Life and Post Convention Fun

It's been a busy couple weeks.  I guess I should start commenting.

- This past week was a milestone for me.  July 27 was the one year anniversary of me being at my current job at Prime Therapeutics.  It's hard to imagine that about 13 months ago I was contemplating my next career move after my contract with Ecolab was not renewed.  But I believe that the Almighty has a path for all of us to follow and I believe that trial was a way for Him to help me realize that while I really wanted to work at Ecolab, He is the one driving the direction of my life:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6

So after 5 weeks out of the workforce, I started my working life again at Prime.  I can say the last year couldn't have gone much better career-wise.  Interesting work, more than fair compensation and work-life balance.  When my main issue at work is trying to figure out a way to burn off my 5 weeks of PTO, that's a pretty good position to be in I would think.  

But after being at 4 companies in three years (Best Buy, Deluxe, Ecolab and Prime), I hope to have the opportunity to have some stability in my employment.  But I guess Prime wanted me to celebrate being around for one year:

I guess I have acknowledge those small accomplishments as well.

- I guess we're in the main stretch of election 2016 after both the GOP and the Democrats have held their national conventions.  I'll just say that this elections is not like anything else I've experienced so far.  Let me say that I think this is truly the first 21st century election in a cultural sense. I saw much of each convention and here are a few thoughts.

Republicans:  It was an unorthodox affair in Cleveland as the Donald's convention featured many fewer politicians than usual and folks of our cultural age such as Dana White (head honcho of Ultimate Fighting Championships), the Trump family and homosexual Silcon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel, all of which were widely applauded.  We've sure moved quite a ways from the George W. Bush NYC days where he's talking the need to strengthen traditional cultural values and aggressively push into the Middle East to combat terrorism. Overall, I thought the organization of the convention was disjointed, but I think the effectiveness it had in boosting the Donald was very effective.  In my mind it started when the Donald's oldest son, Don Jr., gave a strong case for the Donald's character and ability to get things done. (As a digression, I do find it a bit odd to me, Eric Donald Wong, that the Donald has two sons named Eric and Donald.  I also was a bit taken aback on Don Jr. attack on data analytics, since that is how I get my paycheck.)  Anyways, then the Ted Cruz spoke to the convention and refused to endorse the Donald, a very odd event that evoked a very strong negative reaction from the delegates.  I, among others, initially thought putting Cruz up on stage was a mistake.  But thinking about it, I have to reflect that pretty much everything the Donald does is calculated in terms of a mind game.  In that vein, allowing Cruz to speak boosted the Donald because it makes him appear magnanimous and makes Ted look petty, creating reason for those GOPers who didn't like either Ted or Donald to get being the Donald for the sake of unity.  

The Donald's speech on Thursday night reminded me of those C-Span clips of Richard Nixon speeches that talked extensively about the problems and a little bit about the solutions.  The fact that he appeared to yell his way through 75 plus minutes of that only accentuated that effect.  However, Nixon won two presidential elections with such an approach and the Donald got a great boost from that speech.  Perhaps it projected strength, I don't know.

- Democrats:  From what I saw from this convention, it made me think the Dems are really run by those who are not sympathetic with extolling traditional cultural values, but more sympathetic with those who extol group differences and pop culture. Whether it's race, age, class, even the occupation one chooses, the differences between them accentuated for political points. I will say though that the Democrats do have as a whole much better primetime speakers in Bill Clinton, VP Biden and President Obama.  They really boosted Hillary's profile more than Hillary can do herself.  However, once one could become open to the idea of voting for Hillary, he/she sees and hears this once she comes to stage Thursday night:

https://youtu.be/ZQmmui8qke0?t=24m7s

This walkout music?  Really?  Many lives will never be the same. Four Head Slaps.

The speech itself was not that optimistic either.  It was a list of platitudes of what America can be, which Hillary checked off one by one in a monotone fashion, similar to the Donald.  But you could see her body language and voice change once she went on direct attacks on the Donald.  Eyes beamed up and her voice appeared to become a bit angrier in my opinion.  Which to me means that the Donald is in Hillary's head, which is not good for Hillary since that's the way that the Donald has achieved the political success he has, by manipulating his opponents, defining them and causing them to act irrationally.  But I think the speech did help Hillary gain traction back in the broader race.  It was an overall good week for her.

