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purplesurveys · 5 years ago

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HI BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR

First things first, did you have a good year? I would say most of it was good. I did most of the stuff I said I was going to do so I’m giving myself pats on the back for that. Things just kinda took a turn for the worse by the end of the year what with an ambiguous end to my most recent semester (I don’t have two of my seven final grades yet because my prof likes seeing her students suffer, I guess) and losing Nacho, so it all balances out.

How old did you turn this year? I turned 21. Which means legality in the US, but I’ve been legal in the Philippines for three years now so it doesn’t warrant much of a celebration lol.

Do you feel your age? I guess. There are days where it’s very tempting to feel inadequate because there are many 21-year-olds in my social circle who have their own business, are grabbing opportunities here and there (they’re in a successful band, are junior radio jocks, hired as emcees, serve as UAAP courtside reporters, to name a few), already make their own money, etc., but I just have to remind myself that everybody is moving at their own pace and that in my case, at least I’m not behind and that I’m moving remarkably fairly for my age.

Did your appearance change in anyway? Nah I BARELY did anything to my look this year. I did not go for a haircut at all in 2019 and now my hair is crazy long. I’m keeping it untrimmed until my grad shoot, so the long hair will stay with me for a while.

Post your favorite selfie. I would but Tumblr doesn’t really work the same way as Twitter where I’d feel more free to share photos of myself haha.

If you traveled, where did you go? My family went to Pangasinan, Bicol, Tagaytay, and Cavite this year. I also took my friends on a day trip to Nasugbu shortly before school started in August as sort of a last hurrah for our summer vacation.

Which fashion trends did you love? Which fashion trends did you hate? I initially liked chunky sneakers until everyone bought their own pair solely so that they’d feel like they’re one of the cool kids – it quickly became uncool after that. I was a fan of mom jeans (still am), high-waisted jeans, culottes, and tops in muted colors and had cute little bows in the chest area. I hated bike shorts and scrunchies, and slowly got tired of off-shoulder tops by the end of the year. I never understood tracksuits and never bought one of my own, and was also never a fan of hype fashion like DBTK shirts.

What was your favorite article of clothing this year? Post a pic if possible? I looooooooved the floral romper and the two-piece ensemble I was both able to snag at Feliz.

What song sums up this year for you? Buwan by juan karlos, the two reasons being that the song exploded in 2019 and because it was Nacho’s favorite and he made a million jokes about it.

What album came out and has been on heavy rotation since then? This question is a little vague so I’ll answer it in two ways. In my case, I definitely played Beyonce’s Homecoming album TOO MUCH last year. But radio-wise, it looked like Ariana Grande and Camila Cabello had stellar years.

What was your favorite movie of the year? I had several favorite movies, but here they are put in order: Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Midsommar, and Toy Story 4.

Did an actor/actress catch your attention for the first time this year? Florence fucking Pugh. Also I just realized how attractive Timothee Chalamet is, although I’ve been aware of him way before 2019 and haven’t watched any of his material.

Favorite new TV show? I watched the first few episodes of Stranger Things but I found it too slow-paced so I let it go easily. Other than that I didn’t really get into any 2019 shows because I’m not a big TV person, but I did recently get into Descendants of the Sun so that’s new for me! Queer Eye will also always have a place in my heart.

Which new ship/fandom has taken over a lot of your time, attention, and tears? I’m a little too old for that now but I did heavily get into the Try Guys. I don’t ship any of them together but I just genuinely love each of them, them as a group, and all the content they put out.

What food did you try for the first time? Ooh there’s a lot. Foie gras, aligue (crab fat) ramen, Bloody Mary, pistachios, a vanilla frappe from Starbucks, Tim Hortons food, ji pai (Taiwanese fried chicken) and pad thai, to name a few. I’m so so so pumped to try out even more new food in 2020.

Did you make any big permanent changes this year? I stopped talking to my brother.

What was one nice thing you did for someone else? Being one of the only two people in my org who can drive, I’ve always offered lifts to my friends. I don’t say anything even if where I’m taking them is entirely off my normal route, which frustrates Gabie, but honestly I just like helping my friends and making their commute easier for them. I also checked up on Nacho a day before he passed. I regret being too civil, but at least I checked up on him. Not a lot of people did that in his last few days.

