Mariah Carey’s New Year’s Eve Performance

Mariah Carey is in the news today and I can see there is some curiosity about it from a number of my Facebook and Twitter friends.

http://www.justjared.com/2016/12/31/twitter-reacts-after-mariah-careys-new-years-eve-2017-performance-goes-horribly-wrong/

 

Here is what I think happened.

 

First, unless your are a live performer, you probably don’t know what the performers hear vs what the audience and especially the TV audience hears is a very different mix.

 

Mariah said on stage, there was no sound check and she couldn’t hear.

 

That meant she couldn’t sing along or even lip sync. Given the mix that played, she was supposed to sing live. There were only backing vocals to the track (especially for her hypersonic screeches, which I guess means she can’t hit those notes anymore)

 

She could tell the audience might be able to hear better (remember, they get a different mix), so that is why she offered for them to sing along instead. Not because she didn’t want to sing, was unprofessional, drunk, etc.

 

Her apparent bad attitude was because she was so frustrated and knew it was going badly and there was no escaping it. She has been doing this for about 30 years. She knew how this would be perceived.

 

She said, “Well, Happy New Year! We can’t hear!” Because she couldn’t hear. Not because she is an asshole.

 

She said, :We didn’t have a sound check for this song” so everyone could understand what was going on. Not because she is an asshole.

I think the dancers could continue dancing, because I think they basically just count off a routine they have memorized once the song starts. 1,2,3,4, turn, 5, 6, 7,8,9 wave your arms, 1,2,3,4 twerk, etc.  For this, you only need to hear the beat.

How to Improve the Sport of Triathlon

I love the TRS Radio Triathlon podcast. Very Funny and great interviews. Ben Hobbs is an amazing host.

On episode 87, he had a good interview with Bob Babbit and one particular quote from Bob really resonated with me.

I love to train, but I don’t really like the way the races are timed. I understand race directors need to deal with traffic and other issues for the roads they are on, but a 8am for a Sprint Triathlon? Really? You got to be kidding me.

If I am traveling to the race, you need to get going super early. I might need a hotel room. The sport is expensive enough, race fees are really pricey and adding a hotel to the cost? No fun. Not worth it for a Sprint or Olympic distance race.

Anyway, here is the quote from about the 33:00 minute mark. Start around 30:00 minute mark for full context. http://www.trstriathlon.com/radio/ 

“If I go to a Spartan race and I am a Millennial, and if I want to party until 2 in the morning, I can sign up for a 11am start. In triathlon, I have to get up at 4. I gotta be out there at 5 for a race that starts at 7 when I don’t start until 9. That’s a problem.”

Afternoon Project – Setting up a Wireless Repeater Bridge

After nearly 6 years of shitty WiFi in my house,  I finally decided to do something about it today. I had 2 horrible WiFi dead spots in my house.  One was in a room  where  my laptop and wireless printer are and the other is in our living room where we try to watch Netflix and use the  XBox. I can’t believe I tolerated this for so long.

Until today, I was dealing with a horrible Rogers Wireless Modem and the Cisco Valet (M20). The M20 is an  attractive device for putting in your living room, but it didn’t have very good performance.

As part of this project, I didn’t just get a new router, I moved the Rogers Modem into the other living and installed the new D-Link router there.

My problem now, is I still have a Smart TV in the primary living room that needs a network connection. Unfortunately, the Cisco M20 Valet doesn’t support a bridge repeater mode with a wireless connection on the WAN side of the network.

Fortunately, I discovered that some guy at http://dd-wrt.com/ has written his own  firmware for a ton of different consumer grade routers and this feature is enabled.

Amazing.

I was able to “upgrade” the Cisco firmware with this new  DD-WRT firmware and now I have a wireless repeater bridge for my Smart TV and Blu-Ray player in my primary living room. We watched Luke Cage on it tonight and worked great!

If you are  looking to give new life to an older router, give DD-WRT a try.

http://dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge 

 

My Gut Punch after the Election

After the election, with Trump winning, it felt like a gut punch to me. Which almost gave me an enlightened epiphany for Trump voters.  How? Read below.

First, I didn’t think my “gut punch” feeling was because “my side lost”. Given everyone that ran this cycle, I am pretty sure I would have voted for Kaisich over Hillary. Also, over the last 20+ years, I think I voted against Bill C both times, Voted for W in 2000, Voted for Kerry in 2004, Voted for McCain in 2008 and Voted for Obama in 2012. So, I don’t think I’m a party idealist.

Because of how I felt, I had a very brief moment of empathy and an feeling of epiphany, towards how many Conservatives felt, when Obama won. Maybe this is why they were so oppositional? They felt like I am feeling now.

Then it quickly went away when it occured to me, that I feel quite certain that most of the unprecedented Obama backlash was because he was BLACK. Not because he wanted to extend healthcare benefits to others. Or take away everyone’s guns, or increase the social safety net. Republicans have said that about Dems for the last few decades. So, that isn’t new.

Then, I remembered, that the guy who won in 2016 was the leader of the racist birther movement.

Then, I remembered, the guy who won, ran a scorched earth campaingn against both parties.

