Predictions 2018 - Oh boy

I guess we've made it through 2017.  As I said, 2017 was pretty much a year of chaos politically, but it was also a year of growth as well.  I know that this past year has been a real year of growth for me.  From my work to my attitude in how I approach my relationships with other folks, I certainly have seen the Almighty direct me through those.  I've had opportunities to grow wiser and smarter.  Whether I have or not only He really knows.  However, I seek the strength that He provides me.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; - 2 Peter 1:5

So let's go back to my 2017 predictions.  There were only 3 of them, which apparently is good for how they turned out.

1) I will attend 3 weddings in 2017.  I attended 2 weddings.  Hmm, a bit aggressive I guess. 
CORRECTION: I've been informed that I hit this one right on the button.  Goldilocks prediction, or was that Nostrawongamus (who hasn't appeared recently, hmm)

2) I will be debt free by the end of 2017.  I did not foresee me purchasing more property in 2017.  So since I took out another mortgage, we're not trending in the right direction there.


3) The SG BUTR will not have the same number of members at the end of 2017 as it does today. Oh soooo close. There has be petitions for additions and threats of subtractions. I'll just say stayed tuned in 2018. 

So here are my predictions for 2018.

1) The SG BUTR will not have the same number of members at the end of 2018 as it does today.  (Check prediction 3 from 2017 for details).

2) The Democrats will win the popular vote, but the domination of the GOP in state legislatures over the past decade has gerrymandered the districts to its strong advantage as well as national satisfaction with the economy that the GOP will still hold control of the House of Representatives.  In fact, the GOP will gain a seat or two in the Senate.

3) Regarding gerrymandering, the Supreme Court of the US will decide in a 5-4 decision on Gill v. Whitford that such a practice for political purposes is unconstitutional.

4) I will be much closer to debt free by the end of 2018.

5) There will be a strong move towards driverless cars in the Twin Cities by the end of the year.

So there you have my 2018 predictions.  Hopefully I'll be able to reflect on them a year from now.

The Donald Era: Year 1 - Embrace the Chaos

Well, we've nearly made it one year of the Presidency of Donald Trump and I have to say it's been quite a year.  If there is one word to defined this past year, for me it's CHAOS.

* The year has been shadowed by a cloud of suspicion that Donald colluded with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election.  So much so that Donald's appointed and confirmed Deputy AG, Rod Rosenstein, appointed longtime former FBI director Bob Mueller to conduct and independent investigation over the matter.  Mueller, before well-respected as a public servant, has come under great scrutiny for whether he is conducting the investigation even-handedly.  This has largely been done by the Administration and his supporters pointing out apparent conflicts of interest on members of Mueller's investigative team.

* The Donald, through his Twitter posts as well as his public statements, continued to create media swirls by his provocative statements (many of them directly at the media, calling them "Fake News"), inciting rumor, anger and never-ending media fires.  The effect is a permanent state of disorder: a de-stabilized media, an exasperated citizenry, and a fractured opposition, divided and pulled into mudslinging sideshows.

*Legislative accomplishments have been elusive for much of the year.  Successes such as the reforms of the Veterans Administration and latest tax bill (more on that later) were largely overshadowed for much of the year by not just one, but two, massive failures to repeal and replace Obamacare.  

I have say that I don't prefer this style of leadership where we don't have an orderly process on how things happen. Going with this apparent 'seat of the pants'  decision-making style with provocative statements interspersed (like calling North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un "Rocket Man")  is certainly a real change of pace that just not my cup of tea.  

However, despite all this chaos, when I look back on the past year, the Donald has been quite effective in implementing his agenda.

*Confirmation of SCOTUS Justice Neil Gorsuch
*ISIS is being crushed in the Middle East, largely accomplished by Defense Sec Jim Mattis's initiative to aggressively pursue them as well as to train up local ally forces to join the fight.  There's been so much success that Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said the following:

"Dear Iraqis, your land has been completely liberated, and your towns and villages have been returned to the homeland.The dream of liberation became a reality. ISIS dream has come to an end. We must remove all its effects and should not allow terrorism to return again."

* 12 Judicial appointments confirmed at the Court of Appeals 

* Massive reduction in undocumented immigration

* Massive rollback of the regulatory state

* Unemployment and the stock market going strongly in positive directions

* The tax bill signed that accomplished the following: (1) Significant corporate and individual tax rate reductions (2) Opens up the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge for energy exploration, 40 years into the making (3) Repeals the Obamacare individual mandate, not even Chief Justice Roberts can dispute that is a repealed law, (4) Slightly broadens the tax base.

* Keystone pipeline and coal exploration re-opened.

