10 things I like and don't like, including what you can expect from Mitch Rose Blog

1. 10 things I like and don’t like

I copied this blog format from Zach Lowe, an excellent ESPN writer who writes a weekly installation about what he likes and doesn’t like about the NBA. I had a bunch of random ideas on my mind that I wanted to get out onto a blog, but I wasn’t exactly sure how they would all fit together. Then… voilá! It hit me. 10 things I like and don’t like. Perfect.

2. What I learned from How to Fix a Drug Problem

When I was scrolling through Netflix the other night, I came across this limited series about 2 former Massachusetts state drug lab chemists that, shall we say, made some big mistakes. Annie Dookhan worked in the Boston lab, and during her nine years of employment, she failed to test a large portion of her drug samples in order to make it look like she was far more productive than her peers. Sonja Farak, on the other hand, used both drug standards (benchmark samples) and crime evidence from the Amherst lab to get high while at work. Their actions resulted in over 35,000 drug convictions being thrown out, the largest mass dismissal of wrongful convictions in U.S. history.

So what’d I learn? Well, I learned that, during my childhood, my home state tried to suppress the extent of their crimes to keep people in jail that (technically) shouldn’t be there. It took a stubborn lawyer, Luke Ryan, to be persistent and intelligent enough to fight for his clients and assemble the puzzle pieces necessary to determine how long Farak had been getting high at work. It’s a fascinating true story that exemplifies why you should fight for what you believe in, but it’s really disturbing to see how easily Massachusetts could have gotten away with its cover-up. It really makes you wonder if this type of thing happens more than you think.

3. Other Netflix suggestions: The Platform, Money Heist, and Ozark

Need something else to watch while you’re stuck at home? No fear, Mitch Rose Blog is here!

The Platform is a Spanish movie about a vertical prison where inmates are paired up on each floor, and the top floor is occupied by a kitchen where chefs make an elegant feast. The food is then placed on a platform that descends the prison, so those on higher floors eat their fill, while those below starve, and inhabitants randomly switch floors every month. What happens when Goreng, a man who chose to go to the prison, becomes fed up with the system? Watch to find out!

Money Heist is a show about a group of bank robbers that are assembled by the heist’s “mad scientist,” The Professor. I’ve only seen 13 of the 38 episodes, but it essentially follows the group’s robbery of the Royal Mint of Spain and, I’m guessing, their life after they escape. If you’ve seen Prison Break, it reminds me a bit of that. It’s one of the most highly ranked shows in the world, and for good reason. Check it out!

Before we were ordered to stay in our homes indefinitely, if I were watching TV, it would typically be to watch sports. Well, except for one show: Ozark. The dark, mysterious, keep-you-on-your-toes thriller starring Jason Bateman follows a suburban Chicago dad and financial planner who is really one of the top money launderers for a Mexican drug cartel. Season 3 was just released on March 27, but I’m saving it until I get super bored and have nothing else to do. It helps that Money Heist has me hooked, too.

4. The MLB coming back in May?

On Tuesday April 7, ESPN reported that Major League Baseball is developing a plan where the 2020 season could start in Arizona in May. This altered season would look something like playing 7-inning double-header games at the Arizona Diamondbacks stadium and 10 other fields around the Phoenix area with electronic strike zones and no fans in the stadiums. While there are a boatload of other logistical hurdles to overcome like testing, lodging, and players possibly being separated from their families, this could be huge for America. With a professional sports league returning, it could provide a sense of normalcy in such an uncertain time, along with being a distraction to the indefinite monotony of quarantine. However, as you might imagine, there has been some pushback from players like Red Sox star Chris Sale. We’ll see what happens.

5. Another economic stimulus package on the way?

You’ve probably heard about the more than $2 trillion dollar economic stimulus package, the CARES Act, that was signed into law by President Trump on March 27. Fearing that $2 trillion might not be enough, Trump and Congress are weighing the possibility of spending another trillion-plus dollars on further unemployment aid, small-business assistance, household bailouts, corporate relief, and support for the struggling healthcare system. With the government possibly shelling out nearly $4 trillion within a month, it makes you wonder what will happen first: the world ending or the U.S. paying back its debt.

6. A positive outcome of President Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis

Regardless of your political affiliations or opinions, it’s pretty clear that President Trump hasn’t handled the COVID-19 crisis well (to be fair, no country has, but the U.S. had plenty of warning to prepare). After he repeatedly downplayed the severity of the pandemic, the U.S. has accumulated more than 500,000 coronavirus cases to date, more than triple the amount of second-place Spain at about 160,000 (this is assuming every country is correctly reporting their numbers, which is unlikely). Regardless, the virus has spread like wildfire in the U.S.

That being said, it’s really cool to see a country so often divided by business, politics, or what have you, come together to support each other in the fight against COVID-19. General Motors was just awarded a $490 million contract under the Defense Production Act to deliver 30,000 ventilators by the end of August; Ford has partnered with General Electric and 3M to build them, and Tesla is also creating some. California, Washington, and Oregon sent their own ventilators to New York as well, and the owner of my New England Patriots sent a team plane to China to retrieve nearly 2 million N95 masks and then trucked 300,000 of them to New York. I wish it didn’t take a pandemic for people to just… be nice to each other.

7. One mistake I made in my last post

In my last post about what you can do during quarantine, I said that you should be productive every day to be less bored and make your days more meaningful. While that’s important, I saw a tweet the other day that said something along the lines of: “If I feel like doing something, I’ll do it. If not, I’m just going to take some ‘me’ time and chill.” And that’s important too. I definitely haven’t been productive all day, every day during quarantine, especially for the last 4 days where I’ve stayed up until 3 a.m. watching Money Heist. Seriously, check it out. And take some “you” time.

8. Online classes and telework

Before the COVID-19 crisis hit, I often thought about how much longer we’d be doing in-person classes. It was only a matter of time before we transitioned to virtual options, right?

Now, I’m not so sure. Some students at colleges like Drexel and the University of Miami have filed lawsuits demanding refunds for the semester due to online classes; 41% of teens that responded to this survey said they haven’t attended a single virtual class, and children are spamming the Google Classroom app with bad reviews to get it deleted so they don’t have to do schoolwork. Yikes.

I think virtual options are more likely to stick in the long-term for business rather than school. I was emailing with a friend earlier this week, and he mentioned that before the virus shut down air travel, he was flying every week for his new job that he started in January. Since that’s not possible now, he opined that the COVID-19 crisis is proof to the haters of remote work that everything can be done virtually. As a result, he said that he could see his team traveling every other week, or maybe less, which would cut down on emissions and save his clients money. I totally agree; I’m skeptical that online solutions will stick for academics, at least in the short term, but I think there’s a real chance that we’ll see business become even more virtual as a result of the pandemic.

9. Why I’m happy Tom Brady signed with the Bucs

My apologies for mentioning Brady and the Patriots again in the same blog, but this will be short. Brady, the winningest player in NFL history, just signed with the losingest franchise in all of major professional sports. He might not win more Super Bowls in Tampa Bay, but Brady will surely bring at least some success to a franchise that has barely ever experienced any. That’s something I can get behind, even though I wish he finished his career with the Pats.

10. What to expect from Mitch Rose Blog

What’s next for Mitch Rose Blog? My next 5 posts will follow my travels from my time abroad and feature each of the cities I visited (Toledo and Madrid, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; Paris, France; and Amsterdam, The Netherlands). So stay tuned for my blog on Toledo!