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...