I'm missing quite a few, but I think you get the point.  Now I will state again that I didn't vote for Donald in the past election and I do have disagreements with him on policy issues (notably trade), but to say he hasn't accomplished anything I would say is incorrect.  I just think this is the way this Administration will work.  So due to what the first year results are, I would say that many are just going to Embrace The Chaos, because he's fighting for real Americans:

Have a Merry Christmas!

So Cal!

About three weeks ago I was North of the Border.  This past weekend I was on the Left Coast, visiting my dad's cousins with my mother.

My cousin Doug lives by a large man-made lake.  Each morning around 5:30 a.m.  I would get up and walk around the lake and have a a workout in front of it. This is a view of the sunrise as I went on one of those walks.

A school as part of that walk.

Cousin Doug is a University of Southern California season ticket holder.  I took part of his tailgate.  I find it interesting that he uses it as a ministry.  He invites folks to his tent and after offering food, just provides Christian encouragement.  It's interesting to think how the Almighty can be shown through us.

Here's the view from our seats at the game

I just want to remind you this trip was not about me.  My mother came with me.

A photo of me with my dad's cousins. The older gentleman in the middle came with my dad on the USS Americana 70 years ago!

Alas,  I did have to come back to Minnesota.

So that's it for my travels this year.  Perhaps next year I'll find somewhere else that interests me.  Usually that's what happens.

Vancouver

This past weekend I was with my mom in Vancouver to accompany her for her high school reunion.  

The trip in was quite nice.

I took a day out on a tour of the city.  Here I took a small tour of the local fish hatchery on the Capilano River.

Part of the tour is going to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  Here's a view of the bridge.

Here's me crossing the bridge.

Once I got across the bridge, I decided to buy myself a small treat!

It's a beautiful park.  One can go through a series of wooded bridge paths that connects canopy to canopy and go through the woods with a squirrel's view.

A view of the Lions Gate Bridge, which connects Vancouver with West Vancouver (the affluent part of town)

The Public Market on Granville Park.  This is an oversized Farmers Market.

View from the Vancouver Lookout of downtown Vancouver.

I did go with my mom to the dinner program regarding her reunion.

My mom, a kid at heart, decided to take a turn at the swing set.

All in all, Vancouver is a great city to visit.  I hope to return back there soon

A Week of Revival

This past week I actually took advantage of my employer's generous Paid Time Off (PTO) policy and took a road trip to Ann Arbor, MI for the Christ Life Clinic (CLC): A Spiritual Clinic.

So here's the week starting from last Saturday.

Sat., August 5: Drove 5 hours to Burlington, WI to stay overnight at a friend's house.

Sun., August 6:  Spent the day at Menomonee Falls, WI.  attending church services at Falls Baptist Church.

I spent the day there because I was aiming at going through Chicago in the middle of the night to avoid traffic.  It did work out for me.  It didn't work out so well for a friend of mine I was spending the evening with in IN, who had to wait till 1:30 am for me to arrive at his house.  I guess I need to figure out this time zone thing (from Central to Eastern).

Mon. August 7: Drove from IN to Ann Arbor, MI.  After lunch and a workout at Title Boxing Club in Ann Arbor, went to Ann Arbor Baptist Church to attend to register and attend the evening session of the conference. The centerpiece of this session was John Van Gelderen's message introducing the theme for his messages for the week, When the Spirit Comes.  In short, through faith the Almighty can lead and enable a new relationship, which will outflow His love through believers that will abound with fruit and help us overcome life's trials and persecution. 

Tues-Thurs, Aug 8-10: Each day I woke up early, reviewed my daily Scripture and drove about 35 minutes to Title Boxing Club to go through an hour workout.

As you can see, I'm not necessarily jolly after I throw punches to the heavy bag.  But I have to say since I've started these boxing workouts 14 months ago I've not only been in better shape, but have much better structure to my day and have gained more discipline in adhering to that structure.

After my workout, I go back to Ann Arbor Baptist for a day full of sessions

Otto Koning presents the addendum to his well-known "Pineapple Story."  The addendum is one of the most powerful live testimonies I've ever heard.  I have to say whenever he spoke, I certainly felt His presence near me.

John Van Gelderen delivering his message "The New Persecution."  An encouraging message that links the trials of being a Christians as a privilege in relying on him and providing strength in testimony.

Quite the lineup

In all, the CLC was quite fulfilling experience.  The fellowship and messages influenced me not just now, but hopefully for years to come.

Fri. August 11:  I left Ann Arbor at 5:30 Eastern time to drive back to Minnesota.  I took the route through Chicago where I didn't have to pay tolls. It only added 20 minutes onto my route, sweet.

Sat. August 12:  After running a 5K in the morning and running a few errands, I walked up to the Capitol to tour the place as part of it's Grand Opening celebration of it's recent renovation.

