Modifying the College

With the mostly unexpected result of Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election, (I am still in disbelief writing those words) the way the US determines the president is under scrutiny since assigning electors from each state in most cases under a winner take all basis allowed Trump to defeat Clinton even though he has fewer total votes in spite of what a couple of conservative outlets are claiming. Trump decided to focus his campaign on the states that were close avoiding those with large Democratic populations.

The most obvious solution would be a popular vote. However, that could create chaos in a close election of over 120 million votes which could require that massive a recount. No doubt that is one of the reasons the US is reluctant to go to that method using one that is quicker to determine the winner even if one electoral vote from Alaska for Trump represents 43,000 votes for him and one from Illinois for Clinton represents 144,000 who voted for her.

Since electors from each state are determined by the breakdown of the 535 in Congress plus 3 for DC, I thought why not do what Maine and Nebraska do and split 435 of the votes by congressional district and the other 100 at 2 per state?

I thought of another alternative. I went by the Wikipedia state by state result of the election and multiplied the percentage of voted of those who did not have the most votes in the state by the total electoral votes in the state, rounded that down, then assigned the rest of the votes to those who won the state.

Since Clinton had 34.55% in Alabama which has 9 ev, she would get 3 and Trump 6.

Since Trump had 32.8% in California which has 55 ev, he would get 18.
Since Johnson had 3.24% in California, he would get 1.
Clinton would get the other 36.

Using that way the results would be:

McMullin: 1 (Utah)
Johnson: 2 (CA and TX)
Clinton: 266
Trump: 269

It would go to the house or be decided by third party electors. *sigh*

Pandemic Legacy 12

After we recovered from the shock of hearing that Quarantine Expert Klinger worked with El Guapo, we had to find patient zero in Mexico City as he would be the final piece to getting a vaccine.

To make things easier, Operations Expert Rizzo was assigned to establish a military base there after setting up a road block out of Miami preventing faded people from infecting the rest of North America. We also had a scary moment in Chicago as the Scientist and Researcher were in New York City while the base was being set up. Fortunately, Chicago was quarantined before it spread.

While spending our efforts in the search, there were outbreaks elsewhere. Eventually the team were able to control the damage, cure the new strains, and by replacing the Researcher with Medic Hunnicutt, treat those who were still ill. However, San Francisco had an outbreak and for the first time in almost a half a year, the faded figures spread to more cities infecting Tokyo and Manila.

The world was near panic due to outbreaks as we destroyed the San Francisco and Bogota military bases and after getting more info the Medic was just about to find patient zero when the scientist decided to treat those in Seoul first which prevented the outbreak which would have ended things at that time.

We did add more vaccine treatment equipment after.

Least of evils.

I HATE that phrase when applying to voting almost as much as third party votes don't count.

Tomorrow, I will head to the polling place and I am obliged to use that idea when I grab the marker. I am not a fan of HRC. I don't trust her, I am opposed to those whose votes were the margin of victory over Bernie Sanders in the primary in which I don't trust how it went, and I believe that some of what many have said about her is true.

I know there are more than two running and like every election I have voted (since 1984) I want to vote for one of them. I then examined what the others have to offer but found them having extreme views of the two main parties and not worth my vote.

But what about the white GOP man? In the 20th century, I would have easily voted for him over a woman no matter what but this is 2016. I wanted Trump to give me a reason to vote for him. He not only didn't but make me realize I have no choice but HRC.

The GOP has this century turned toward the religious angle for support. By doing that, they have turned me away. I am even forced to vote for the lesser candidate for Senate since her party needs to have a majority if for nothing else but to fill a vacancy in the SCOTUS that the current majority GOP refuses to acknowledge and to also keep dated ideals that were created centuries ago from influencing law.

Pandemic Legacy part 11

September was a difficult month for us at UnIT. We were again on top of our game so the idea of locating a rogue soldier in Bogota or San Francisco did not seem difficult since we found the virologist and immunologist without issue and were 1/3 the way of developing a vaccine for the faded people issue in Africa and 2/3 of the Americas. We replaced our researcher with our operations expert since this was a military issue and with the Cairo base established, we now had a fully functional base in all parts of the world.

We got info on the solider but not enough to find him. However, that search meant the rest of the world was neglected and by the time we were able to focus on that, it was too late. Our quarantine expert requested for a paramilitary escort for future operations and was approved.

Later in the month, we got good intel and with new government aid the quarantine expert almost located the soldier before leaving. Shortly after, our medic, who due to being a veteran was added to the team for the operations expert, found the soldier who had some unexpected information.

We knew that El Guapo developed the disease in Mexico City but we had no idea members of UNIT were involved as well. It turned out there is a group called Zodiac which El Guapo is a member along with our quarantine expert who disappeared once he realized who we found. We also realized that the full military operation which we initially opposed then assisted to create needs to be shut down by destroying the permanent UNIT bases we created.

We got a report a day later that a Miss Noble found in her garbage the ID badge of our quarantine expert and was actually travelling around Europe gathering information about the anti vax issue and treating the ill. Since we were dealing with the Martian water issue in the Far East as well the fall of Sydney and Khartorum in spite of getting government quarantine assistance, we did not have resources to go after Miss Noble until everything in North and South America tipped causing the world to go to shut down mode again.