What was one nice thing you did for yourself? Ok so one thing my org does is hold journalism workshops to schools across the country. The org is a bit small and not all the members are reliable, so what usually happens is that the same group of people attend the workshops and teach and facilitate – me being a part of that same group of people. Given that we have class during weekdays and these workshops happen on weekends, the schedule can be very demanding, especially if these schools request a shit-ton of topics for us to teach them. I sort of looked out for myself more this year by declining to go to a couple of the workshops, so that I can experience actually having a full weekend to myself.

Did you develop a new obsession? I discovered a YouTuber who is insanely good at Mario Kart 8 and I watched a ton of his playthroughs in 2019. Oh, and MUKBANG ASMRs. It’s an insanely unpopular opinion but I love chewing noises, dude.

Did you vote? It was the senatorial elections this year and yes, I did vote. None of my votes got in, of course, because unfortunately the rest of the Filipino electorate don’t know any better. I was part of a real-time fact-checking group that day for extra class credit, and I will never forget the collective groan and moan that came out of that room when the first batch of results came out on the news and we saw the same corrupt, power-hungry, money-hungry, anti-poor politicians top the polls.

Did you move? No. I’ve lived in the same house since 2008.

Did you get a job? I did not, BUT I did get an internship which I was pretty stoked about.

Did you get a pet? I did not. I don’t want anyone else but my dog, who I’ve had also since 2008.

Do you regret not doing anything? Sure. I have never taken Gab’s mom out on a girls’ night kind of date, and I always told myself that I was going to finally do that in 2019 – which I didn’t. I’m so going to make sure we do it this year. I’m also sad that I didn’t get to see Angela more times last year. And that I didn’t do more for Nacho, so now I have to live with the loss of him forever.

Do you regret doing something? Nothing is coming to mind so I guess nothing major. <-- Pretty much, thankfully.

Have you done anything that scared you? Tried vaping, did shisha for the first time, walk alone in Katipunan, be stuck at a restaurant table with Gab’s (very stoic) dad while she went to the washroom, to name a few lol. On a deeper note, I was a bad girlfriend several times over 2019 and it rocked the relationship quite a bit.

Did anyone/thing make you so mad it stayed with you for days? Yeah absolutely. I hated the people who went too far when it came to Nach, especially his ‘friends’ who didn’t hesitate to turn his back on him. And when things finally crashed and burned, I was too fucking pissed at everybody to even say something about it.

Did you lose anyone close to you? Yes.

Did you fall in love? For most of 2019 as with 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, yes.

Did you fall out of love? Nope.

Did you start a new relationship? I did not.

Did you go through a break up? I almost had to, but we sat each other down several times in the year to fix what had to be fixed, and it’s been very smooth sailing since.

Did you have to cut ties to someone? They weren’t people I was close to in any extent, but I’ve blocked several people from a certain elite school because I hate that school.

Who was important to you this year but wasn’t important last year? No one strongly comes to mind since I basically just retained my circle, but I did meet Gab’s closest cousin this year for the first time, and anyone who’s family to her is automatically important to me, so I’d go with him.

Who wasn’t as important to you this year as they were last year? This is going to sound completely awful, but I guess my college blockmates. I was always sort of the ~black sheep in our small batch of 7 while all of them are incredibly close with one another. 2019 was the year that I stopped trying to hang out with them, because I realized that no matter how hard I try, we’re really just on different wavelengths and I can’t keep faking my expressions and mannerisms just so I feel accepted or so that I can survive a day with them.

If you could have a do over on one thing you did, would you take it? Yeah, I definitely wish I cut some of my classes much less.

What was the best moment of the year for you? What was the worst? There were a lot of high moments from 2019 if we’re being honest. I liked taking Gab and her dad out for a ONE Championship pay-per-view back in January, I liked being invited to her dad’s birthday dinner, my road trip to Nasugbu, every day that my dad was here, going to the beach, partying for Halloween with friends, seeing old friends again in our org Christmas party, that one night Gab and I went to BGC just to bar-hop, our fancypants date that was also in BGC, and I’m sure there’s a bunch more that I’ve forgotten to mention. The absolute worst moment came at the very minute I pieced it together and found out *surprise surprise* Nacho was gone forever. I don’t think I was able to speak for two hours. When I did, I ended up crying the rest of the night until I passed out.

