Shaving the "Traditional" way, but with a twist.

I'm having another one of my sleepless nights so best thing to do is blog about what's on my mind.

It's early on Sunday May 24th now.

In a previous ous blog, I talked about how I was making more environmentally conscious decisions about my everyday life, the latest change is coming in the form of my shaving routine. 

I have been using Dollar Shave Club for years. My facial hair is so light that i didn't really change the blades often and i built up a backlog. I still have 7 (one 5-pack and another one in another pack plus the one I was currently using) but I decided not to wait. I have made the change to a double sided safety razor. 

After first finding a company called Leafshave and finding their blades too complicated (you had to snap them in half and load 2 or 3 into the razor) I found Rockwell which was a more traditional safety razor. They had several models but the one I liked, the R1 also called "The Rookie", wasn't available on the Rockwell website. I found it on Amazon, however with 5 blades. The next step was "shaving the traditional way". 

The shave kits on Rockwell's website all came with their more sophisticated razors (you could change the settings to a "more aggressive" shave which sounded scary. The R1 is the lowest setting (hince being called "The Rookie") and with my light facial hair it's probably all I need. Because I am a convert to Dr. Squatch soap,  I thought I would try their shave kit.

Traditional shaving involves a brush and shave soap. You soak the brush in warm water (I did that while I was in the shower), shake off the water, circle the brush in the shave soap and then brush the soap on your face.

Here's where it didn't work for me. My light facial hair meant the soap dissipated quickly. It was practically gone by the time i went to shave. The shaving itself went very well...I half expected to cut myself up the first few tries but not even a nick. When i shave this morning I will use the rest of my traditional shaving cream and see how that goes. I ordered some shaving cream from Rockwell and I also had previously ordered a "blade safe" to store the used blades before recycling and a 20 pack of blades. 

I will update this blog later with the results. Until then....

So after 4:00 I gave up and decided to get up. About 4:30 I had a bowl of chili (really starting the day off right aren't I?)

I then showered and shaved using traditional shaving cream and it worked just fine in fact a lot better than the disappearing shave soap. I still need to work on shaving under my chin both on the sides and directly underneath but I learned online it takes practice to get the hang a safety razor. No cuts at all, I think I was right to start with the R1 even if I had to get it on Amazon and not through Rockwell. I think I'm going to like this new routine. 

Open primary means another chance to vote.

I'm not sure if "Blogger" will allow me to post a 4th blog in a month, so this may be delayed until June. 

South Carolina is an open primary state. That means you don't register as a voter for a particular party, you can vote in any primary you wish, as long as you only vote in one. You can't, for example,  vote in a Republican primary and then a Democratic runoff election, but voting in the Democratic presidential primary does not effect ones ability to vote in the Republican primary for state and local offices. I have no contested primaries for Democrats in my precinct,  so I'm considering voting in the Republican primary. 

There are 4 races and 2 ballot questions. 

U.S. Senate 

Lyndsey is unlikely to be primaried out, but of his 3 opponents, 2 are bible thumpers but the other one, Joe Reynolds,  stands out.

I emailed him and got a very nice reply that he believes everyone deserves respect and should be heard and that he is running to represent everyone, not just the Republican base.

He also states in a blog that he did not vote for trump nor would he. He is also a champion of the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches. He's the one vote I feel strongly about. 

S.C. Senate District 5

I really don't care for our state senator Tom Corbin, who once described women as a "lesser cut of meat", but word is his opponent isn't much better. I'd rather see him go down to a Democrat anyway. If that's possible. 

Coroner

I'm rather torn on this one. Parks Evans, Jr. is in or running for his seventh term, and experience seems to be valuable in this case. I'm also turned off by Stacey Owens big sign on my way to and from work. However, Mr. Owens has some mental health organizations and initiatives listed on his webpage and as a person who has had my own battles with mental illness as well as friends who personally dealt with mental illness either themselves or through a loved one, i admire that. 