So I'm thinking currently we're in an even race nationally in the polls, but if the election was today, I'd think Hillary would win around 300 electoral votes for I think she would currently win PA, VA, OH and perhaps FL.  But these things change quite quickly in this environment.  We're only at the end of July and we have 100 days left in this election and the debates will really be turning points in this election.  So my real thought now is "buckle up."

Till next time...

Profiling and the Election

It's been a couple weeks and I want to start posting on a more regular basis through the elections. So here I'm going to be commenting on recent events.

- The past month has been a terrible one in terms of local and world events.  We have terrorism both home and abroad.  The events in Orlando and Nice, France just prove that terrorism from radical Islamists is not just an academic discussion, it is a real issue that affects all of our sense of security.  The forces of ISIS are spreading their wings of influence around the world, partially due to the fact that they look to be losing ground in their Middle East strongholds.  So largely because of the large influx of Middle East immigrants, ISIS has found greater influx of influence in Europe, creating great sense of insecurity throughout the continent. So much insecurity that something many thought would happen has happened: the rise of nationalist parties and policies throughout Europe. We're talking Brits leaving the European Union and rising popularity of nationalist parties in places like Austria and France.  I frankly never thought the National Front would become a mainstream political party, but here we are, considering if L'Front Nationale Presidente Marine Le Pen will be President of France in 2017.  These are interesting times.

- In terms of other local events, it appears that racial strife is higher than it has been in my lifetime. The violent interactions between police and blacks in Baton Rouge and St. Paul more recently have brought up large questions of how far we've really come in race relations.  More frankly, the issue of racial profiling, specifically by our police, has be raised to the top of national discussion.  Our political leaders, for better or for worse (in my myopic opinion), have raised the rhetoric to flame passions on both sides of the issue. For example, I was frankly disappointed that the Governor Mark Dayton hours after the terrible shooting of a police officer (Latino, by the way) of a black at a traffic stop, took the girlfriend's account only and not any evidence from a more complete investigation to say this wouldn't have happened if it the police stopped a white guy.  In my myopic opinion, this is simply poor judgment from a political leader in a time when tensions needed to be cooled, not inflamed.    Now when it comes to the issue of racial profiling, that can be a debate worth having at time outside of that moment.  We simply need to have that debate at a time were folks are less emotional, which I admit is difficult when it comes to debates on race.

- For those who seek to know my views on racial profiling, I'll let you know. Do I believe profiling exists?  I certainly do.  Not only do we profile perhaps negatively (as we perhaps do with Muslims and blacks), but positively as well (as we perhaps do with Asians).  In both cases, these are generalizations, everyone has to be judged on their own merits.  Take my case as one of Chinese ethnicity.  Folks generally think that I'm pretty intelligent and have always earned high academic achievement.  Many of those folks don't know I earned 4 C's in 6th grade (which led to my father's memorable "I WAS proud of you" talk) or that I barely passed intro biology in college.  Everyone has to be judged on their own merits.

Do I believe police do racially profile?  I certainly do, largely because I feel that I've come across it myself.  There have been times when I've been pulled over where the officer asked if I was on a delivery, even without food in the car.  So that's anecdotal evidence from my experience that profiling does happen.  Why do I think it happens?  Because I think it's based on what officer's own experiences.  When you see this chart of 2011 Chicago homicides, you can see where bias would start to occur (Source: Intellectual Takeout):


So the question to me is whether of not profiling happens, is it it justified?  That is a question that I'm still debating.

- The election has now entered a new stage as the conventions are upon us and we are starting to see a stabilization of the race of Donald vs. Hillary.  While I still think that Hillary has a 60/40 shot of being President, it's clear that the Donald is becoming a more disciplined campaigner and politician.  He's largely been more on message in addressing current affairs and attacking Hillary and his choice for Vice President, Governor Mike Pence of IN, shows he's being more calculated in his decisions in my myopic opinion. These changes, along with Hillary being documented of lacking much veracity, has tightened the race a bit.  Can the Donald overcome his current electoral deficit and actually win?  Yes, but I'm still doubtful since the demographics and electoral map is so tilted in Hillary's favor by default.  Am I still not voting for the Donald?  That is a true statement.  Who will I vote for?  Stay tuned.