Did anything happen that you were sure would change you as a person but it really didn’t? Not-so-serious answer, but I thought I was gonna live my entire life without needing injections to my mouth, but lo and behold I went to the dentist in December and got THREE. I thought I was going to pass out, I thought it was going to hurt, I thought I was going to thrash around my seat in terror... I ended up not even feeling anything. I dunno if it’s because I got a lower dose of whatever, or if my dentist is just better than others, but the whole experience went much better than I expected. This may sound shallow but I have the biggest needle-and-any-sharp-object phobia, so this is a lot coming from me hahaha.

Did anything happen to you that you were sure wouldn’t change you as a person but it did? Watching Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Gab just needed a companion to the cinema that night; I had no idea what the movie was going to be about and even read the entire plot while trailers were showing – in the end, it’s been me who’s been talking about the movie way way more than she.

What are you most proud of accomplishing? Not killing myself. The 2010s was just me internally betting on when I’d finally pull the plug, but I had what it took to get me to 2020, apparently.

What have you learned about yourself this year that you didn’t know in the years prior? That everything you do and say on the internet is permanent, and you’ll forever have to live with the the consequences that come from them.

Did your opinion of anyone change for the better? Andrew. Before 2019, I found him so horrifyingly clingy, so chatty, and he was always trying to be close to everyone (he still does). It drove the introvert side of my ambivert-ness absolutely NUTS. At one point I realized he wasn’t going to change, so I just gave him a chance and turns out, he’s a great friend and an even better co-worker hahaha.

Did your opinion of anyone change for worse? Everybody who claimed to be Nach’s friend but didn’t find it hard to say vile stuff about him.

If you make resolutions, did you complete them this year? I told myself I was going to make a one-photo-a-day private Instagram dump for 2019, but I stopped as early as January 27 LMAOOOOO. I’m doing it again this year and I’m much more determined to keep it going.

If you make resolutions, what will your resolutions be for the coming year? Keep my 2020 Instagram active, be able to travel... and be happier, basically.

If you could go on an adventure during the remaining days of the year, where would you go and what would you do? Who would you go this? A little too late my dude. I’m typing this out in 2020.

What do you wish for others for the coming year? What do you wish for yourself? I just hope everybody on here feels a little bit more warmth and happiness, dude. We all deserve it.

#survey #surveys

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perfectirishgifts · 4 years ago

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Trumpocalypse Now?

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/trumpocalypse-now/

Trumpocalypse Now?

President Trump addressing supporters during an October campaign appearance in Tampa. Will there be … [] another Florida Trump rally on Inauguration Day, kicking off a 2024 run? (Photo: Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

My New Year’s resolutions include this one: no longer greeting the day by seeing what’s making news on The Drudge Report – one of 2020’s more intriguing media stories being why that site went from Trump enabler to Trump disabler.

Today’s a good example of the need for a Drudge cleanse: a screaming headline about Rush Limbaugh suggesting a culture war that may lead to secession coupled with a story about America’s Republican Party “driving itself mad.”

I thought we were done with secession talk after some disgruntled Texans flirted with the idea following Barack Obama’s re-election and some spoiled-sport Californians threatened the same if Trump were to be granted a second term.

But it seems I was wrong.

A Texas state representative plans to introduce a bill that would start the ball rolling on a “Texit” voter referendum. Meanwhile, out west, a pro-independence group recently was granted permission to gather signatures to qualify a “Calexit” state ballot vote (better that than trying to sell the Golden State – in its tarnished state, fetching maybe pennies on the dollar).

File secession talk under “believe it when you see it.” Constitutional law prevents American states from leaving the union. Besides, Democratic-friendly California soon will have one of its own in the Oval Office. Then again, perhaps a Biden White House would like to bid adieu to the Lone Star State and hello to Lone Star Nation. Eliminate Texas’ estimated 41 electoral votes from the next two presidential elections and Republicans will have a hard time regaining the White House.

For now, the more salient matter is the future of the Republican Party. That consists of two questions: how do GOP hopefuls plan to campaign in 2024, and will Donald Trump be included in the mix?

Predicting the future is another item to add to the resolutions list: too many of us who traffic in politics and punditry too easily give in to the temptation to state with certainty what lies ahead when in fact we’re speculating based on trends, history, polling data and personal bias (here’s a good example from last year: a column assuring us that Joe Biden’s not electable, but Elizabeth Warren is).

