5 Thoughts for March 18, 2017

1. The "Doctor" Sebastian Gorka: A couple of weeks ago I'd written up a thought about people who insist on using titles to make themselves appear important -- specifically Gorka's explicit use in his Twitter name -- but I deleted it. I wish I hadn't. [Here's the quick synopsis: As a newly naturalized American, Gorka chose to go back to his native Hungary to attend an unranked (world rankings) university to earn his doctoral degree. Why would you go back to Hungary with a thesis proposal arguing that the construct of western governments is inadequate to deal with the threats of, specifically, Islamic-based terrorism? Well, I can think of a few reasons, but the obvious one is intellectual disingenuity.] Today, I came across Daniel Nexon's write-up in Foreign Policy about how terrible Gorka's dissertation was. 🤦 D'oh!
2. USC's March Madness: I learned my lesson earlier this week when I walked away (to go to the store) from the USC-Providence game after USC fell into a double-digit hole at halftime. This time, I stayed for the entire USC-SMU game after USC fell into a double-digit hole. However, I must say that USC's win was improbable as they made all the classic errors at the end of the game and still managed to win. Truly, the embodiment of Madness of March Madness.
3. Jury Duty: Last week I was on jury duty and was selected for a criminal (misdemeanor charges) trial that lasted for a total of 6 hours including deliberations. I didn't volunteer for it, but I was nonetheless selected to be the jury foreperson. Self-aware that I have a silver tongue, while going over each of the four charges, I deliberately explained multiple times to the other jurors that I did not want them to feel badgered in any way and that it was completely their right to reject my explanations. Nonetheless, in one charge where the vote was 4 1/2 to 1 1/2 (the half was attributed to one juror who felt half-way between guilty and not-guilty) I was able to turn the 4 1/2 votes over to my side and it only took about 15 minutes to do so. This freaks me out quite a lot. From all the way back in high school I've known that I can easily influence people, which is why I've spent my whole life trying to avoid being at the front, for fear of pushing people in the wrong decision. On a one-to-one basis it's sometimes fun to manipulate people, but on a wider scale with huge implications, it's downright scary.
4. Windows Auto Restart: I am soooooooo done with Windows Auto Restart. Gdamn thing keeps rebooting itself even though I have programs open and working on them, I turned it off via group policy mod:
   
   1. Press Win+R
   2. Type gpedit.msc
   3. Go to Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Update
   4. Double-click on No auto restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations
   5. Select Enabled and click OK
5. Local Weather: Last weekend I turned off my central air -- something I do in spring and fall -- and the inside temperature has been sitting comfortably between 69°F and 72°F / 20.5°C - 22.2°C with very little variation. Even though the rainy pattern hasn't stopped, someone pulled the big switch and walking outside in shorts became extremely comfortable while wearing jackets became uncomfortable.