screen version a few years back it only had limited success in HBO’s hands however it could be rather amazing. 

Fury Road...a review

So, I just got to watching “Mad Max, Fury Road” and I thought I would give it review.  First, I must start by saying that I have no idea what goes into rating a movie but the R rating on this one just seems off.  I use “I am Legend” as a guide to what can be in a PG-13 and it is way worse than anything in Mad Max.

Let me start by saying that the movie is every bit as visually stunning as you may have heard.  The scenes are vivid to the point of jumping off the screen.  Writer/Director George Miller said that he did not want another dark post apocalypse movie and that is defiantly not was he has given us.  The actor’s wardrobe and mark-up are well worth all the accolades they received.  Without the physical darkness of the setting, the look of the actors themselves provides the visual cue for the desperate, mutated land that the film is set.  All of that said, the stars of the movie are without a doubt the menacing machines that are the center of what story there is.  While accepting that they were not “real” the level of engineering and artistic work that went into the development of the caravan of vehicles in nothing short of remarkable.  Part steampunk and part mechanized cirque de sola you expect them to come roaring off the screen in a flurry of unimaginable ways but… this is also where I began to feel that the film could not live up to its ambitions.  There are a few of the chase scenes where the hoard of vehicles seems alive in as they hunt down their prey but then invariably, the actual clashes become one on one interactions where you realize that much of the fearsome mechanics are little more than show.  Max and Furiosa’s “War Machine” is scary visually but lacks any depth to think that it was something to fear.  It was big, dark and spikey but ended just being a truck with knobby tires.  The fight scenes are quick flashy but also in a straight line and devoid of any real tension.  For a movie that spends 75% of its screen time in some sort of chase scene, they just never seem to live up to their apocalyptic billing.  Now, in Miller’s defense, some of the letdown really is a testament to the props they built.  There was so much there we were expecting to be involved in the action that, when it wasn’t, it was a letdown.

Now I am not one that must have epic amounts of character development and dialog for a movie to be great.  The original “Road Warrior” was a perfect example of that.  Very little dialog throughout along with a thin story yet a great movie with a depth of character in Max that others would not have been able to create with four times the lines.  But as great as the original was in using a sparse outline to weave a convincing, engrossing tail, this film doesn’t even try.  Tom Hardy in his reprisal of Max is left to lean on the character that was created in the past films rather than given any opportunity to make it his own.  You know he is Max, you know he is troubled and you know he isn’t real talkative but that’s it.  There is nothing there.  Now again, as this is the latest in the series maybe we shouldn’t expect the same level of development but there needs to be something more than none.  Which is all you get.  Even the few lines that Hardy does get are delivered in short low mumbling busts that are more akin of “Rainman” that that of the angry, troubled Max that we are lead to believe he is.  Fact is, without “Mad Max” in the title and some of the visual cues you would never really know that this is the latest in a series.  Theron’s “Furiosa” is not quite as thin but close.  She is so good at delivering a role in a way that seems that there is more going on with her character than she lets you see.  That complexity of delivery almost gets her by but we are never given a reason to care about her quest so I found myself simply not.

Overall the film is stunning eye-candy and I would be remiss as well if I didn’t give credit to Junkie XL for the original score with was simply as good as it gets.  Those elements alone are reason enough to go see it (and frankly are so good as to almost make you overlook the shortcomings.)  In the end, however, the shortcomings are too fundamental and egregious to overlook.  The lack of real story or any depth of characters leave us with something that feels like a shell of what it could have been.  I am always skeptical of films that land right at round numbers for length.  It has been reported that there were days worth of film that they needed to edit down to get to the final product.  My sense is that they may have edited too much.  

All in, a alright movie not great and, dare I say, a little overrated.

Storytelling...

Well the prompt for today was to write about writing.  I didn’t really have anything in mind so I figured I would take a shot (it was that or write a movie review of “Jem and the Holograms” which I just watched with the kids.) Like I have said in a post previously, I started blogging to bring some structure to trading ideas swimming around in my head when I was a trader by trade.  During that exercise, I found that I enjoyed layering some commentary about social and political topics, or my MINI (actually it was a classic Mini at the time) or other topics that came to mind.  For me that is the draw of writing, it that I can lend some shape to the various things rolling around in my head.

