Non-vacation update (catching up on life)
About two weeks ago, Angie and I went to Color Me Mine. It's a store which sells unpainted ceramics, which you paint in store. So we selected a large bowl and the two of us painted it for about 2 or 3 hours. They supply paint and after you're done, they fire it for you. After about 10 days, you get a call and can pick up your finished product. We decided to do this as our Valentines activity, but on the Saturday beforehand since less crowded is better.
Angie had the idea to do a picture of us and our kids on each side. So we (I did one side; Angie did three) sketched an outline in pencil then painted it in. Overall, I thought it was a really nice experience since the two of us work well together and it was pretty fun to paint something. Plus we have something to show for it. Although, in general, thinking of items that we can paint and use is a hard part of this process.
Bowl Pictures
Me and Angie (https://photos.app.goo.gl/R0k1kMWaN0wnUM592)
Jabba, hiding in the grass, ready to strike (https://photos.app.goo.gl/W7XUz5Y7QrQH8O1B2)
Morgan, asleep, under tree (https://photos.app.goo.gl/1TUnyAko98SgoTNJ3)
And Alfie, trying to get food by shaking (https://photos.app.goo.gl/uDyR1xTLl9lzu3cK2)
Can you guess which side was sketched by me versus which were sketched (superiorly) by Angie?
We finished two plus weeks of the Olympics and it was pretty enjoyable. But with that said, it's good that it's over since we can do other stuff in our lives now. We basically DVRed NBC and NBCSN for interesting events and we'd fast forward through the programs, which was great to get around commercials, human interest stories, rebroadcasts, and events that we were less interested in. I think I'm normally not too into the Winter games, but this year, I did enjoy short track speed skating (especially the relays), slope style snowboarding (although didn't see many snowboard cross races), and figure skating (the men are the most athletic, pairs are the craziest, and ladies had a super compelling rivalry).
So now that the Olympics are over, we'll try to finish what is on our DVR (mainly X-Files, ugh) and then I'll cancel our cable and we'll try Youtube TV. I'm pretty interested in seeing how it'll work. And it'll give us something to use our Xbox One with, until the next Tomb Raider (?) comes out.
political, so I'm guessing it'll get ranty/long
So there was another school shooting a few days (weeks?) ago. Does that really surprise anyone at this point? I'm not sure if it's the media coverage or the student campaign, but I just find it kind of annoying. Oh, obviously Donald Trump is an idiot, so that's definitely a source of annoyance. First of all, why would you want to arm teachers. If there was a shooting at Wal*Mart, or the Empire State Building, or basically any other location, wouldn't you just increase security? Would anyone think it's a good idea to arm cashiers or tour guides? And wouldn't you rather have a trained police officer or even an armed and trained security personnel over a random teacher with a gun (even if they had training)? So yeah, I don't understand how the most logical solution isn't even mentioned. Is it just an issue with money (since police are overpaid AND schools are poorly run)? I seriously don't understand.
But at least Trump said he wanted to ban bump stocks. If he actually does it, it seems like such a no brainer. A is illegal. B is legal. C makes B effectively A. Why would C be legal? But with Trump, nothing he says can be believed so it wouldn't surprised me at all if he already moved away from that.
But time to rail against the media. How many times do I have to see an "emotional parent"? Sure, I get that it sucks, but how does that help anything? Some guy was like "9/11 happened once and we fixed it" like seriously? I get that you're emotional and it's fine to be wrong, but what makes that worth showing on the evening news? Also, someone crying about how they'll never see their friend again doesn't provide any new information or a new point. I don't think anyone thinks it's not sad to have people killed in a random shooting. I really wonder if the student/parents provide points to the Senators/Congressmen since according to the news, it's just anger/crying. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't?
Also, I keep hearing about how Australia passed comprehensive gun control laws and how they never had a mass shooting since. (This is based on Wikipedia, so if the actual facts are wrong, let me know.) Here is a list of massacres in Australia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Australia). The shooting that caused the super awesome legislation was the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. Six years later there was a mass shooting which somehow people ignore: Monash University shooting which 2 people were killed and 5 were injured. From my understanding a "mass shooting" means 4 or more people are shot in a somewhat random selection. So you can't shoot 5 people who are of a rival gang, but you can shoot 1 rival gang member if you walk down the street and shoot 3 other random people as you walk. It appears that the shooter in the Monash University shooting shot two targets than just walked and fired so I don't understand why that's not a mass shooting. And it seems like Australia is very proud that they had no mass shootings after their law. And 6 years is enough time to implement the law; it's not like this shooting was the month after and it couldn't have an effect yet. So I don't get it.
Also, it's been about 20 years since the Port Arthur massacre and I don't know if it's really that effective (let alone "completely fixing the problem" as advertised). 79 people have been killed (43 injured) in massacres (their term for mass killing?). In the previous 20 years, there were 82 people killed (51 injuries). So I'd say the difference is well within the normal spread statistically. I'm actually surprised that not having assault rifles doesn't make people less effective at killing random people. And it seems like arson attacks have become popular in Australia, who knew?
I'd say I'm moderate. I'm fine with individuals not having full auto guns. I'm for more regulations and checks (we're already regulated as hell in so many ways so why wouldn't deadly items be included). But I'm for recreational use of guns. Personally, I think allowing them (assuming regulation and controls/penalties) is nice. I have lots of fun shooting random stuff and I'm not even a hunter. I also think the idea that banning guns will solve our problems is wrong. Yes, the US is tops at gun deaths. But I'd guess that the US is tops in many types of murders so I think we just have a violent and isolated society. Do guns make it worse? Who knows. Does it make it easier? I'd have thought so, but the Australia data was surprising. I'll probably look at other countries with strict laws, but I imagine their data sets are just much smaller than ours. So whatever.
