Oprah Will Be President, Since early 2018

See other blog. Oh, and she'll pick a real politician to be her running mate.

Oprah Will Be President, Since early 2018--I Feel It

 I think a lot of others felt it, too.

I happened to Watch the 2018 Golden Globes awards last night. It was after a long, cold weekend.

I had not watched a film and television award show in many years.

Many years ago I was thinking about working in  that industry.

Always liked the thought of writing.

Here I am this many years later, after those years of no world wide net to blog in...

Writing. You (well, me), are reading what I write.

But Ross Perot begets Mitt Romney begets Donald Trump, begets Oprah Winfrey.

She'll be the one, as long as she's alive. She can do it, better than anyone else.

Most of America believes in her; she's decent.

We have broken the mold.

America is on course.

Water

                                             Water⦽

We are carbon-based life forms, and as such, we need water. Carbon and hydrogenated oxygen, two basic elements that make up the rudiments of life as we know it. Sun's energy and warmth give the other two a chance to thrive.

So far this deep into the 21st century, we only know of one planet that supports any life.

It is likely life exists in other solar systems, certainly other galaxies. Perhaps there is life in our own solar system that we have not found yet. And, we are pretty sure it is based on water. And oxygen. Basic elements.

But here on Earth, water is the essence of our existence, because other than gaseous volcanoes or nuclear wastelands, we all have free air to breathe. Water can be a tougher come by.

Where we have enough water, in the right conditions, we have life on earth. Both on land, under land, and in the waters. Everywhere on our planet, life abounds with water.

Consequently, where we humans, plants, and animals have decent or abundant access to water, we have much better chances of living well, and prospering.

There are places where water has posed a problem for humans and other life. Life does not prosper, but many suffer, many are impaired.

Obviously dry, arid, places where there is not enough water poses such problems. See: a drought stricken place like parts of Mauritania, or a dozen other Saharan nations. And there are also other incredibly dry desert regions across the globe, including very cold, icy ones. Perhaps Antarctica has the biggest desert, even greater than the Sahara.

With water issues there is also the problem of excesses of water. With the global warming debate comes the rising of the ocean waters, which obviously threatens many islands and coastlines. Some parts of the land that we try to inhabit is actually inundated with water, be it swamps or rivers, etcetera. These are the natural problems of the modern world regarding water.

Economics, or rather poor financial backing and poor government regulation and stability exacerbates the problem of the good distribution of water to those who need it. Many millions are caused to suffer because of the mismanagement of good, clean, usable, water.

Politics, even, imposes its ugliness in access and use to water.

Case in point: Israelis, using ever more the same land as their Palestinian cousins' lands, use more water per citizen than the the neighboring Arabs who are not Israelis, who are not quite sovereign citizens of anything since their nation is not quite sovereign.

Countries of Africa, especially the Saharan lands of utter heat and few water sources, other desert areas across the globe, even jungle lands of much precipitation across the equator, so many lack basic water access.

Money makes a difference.

Projects in India bring potable water to people for the first time ever, this deep into the 21st century.

https://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/funds/clean-water

Water is fundamental, and yet millions still fight for it. It is the currency of all.

Share it.

Share our planet's wealth, and do not waste it, do not contaminate it.

BYU Football 2017: Worst Losses Since 1955!

Ugh. This season was a tough one.

Ty Detmer, the two year offensive coordinator and one time BYU legendary quarterback, has been fired. And it seems with good reason.

2017 was Kilani Sitake's second year. And it was not good at all. Shut out by LSU, second game, after a so-so start against FCS Portland State. Okay, that was a tough game on the road. 3rd BYU shut out since 1975 or so, got it.  But six more losses after that?

The offense was anemic and inconsistent. We lost way too much.

And badly. And even to poor teams: East Carolina and Massachusetts.

Ugh.

4-9 final record.

BYU fans are not used to this.

We lost to Utah by 6. Ouch. Held them to 19. Had a lead on Utah State 21-7, before crumbling.

It has to get better.

It should.

Sitake! Year 3. It better get better.

 

Indiana Football 2017 Post Mortem

 Indiana Football 2017 Post Mortem

 So Close and So Far

The season has ended; as the first year coach Tom Allen exclaimed it has been "disappointing".

Yup. I saw it more or less, followed it, and I can explain how this was.

It was entertaining and even promising till the last quarter, of the last game against arch rival Purdue, at least. That is part of the sheer disappointment: this IU team had talent and potential to have a really special season, unlike so many others of the past. They came tantalizing close to making this season a really successful one.

