Nearly 2900 posts into the blog I'm going to experiment with a new format apart from my signature miscellany posts. I find that given the highly structured format of the latter's newsletter type format, it is more awkward to introduce more personal reflections and anecdotal items. This one, which I'm titling "journal" will be more free-form. Like the miscellany format, its structure and publication schedule will likely evolve over time; it will likely not be a daily format: I suspect it may be published 2 or 3 times a month, but the frequency depends on a sufficient batch (say, 3 or more) entries. Whereas this blog is primarily political, my journal entries or segments may vary in topics.
1. Change is Good. (8/7/16)
As an MIS PhD, I have often been on the leading edge. For example, I bought an early VCR when they cost over $1000. Within a year or two, you could buy one for maybe a quarter of the price. It was cool but pricey. I bought a copy of "The Sound of Music" for around $70, and I hosted a rare dinner party for my Catholic Newman Association friends at U of H (ham and potato salad). My VCR was well-made; I "lost it" several years later in Milwaukee. I had been selected as a Nielsen TV rating household, and they claimed a need to make some adjustment to my VCR. They later claimed it got damaged in the process and replaced it with a newer model. I had also been an early adopter of CDROM drives: a Sony bundle that included a number of CDROM's valued in the hundreds of dollars.
But in other things I was a later adopter. I have an extensive LP collection (currently in storage). I eventually shifted to CD's when I found it difficult to get newer albums in vinyl. I was also late to the use of smartphones (just over a year ago); I make few personal calls or texts and mostly use it for more urgent needs, like calling for roadside assistance. For the most part, I was more motivated by more reasonably priced plans, maybe $10-15 more a month than for a bucket of minutes with older phone. I've found new uses for the phone, like being able to connect to a brokerage account during a work break or find another barbershop if it turns out my original target is closed.
Over the past few years, I know family members who have gotten newer large flat-screen TV's, but to be honest I don't really watch that much TV, and my old color portable set (with a semi-elliptical shape) I bought several years back probably in a WalMart for $130 or so got good results with a coaxial cable from the cable box. I've used Time-Warner and Comcast as cable vendors over the past decade or so and have never run into an issue connecting into a cable box--until now.
I, of course, am aware of smart/flat-screen TVs, and perhaps I should have known when I had to deal with movers over the last couple of weeks. I told the moving and cable people that I have an older color portable, and it's like there was a total disconnect. They didn't understand what I meant. The movers had a specialist partner which requested a visit to pack my flat-screen TV. What flat-screen TV? I never told the moving consultant I owned a flat-screen.
So in requesting cable service to my new home, with a cable provider that I used 2 years ago when I lived in WV, I specifically told the cable service agent I had an old color portable TV. But the cable guy comes in with a cable box with NO coaxial cable outputs (which I need to connect to the portable). The cable guy looks totally confused and tries to explain connecting the HDMI cable to the TV set. It's like he can't conceptualize a traditional color set or a set without an HDMI connection. He basically shrugs his shoulders as I explain the problem and said that he doesn't have cable boxes with coaxial cable outputs. What are my options? "You can buy an HDMI-connection TV at nearby WalMart for as low as $130."
So yesterday I went out and bought the cheapest TV I could find. Unfortunately, I don't think I brought a screwdriver with me, so I still have to attach the stand. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to access the HDMI input connected to the set (the quick-start guide doesn't really address this configuration). So the first thing I saw on my new TV was a Brazilian women's soccer game. The much bigger screen is more impressive, of course. I'm not sure what I'll do with the old set, probably put it in my bedroom, buy a digital converter and an antenna.
2. In-N-Out Burgers (8/7/16)
I never understood the hype associated with In-N-Out Burgers when I lived in California for 20 months or so in 1999-2001. I think the first time was at a work site in Orange County. Client personnel had invited me along. I knew this was different because parking was full and it was tough finding a spot to sit and eat. I thought the burger and fries were very good, but they weren't, say, specialty burgers. Burger joints are a dime a dozen. It wasn't like a Fuddruckers. Don't get me wrong; it's tasty, but I don't like having to find a place to sit and eat my food; it's just not worth the hassle.