Of the Republicans at this point seemingly angling for their party’s nomination, here are a few themes: Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley rails against Big Tech, “corporatists” and “war enthusiasts”; Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is no fan of China (he wants to revoke its MFN status); former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (also a former governor of early-primary South Carolina) lashes out at AOC, the House “squad” and a lack of civility in public discourse.

That’s all fine and swell – three would-be candidates coopting different parts of Trump-brand populism. But what if Trump decides to “make America great again” . . . yet again?

If certain news report are to be believed, Trump is mulling an Inaugural Day spectacular of his own – a Florida political rally opposite Biden’s moment in the sun. Furthermore, the story goes, Trump will announce a 2024 re-election bid.

And where does that leave the GOP? Pretty much where it was in 2015, with a slew of Republicans all claiming to be the party’s and heart and soul – each deciding the right blend of embracing and distancing themselves from Trump.

Could Trump win the Republican nomination? Sure, as long as the primary rules don’t change. And maybe that’s something for the Republic National Committee to consider: if it doesn’t want a third Trump November run, alter how the party allots delegates.

Let’s go back and look at how Trump became the GOP nominee in 2016, which was a combination of persistence, moving to the front of the pack early, and benefitting from a delegate-reward system that makes it difficult for those in the back of the pack to catch up to and surpass the leader.

To recap: Trump finished second in 2016’s Iowa caucuses, then surged in front after wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, followed by victories in seven of the 11 “Super Tuesday” states on the first Tuesday in March. Trump’s next surge came two weeks later, on March 15, when he finished first in Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina while losing only one big prize (Ohio). The race was effectively by the end of April, after Trump wins in New York, Pennsylvania. He wouldn’t lose any of the remaining 10 primaries.

A look at the delegate math shows the problem in trying to stop Trump’s momentum. Thanks to Republican “binding” rules, Trump’s delegate haul exceeded his popular support.

In 2016 Trump received 45% of the overall GOP primary vote, while earning 59% of the 2,472 delegates. By contrast, runner-up Ted Cruz received 25% of the overall primary vote and 22% of all delegates. The two finishers after that had more disproportionate numbers – Marco Rubio received 11% of the popular vote and 7% of delegates; John Kasich received almost 14% of the popular vote and just 6.5% of delegates.

While Trump didn’t swamp his rivals in individual contests, rarely receiving an outright majority of states’ popular votes, he kept adding his delegate haul. Trump received 44% of the vote in Florida’s primary, but ended up with all 99 delegates; in Illinois, he received 39% of the vote and 54 of 69 delegates; in Arizona, Trump received 46% of the vote and all 58 delegates; in New York and Pennsylvania, 59% and 57% of the two states’ popular vote translated to 148 of 166 delegates; in California’s anti-climactic primary (the vote coming a week after he’d clinched the nomination), Trump’s 75% performance meant all 172 delegates.

There’s an easy fix here, if the goal is to somehow derail the Trump Train in 2024: make the delegation allocation more reflective of the actual popular vote, and expand the pool of unpledged delegates (only 5% of the delegate pool in 2016).

Of course, such a “reform” comes at a price: the risk of alienating Trump supporters who’d see the change as a shot across the MAGA bow. Besides, adding more unpledged “superdelegates” would play into Trump victim messaging as it would reek of elitism and stacking the decking again the red-hat crowd.

And that’s the Republican conundrum for now – not so much a cause for convulsions as it is consternation. Unlike previous ousted incumbents, Trump is not a spent political force (this poll shows Trump as the frontrunner in a hypothetical 2024 primary field).

Past U.S. presidents, with the exception of Grover Cleveland, took their rejection in stride – exiting the political stage and staying in exile. There was no Hoover attempt at a comeback in 1936; no one sported “The Grin Will Win” buttons in 1984; George H.W. Bush, gracious man that he was, was done with partisan politics after his loss in 1992.

And therein lies the difference: Trump isn’t gracious, nor was he drubbed as were Hoover and Carter (neither incumbent clearing 41% of the popular vote; each carrying only six states).

A Trump second act? It sounds feasible.

Will anyone try to get in his way?

Follow me on Twitter: @billwhalenCA

From Policy in Perfectirishgifts

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