County Council District 20

This one is kinda personal. The Democrat running is not only a member of the LGBTQ community, but she lead Mayor Pete's presidential campaign here in the upstate. The two Republican candidates both state biblical teachings as their guiding principles, but my information suggests that Steve Shaw may be much more reasonable than Christy Cates Bright. Mrs. Bright is the daughter of retiring councilman Sid Cates who was one of the big supporters of the 1996 anti-gay ordinance, which got "sunsetted" recently but the religious right now wants to enshrine "traditional values" into Greenville county, basically wanting to make Greenville an "LGBT Free Zone". I got news for them. I ain't going anywhere. 

Ballot Questions 

The first question is tricky Republican wording. The question reads

"Do you support giving voters the right to register to vote with the political party of their choice? "

As I stated at the beginning, the reason why I can vote in the Republican primary is because we are an open primary state. While the Republicans had no problem telling their followers to vote for Bernie Sanders in the presidential primary to mess things up, what's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. They want to end that, but worded the question to make it sound like they're giving you something when actually they want to take it away.

The second question is

"Should candidates for public office be limited to having their names listed only once on a ballot for any office in each general election (rather than current law, which allows their name to appear multiple times by representing multiple political parties for the same office)?"

Some examples are candidates running as both Libertarian and Constitution party candidates (which is why I'm no longer supporting the SCLP, the Constitution Party sounds innocuous but they are an extreme right-wing anti-gay and anti-separation of church and state party, the opposite reasons i got involved in the Libertarian party to begin with).

We also have some Democratic candidates accept the nomination of the "Working Families" Party. Some say it confuses voters but I can see how someone may be reluctant to vote for a Democrat, but might vote for the same person as a "Working Families" candidate. I myself one year, when I was still in my "Never Democrat" mode, voted for a Green Party candidate even though he was also running as a Democrat. That also happened to coincide with my "3rd Party" phase.

I can see the benefits of each. But it would be easy and less confusing to list candidates once and have one or more parties listed beside their name. I may vote 'yes' because i don't like saying 'no' too much.

Several ex-lovers can attest to that.

Baseball and Star Trek in perfect harmony!

As I often tell anyone who will listen, I was not always a baseball fan. I didn't grow up with cable TV, so I didn't see the Braves on TBS or any other baseball broadcasts. It wasn't until my father got DirecTV in June of 1996 and the big sporting event at the time was the College World Series that I fell in love with college baseball and soon learned that the school I had rooted for all my life, the South Carolina Gamecocks, were pretty darn good at it. It wasn't until about 7 years ago when Gamecock great Jackie Bradley, Jr. was called up to the Boston Red Sox that i declared myself a Red Sox fan and started attending Greenville Drive games occasionally as well as games when the Gamecocks and/or my true alma mater, the USC Upstate Spartans play at Fluor Field in downtown Greenville. 

My love of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" was also not until later in life. I always had other priorities on Saturdays at the time and only caught pieces of it here and there. A few years ago when i finally caught on to the streaming thing, i decided to finally watch "DS9". I started on the stand alone CBS All-Access app, but soon after discovered it was also available on Amazon Prime with no additional fee.

I'm still not a "binge" watcher. I watch one episode at a time and then move on to something else. I've been watching "DS9" for what must be close to three years now. I have now reached season 7 and recently saw what has become my favorite episode "Take Me out to the Holosuite", which of course combined my two loves.

A Captain of an all Vulcan crew, who we learn later has a history with Sisko, comes to DS9 and ends up challenging Captain Sisko to a game of baseball in a holosuite program he acquired. Through the course of the episode we see Sisko coaching his potential team and hilarious scenes with the crew trying to figure out the rules of baseball. At one point Sisko kicks Rom (station Ferengi bar owner Quark's hapless brother) off the team.

The way the episode plays out next is rather brilliant. Rather than doing the obvious and having the "Niners" win in a glorious bottom of the 9th comeback, what happens in the game actually had me tearing up. Down 10-0, Sisko, having been banished to the stands by umpire Odo, gets acting coach O'Brian to make a substitution. With a runner on 3rd (for the first time in the game), Rom comes in. Sisko reactivates the crowd, which he had requested to be turned off before the game, and while trying to signal to Rom to bunt, Rom accidentally does so and the runner comes home. The "Niners" rush the field and carry Rom on their shoulders. The Vulcan Captain objects, touches umpire Odo and gets tossed out just as Sisko had for the same reason earlier. 

