10 Thoughts for February 23, 2015

Today, I took a break from painting, as the next stage requires significantly more effort to move furniture without breaking anything. Plus, I need to go get more paint, now that I've found the Metro paints to work perfectly, as well as needing to get trim paint (virgin paint).

1. Politics: Let me highlight the unspoken GOP message. Defunding President Obama's immigration policy changes is more important than funding the Department of Homeland Security. Remember this Republican choice.
2. Politics: Voters elected the GOP into majority hold of Congress, to force cooperation. So we should all laugh that the GOP's biggest obstacle to passing laws is party infighting. In the 6 weeks they've been in office, the GOP Congress has sent the President just two bills -- HR 26 and HR 203. They've already fallen behind the do-nothing 113th Congress (2013-2014).
3. Net Neutrality: Republican members on the FCC board are calling for a delay on a vote to reclassify broadband ISPs under Title II. Why the delay? I suspect it has a lot to do with giving time for anti-Net Neutrality allies to produce propaganda against Net Neutrality and get their lobbying game on.
4. Weather: In Portland, pollen is predicted to jump to medium levels, in a couple of days. Whaaa, pollen this high in February?!? Achooooo! So it occurred to me, what if this was the future of our local climate -- what if climate change meant that spring came in February instead of April? And what if climate change also meant that the East Coast would suffer from deep freezes from Arctic air plunging into the US? I'm guessing more people will want to move to Portland for its extremely nice climate changes.
5. Shopping: Today was like Christmas in February, as I got my Eddie Bauer package. $100 for six items. I essentially switched out half of my winter wardrobe, most notably, by getting rid of many of my hoodies in favor of mock turtleneck fleece sportswear. The hoodie is on the way out as a fashion statement, for me, though I'll still keep a few around.
6. Automobiles: Toyota apparently wants to double-down on Entune and won't support either ApplePlay or Android Auto. I'm not in the market for a new vehicle, but if this keeps up for the next two years, I probably won't be buying a Toyota as my next vehicle, despite owning only Toyota-branded vehicles for the last 18 years.
7. Football: Anyone drafting Winston ahead of Mariota, is a fool. The combine showed just how far ahead in pure athleticism, Mariota is over Winston. Out of 13 quarterbacks, Winston beat just three others in the 40-yard dash and just one other quarterback in the vertical and broad jumps. Mariota, on the other hand, was the fastest 40-yard quarterback, and scorched all of Winston's measurables, including hand size. Winston is going to be a bust. Still, Mariota's skills can only be exploited fully if drafted by the right team. Which makes Big Cat Leonard Williams the top choice, overall. If Winston is taken #1, that team ensures bottom-feeder status for several more years. As a pure passer, I'd take Bryce Petty over Winston. As a dual-threat, I'd take Brett Hundley or Nick Marshall over Winston. And then there's Winston's character -- Winston suffers from far worse character issues than Johnny Football ever had.
8. Football: Josh Shaw will get drafted. His combine numbers show that he is a skilled athlete. I just wonder however, if he'll be playing DB or linebacker. His 4.44 speed and his 26 bench press reps, would be invaluable on the edge; he does well against press coverage.
9. Education: In all my years of schooling, I can think of a small handful of teachers who had the largest influence on me becoming a creative, critical-thinking adult. It is no surprise that the one who had the greatest influence on me, was a teacher who won the Miliken Award years ago. It popped up in my mind, as I watched the news online from Hawai'i on a teacher who'd won the Miliken Award for this past year.
10. Technology: Ignore what you read about how Google bought Softcard to compete with Apple Pay. Google Wallet competes with Softcard using the same technology, which is to say that Google most certainly didn't need Softcard to boost Wallet -- Softcard will be discarded, shortly. Softcard was purchased for only one reason: Because the carriers who'd spent money building Softcard and then blocked Wallet, needed a return on their investment and sought its purchase as a quid pro quo for placing the Wallet app on their phones, front and center.