My view of the Capitol as I was walking up to it

It was a long line to go upstairs to see the horses

As you can see, it was a nice day

Got an introduction of the MN court system and the MN Supreme Court from Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea.  Gildea is the lady speaking from the front side of the podium.

This is Governor Dayton's desk.  Yes, he really does look out towards the Capitol Mall.

End of the evening they shot some fireworks.  It was a good show.

It was quite the full week.  But I have to say I learned much through it, both about myself and those things around me.  Can't ask for much more than that.

Memories of July 4 Past

Here was the news report of the fireworks show in my hometown of Duluth in 1988.  The year where the show was quite efficient, albeit accidentally. 

Oh the memories.

Summit Avenue Walking Tour

This afternoon I had a chance to go on a walking tour of Summit Ave houses presented by the Minnesota Historical Society.  Summit Avenue is perhaps one of the best preserved historical residential areas of the country. The 4.5 miles of Summit Avenue still holds 373 of its original 440 grand mansions built from 1855 through the 1920s.

Here's highlights of what I saw:

This is the largest home in Minnesota, James J. Hill house.  Hill was a gruff, blue collar, pull yourself from the bootstraps railroad baron who built the Great Northern Railway in the late 1800s.  Hill spared no expense in building his mansion.  This massive 36,500 square feet stone mansion was built in 1891 for railroad tycoon James J Hill.  The 5 story Richardsonian Romanesques-style mansion cost over $930,000 ($19 Million today).  Elaborate mahogany woodwork fills the mansion complete with 13 bathrooms, 22 gas lit fireplaces, 16 custom chandeliers, an 88-foot reception hall, and a 3 story pipe organ with 1,006 pipes.   It's quite the structure.

This is Driscol-Warehouser House, named after it's original owner, Frederick Driscol of the Pioneer Press Newspaper , who built the house in 1884 and is 11,000 sq feet with 8 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.  Later on this house was bought by Fred Warehouser, who owned the largest lumber company in the world at the time and actually had more wealth than James J. Hill.  While Hill was the 36th richest person in the world at his time, Warehouser was 10th richest.

This is the Old Smith “Vine” Mansion.  Usually this house is covered by vines like Wrigley Field in Chicago, but recently those vines were removed.  What makes this house significant is that it's the oldest house on Summit Avenue, built in 1858 (same year when Minnesota became a state). 

This is Lightner-Young Double House.  This large brownstone house was built as a double house in 1886. Attorney Will Lightner lived in the left side (322 Summit) and his law firm partner George Young lived on the right side (324 Summit). Lawyers Charles McKim and Stanford White got their start working for Lightner and Young before branching out into the famous firm McKim, Mead & White.

Home was designed by Cass Gilbert and partner James Knox Taylor, as one of their first times teaming up. The Richardsonian-style of the mansion is named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson’s death who died the same year as this house was built. The style incorporates a lot of patterns into the design from red stone, to brick and marble. Richardson’s influence on an entire generation of architects was profound and the year before his death 5 of his buildings made the 10 best in America by his peers.

However, Lightner decided he needed more space, so he bought the lot next door and built this house.

While there are other houses on this tour, including one where the owner let us inside to take a tour, here's the last picture I took on the 1.5 mile tour.

This is the Rice-Ordway house.  This house was named one of it's famous owners, Henry Rice, for which Rice Park in Downtown St. Paul is named.  Later one this house was bought and renovated by Lucius Ordway in the 1920's.  Ordway is best remembered for his investment of $100k to bring the struggling Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company from Duluth to the Twin Cities. The company was close to running out of money and had heavy debt, but after being brought to Saint Paul, they made a quick turnaround. By 1916 the company, know today as 3M, had over $1 Million in annual sales from big breakthroughs with sandpaper technology.
It was a great day for a walk.  I glad I took the opportunity to learn a little more about the neighborhood I live.

How's the Donald Doing? A Myopic Opinion

So we're currently 160 days into the Donald's presidency and I guess I should provide my myopic opinion on how things are going.  From what I see, it's clear to me that generally folks have a strong opinion of him, you either strongly for him or strongly against him.  

Why is this the case?  Well, in my myopic opinion this is a largely due to the ability to amplify vituperation on any side of a debate through social media and 24-cable news.  Communication channels such as Twitter, Facebook, CNN and Fox News have allowed many folks who are not necessarily experts on a particular topic, but an individual that provide an emotionally charged quote that appeals to a consumer's senses to boost up ratings, views, likes and advertising revenue. Sure, the Donald's actions and reactions don't help increase the civility of the debate, but many times he's reacting to vituperation against him through social media and 24-cable news.  His reaction only gets its recipients to react themselves.  Since they can instantly communicate to others what they think before thinking about the consequences of allowing their emotions talk without filter, so it turns into a vicious cycle, especially when the political bubble is involved.