In the epilogue, the "Niners" are celebrating, Sisko apologizes to Rom and a rather irritated (though he tries not to show it) Vulcan Captain chastises Sisko for celebrating what I believe he called a "manufactured victory". The crew are unphased, however and the celebration continues as they jeer the Vulcan Captain. 

As I said I was tearing up for about the last 15 minutes of the episode. At a time when we are sadly lacking sports of any kind including baseball (sorry KBO you're not quite doing it for me) it was a welcome reminder of the power of sports and the ability it has to put smiles on our faces. And tears of joy in our eyes.

and another thing....

When I get fired up I can't sleep and I have to get things off my chest.

I've made similar statements on previous blogs but I'm going to repeat some things. Bear with me. 

We Americans, and this is particularly true for my generation known as Generation X, who grew up idolizing Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, have been spoon fed this idea of rugged individualism since birth. We were taught to believe in capitalism and hate anything different. Government was evil and encroached on our freedoms and I wasn't just drinking that kool-aid I was stirring it and handing it out particularly as a member of the Libertarian party. 

European and in particular Scandinavian countries like Finland figured out long ago that capitalism needs to be held in check. You need a strong social safety net. It's not that capitalism is broken,  it's being exposed. 

America was built on slave labor. White heterosexual males (and some women later on) have been in charge for centuries. It's starting to change. People of Color, women, the LGBT community and immigrants are starting to have a voice. And the white heterosexual "Christian" community is scared. That's why they've latched on to Donald trump. They know he's a crook. They know he's a womanizer. They may even know he's mentally ill. They don't care. He speaks to them. He lies. But he speaks to them. They relate to him.

They come up with conspiracy theories that I have to listen to from customers and coworkers and I can't say anything because my job is on the line.

Did y'all know Nancy Pelosi, the Clintons and Barak Obama went to China and brought the coronavirus to America in order to turn it into a socialist country? Or that Bill Gates created it so he can put microchips in the vaccines? How about the one a FedEx driver told me, that Joe Biden was going to nominate Hillary as his running mate then resign when he became President? 

They believe this BS too. It makes the world make sense to them because they can't believe there's other opinions and ways of viewing the world. 

Ok I think that's it for now. Time to try to sleep again. 

Uncle Joe is in trouble. Is Aunt Elizabeth still available?

I donated to 2 presidential campaigns before each dropped out. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. I was kinda holding out hope for this for a while. 

Now we have these allegations against Joe Biden. He has a history of questionable behavior towards women to begin with and the right is having a field day. I read an article online tonight that made sense but may be hard to swallow. The easy way out of this is for Joe Biden to drop out. The democratic establishment does not want Bernie Sanders to be the nominee. Somehow,  they don't seem to object as much to Elizabeth Warren. 

I know she has the 'Pocahontas' tag to deal with. Nominating a woman, however,  rules out any sexual harassment questions. Maybe that's a double standard and don't put it past Republicans to try to stir something up but it won't stick. I would also love to see Mayor Pete take on Mike Pence in a debate. 

Another solution would be to make Mayor Pete the nominee, he has no skeletons....he's not really old enough to have any. I thought he was the best candidate of them all anyway. 

I see no other way forward. I'm fairly certain the Democrats will hold on to the House and pretty sure we'll take the Senate. I am terrified, however, that even if those things happen, maybe even getting rid of Mitch McConnell and/or Lyndsey Graham in the process, the electoral college could give trump another 4 years.

And do you think he'll stop there?

I'll take the Coronavirus with a slice of Lyme disease.

After finally, after some controversy after 1 failed attempt, Greenville county council "sunsetted" the 1996 anti-gay ordinance.  Is that the end of it? No because now an attempt is being made to put a question on the November ballot basically asking citizens of Greenville county to reaffirm their hatred of the LGBTQ+ community. 