Growing up I did not enjoy writing (as I described previously) but I have always enjoyed great writers.  I was always a big fan of Sci-Fi.  Still remember the first “adult” book I read (which really wasn’t but…)  It was Glory Road by Robert Heinlein.  Loved his writing as stories were so rich in their ability to put you into the world he created as well as to always allow you inside his characters enough that you felt simultaneously part of them as well as an outsider.  Heinlein was great as well because nothing was out of bounds and everything was open to examination, criticism and reimagining.  His book “Job, A Comedy of Justice” remains one of the funniest books I have ever read (even 4 time) with all the characters of religion equally fair game.  “Stranger in a Strange Land” is a book that I still will pick up today.  Although I am young than when it was at its most influential, it is still a book that is as relevant today as it was then.

Not long after, I discover Frank Herbert and the world of Dune.  Herbert take a different approach in that rather than trying to show that everything should be questioned, his take is to create a voratous lavish universe complete exotic inhabits and then layer on Shakespearian histories.  Herbert can almost seem like a European history book set in distant worlds.  The politics were complex and ever changing.  The constant interplay of religious orders, economics and trade would have held Machiavelli’s interest.  At the center is the story of a boy trying to become everything he was told he was destined to do.  Dune could have gone on for volumes more and I would have read them all (just don’t make me watch the movie.)

Today I don’t read as much.  I still like storytellers who can tell difficult stories.  I enjoy the books of Eric Larson who has created his own genre where he tells dark historic tails while also bring in the story of great events in history.  His story of the World’s Fair in Chicago alongside one the evillest serial killing recorded is a remarkable work.  I cannot count how many time I have recommended “The Devil in the White City.”  Coming from Chicago and being an architecture buff, the characters or the fair are legends. 

One of my goals in this exercise is to learn to tell stories… 

A path in the woods

Struggling a bit this evening on what to babble on about today.  Don’t want to go to the political well again (lord knows there will be more than enough opportunity and material to work with.)  I recently heard a quote on TV that said “You have to keep doing what you’re great at.”  It is a simple common sense notion that should be a simple path to follow.  I have always found it difficult find, let alone follow that path.

I grew up being the smart kid in school.  I never needed to try very hard.  Classes, other than spelling, all came very easy.  That continue throughout school all the way to college.  Even when things got a little hard, I could still rely on my wits (and a bit of scrambling) to get by.  I never really found an academic pursuit that I loved (I suppose if I loved it I would be forced to try harder.)  My professional career was a bee lie path toward trading.  Everything I learned led me in that direction.  Then, shortly before the financial crisis, I got my shot on the largest trading desk that no-one had ever heard of.  We were a small group, led and dominated by a bigger than life figure who was also the best trader I have ever known.  The problem was, the team didn’t really want me there at a time when the team was struggling.  As a result, I got no guidance and little, if any training.  I made my own mistakes as well by not becoming closer to some of the key people on the desk I should have.  Couple mis-steps and I was quickly discounted and all but dismissed.  I was on the merry go round but I missed the brass ring.

I followed that time with a long stint as the resident expert and leader of a group of very smart people in an Audit group.  It was the best ring side seat for the meltdown of the financial markets that anyone could have hoped for.  I was in the room the day we wrote down a book of CDO’s basically wiping out $10 billion dollar over the course of an afternoon.  Throughout the crisis, I went from asset class to asset class documenting the downward spiral.  It got to a point that the numbers and the money involved was all meaningless (billion here, few hundred million there.) All the time while I was in the center of it all, I was never “the guy.”  I may have been the brains, the analyst, but never the leader driving change.  And in the back of my head, I sort of knew it.  Again, enough to get by, or even excel, but not enough to be great.  A brief stop in a Risk role too close to my trading background and I ended up where I am today. 

