Fellow Historical Figures!:
Jayson Haedrich is continuing to work on the possibility of a second screening for his movie. He has been in contact with Kim Nalder, an Associate Professor in the Department of Government and the director of the Project for Informed Electorate at California State University in Sacramento. She is interested in trying to put together a panel discussion reviewing the 2003 Recall election. Provided we can make this event happen, former candidates would be most welcome too. We don’t have dates or times yet, but in the event you can’t come to the October 12th reunion, there is the possibility of a different, second event, where we can get together.
Marc Valdez
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Home Stuff Today
Clean out the sewage line (I particularly liked the part where the wet rooter cable sprayed sewage all about). Check!
Finish cleaning gutters!
Mow lawn!
Sweep leaves!
Do aerobics!
Beat to death!
Finish cleaning gutters!
Mow lawn!
Sweep leaves!
Do aerobics!
Beat to death!
NONONO - Pumpin Blood
Been hearing this on the radio. Glad to associate the song with a band. The rabbit in the video is a bonus.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
"Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'" - DMTC YPT
Headpiece with a porpoise.
Getting hair ideas.
Cooper J.J. with adoring fans. Both Cooper J.J. as The Little Mermaid and Ana C. as the Water Witch were fantastic! Peter deBello excelled as the Prince Eric and Jenna Karoly as Sebastian as well.
Beautiful set decoration.
Fishies in the sea.Just So Much Top-Notch Stuff Out There Regarding "Breaking Bad" Lately
Can't possibly keep up with it all. Here's from a review of "Granite State":
I loved the character for a number of reasons, primarily because every slow boat to Hades needs a greedy Charon. But also because his continued presence — and the cost of that presence — was a cutting reminder of the limits of wealth. Throughout the 75 minutes, Walter kept insisting that all of his money was for his family. But as Flynn loudly established, they don't want it. (Flynn especially has every reason to reject his awful inheritance. Walt using his son's beloved Aunt Marie as bait was proof that the cancer still hasn't managed to penetrate his monstrous ego.) The barrel of blood money can buy almost anything, it seems: silence, loyalty, DIY chemotherapy, and an hour's worth of company. But it can't buy back what it cost Walt to earn it in the first place.
Still Not Sure What To Think About The Colorado Rains
People are aghast how much rain fell in Colorado. Some are prone to use the event as a demonstration why global climate change is here. Nevertheless, the weather pattern that contributed most to the rains (large summertime trough to the west, with a secondary, nearly-cutoff low to the southwest) doesn't strike me as THAT unusual. I'm wondering if we just haven't seen the full range of possible weather outcomes in our brief sojourn as a civilization in the West.
Wall Street Crashing Around In Energy Markets Again
Then again, it's ethanol. Then again, EPA is administering it. Enough room for all sorts of mischief:
It was supposed to help clean the air, reduce dependence on foreign oil and bolster agriculture. But a little known market in ethanol credits has also become a hot new game on Wall Street.
The federal government created the market in special credits tied to ethanol eight years ago when it required refiners to mix ethanol into gasoline or buy credits from companies that do so. The idea was to push refiners to use the cleaner, renewable fuel, or force them to buy the credits.
A few worried that Wall Street would set out to exploit this young market, fears the government dismissed. But many people believe that is what happened this year when the price of the ethanol credits skyrocketed 20-fold in just six months, according to an analysis of regulatory documents and interviews with more than 40 people involved in the market, including industry executives, brokers, traders and analysts.
Traders for big banks and other financial institutions, these people say, amassed millions of the credits just as refiners were looking to buy more of them to meet an expanding federal requirement. Industry executives familiar with JPMorgan Chase’s activities, for example, told The Times that the bank offered to sell them hundreds of millions of the credits earlier this summer. When asked how the bank had amassed such a stake, the executives said they were told by the bank that it had stockpiled the credits.
There's No There There
It'll be a big surprise Sunday evening:
Series creator Gilligan said the show’s concluding episode would be postponed indefinitely after he and his team hit a creative brick wall.
Although they had been confidently pretending that the last episode had been completed and was ‘intense’, the writing team never got beyond writing ‘Walt’ and ‘Jesse’ on a flip chart.
Gilligan said: “We’ve got nothing. Nothing. I’m very sorry.
“We kind of assumed it would get cancelled after two seasons, if we were lucky. So we never really planned ahead, the plot just grew organically, like a wild shrub.
“I had a vague thought involving a machine gun but that didn’t work out, for various reasons I can’t be bothered to go into.
“The we asked everyone working on the show to write an idea on a Post-It note but they came out with stuff like ‘Skyler gets eaten by a wolf’, ‘Walt’s not ill, he’s pregnant’, and ‘Everyone sorts it out over a nice hot drink’.”