I had a glimmer of hope when an openly gay man announced his intention to run for my district's county council seat. Then after being friends with him on Facebook for a few days and having my Facebook feed flooded with disrespectful and dismissive memes targetting Bernie Sanders. While I am supporting Joe Biden as the best candidate to lead us to victories all the way down the ballot,  and while this person was perfectly respectful to me, his attitude towrds Bernie..referring to him as a communist in one post....just strikes me as not being the kind of open minded individual i want represtenting me.

Just a few hours ago, i had a FedEx carrier not only deliver the wrong package to my house, but decided to share with me his conspiracy theory about Joe Biden picking Hillary Clinton for his running mate then resigning so she could become President.

Meanwhile we've got the coronavirus canceling sporting events,  which makes me worry about the Lady Gamecocks being able to pursue a championship. As I'm about to post this, the notification came that the NCAA tournaments have been canceled. I've also got customers getting mad at me because i can only sell them 2 bottles of hand sanitizer or packs toilet paper; which people are hoarding for a virus that doesn't cause diarrhea. 

We have people getting mad at Joe Biden for telling a gun nut he's "full of shit" when our "president " curses all the time while golfing and tweeting between covering up affairs with porn stars, all while the religious right praises him.

It's just a constant struggle here in the upstate of South Carolina and while i would love to stick my middle finger up and say goodbye to Greenville and hello to a more progressive city like Columbia or Charleston, I'm financially unable to do so. 

I was born in Columbia, SC but my family moved to Greenville county when i was still an infant. We moved to Taylors when i was about 6 years old and apart from a short stint at a friend's cabin in Columbus, NC, I've lived out here ever since. This is my home, yet i constantly feel unwelcome in my own backyard. I feel like an outsider even among other outsiders. I am just getting fed up. I'm tired of fighting for things that I shouldn't have to fight for.

I just realized this is a very gloomy blog. I'm trying to come up with something positive to end on but nothing comes to mind. I'm ok, I really am, I'm just really down right now. I'll carry on as usual. 

Uncle Joe is back!

So I've been home from the USC Furman baseball game for a few hours (South Carolina broke the 1-1 tie with a waa run shot in the top of the 12th and won 3-1.I was following some Super Tuesday results so I was already aware that Uncle Joe wa see having a good night but it's really getting fascinating. 

If you follow me on Facebook, you know I'm a progressive. I was the proverbial "Bernie Bro" in 2016. I really didn't have anything against Hillary Clinton- when she won the nomination I expected her to win and I was disappointed when she didn't. 

I've seen the arguments against Bernie Sanders winning the nomination and the counter arguments in favor of him and I see merits to both arguments. There's a reason why we refer to him as "Uncle" Joe. He's beloved by most of the electorate. Bernie is polarizing. I absolutely agree with both Bernie and Elizabeth. We need universal Health Care. We need to at least bring the cost of college down. We need to eliminate student debt. But this idea of rugged individualism; this sink or sink capitalism; this "pull yourself up by your bootstraps (which is actually a physical impossibility) is so engrained in the American psyche that some people will never in a million years vote for someone who self-identified as a socialist, even if they add "democratic" to the term.

The superdelegates are going to ensure that Joe Biden is the nominee if they can. The "Bernie Bros" are going to be upset. So how do you placate them?

On election night in 2018 I started to turn my attention to 2020 and my first thought...and I posted it on Facebook...was a Biden/Warren ticket. Bear with me here.

If Uncle Joe is the nominee (or Bernie for that matter) it's almost a foregone conclusion that a women will have to be the VP nominee to try to make up for the disappointment of not having our first female president. 

Other possibilities are Kamala Harris,  who challenged Joe in an early debate,  and don't forget the original rumor that Joe was going to announce before hand that Stacey Abrams who be his running mate. 

Or how about a real longshot....Michelle Obama. You could really but the Obama/Biden collilisio back together,  only it'd be Biden/Obama this time. A little far fetched I'll admit but I can dream.