Again, I am in a role where, I can honestly say, I know more than anyone around me without a bit of arrogance.  I am constantly reminded of the quote from Keith Obberman from ESPN; “At some point in your career you reach the point where you look around the table and realize that no-one knows any more than you do.”  That I the table I find myself today.  That would seem then to be the path, right?  Some days it sure doesn’t feel like it.  You have to keep doing what your great at… what if you are very very good but can’t seem to find great.  Is that still the right path or are you just lost in the woods?

News of the day...

Well I didn’t plan on writing on political topics two days in a row but, seriously, how can one not comment on the last 24 hours in Trump land.  So, let take a quick recap of the day’s festivities.  Yesterday, CNN report on and later Buzzfeed released a series of documents outlining an ongoing relationship between the Trump camp and the Russian intelligence organization.  In this relationship, it was reported that the Trump camp was fully aware of the Russian involvement in the campaign, that the Trump camp was a willing participant and that the Russian’s had a file full of damaging “stuff” on the President-elect.  As part of the CNN report it was disclosed that Trump, President Obama and senior members of the intelligence committee were made aware of these reports.  The reports are reported to be the work of a former MI6 intelligence officer who now own and runs a private intel consulting business.  Then with all this swirling around, Trump hold his first press conference since the election.  Really, what could go wrong…

So, let’s cover the release docs for a sec.  I have read through all 36 pages and they are quite interesting and complete unverifiable.  There’s a lot of person A confirmed or person D is trying to get more information.  But generally, it just isn’t heavy on facts (dates, times, locations, etc.) that could be double checked or traced back.  It is sort of detailly vague (if that is possible.)  It is pretty damming if even remotely true and not for the wild parties in a bed that Obama slept in (that for that wonderful mental picture) but rather for the level of coordination that the author outlines.  If true, the Trump campaign knew all along what Russia we up to and was a partner in it playing out.  That is the type of thing that will get you booted out of Washington in a NY minute. Now I, like most other readers, have no idea if any of it is even close to being true but… We do know a couple things.  We know that the US intelligence departments felt it important enough to be included in the briefing to the White House, Senior congressional members and the President-elect.  I’m pretty sure those folks did not get a briefing on the child sex ring that Hillary Clinton was running out of DC pizza shop.  We also know that John McCain (a senior Republican) turned his briefing over to the head of the FBI (who was appointed by a democrat for those keeping score at home.)  Now, does that mean that they are true… no clearly not but, these are not people passing notes in the fourth grade about Becky the new girl, these are very senior members of our government disseminating potentially very damaging information about the yet to be sworn in President of the United States.  Again, I am pretty sure they understand the gravity of the situation and yet the reports were not dismissed as “Fake News” rather they were escalated to the people in government tasked with upholding the laws of the land.  (It is important to note as well that Sen McCain forwarded his copy to the FBI in December, well before the story broke to the public.)  I have a feeling that this doesn’t just blow over.  If any actual link to the President-elect can be established, it is over, swiftly.  For those saying that the House wouldn’t vote to impeach, I would caution you to remember that many of them didn’t and don’t like Trump.  And that group loves Mike Pence.  That is why is the is even a smidge of truth to this, I don’t think there will be many on either side of the isle who will stand in the way of that truth coming out.  In some ways, for the GOP, the end would be better to come quick rather than to linger because it gives them more time to distance themselves before the mid-terms.  Again, I have no idea if it is true (and honestly a rather hope that it is not) but this will be something to watch.

I am going to have to leave the presser for another time but three words to describe it… TRAIN WRECK

Ends and beginings

So, I find myself hitting a bit of a wall on the last couple posts (and I am realizing that I really don’t like the keyboard on our new laptop.)  While I continue to write, I am finding it more difficult to come up with what to write about.  So today I am going back to a stream of conciseness type posting which seems to be my fall back (which is maybe telling me something.)