He continued: “Even writing a single episode is incredibly draining. There’s all these characters running around doing different things, it’s like maths.
“Now we’ve missed the deadline and they’re going to put an old episode of The A-Team on in our time slot.
“The good news though is that it’s the one where they get trapped in a warehouse and fight back with modified toy planes. Probably the best A-Team ever made.”
Miley Cyrus Twerk & Robin Thicke MTV VMA 2013
People are getting agitated about Miley Cyrus' comments comparing the reception of Breaking Bad to her VMA performance. She didn't have to pick specifically on Breaking Bad, but I do agree with her general point, and others have made the same point before. I liked her VMA performance. It's not so different from what I do in hip-hop class:
"America is just so weird in what they think is right and wrong. Like, I was watching Breaking Bad the other day, and they were cooking meth. I could literally cook meth because of that show. It's a how-to. And then they bleeped out the word 'f*ck.' And I'm like, really? They killed a guy, and disintegrated his body in acid, but you're not allowed to say 'f*ck'? It's like when they bleeped 'molly' at the VMAs. Look what I'm doing up here right now, and you're going to bleep out 'molly'? Whatever."
The piece de resistance, of course, was the reaction of the Will Smith family to the performance. In Hollywood, success comes no sweeter than this!:
Monday, September 23, 2013
The Drought Jeopardizes Everything
Jerry sent this. Despite the recent rains, it's likely the drought will continue, because nothing big has shifted with regards to El Nino, etc.
Much has changed in NM already. Acequias are inefficient, but that's their charm. Wildlife thrives on the inefficiency:
Much has changed in NM already. Acequias are inefficient, but that's their charm. Wildlife thrives on the inefficiency:
Across the state, a historic drought has reduced the water to a shallow stream in some acequias, a trickle in others. Some channels are parched. Some people, even elders leery of change, are asking whether it's time to try more modern methods of irrigating the land.
Such an idea was once unthinkable. For Boney and other old families of New Mexico, a land where the past seems ever present, the water crisis threatens not just livelihoods but also the connection they feel to their Spanish ancestors.
...This year was different. Townspeople began talking about the water shortage and their fears the drought would worsen. Newscasters led nightly broadcasts with reports of a statewide water crisis. New Mexico was the driest state in the nation, the reporters declared.
"Really? Us?" Boney said to herself. Most who draw from the acequias (pronounced ah-SEH-kee-ahs) are small farmers who grow food just for themselves. Others, such as Boney, sell their fruits and vegetables but consume some of the harvest.
...Slowly, she became convinced.
Her husband, John, the mayordomo of the acequia at their farm, was also reluctant at first. By May, friends with the acequia association persuaded the Boneys to set aside a test plot — 100 feet long and 70 feet wide — and install drip irrigation to grow lettuce, chard and other vegetables. It's the first time such irrigation is being considered for wide use in the county.
September Precipitation In Albuquerque Is Already Record-Breaking
The weather in Albuquerque has been SO erratic! Even though we still have a week to go, with Saturday's frontal-passage rain total of 0.58" (which exceeded the 0.49" we got here at Sacramento Executive Airport when the same front went through), Albuquerque has had 3.97" of rain for the month, which easily exceeds the next-highest amount for September, 3.31" in September, 1929. There were two days that broke records for the days:
RECORD EVENT REPORTJohn sent this fun helicopter video of the recent flooding in the Rio Grande Valley. I'm familiar with that arroyo by Cottonwood Mall. It's so strange to see it like this!
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM
231 AM MDT WED SEP 11 2013
...RECORD DAILY MAXIMUM RAINFALL SET AT ALBUQUERQUE NM...
A RECORD RAINFALL OF 0.85 INCHES WAS SET AT ALBUQUERQUE NM
YESTERDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 0.84 SET IN 1942.
237 AM MDT SUN SEP 15 2013
...RECORD DAILY MAXIMUM RAINFALL SET AT ALBUQUERQUE NM...
A RECORD RAINFALL OF 1.22 INCHES WAS SET AT ALBUQUERQUE NM
YESTERDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 0.65 SET IN 1996.
America's Dictator
Good ol' Ted Cruz of Texas:
So this is Cruz’s position: When Republicans ram an ultimatum through the House on a 53-percent party-line roll call, using the threat of a shutdown to gut a bill they lack the votes to repeal, that’s unity and courage. When Democrats threaten to use their 54-percent majority in the Senate to restore Obamacare to the resolution—which could then be voted up or down, or filibustered by the GOP—that’s abuse of power.
Every politician fibs now and then. Some do it better, more often, or more passionately than others. Even among the elite of his profession, Cruz stands out for the sincerity and deep feeling with which he can tell you one thing on Friday and the exact opposite on Sunday. He’s a national treasure. I can’t wait to see what he’ll say next.
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