Well, given I now live very near California, I should not have been that surprised to find someone's In-N-Out wrapper in the hotel parking lot. So I just did a quick Google search and discovered there was a restaurant probably a 10-minute drive away.
So yesterday I noticed in driving to a nearby Sam's Club that their parking lot was jammed at 11 AM; I thought that was odd, rather early for lunch, right? I made a mental note to drive there well after 1 PM. It turns out the parking lot was still nearly full, just like hours earlier.
Now as an MBA and former business school professor, I tend to focus on different types of things. The most obvious thing is In-N-Out has a very simplified menu: they serve burgers and fries. Their combos: burger; cheeseburger; double burger. (They have a self-serve soda fountain.) This is a variation of Taylor management that Ray Kroc would love: keep it simple, stupid. We don't try to be all things to all people--no chicken, burritos, fish, etc. Now, to be honest, I as a low-carber almost never eat fries or other potatoes. The cheeseburger was thick and tasty, but the fries really stood out. To be honest, I've never wanted any ketchup or anything else on my fries other than a dusting of salt. As I dug to the bottom of my bowl, I read a message that they peel and dice potatoes at the local stores every day.
3. Posner On Trump (8/7/2016)
Several weeks back I subscribed to Posner's blog articles. Posner is perhaps one of the most brilliant jurists in recent times, a polymath who has also been influential in the discipline of economics. Although he's sometimes classified as a "conservative" judge on the Chicago Court of Appeals, his legal writings, e.g., on "gay marriage" and abortion, are hardly conservative. He has also all but generalized Bork's famous position that the Ninth Amendment is an inkblot to the Constitution as a hole. Let's simply say that I have some disagreements with the judge.
Posner recently published an article which is essentially dismissive of the concerns I and others have had about the challenge of Trump to our constitutional order; this may be the article or an earlier version of it. Now before I go further, I need to note that Posner is no Trumpkin, he does not care for the idea of Trump being President, and he is concerned with Trump's apparent authoritarianism. He does think that the way Trump has captured the nomination by steering clear of ideological promises, Trump is not your typical nominee which would give him unprecedented flexibility.
I don't want to be accused of oversimplifying Posner and setting up a straw man. But there is enough of Trump's volatile temperament, his thin-skinned nature, his incompetence on the issues of economics and trade, his self-serving views on libel law, his willingness to defy the Geneva Convention and to target families of terror suspects, his self-serving positions on libel law and eminent domain, his willingness to conscript Apple to disable privacy safeguards for its products or to sanction businesses for foreign operation investments, his attack on Judge Curiel (re: the Trump University scam case): I have little doubt we are dealing with a potential Constitutional crisis where an overruled Trump resurrects FDR's plot to pack the Court with his minions or defies SCOTUS' ability to enforce rulings like Andrew Jackson or abuses his powers like Richard Nixon. Too many of Trump's heroes are authoritarians. It's true that he relishes making deals, but his only principles are self-promoting, for his own power and glory. I think the judge underestimates the damage Trump could do to our form of government.
4. The Weather is Too Damn Hot (8/7/16)
When you take I-8W just south of Phoenix for Yuma/San Diego (about 180/360 miles away), there aren't a lot of interim spots, and you drive past miles of cactus-growing desert; there are spots where you don't get much of a cellphone signal. You wonder what might happened if your car died in the middle of nowhere in the heat surpassing 100 degrees. Now I've lived in hot places before: I went to high school in south Texas, and I was on faculty at UTEP. Not be mention that 95 in Charleston, with high humidity, feels almost as bad as the dry heat. But I swear, when I've gone to lunch the last 5 days, the lowest temperature reading registered by my car was 113. You learn to use sunshades when you leave your card at work. Many shopping centers and apartment complexes have carports, not to protect from the rain.