Today’s was President Obama’s goodbye speech from Chicago.  I did not watch it but likely will tomorrow online.  While I think, the President is far from perfect, I do this he has been successful given the congressional strategy to do anything they could to stop him from doing anything.  I tend to think history will be kind to this President.  While he was not as forceful in pursuing some policies that I truly think he could have, overall I believe he played the hand he had very well.  The exception may have been in Syria but I’m not sure there were (are) any good answers for that neck of the woods.  One thing I’m not sure if he deserves blame for or not is in the dramatic decline in the Democratic party at the state level (which clearly did not make his life any easier.) The decline in local level party support has been catastrophic in the ability of the party to support local level candidates all the way up to governorships.  That has resulted in the state level gains that the GOP has enjoyed of late (that and the GOP laser focus on building those races (in no small part thank to the Koch’s.)  That level of inequity of focus will take some time to revert and I’m just not sure how much of the neglect falls on the President.  Anyway, the next few years should be a stark contrast to the previous 6 or 7.  I just hope they don’t make too much of a mess of things.  It is comical how quickly the GOP is already struggling with the prospect of implementing some of the key things the all ran on.  Voting to repeal Obamacare was much easier when they knew the President would veto it.  Now a vote for repeal likely has very real results.  It will be interesting.

I signed up for a brokerage account at work today.  I am hoping that if my yearend bonus comes in all right, I might have a bit of cash to do a little trading again.  My initial thought would be to try to do some covered call trading (since I am rather limited in what I can do.)  My thought would be to try to do it a little different in that I would like to focus on strongly trending equities where I might be able to sell the call with the idea of riding a bit of the up move and capturing the premium as a kicker.  I have not spent a ton of time looking at it but likely more on this to come.  It is not a particularly sexy trade but, I suspect that it may be a way to pull out some decent returns with a relatively low risk profile.

cars

Those that know me know I love cars.  I am a firm believer in the notion that life is too short to drive boring cars.  I find much that I am torn by the talk of self driving cars because wile I fine the technology fascinating (as well as some of the related philosophical questions) I am disheartened to think, to a large degree the love affair with the car is being challenged.  I find it ironic that we are seeing the dueling story-line of self driving cars along side an amazing resurgence in performance cars.

My love affair with the car started when I was young, grade school realy.  My first dream car was a Ford RS200.  I was a limited run car built to qualify it’s entry into the world rally championship.  Now the car was produced in the mid 80’s but thinking back to when I first “saw” it, I must have seen development draws or such.  I can remember the book at school that had a cut-away drawing of the car so you could see the inner frame and roll cage as well as the mounting of the spare tire on top of the mid-engine compartment in the back.  It was an odd looking car even then but I was in love the first time I saw it.  While I remember knowing that it was an almost race car (and 4 wheel drive) I never really knew what a remarkable car it was until looking it up quite a number of years later.  Seems even as a fifth grader, I could pick them.  The RS200 was the fastest accelerating car in the world until well into the 2000’s.  A few become available from time to time even though only 200 were made.

To me cars have always been more than just the tool to get from point A to point B, they are machine and engineering meets art and craftsmanship.  And the are fun 

Plato today

So up to this point I have shied away from politics but, the truth is, it is a topic that I spend a fair bit of time thinking about.  That said I should explain my view on politics as I would like to think that I am not your run of the mill partisan.   My academic background is in political science and philosophy.  I was always draw more toward the theoretical side out political science rather than the nuts and bolts of how it gets done.  The notion that all political science it eventually a response to The Republic by Plato was and is a compelling argument that I think has more of an effect on our common political squabbles that people realize.  We still struggle with the very criticisms that Plato laid on the doorstep of democracy (and some we have yet to answer.)

Fundamental to Plato’s critique was the believe that the weak point to the democratic ideal was the very nature of the people involved.  Plato believed that the people that would seek out power in a democratic society where, for the most part, exactly the people you did not want to have power in the first place.  For Plato, the only acceptable reason for wishing to pursue office in a system such as our would be out of fear of someone else doing it.  In most cases, however, those seeking power do so for the sake of gain power over everything else.  As Lord Action would say it several centuries later; “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  The is key to Plato’s criticism and is key to our own struggle with our American democracy.  I do thin to read this as applied to the individual participants however would be missing the bigger and more concerning point. 