Angie had the idea to do a picture of us and our kids on each side. So we (I did one side; Angie did three) sketched an outline in pencil then painted it in. Overall, I thought it was a really nice experience since the two of us work well together and it was pretty fun to paint something. Plus we have something to show for it. Although, in general, thinking of items that we can paint and use is a hard part of this process.
Bowl Pictures
Me and Angie (https://photos.app.goo.gl/R0k1kMWaN0wnUM592)
Jabba, hiding in the grass, ready to strike (https://photos.app.goo.gl/W7XUz5Y7QrQH8O1B2)
Morgan, asleep, under tree (https://photos.app.goo.gl/1TUnyAko98SgoTNJ3)
And Alfie, trying to get food by shaking (https://photos.app.goo.gl/uDyR1xTLl9lzu3cK2)
Can you guess which side was sketched by me versus which were sketched (superiorly) by Angie?
We finished two plus weeks of the Olympics and it was pretty enjoyable. But with that said, it's good that it's over since we can do other stuff in our lives now. We basically DVRed NBC and NBCSN for interesting events and we'd fast forward through the programs, which was great to get around commercials, human interest stories, rebroadcasts, and events that we were less interested in. I think I'm normally not too into the Winter games, but this year, I did enjoy short track speed skating (especially the relays), slope style snowboarding (although didn't see many snowboard cross races), and figure skating (the men are the most athletic, pairs are the craziest, and ladies had a super compelling rivalry).
So now that the Olympics are over, we'll try to finish what is on our DVR (mainly X-Files, ugh) and then I'll cancel our cable and we'll try Youtube TV. I'm pretty interested in seeing how it'll work. And it'll give us something to use our Xbox One with, until the next Tomb Raider (?) comes out.
political, so I'm guessing it'll get ranty/long
So there was another school shooting a few days (weeks?) ago. Does that really surprise anyone at this point? I'm not sure if it's the media coverage or the student campaign, but I just find it kind of annoying. Oh, obviously Donald Trump is an idiot, so that's definitely a source of annoyance. First of all, why would you want to arm teachers. If there was a shooting at Wal*Mart, or the Empire State Building, or basically any other location, wouldn't you just increase security? Would anyone think it's a good idea to arm cashiers or tour guides? And wouldn't you rather have a trained police officer or even an armed and trained security personnel over a random teacher with a gun (even if they had training)? So yeah, I don't understand how the most logical solution isn't even mentioned. Is it just an issue with money (since police are overpaid AND schools are poorly run)? I seriously don't understand.
But at least Trump said he wanted to ban bump stocks. If he actually does it, it seems like such a no brainer. A is illegal. B is legal. C makes B effectively A. Why would C be legal? But with Trump, nothing he says can be believed so it wouldn't surprised me at all if he already moved away from that.
But time to rail against the media. How many times do I have to see an "emotional parent"? Sure, I get that it sucks, but how does that help anything? Some guy was like "9/11 happened once and we fixed it" like seriously? I get that you're emotional and it's fine to be wrong, but what makes that worth showing on the evening news? Also, someone crying about how they'll never see their friend again doesn't provide any new information or a new point. I don't think anyone thinks it's not sad to have people killed in a random shooting. I really wonder if the student/parents provide points to the Senators/Congressmen since according to the news, it's just anger/crying. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't?
Also, I keep hearing about how Australia passed comprehensive gun control laws and how they never had a mass shooting since. (This is based on Wikipedia, so if the actual facts are wrong, let me know.) Here is a list of massacres in Australia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Australia). The shooting that caused the super awesome legislation was the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. Six years later there was a mass shooting which somehow people ignore: Monash University shooting which 2 people were killed and 5 were injured. From my understanding a "mass shooting" means 4 or more people are shot in a somewhat random selection. So you can't shoot 5 people who are of a rival gang, but you can shoot 1 rival gang member if you walk down the street and shoot 3 other random people as you walk. It appears that the shooter in the Monash University shooting shot two targets than just walked and fired so I don't understand why that's not a mass shooting. And it seems like Australia is very proud that they had no mass shootings after their law. And 6 years is enough time to implement the law; it's not like this shooting was the month after and it couldn't have an effect yet. So I don't get it.
Also, it's been about 20 years since the Port Arthur massacre and I don't know if it's really that effective (let alone "completely fixing the problem" as advertised). 79 people have been killed (43 injured) in massacres (their term for mass killing?). In the previous 20 years, there were 82 people killed (51 injuries). So I'd say the difference is well within the normal spread statistically. I'm actually surprised that not having assault rifles doesn't make people less effective at killing random people. And it seems like arson attacks have become popular in Australia, who knew?
I'd say I'm moderate. I'm fine with individuals not having full auto guns. I'm for more regulations and checks (we're already regulated as hell in so many ways so why wouldn't deadly items be included). But I'm for recreational use of guns. Personally, I think allowing them (assuming regulation and controls/penalties) is nice. I have lots of fun shooting random stuff and I'm not even a hunter. I also think the idea that banning guns will solve our problems is wrong. Yes, the US is tops at gun deaths. But I'd guess that the US is tops in many types of murders so I think we just have a violent and isolated society. Do guns make it worse? Who knows. Does it make it easier? I'd have thought so, but the Australia data was surprising. I'll probably look at other countries with strict laws, but I imagine their data sets are just much smaller than ours. So whatever.