That point where you’ve turned a corner on getting settled…
5 minute read
January 26, 2018, 2:27 PM
Slowly but surely, this house is coming together. Old furniture is in place. New furniture is acquired and in place. Various other little flub-dubs have been purchased and placed. And I have a dust mop. You know that you’re mature when you’re excited about buying a dust mop.
But in any case, it’s starting to look like Elyse and I live there. My bedroom, for instance, is more or less complete:
My bedroom, with bed, nightstands, lamps, and curtains.
Continue reading…Categories: Furniture
When you realize that the unbalanced nature of the electoral college is a symptom, and not the problem…
5 minute read
January 13, 2018, 4:38 PM
With the recent talk about a potential Oprah Winfrey run for president, I started thinking again about how to fix our unbalanced electoral system, and the least difficult way to do it.
But first, since I mentioned it, just to eliminate all doubt: Oprah Winfrey should not run for president, at least not right now, for the same reason that Donald Trump was not qualified for the job, i.e. no experience in public service. If Oprah wants to run for president, she should do like most presidents have done, and run for a local office and start a proper public service career. Even Ronald Reagan, who was an actor prior to entering politics, was governor of California before he was president. A career in public service prior to running for the top spot shows that you’re serious. I’m sure that Oprah would make a pretty good Chicago alderman as a first step, and then on to a state legislature or Congress. Governor of Illinois, maybe not, because most Illinois governors go to jail after leaving office, it seems. But in any case, if you’re serious, and not just doing it for attention, you go through the proper channels. We want to leave Trump as a fluke, and not make this whole TV-personalities-as-president-with-no-public-service thing a trend.
Of course, the whole reason that we ended up with Trump in the first place is because we have a very unbalanced electoral college system. After all, more people voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, but because of the unbalanced nature of it all, it tipped toward Donald Trump. Because its votes are allocated based on the amount of representatives and senators, it skews in favor of states with low population. According to this map by Slate, the top three most powerful votes are found in Wyoming, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. The bottom three are California, Florida, and New York. In other words, the most populous states have the least voice per capita in determining who becomes the prez.
Categories: National politics
Now to build on the successes of the past year…
6 minute read
January 3, 2018, 9:37 PM
A new year always brings a lot of feelings. It’s a time to reflect on the past year, and a time to look ahead to the year ahead. Reflecting back on 2017, I’d say that I had an outstanding year, and laid the groundwork for a strong future. After all, at the beginning of 2017, I was still relatively new at the whole train operations thing, and lived by myself in an apartment with a hostile relationship with the property management. Now, I’m more experienced with my work and more comfortable with all of the ins and outs of my job, and I’m also a homeowner with a roommate. I made my first mortgage payment at the end of December. Things suddenly became very real when I wrote that check.
Now, in 2018, I want to build on my successes from the past year and reach even greater heights. After all, in 2017, I got the house. Now, I want to make it my home, and not someone else’s idea of a home with my furniture sitting in it. That means getting rid of that chandelier in Elyse’s room, painting a few rooms, and getting my wallhangings up. I’m excited to design the new decor, because I have so many blank canvases upon which to expend some pent-up creative energies. My parents are delighted about this as well, because I’d been fantasizing out loud about redecorating their house for a few years in order to expend those creative energies that I couldn’t do with the apartment, but they were a bit cool to the idea. Now I have my own place to paint and decorate as I wish. The previous owner of my house decorated the place fairly minimalistically, using pale colors on walls and few wallhangings and furnishings, such as in the living room:
Categories: House, Myself, Schumin Web meta, Today's Special, Wikipedia, Work