This is definitely not a given for Indiana University on the grid iron, year in and year out.

Indiana has the most Division 1, or Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) losses of all time. We Hoosier fans have known our share of disappointing and even heart wrenching seasons. We have been close to victory in the past and not reached it, but that is for another post. This is about this year, 2017.

This year has its own pathos and explanation. We have had an established good offense the last 5 years under dismissed head coach Kevin Wilson, and now the new defensive coach is under the helm.

The very first game attracted a featured ESPN crew and the attenuating excitement, and if won would have been, in the coach's words, the "biggest win in the program's history".

Big hopes, came up short. One game, no problem.

We lost to Ohio State the very first game of the season back in August, but we gave them a fight until the third quarter. And the Buckeyes were considered number one in the land. Not bad.

We beat the non-conference teams that we were supposed to, even one that was unexpected due to a Florida hurricane. (It was swapped in September for a later week in October when the original Florida school cancelled). Virginia was an exceptionally good non-Big Ten win (and a personal revenge game for me that I was there in person for back in 2009).

The Big Ten schedule continued to be brutal, but showed promise: IU took Michigan to overtime for the second time in three years (and lost, like in 2015), and was leading Michigan State 9-3 in the fourth before blowing it, and while not competing well with Penn State, had a crucial good match up with Maryland in College Park. I was there with my wife.

And we lost by three in a crazy game where IU committed too many mistakes. Ouch. In 2015 IU beat them soundly to ensure an end of season two game win streak to go to a bowl. It was their first in eight years.

So now, Indiana had to beat the last three teams in a row, which was doable, but the the Purdue Boilermakers stood in the way after handling Illinois and Rutgers. And like at the end of any season some key players were banged up or lost for the season. This would be an unprecedented fifth Oaken Bucket victory in a row, which had never happened before.

And it did not yesterday. Too many dumb mistakes, similar to the needless loss to the Maryland Terrapins. Two dumb losses, and two from Michigan teams that got away.

And I forgot to mention playing and losing to the Big Ten West's and possibly the overall Big Ten's best team, Wisconsin, which also pounded the Hoosiers and beat them up.

So close! So close to having a good, or even great season.

Alas, the biggest loser, ever, in Division 1. Still. We hold the title.

However: there is reason to believe that the Hoosier football nation is improving. The coach is new and has improved them in defense, and the players are actually used to going to bowls, and competing against the big boys.

There is hope, Hoosier fans. This year was a disappointing finish. No bowl. They were good enough.

But the promise of 2018 awaits.

Go Hoosiers. Rest up and get healthy, get stronger and faster for next year.

The hump is ready to being overcome. We will get over it.

Opponents beware.

 

FIU, Virginia, Ball State, MSU, Rutgers, OSU, Iowa, PSU, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, Purdue.

Guy From Utah Defends a Friend; Not Forgotten Years Later

    Guy From Utah Defends a Friend; Not Forgotten Years Later

     Some people live long lives and leave their legacies. And, there are those that record their lives in books, films, photographs, and other somewhat lasting ways. Many leave their evidence of impact, of lives lived, decisions made. Some should be remembered more, while countless millions are forgotten in the "sands of time." So the expression goes.

     In the latter centuries of human existence people tend to leave more traces of their lives. They leave children, work, programs, impacts in small and large ways. Some things that they do leave a lasting imprint on the earth. And it is recorded.

Other imprints, left behind by some people, are harder to measure. Perhaps those imprints have little meaning, especially when forgotten.

However, there are people who do something, leave something, that in effect may have seemed to have no residual trace, and yet: there are those that remember, and perhaps the recollection of them and their life, their impact though seemingly futile, makes a difference beyond their finite presence in the world. This is why someone like me writes about them.

     This guy, I will call him Stephen*, was from Utah. He was probably born in the early 1970s, like me.

     Where many young men (and women) from Utah grew up in a faith that sends them across the world in different paths of spreading their faith and endeavor for the church organization, which is a large influence there, Stephen did not follow in that way. He went for a more individual approach, seemingly, teaching English in Taiwan, I believe, as one of his sisters had done. Maybe they were there together on that distant island, I cannot recall. Somehow he chose to matriculate to Indiana University. I am not sure why, or how that was decided. Like so many people over the decades and years, he became a student at this large state school, somewhat anonymous to the greater world, perhaps aspiring to greater things.