It's Been Awhile

Since I saw the timestamp for my last post was May 17, I thought I probably should provide another post.  Well, there have been some things that happened since my last post:

- A this time last year I was unemployed looking for a job after my contract at Ecolab was not renewed.  But looking back at it, it was for best.  The Almighty led me through this whole sequence and it was surely a test of faith and spiritual growth.  My belief is that the Almighty led me through it to show me that I need to trust him and not lean on my own understanding 

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6

I always wanted to work at Ecolab and the opportunity came. I prayed and believed that the Almighty provided what I wanted and I should take it. Well, it didn't go as well as planned and lasted only 8 months. But the Almighty blessed me with only being out of work for 5 weeks and I was definitely busy during that time.  I reached out to contacts either passed along to me or I had prior network relationships.  I was blessed that data analytics is a very hot field these days with quite the labor shortage.  About a week after the 4th of July I got a call from a recruiter Prime Therapeutics who said that there is a new position in their marketing area that needs a experienced data analyst and they wanted to talk to me.  I was hired shortly thereafter.  I thought my resume where I've been at 4 jobs at 3 years would be a detriment. Not in this case, my boss said he looked at resumes for this job where candidates had 20 years of experience at one company and said it wasn't enough variety.  He looked at mine and immediately said he wanted me because of the "variety of experiences with very established companies."   I've been there since late July, it's been a blessed experience.

- I have actually done new things since my last post.  The biggest change is that I've joined a boxing gym.  Yes, you heard that right. I am a member of a boxing gym.  Need proof?  Here are my hand wraps:

Here is my membership access card:

I was drawn to trying out boxing through a Groupon offer (2 weeks for $12).  I went to three workouts the first week. I found the workouts quite efficient: 15 minutes cardio, 30 minutes doing combos on the heavy bag and then 15 minutes of core work.  I was sore and soaking from sweat after each workout.  But the soreness decreases as I got more used to the workouts.  So I got an offer from the club to join and waive the $149 enrollment fee.  I checked in at work and found that I can get between $45-$55 of monthly rebates if I attend the club regularly.  Even more an incentive is that the club is located 5 minutes from work and they have a 6 am class, which allows me to beat traffic on I-494 (yay!).  So I have joined the club and I have to say it's an enjoyable sweat.

- To the election, I have to say that the race between the Donald and Hillary will be one that is made for 21st century entertainment. As of today, I still give Hillary a 60/40 chance of winning this race.  However, the Donald can still win this race due to three main factors:

1) Based on polling, most are saying the country is going in the wrong direction and would like change.  Hillary is campaigning on doing more of the same basically.

2) World events, particularly the growing global reach of ISIS, has created greater unease on national security issue.  Given Hillary's record on Iran, Benghazi and creating instability in Libya and Syria, national security doesn't seem to be a strong area of hers, even though she would say it is.

3) Hillary is a terrible campaigner.  She struggles closing out races because she's very untrusted, unlikable (especially to men), lack of charisma and just bleeds corruption.  Whether it's Wall Street speeches, addressing her husband's infidelities or her alleged actions in funding the Clinton Foundation, Hillary is not a candidate without heavy baggage.

However, to win the Donald has to do three things that hasn't proven he can do yet in this campaign:

1) Build a solid campaign apparatus.  The Donald ended May with $1.3 million in hand.  I don't care if he was funding his own campaign or not, that's not good.  He also lacked ground game, data analytics, media strategies and state organization to run a national campaign.  He's obviously been working on that the past couple weeks.  But he's certainly needs a lot of work here.

2) Pound a disciplined message.  The Donald gains attention by making polemical statements.  However, the Donald has been unable to continue on a coherent, consistent message that focuses on Hillary for more than 2 or 3 days at a time.  Instead, his statements generally come back and refocus attention on the Donald's temperament.  If the Donald took a page out of the George W. Bush playbook and deliver a consistent, simple message folks can understand, he'd be much better off.

3) Increase his GOP base support.  Polls show the Donald generally behind 3-7 points.  However, those same polls show that at least a quarter of the GOP electorate doesn't support him.  If the Donald could find a way to increase his GOP support to 85-90%, he'd be in very strong position to win this election.  How could he do that, check #2.

So there's my take on the election.  Am I still not voting for the Donald?  That would be a true statement.  Who will I vote for?  Stay tuned.