Then, I remembered, they guy who won, ran a racist, xenophobic and misogynistic (RXM) campaign.

So, I don’t think the reasons why I felt the way I did are valid to equate to how many Conservates many felt in 2008. If I did, then its like feeling sorry for slave owners who lost the civil war. I think that is a fair analogy.

Many in America had a “gut punch” feeling and reaction to Obama in 2008 simply because he was black. My epiphany turned from a feeling of empathy to utter disgust.

I am currently ashamed of my country. Ashamed that “My Team”, “Team America” is ignorant, racist and so full of unreasonable hate. But, I am still sorting that out.

When 41% of Republicans still think Obama wasn’t born in America (as of Aug 2016) and 43% want to believe he is a muslim and they elect the unqualified and ignorant leader of the birther movement, something else is going on.

It wasn’t just the people on the left that thought Trump was running a racists campaign. The professional racists and anti-semites, such as the KKK did too!

Disclaimer: I don’t think every person who voted for Trump is RXM, but certainly enough were to give him the election, even with his lack of qualifications,  numerous scandals and horrible temperment.

Arrival

I love thoughtful Science Fiction. This weekend, I saw Arrival and loved it.

It currently has a Rotten Tomatoes 93% freshness rating.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arrival_2016

If you are interested in seeing this movie, I highly recommend you read this article first.

It will help you get a deeper understanding of some concepts behind the main movie subplot.

 

My Post Election Exit Poll Analysis

My favorite part after an election is looking at exit polls. There are always so many surprises in them. Here is my amateur analysis.

A lot of pundits talked about Trump voters supporting him because they were down on their luck, vicitims of a poor economy, victims of globalism. These were the people that the elites and “the establishment” were ignoring.

But, according to this exit poll, Trump voters are generally wealthier than Clinton voters.

 
From this poll question, people that voted for Trump liked him much less than they disliked Hillary.

How much of an impact did James Comey’s FBI announcement the previous weekend have on the election?

Looking at “When did you decide” results, perhaps a significant amount. Perhaps enough to effect many voter’s opinions.

14% decided in the last week and most of them went to Trump.

About 10% of voters didn’t think Trump was qualified to be President. But, they hated Hillary so much, they voted for him anyway.

 

A big story this election was that Trump was not going to get as many Republicans to vote for him as Hillary was going to get Democrats to vote for her.

This turned out to be false. Republicans came home!
Hillary was so disliked, she couldn’t get as many of her own party to vote for her. More Democrats voted for Trump than Republicans voted for Hillary, by percentage. Trump also won the self identified independents.

Democrats voting for Trump wasn’t even a story in the media. But, high profile Republicans voting or standing on the sidelines certainly was.

This one is a real head scratcher!!

From exit poll data, voters have a more negative opinion of the Republican party than the democratic party. 49% for D, 55% for R.

Of the people that don’t like the Republican party, 20% STILL voted for Trump.

The voters also gave control of the house, senate, president and future SCOTUS appointments to the Republicans, even though more people view them unfavorably to the Democrats.

I am really disappointed that so many Democrats weren’t bothered by Hillary’s email server issue. She should never have been nominated because of this. I am not saying this was more disqualifying than anything Trump did or said. Just, I think people should have been bothered more and earlier in the nomination process.

I put this under tribalism and blind party ID.

Trump’s campaign of fear really worked. His voters were very concerned with Immigration and Terrorism. Adding these two together and they are almost as important as the Economy is to these voters.

 

 

To go along my shock of the Dem’s view of Hillary’s email server, I can’t believe so many are “Enthusiastic” with the Federal Government.

The Federal government has been a shit show for the last 6 years. After the Dems lost congress, nothing was done at all.

How can they be enthusiastic or satisfied with this?

You are being ridiculous Dem voters.

Whoa… This exit poll is very interesting. File this under, “Yes, America hates Hillary THAT much.”

Nearly twice as many Trump voters felt Hillary had the temperment to be Prez vs Trump voters who didn’t think Trump had the temperment to be Prez.

It seems very obvious to me the Democrats nomicated the wrong candidate. They should have won looking at these exit poll results.

Waterloo Fall 5k Classic

Last Sunday, I ran the Waterloo Fall 5k Classic. I entered this race at the last minute under the  peer pressure from my friend. (Garmin Data)

So glad I did! I think this race was nearly as painful as my half marathon the week before.

I have only run two 5k races since 2005. I stopped racing this distance because I’m not very fast and I didn’t really see the  point in spending $30 – $50 to run 5k /3.1m when I could do it for free any day of the week.

Also, I really started to enjoy running long vs running fast.

But, this race, I pushed it like I was only 35 again. I was only 13 seconds shy of my best 5k time from 2005. I guess I shouldn’t have run both Friday and Saturday before the Sunday race.

This has given me a motivation to actually train for this distance and get a new PB next year. (I’ll count this race as a 40-50 PB)  But, I’ll have to put in some speed work, which I never do. Hopefully, this feeling will pass by Christmas 🙂

Start Line

Ready, Set, Go!

I can’t stand up. Can You?