Since we did eradicate this strain of the Silurian illness, we developed a faster method to cure it and we also requested and received C4 as well as riot gear to handle military bases and faded cities. We were told that with the new development, we will get more aid.

Rooting for other

When asked about the World Series, I don't want either the Cleveland Indians or the Chicago Cubs along with their fans to celebrate a title so I was thinking about how I could not see that happen.

Terrorist attack

Positive: It could if completely successful destroy the Chicago minor league ballpark as well as kill ball players from both teams preventing future championships for the near future.

Negative: It would potentially prevent other sports from being played as well as cause many people to decide that Donald Trump would be the best president to make those responsible pay for their actions.

Pandemic/ civil unrest

Positive: This would only delay other sports for a short while and has actually prevented a Stanley Cup final from being played.

Negative: The Cubs are a youthful and talented team which like the Red Sox last decade could compete for titles for 5 more years so this scenario at best could only delay a Cubs title.

Nuclear war/asteroid strike

Positive: Would stop the World Series

Negative: Would stop all sports

Alien invasion:

Positive: As one of the few who believe Jesus, Mohammad, and other deities are alien beings, I could be rewarded for my faith by being made commander of a portion of the conquered planet especially if I helped them.

Negative: A species that conquers interstellar travel would not need my help nor put me in charge of anything and I would most likely be killed if not enslaved.

Infrastructure failure

Positive: An airplane crash, hotel fire, or stadium collapse would definitely stop the World Series from being played and harm the team so it would be years before they would be competitive again without disrupting other sports. This has happened to a college team and multiple professional athletes but never to a major professional team in North America. There always has to be a first.

In the Adventures of Doctor Floyd fanfic I wrote where Dr. Steve was offered a lot of money to stop Steve Bartman from interfering with a foul ball in 2003, Dr. Grant mentioned that the upper deck collapsed during a World Series game.

Negative: There would be a moment of silence for a while in other sports which would require me to pause the tv and fast forward past similar to what I do for all live showings of the national anthem.

Killing myself

Positive: My dying thought would be knowing I never saw the Cubs or Indians win a championship.

Negative: I would be dead, duh.

No doubt there are some who while reading this would suggest I choose the last option.

There's always next year

My current plan for weight loss pointed toward the 2017 World Amateur disc golf championship next summer in the Quad Cities area (IL/IA). I qualified to play in 2015 and 2016 in the 50+ age division (based on year of birth) but could not go due to vacation and recovery from an injury. I also realized that at my weight, the four days of play would be difficult for me.

Yesterday, I saw a post about the qualifying standards changing and discovered that they were increased in my division by a factor of 10 from 2015 in order to reduce the number of available players no doubt because of the large number that wanted to play this year but couldn't because they were unable to reserve their spot as it filled minutes after it was opened.

Looking at the current listing, I realized that just over 100 players are currently qualified while over 500 would be at the level I was expecting it to be raised. It makes sense for them to do it since an event like that should be for those worthy.

So what would I have to do to be able to play? There are two choices, get better or get older. In 2025 when I turn 60, the requirement would be significantly lower but who knows how my game would change as my arthritic body ages let alone it is valid to question would I be able to play at a tournament level at all in 9 years?

So getting better would be my only option. 2016 did mark new personal bests in a two round tournament and a single tournament round so I am getting better but I know it is not enough. In Aug, I stated the first 50 things I need to do to get better are all to lose one pound but I need more than just that.

What I need requires a full commitment. That first means getting my body to the point where I can physically play an entire Mar-Oct season. It also means playing (and paying to play) the events I did in the first half of 2015 and second half of 2016 as well as others I skipped due to "life". It also would require playing in A level two day events where I would need to get a hotel near Bowling Green, KY in May and Peoria, IL in Aug as opposed to the hotel rooms I would get in Bloomington, MN next March and one in the Chicago area sometime during summer 2017.

I did invest in a fitness center membership so I believe my choice has been made.

When I told people I had to cancel in 2015, I was told there is always next year which is the same thing that I heard in 2000 when working after a golf tournament led to me losing. During the time for the 2001 golf tournament, I had my right knee scoped and was not the same after. Next year is NOT guaranteed. Now is what needed to happen when I decided to not play in 2015 and I failed again in spite of my desire to not let it happen.

W W W

When I go on my walks, I often go where and when I shouldn't not wanting to wait for lights or crossing streets at the crosswalk and even crossing train tracks to get to where I want to go.

One recent evening during halftime of a game, I paused the tv and left to get about 30 minutes of steps. That time, I left via the north exit of my building, walked around it and headed east near the train tracks passing the rail station. There was a short block to walk before it ended so I walked on the street as it was on a direct path from the parking lot I was in.

As I am walking down the street a slow moving vehicle pulled up, looked at me, then went on its way. I realized it was local police and had one thought. Ferguson.

Since I appeared as a non threatening, white man, no doubt the police officer did not bother me. I have to wonder what would have happened had I was not walking while white.

I then realized how other drivers and pedestrians look at me while I am walking and think how would have things been had I was not white and what would happen to me since all I carry on walks with my pedometer is my keys and cel phone.

Of course if they all knew what things have ran through my mind while on my walks no doubt most who have encountered me would have reacted much differently.