Marc Valdez Weblog: 06/30/2019

Saturday, July 06, 2019

Shaking and a Quaking

Haven't felt anything yet in Sacramento, but others have. Jenny said her swimming pool had waves and was sloshing.

California has been going through an earthquake drought. That time may be ending:

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the last quake greater than magnitude 7 to occur on the San Andreas Fault system. The inexorable motions of plate tectonics mean that every year, strands of the fault system accumulate stresses that correspond to a seismic slip of millimeters to centimeters. Eventually, these stresses will be released suddenly in earthquakes.

But the central-southern stretch of the San Andreas Fault has not slipped since 1857, and the southernmost segment may not have ruptured since 1680. The highly urbanized Hayward Fault in the East Bay region has not generated a major earthquake since 1868.

Reflecting this deficit, the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast estimates that there is a 93 percent probability of a 7.0 or larger earthquake occurring in the Golden State region by 2045, with the highest probabilities occurring along the San Andreas Fault system.

Time For The Mastectomy

E. goes for surgery on Monday. Chris and I were supposed to have received a bit of training for the aftermath, but that was cancelled.

So, we'll fly blind....

There's An Enormous Rat Outside

And bold too. I've seen it running around the yard. Two nights ago, it was in the kitchen. It ran and hid behind the dryer.

When I used to walk Bella in 2015/6, I'd see these rats around Sacramento. They like to live in ivy and in palm trees. And this one wants to live uptown, in my house.

Life at my house....

RTAA's "Angels in America" Part 1 Premieres!

Congratulations to Rachel and the other talented cast members, crew, and artistic staff who opened Part 1 of "Angels in America" last night at RTAA in Roseville.

Angels is an epic story focused on modern American visionaries who run smack into the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Tonight, Part 2 premieres.

Don't let this show get past you. The entire epic performs only six times.

Yams!!!

After a vigorous morning walk with the dogsittees, it’s time for some yams. Yum! Yams! Yum! Yams! Yams? YAMS!!!!

My dog looked askance at a bit of yams, but these dogs can’t get enough.

A Little Domestic Violence in the Morning

I decided to stop to photograph an interesting looking business: The Billionaire Barber Shop. Pictured people like Jeff Bezos as the clientele.

Trying to get back on the road, I turned into a parking lot behind the barber shop where a domestic violence situation was occurring. A woman was on her hands and knees, screaming as loudly as she could, and pounding the pavement with her hands. A guy was sitting in a car about 150 feet away and yelling back. There was an element of theatricality to it, like the woman had had enough, and was now going to conduct their business in public. I parked and called 911.

The woman screamed that she couldn’t walk, and started limping away. He rolled up and she got in their vehicle. Then they came over to me.

I do have to say I was disturbed when the guy rolled up. I thought he was going to T-Bone my vehicle. His preexisting shattered windshield suggested previous hard living with the car. He parked in such a way that I couldn't observe him clearly. He accused me of interfering and I said something back to him that all I was trying to do was make a U-Turn (which was no longer true, of course). I couldn’t quite understand him, due to my general deafness and since I was narrating the event in real time to the cops. Probably something about minding my own business. They drove off. For a few seconds their license plate was visible in my rear view window, but I couldn’t rattle off the digits fast enough given mirror image.

Cops didn’t come since the woman entered the car willingly and they had no cause to arrest. They took my info. That’s it. Another day in South Sac.

Unpredictable things may occur when intervening in a domestic violence situation. I was walking down a street in Berkeley, CA, in 1987, when I walked past an alley. Some guy was smacking his girlfriend around in the alley. I walked into the alley and asked: "Is there a problem?" They both turned towards me - she with apprehension; he in surprised rage. She jumped on his back and shouted to me: "Run!" I walked back towards the street with both of them following a few feet behind, him shouting epithets and her shouting "I love you!" to him at the top of her lungs.

I walked away. I looked back and saw that they were holding hands, heading the other direction. Love conquers all, I guess.

Jerry Seinfeld: A Kind of Post-Humor Comic

I’ve never much liked Jerry Seinfeld:

To promote the new season of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," the comedian called out some shows he claims were "influenced" by his idea, including "Carpool" from British comedian Robert Llewellyn.

"These are all real shows!" Seinfeld says in the new season trailer for his Netflix series. "And we are proud that others have taken notice of our style and have been inspired by it. The only comment we would like to make is: If you're going to knock us off, get it right!"

But on Wednesday Llewellyn took to Twitter to say, hey, his "Carpool" show streamed online in 2009 and aired on TV in 2010-11. That means it predates "Comedians in Cars," which debuted in 2012.

Annual DMTC 4th of July Booth at Community Park

Hours of hard work selling cotton candy, popcorn, and sodas.

Good on the protestors!

Howard Jones, Men Without Hats, and All Hail the Silence (with BT) - Ace of Spades - July 3, 2019

Gabe and Eleanor were unable to attend the Howard Jones concert on July 3rd, so their tickets came to me. I'm not a fan particularly of Howard Jones, but live music is always good. Plus, it seems like the characteristic pop sound of the Eighties was virtually created by Howard Jones. May as well honor that!

Howard Jones

All Hail the Silence.

Men Without Hats.

Love the Safety Dance! Memories of 1989.

Howard Jones with All Hail the Silence. I was impressed that BT was there (the fellow on keyboards). He's a famous DJ! What's he doing here?

I bought All Hail the Silence's 2 CD set.

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

In Honor of World UFO Day

In honor of World UFO Day, here is a clip from "Dominion: The Last Star Warrior." My interest here is the filming location - Albuquerque's West Mesa's cinder cones, particularly the back side of "J" Mountain.

Recession's Coming

Good graphics at the link about the inverted yield curve, a pretty-good predictor of a recession. Maybe the recession will arrive in time for the 2020 election:

Investors demand higher payment for loaning out money for longer periods of time. Bonds are essentially loans, so it follows that a bond that does not return a lender's cash for 10 years would pay more than one that returns the cash in 3 months.

An inversion of the Treasury curve means the exact opposite is happening. Either investors see a higher chance they'll get paid back in 10 years than in 3 months by the U.S. government (the world's most secure borrower), or they see inflation being so flat that money invested today will be worth a little less in 10 years than it is worth in 3 months.

Dropouts

Aww!:

For people who’d like to adopt a German Shorthaired Pointer, a German Shepherd, a Labrador Retriever, or a Belgian Malinois, they can now choose from beautiful puppies who are just too nice and carefree to pass the training for government work. The Transportation Security Administration has organized an adoption program to find lovely homes for the energetic and adorable training ‘dropouts’.

...Approved applicants will be asked to travel to San Antonio, Texas twice. The first purpose of the first visit is to meet the dogs while the second one is to take the pet home.

[Update: due to an overwhelming number of requests, TSA is currently not accepting additional applications]

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