    Students do not need fame nor fortune, notoriety nor outstanding achievement in order to succeed and become who they should be. I never met Stephen, I only learned about him from a few who knew him, plus a couple of articles by journalists who reported on him. He was heroic; it was tragic how he left the earth, and the fight for his memory is now at play.

    Stephen was friends with a young lady who apparently was either from or living in California when she met and knew another young man, who I also never knew, but I shall call him Wolfgang*. He was German. I cannot recall how long he had lived in the United States, or how well he knew this young lady when he met her in the West.

     Somehow Wolfgang decided to cross the country to see this young woman; perhaps she had come to Indiana in part to escape her past, or at least be away from this person. I don't know the details, others still living undoubtedly do know. Maybe there was a restraining order, maybe some police and officials knew of the threat on the West Coast. Maybe the Herald Telephone, the Bloomington local paper, reported it; maybe a California paper did, too.

   Wolfgang arrived in Bloomington seeking her out; he had brought weapons. This was 1992, the spring had come to the lower Mid West and it was warm. There may have been leaves on the trees. Things seemed fine in this small college town. The country was going through presidential primaries, Jerry Brown had come to campus and the riots of LA, while disturbing, were far away.

    Bad things with guns don't happen in Bloomington, it is a safe place. That is what most people who have lived there will tell you. I lived there many years, never felt threatened with guns. My parents and siblings have lived there more; never had problems.

   Foreigners from far lands do not come to harm those in Monroe County. But one did, and Stephen was there to make his contribution in this incident. Wolfgang made his cross country sojourn, found the young lady at a student dormitory for many foreign students called Eigamenn Hall; Stephen got into a confrontation with Wolfgang, apparently because the German threatened violence or danger. Stephen put the German in a hold, but when a third party came along, not knowing the situation, the third party (male) released Wolfgang from the clutches of Stephen. The confusion of the moment reigned, I imagine.

    From there, Wolfgang was able to grab his hand weapon (not sure what type), shoot Stephen, shoot the girl, and then walked outside the student hall and shot himself.
   A double homicide-suicide. Three lives ended, much too soon. They all were young, some people live beyond the three's combined age.

    I did not know about Stephen at this time, I had never met him as far as I knew, among the 40,000 other Indiana University students in and around campus. But, because of his Church membership, the full time missionaries were called in action to go to the local hospital and potentially give him a life saving blessing. The elders, our full time missionaries, contacted me to drive them there. So I did.

    In this process I learned that a young man from Utah was tragically shot and the doctors were attending to him at the Bloomington Hospital, while his parents were flying from Utah as fast as possible. When the elders entered the hospital they were told that Stephen was being treated by doctors and I do not think that they ever reached him, alive or dead.

    Stephen did not survive. His friend from California did not live. The German shooter was no more.

    Survivors of mostly Stephen, that I understand, gathered in the commons lounge of Eigemenn Hall and gave him tribute. His parents were there, many of my church friends were there. My good friend Ralph knew Stephen, and he was there. Very somber occasion, and a violin solo solemnified it, words were spoken.

   The local paper dug into Stephen's life, of how his religion teacher was so impresses by what Stephen had written about Abraham. He was a well regarded student, a well regarded human being.

   A Utah guy lost in Indiana, and missed by many.

  And now, almost forgotten.

   However, his bravery and life, at least for a few survivors, will live on.

  And so we remember and write, record and reflect. And his life has more meaning--  perhaps all of our lives do have more meaning, because of that. Because he acted, he defended, he was not immediately successful in his attempt at heroism, also known as natural decency, but he is still alive to those who knew him.

   And to those like me, who did not know him, he is alive as well.

   Decency and kindness, bravery and courage, do not die. We remember those things, those people.

La pura poesia de Mexico

La pura poesia de Mexico

It is to be noted that the country of Mexico has many names that are quite poetic upon further investigation. Many of the names of cities and geographic locations are pleasing to the ear, to the artistic sense of beauty.

Reading, pronouncing, and repeating these names is a thing of art. 

Where to start?

Some of the states themselves are aesthetically pleasing, perhaps Coahuila and Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Sonora. Say them or chant them in a song, a perhaps you have a poem.

On the desert border of Coahuila and Chihuahua is Guimbalete.

GWEEM BA LAY TAY.

I don't think many people have been there, or have heard of it, but it could do you right to pronounce it, to repeat it's soothing sound.

Guimbalete.

Not far south of there is Lagunas de Palomas. Say that a few times.

LAH GOO NAS DAY PAH LO MAS.

More later, ojala que mucho mas.