Now let me say that the latest Donald tweet regarding MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski was not a civil reaction at all. Here's an account of the cause and effect.

For many, this just affirms that the Donald is a crass individual. However, this is the same man who procured the largest share of the Evangelical vote (81%) in the history of the well-respected Pew Research poll.  Somehow, there is a disconnect between what folks like me (highly-educated, white collar) folks are seeing and what many in the country see in the President. 

The hostile relationship that the Donald have on many in the media feed this idea that everything in DC is in chaos.  Anyone heard anything about Russia?  Former FBI Director James Comey's tapes?  Intelligence leaks?  Special Counsel investigation etc.?   All this makes one thinks everything is in disarray.  But then again, the well-respected Gallup organization recently said the following:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite an ongoing controversy over "fake news," more Americans this year (27%) say they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers than did so last year (20%). Although confidence in newspapers is up from last year's record low, it remains lower than it typically was in the 1980s and 1990s.

When going from 1 out of 5 folks trusting the news to more than 1 out of 4 trusting the news is seen as positive, that's what a former president calls "the soft bigotry of low expectations."   Many folks just don't trust the media, and from my interactions with folks while working at the Golden Inn, particularly those that don't sit at a cube or at a desk everyday. 

So do I think the Donald has been effective these first 160 days?  Well, I would have to again say that all this news about Russia and attacking the media would initially make me think no.  However, when I hear following types of news:

-  Kate's Law, which deports illegal immigrants that commit crimes pass the House today, 

- getting NATO European members to take account of how much they contribute to NATO defense,  

- the fact that the national debt has actually decreased from $19,937,261 at the beginning of the year  to $19,845,942 at the end of May,

-  Neal Gorsuch confirmed to SCOTUS, 

- rolling back regulations by the tens of billions, 

- rollback of the Cuba policy, etc. 

I start to think he's actually accomplishing quite a bit.  It makes me think that the news we hear of total chaos is akin to the media being a bunch of mice chasing cheese to different corners of the house while folks set down mouse traps around them.  I've come to think the Donald may be ok if folks EMBRACE THE CHAOS.  

So 160 days down, I'm certainly interested in how the next 1,300 days go.  I guess many other folks are as well.  In the meantime, we can be like this dog here and enjoy something I hope we all enjoy: Mendelssohn's "Italian" symphony.

This is News

The past couple months have been quite interesting to me.  A couple months ago I was alerted that the Penthouse unit in the building I live in was for sale.  So for about a month I negotiated with the seller in at times a hardball fashion.  I walked away from the negotiation 3 times, each time having been asked back with an offer closer to my original offer, which was notably lower than listing.  We got to a number that I thought was quite fair and had a tentative agreement.  I even signed a purchase agreement, but alas, the seller found a straight buyer. So no Penthouse living for me.

However, shortly afterwards, I was able to locate and quickly agree to a purchase of a different property down by the Mall of America, Fort Snelling and the airport.  

Here's a view from the front courtyard:

The living room:

The mini foyer:

The kitchen, with maple floors, cabinets and granite:

I plan to use this unit as a rental unit. So if you know someone interesting to moving closer to the MOA-Fort Snelling area, let me know.  I have a couple tenants in there now, but things can change.

In the end, I agree with what a well-known real estate man once said: "I do it to do it."

Memorial Day: Colorado Springs

I'm currently in Denver visiting my sister Georgia's family, including my nearly seven month old nephew.

My manager, after returning from a two week cruise in Europe, charged me to use all my paid-time off (PTO) since the company I work for stopped allowing year over year accruals.  So I've decided to take an extended weekend out to Denver. It's been an enjoyable weekend.

Today I went with my sister to Colorado Springs to to the Manitou Incline, a one-mile hike that goes pretty steep

When my sister and arrived at the base of the Manitou incline, it did look a bit challenging.

But I went up the incline, a very long staircase:

Although I go to boxing classes 5 times a week, my sister is still in better shape than me.  Whizzing up the incline like a robot.  I just went slowly and steadily up the stairs and about twenty five minutes later I saw this behind me:

Alas, I saw this in front of me 😟

But I did make it to the top.  Here's the view about 2,000 higher from where I started.

I guess cross it off the bucket list:

While my sister beat me up the incline, I beat her back down the incline through a 3 mile trail shown above. I call that an athletic feat 🙌🙌

After we got down the hill and had lunch, my sister returned to Denver while I went to the Garden of the Gods:

The rocks are interesting to look at:

Walking through there you may see a rock climber or two:

As I left Colorado Springs,  I decided to drop by the Focus on the Family headquarters:

A very large campus with a large Welcome Center and bookstore.  Unfortunately, they were closed for Memorial Day.  I guess I'll have to come back some other time.

But I'll just say it was a good day.