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.