If you carry Plato’s concern out, especially in modern times, you end up with government being filled with individuals who have spent considerable time planning for a roll in power.  That is to say, looking at those in power and emulating the model presented as a way to gain entrance.  While some of this is reflected in the academic background of those seeking office, it is also reflected in the religious and social selections that people make.  If you doubt that consider that in the last Congress, 98% of the members reported affiliation with a formal church even though the numbers for the public was closer to 75%.  While there are always those that are able to carve a somewhat different path, the vast majority of members of congress have considerable areas of similarity.  One of the largest attributes that those seeking a political roll acquis to is that of party affiliation.  Party affiliation requires that you adhere to a minimum set of common beliefs with the party or share a common world view.  The ticket to entrance is that your views are consistent with those already there.

All or this leads to representative bodies that have been presorted into groups of likeminded individuals with limited variation on their backgrounds or expertise.  This lack of diverse knowledge and experiences creates a group that is ripe to be manipulated and that is what we have today.

The One

We met shortly after college at a wedding of all things.  She was dating someone else within my circle of friends. He was not really a friend of mine but rather just circulated in the same group.  Was part of the same academic department at school as both the bride and groom.  Remarkably she and I had not met before especially as she had been dating Eric for better part of a year by the time of the wedding that placed us sitting across a table from one another.  The remarkable thing is that I can only remember a few… highlights (for lack of a better word) of that night.  I remember Eric sitting down across from me at the reception trying to illicit some help because he “was surely losing her.”  It was an odd conversation for a couple of reasons not the least of which was that Eric were not at all close and the one she had been talking with for a fair bit of the evening had been me…

Actually, I need to caveat that because I honestly don’t recall what I had talked with her about that night (or even if it had been all that long.)  I do distinctly remember that it was very obvious that she and Eric were not enjoying the evening together (something to do with Eric not making room reservations even though the wedding was quite a way from anywhere.)  Eric was darn right pouty about the situation and she was just plane indifferent to him.  I didn’t have much help to offer him as, frankly, I was stunned by her from the moment I a saw her. 

I know that sounds very cliché but I can honestly say that I thought she was “the one” from that night on.  The part of the interaction I recall most was a period of time where we were sitting at the table together (these were long straight banquet tables and we were on either side of the table she being slightly to my left.)  We were both drinking Champagne.  On the table, there were plastic cups of Hershey’s chocolate kisses.  Somehow, while we sat there and chatted, we began tossing the chocolate kisses at each other.

 I remember her eyes.  Her eyes were this vibrant mix of blues and greens that themselves seemed to be telling you a story with every glance.  To this day (approaching 20 years from then) I can picture one particularly, slightly sideways glance that followed a chocolate kiss salvo.  It was like in one ever so brief look she let me see her… her strength, her love of life, her mischievous flirtatious self, along with her fragility and a complexity that would take me years to really know.  While I knew then that she could be it, I also knew, in one look, that I was in way over my head.

I don’t see that glimmer too often any more.  Nearly twenty years together and the occasional insights are more familiar and, somewhat, less overwhelming as they were on that first day.  I still know that she is the one and I still, every once in a while, am reminded that I am still in over my head but I would not be with anyone else.

Snow

So, we got snow here today in North Carolina which, frankly is not nearly as uncommon as we seem to make it out to be.  Granted, we don’t get snow for weeks on end like we did back in Chicago or anything near what we got in Wisconsin. But it is uncommon enough that the entire area goes completely nuts.  Although we are looking at less than 6 inches, it still requires the entirety of the local news cast dedicated to coverage.  Live on the scene reporters (including one reporting from the van driving around to report that there were not many people out.)  It is all quite comical.  Now granted there have been some sneaky storms down here that have laid down a layer of ice that took a week to recover from but, that was years ago.

One of the common and hilarious actions people take is that there is a full-on run at the grocery store.  You must get bread, milk and, new this year to the shopping list apparently, bananas.  The stores will be completely cleaned out of all of it.  We had to stop to pick up a couple things that didn’t make the weekly order and you would have sworn it was the day before Thanksgiving with the added feature of everyone buying bananas (which the store had been cleaned out of and which happened to be on our shopping list.)  Complete madness really.

