Muted Bells

I like the precision of "Better Call Saul" shots. Just really hard to fine-tune these views. For example, in the episode 'Nailed,' an agitated Nacho calls Mike, asking to meet. The view faces out the windows of Loyola's Restaurant, with Nob Hill's bell-shaped street lamps in the distance.

In general, in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul," bells signify danger, but despite Nacho's agitation, there is little real danger here: Mike has the situation fully in hand. So, how to defuse the danger symbolism of the bells seen in the distance?

What the film crew has done is to arrange that the mouths of most of the bells are obscured by the Venetian blinds. There is some danger here, of course, but it is muted.

Just arranging this shot must have taken some doing.

How to Draw an Elephant Using Trigonometry

This article is a big surprise to me. I would never have suspected it:

Steven Piantadosi of the University of Rochester has produced a simple equation with one variable that is “not novel mathematically” but can perfectly fit any set of scatterplot points.

As long as you pick your value of θ with extreme precision, this equation will provide a fit of any data, no matter how complex. Piantadosi demonstrates how this works by fitting a scatterplot of an elephant:

The Adventures of a Bum in Manhattan

Fake it till you make it:

That turned out to be a promise. Over the next few weeks, Delvey stopped by often to ask Neff’s advice, slipping her $100 each time. Neff would wax on about how Mr. Purple was totally washed and Vandal was for hipsters, while Delvey’s eyes would flit around behind her glasses. Eventually, Neff realized: Delvey already knew all the cool places to go — not only that, she knew the names of the bartenders and waiters and owners. “This is not a guest that needs my help,” it dawned on her. “This is a guest that wants my time.”

My New Nemesis

This crow buzzed me as I approached Step One. Apparently has people issues. Probably a mama bird, with a baby nearby:

Tuesday Afternoon Waiting On Tires

And wandering around downtown Sacramento, in particular, Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Ballroom at Elks Temple, 11th & J St (I didn’t know anything about this room, but it was just cool that the doors were open), Sacramento Public Library, Cesar Chavez Park, and California EPA building.

Parisian Rescue

Blowout!

After visiting Erlynda and Chris in Granite Bay, it was time to head to Davis for two DMTC Committee meetings. I headed west on Interstate 80 across the top of town.

As I drove west at high freeway speeds (70 mph+) the truck began handling worse and worse. There was an intense vibration going on. I exited at Norwood Avenue and made a cursory inspection of the tires, but saw nothing, so I got back on the freeway. The vibration was worse than ever, so I abandoned the idea of driving to Davis. I exited at Northgate and started heading south, back to the house, on surface streets.

I didn't get far. POP!!! Blowout! I pulled into the parking lot of a Les Schwab tire store that just happened to be there. Must be fate. I bet they're having a "blowout" sale.

Helicopter circling nearby. Maniac wailing nearby in KFC parking lot. I see maniac; maniac sees me. Should be a fun evening. Decided to call AAA. If that failed, I would instead walk to light rail and head home.

AAA guy.

Response was pretty rapid.

This tire has seen better days.

The AAA guy changed the tire. He was hesitant about the spare tire - cracked and 25 years old - but it got me home, at least.

Time to buy tires.

Continuing To Work on New "Breaking Bad" Book

For November 2018 release.

"Bring Yo Body Come" - Voice Mail

Ah, the challenge of picking up choreography on the fly! (Margaret Gidding Memorial Service Reception - Step One, 5/26/18).

"The Rider"

A really good film. Set on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota.

Trumpnapping is the Next Step After Trump Steaks

Making bucks by pimping kids to campaign contributors:

Which story sounds better: Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions continue their white nationalist policies by destroying refugee and undocumented immigrant families, or Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions let missing children fall prey to sex traffickers? If you can’t figure out which is the better conspiracy, imagine any of this happening at this level—the missing children, the separation of families and lack of concern for finding them—under the Obama administration.

Memorial Service Reception For Margaret Gidding

Food from Los Jarritos.

Pepper Von MCs.

A slide show of people’s pictures of Margaret. This is my picture of Margaret with Laure Courtellemont.

Lots of dancing and socializing. — at Step I Dance & Fitness.

Today’s cleanup OCD challenge: organizing the weights.

Carolanne Marie has the strength and the willingness to rescue Pepper Von from harm. — with Carolanne Marie at Step I Dance & Fitness.

Memorial Service For Margaret Gidding

Laure Courtellemont’s Sacramento Workshop - May 25, 2018

Shannon Gilbert with Laure Courtellemont.

A Learning Process - Laure Courtellemont’s Sacramento Workshop - May 25, 2018

Dance Circle - Laure Courtellemont’s Sacramento Workshop - May 25, 2018

Not Enough Horns in the World

Horns go well with speakers (h/t Karen):

Teen Girls Acting Shady in Target

Pushing a shopping cart fast as if fearing pursuit. But what pursuit? By whom? The Big Red Ball? Rover from “The Prisoner”? The world of teen girls is a mystery.

Florida Outlook

Currently it looks like rains will start increasing in the Tampa area from the Caribbean storm about mid-afternoon Saturday - about 2 p.m.

There are indications the tropical low in the Caribbean is strengthening. The models split on how much strengthening will occur. The NVG model suggests the system will become a tropical storm by Sunday evening, and hover for awhile off the Alabama coast before either coming onshore near Pensacola on Monday evening, or sliding west towards Houston, TX. The GFS model suggests the system will remain too broad to be anything but a tropical depression, so no tropical storm. Either way, the tropical moisture superhighway will span Florida the entire time.

The Walter White of Wichita

He never went to college, but he became the evil genius behind fentanyl:

Fentanyl is so deadly that it’s nearly impossible to cut or create safely in a clandestine setting. But someone was doing just that: It appeared to investigators that an enterprising individual had cracked the prescription’s recipe in an illegal lab and was now selling his secret to drug dealers and other “cooks.”

They were right. Their man was a onetime science-fair champion and self-taught chemist in Wichita, Kansas, named George Marquardt.

...“I am not a pharmacist,” he said. “I am not an M.D. I'm a fellow that will manufacture a chemical compound if you have a sufficiently large quantity of money.”

More Birds, Less Evaporation

One a.m., and I was watering plants out front. A car approached and dodged around several parking barriers placed in the street for the inscrutable daily street construction. The car finally parked. A couple emerged, and the woman immediately began interrogating me with crisp directness. “Sir, why are you out here watering plants at one a.m.?” I was at a loss for words. “Why?” she persisted. I finally stuttered, “Because it seems like a good time to water plants.” She replied, “Is this when you also feed the birds?” Dun-dun-dun, she knows my daily habits! “No, that’s for the daytime,” I exclaimed, hoping to appear less daft than I act, without also explaining the embarrassing number of pigeons clogging the neighborhood telephone wires these days or the drawbacks of the nightly feeding habits of the local skunks. Her mate came to the rescue and said, “Less evaporation at night.” Yeah, like he said!

Basta!

Just love this!