The kids are, of course, very excited as they get every time we get some snow.  I do think that it is uncommon enough that they do get a genuine thrill out of it.  One year I would love to take them up to Superior so they can see what real snow is all about.  One year while I was at school up there we got a storm on Halloween that dropped 36 inched in 12 hours and followed it up with 40 mph winds.  We had drifts that covered entire cars to the point that you couldn’t even tell they were there (my Rabbit included.)  That was a fun storm as a group of us got snowed in at someone’s apartment.  We had a great time for a good 2 or 3 days before we could make our ways back to campus. 

I remember the snow in St. Charles growing up when we had gotten so much that it was piled over our heads on either side of the driveway.  I don’t believe we had school for better part of two weeks as the storms just kept coming through in waves, each one a day or so after the previous.  That was the best snow to play in as well as it was heavy, wet snow that creative kids to mold into just about anything.  Ah the wonder of it all… Now, the wonder has worn off some (or else we may not have moved south in the first place) but it is still to be enjoyed when it comes to visit every now and then.

I walked outside and everything has the blueish white glow to it and the snow is untouched by anything.  The view along with the wind (and perhaps the memories) takes your breath away.

a better world through French onion dip...

Today I allowing for a little randomness in selecting the topic for today as I am a little spent to be honest.  So, after searching for a list and prodding my lovely wife to provide a number I have been tasked with writing about how I would make the world a better place.  Nothing like a light topic to wrap up my day…ugh.

In some ways, this should be easy, right.  Just simply choose some great world ill and give a few lines on how I would magically make it go away.  That would neither be interesting or likely fulfill my 500 word goal.  I also thought I could go the route of… going back in time to tell the Clinton camp that rather than chasing Arizona maybe they should actually try to win something, anything in the Midwest.  That however would brand me as a political rabble rouser and there is plenty of time for that later. Although they really should have.

No, rather I am going to dance around the topic for several hundred words without ever really settling on a topic because, frankly, I am just having that sort of day.  I suppose I should have expected it after getting so little sleep last night for whatever reason.  I still think I am trying to get back on normal time after the two week break from reality of the holidays where staying up until 3 am watching Game of Thrones was considered perfectly reasonable especially when combined with the entire household sleeping until at least noon.  It was great and felt like college again without the regret of blowing of my 8:00 “Music Appreciation” class in the process.  What could be better.  None of which has any effect on the state of the world and is most surely not going to make it better unless we could all collectively adopt that as the preferred and accepted lifestyle which would eliminate any possibility for feeling even the slightest bit guilty and would also eliminate the hang-over recovery period when you need to go back to a reality that involves getting out of bed in the morning and actually going places (many of which you would rather not go to.)  Which is the state that I am in now as I can’t seem to quite get my internal clock to get back with the program.

Of course, the other great advantage to adopting that calendar as the national norm would be that we could considerably simplify the food manufacturing industry because all you tend to want to eat while maintaining a schedule as that is basically crap.  And if we are being more specific, crap that involves chips and French onion dip with perhaps a side of popcorn.  All other food grouping are relegated to complete irrelevance and would no longer be needed.  Just think of the productivity gains that are to be had there because of all the things that could be eliminated from production.  You likely would not need to farm anything other than popcorn because I am pretty sure there is little if any actual potato in cheap wavy full salt and fat potato chips and I can guarantee that there is no real onion, French or otherwise, in French onion dip.  It would be good that we could eliminate the work involved in producing all that other stuff because after staying up until 3 am watching GOTs (for those of us in the know) and then sleeping until afternoon’ish, there is little chance that you are going to get any meaningful work out of any of us.  I mean isn’t preparing the popcorn and then trying to scrounge up a moderately clean bowl to put it in from the pile of unwashed stuff in the kitchen work enough.  I mean really those plates in the sink almost fell everywhere…

Ah well, we can dream can’t we.

The moon and Oakley the wonder dog

So before sitting down to write this evening (for day three for those of you keeping score at home) I had to take our dog, Oakley, out for a walk.  Oakley is a year and a half old beagle mix who is a remarkable little dog.  He has developed this “cue” for us when he is ready to go out where he will walk over to the TV stand in the living room and will tap on the glass door on the left side.  He will then turn to look at us to ensure that we picked up on his sign and then he will either wait for our reaction or will begin to tap again.  We have no idea where he learned this, why he thought it would work, why that spot to tap rather than, I don’t know, the actual door.  He just started doing it one day and has continued ever since. 

So as I sat down to write I was summoned by Oakley to take him for a walk.  It is one of those crisp February evenings here in North Carolina that reminds you that it is indeed winter but also that you don’t live in a place where it is all that bad.  There was a light bit of fog with wisps of clouds shrouding the moon and planets just enough to soften their light but not enough to cover them completely.  And around the moon shimmered a perfect, albeit faint halo.  I have always found the sight to be one of wonder ever since the first time I saw it as a boy visiting Lake Geneva in Wisconsin during a wintery “outdoor education” trip in sixth grade.  I can remember little of the trip as vividly as I can that moon.  A harbinger of worsening weather we were told (a wives’ tail that, like most, has more than a bit of science backing it up.)  That natural beauty of it burning the image into my brain.

I have never been an overly religious person.  While being born, and raised Catholic I always found myself enchanted by the questions that my inherited faith attempted to solve for but could never find myself accepting the answers.  An affection for science in my youth doomed my acceptance of the doctrine of Rome.  Later, I went on to study philosophy in college.  I found the elegance of the great arguments compelling but yet not enough to tip my proverbial scales.  I particularly liked the Ontological Argument which simply stated that it was inconsistent for a “perfect God” to not include existence in her list of traits.  While I may have conceded the central point, I did point out that there were several other traits that would, by their inclusion, limit the perfect nature of God (not the least of which was the ability to invoke a will on the rest of us that involved God making choices.)  I also enjoyed Pascal’s Wager for believing in God (If you believe and there is no God you are none the worse off but if you don’t believe and you end up wrong…well.)  A compelling argument where you can’t escape feeling more than a little coerced.

In the end, however, I have so far chosen to simply believe in the questions.  There is so much more that we don’t know than we do.  I have always had a soft spot for theoretical physics (which is many times closer to philosophy than to science.)  I was reading the summary of a new book out that was talking about a new area of physics where the answers are likely not knowable by us.  The answers are not inaccessible to us because of who or what we are but rather that the ability to comprehend the answers is inconsistent with the world in which we live.  It is roughly akin to spending your life’s work studying how to smell blue.  In some ways, however that is how we all are.  Where did we come from, what happens when we die, what is our purpose (if any,) why is there evil, tragedy, war, famine, the Kardashians? All those profound questions that we search for answers to through both science and religion are likely always going to be outside our reach.  That doesn’t mean we should not continue to search for answers, we should.  We should however also allow others to conduct their own search.  And we need to realize that if it is all unknowable, then the “answers” that others have arrived at may be just as valid as yours.

I love the questions, I really do.  And on a cool winter night while walking Oakley the wonder dog under a haloed moon I can take comfort in that whatever the right answer is, be it some incarnation of God or complex scientific constructs, it will be elegant, profound and…. Beautiful.  

Rome wasn't built in two days either

Ha... here we are on day 2.  This is a major accomplishment in that I don’t think I have even gotten two actual days in a row in the many times that I have attempted to write more regularly.  I know that is incredibly lame.  (You know what else is lame... the fact that the Blogger writing app does not seem to realize that "i" is not, in fact, a word.  But I digress...) 

Seriously however, I have always been one that liked the idea of writing but could never get the rhythm of it.  For me writing is not particularly cathartic, rather it is sometimes tremendously frustrating (although less so now that word processing has come along (so to speak.))  See I am an atrocious speller. So much so that if I were to allow the words to flow in all their unedited glory, you would surely question my education at a minimum and perhaps even worse.  The effect of not being able to spell particularly well (being generous) it that writing for me it an endless series of fits and starts as I must correct things as I go.  Obviously, this has gotten to be considerably easier as technology has come along but it was not always the case.  Like anything, writing is something that even our early exposures make an impression.  When I was young, spelling was such an insurmountable wall in my path of being able to translate my thoughts into meaningful characters on a page that I came to dread having to do it.  Even as the technology began to become available to help me along, the wall between me and writing had already been built.  Even in college, I remember getting access to one of the first available word processors that corrected spelling and grammar... it was like magic even though the only way you could view the market up document was by printing it out on long sheets of dot matrix printer paper.  (Anyone who has not had to tear of the hole ribbon on both sides of the paper missed out on an important time in the history of technology.)  Even then, once you got the marked-up copy, you then needed to go back to your editable version of your document (which didn't show the mark-ups) and make the corrections the printed version provided.  (It is a small wonder I ever got out of college.  Especially with a very traditional, writing intensive Liberal Arts degree.)

Now however technology has come along as to provided a medium for my thoughts to simply spill out onto the page.  (At some point I am going to try to dictate an entire post to my Google assistant to see how it comes out.  Does that no longer count as writing I wonder???)

When I first began attempting to write, I wanted to use it as an outlet to "vet" or structure trading ideas as I was, at the time, trading over the counter derivatives on behalf a large bank.  Now that I have moved on from that particular vocation (for the time being) that will likely be less of a theme in writing although I suspect I will go back to it from time to time as the interest is always still there.  This opens my available topics to just about anything.  As I mentioned previously, I would like to develop a political "voice" as I am arrogant enough to believe that I have something to offer in that realm but we shall see.  I also would love to attempt in these pages to write fiction of some sort as I cannot honestly remember the last time I even tried to.  That likely will be later but something that I will want to consider.  Anyway... that was it.... a conclusive and successful day two.  Not my best work nor terribly insightful in any way but a completed 500+ words which is the current goal.  Two days does not a trend make but... hell you have to start somewhere. 

Now to go fix all those "i"'s....

Oh and yet again...

Okay, okay, okay.... So perhaps the last time wasn't so different after all.  One post and then a substantial gap to something else is becoming a bit of a pattern I have to admit.  But not this time... No THIS time will, in fact, be different.  I am taking of the challenge of posting for 31 straight days.  This time I will make it (although, truth be told, I believe I may have taken up the same challenge the previous "this time" so be forewarned... and yet hope springs eternal.)

In order to accomplish my 31 day goal I am going to remove the pressure of having to come up with my own topics (most of the time at least) and will allow for a bit of randomness to creep into the process.  I have signed up for the "My 500 Words" challenge which takes on folks like myself and throws down the proverbial gauntlet to write something (anything really) everyday with the only guideline that it must be a minimum of 500 words (thus the clever name.)  As part of the support they provide is daily writing prompts to help keep the momentum going. I have not seen said prompts yet but I'm sure they will be remarkably clever.

Additional motivation for this exercise is that my young cousin Joshua, just completed and published his first book and had posted on Facebook that he was taking up the 31 day writing challenge so what could I do but join in as well.  I mean he wrote a book for goodness sakes... I had wrote a blog post better part of 4 years ago.  It is sort of the same so what the heck... Actually I do have to say that I think it is remarkable that he has published a book (and already has a plan for the sequels and all.)  I give him tremendous credit.  Joshua... you're my hero, seriously!

Finally, for an additional push, it seems that we are living in rather serious times combined with an incredible lack of serious discussion.  I have long believed that the real threat to democratic systems and institutions is the rise of populism.  We have always walked a very fine line between the notion that "anyone" can and should be a leader in our government and the reality that the world is a complex place that requires deep insights and, dare I say, expertise.  While our national election is taking down the rabbet hole of what happens when we ignore that basic dichotomy, the effects can already been seen at the state levels where vague policy notions and soundbite dogma have been transformed into policy and law in quite a number of states (not the least of which my own North Carolina.)  Now I am not going to pretend not to be a left of center Democrat whose isn't more than a little downtrodden on the current state of my party but I feel there is a much more profound issue in the level of our political discourse.  We are not debating competing ideas anymore as much as we engaged in character assassination of our opponents and the politics of keeping power.  The most disheartening part of it all however is the apparent lack of interest by the electorate to hold leaders accountable to the very people who elected them.  That alone should be enough to write about these days (and I suspect it will fill much of my time.)

...And, if I'm being honest, I still can't get my head around the fact that the Cubs actually won the Series.  Who would have thought....

Well, we are off.  Day 1 and well north of 500 words.  See you tomorrow.  No Really, you will.  Really

-MK