"Sweeney Todd" (School Edition) - Workshop Master Class - Runaway Stage Productions

My camera broke in the middle of Act 2, but I did get some pictures....

The line I always like from the show is when Sweeney Todd dispatches the Old Beggar Woman just as Judge Turpin approaches: "I have no time!"

Company, with Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett) and Karen Harris (Johanna) clearly evident.

Company, with Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd) and Austin McKinley (Judge Turpin) clearly evident.

Cole White (Anthony Hope) and Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

Karen Harris (Johanna). Everyone loves a party!

Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett) & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett) & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

Madison Wells (Bird Seller) and Karen Harris (Johanna).

Karen Harris (Johanna).

Cole White (Anthony Hope) & Madison Wells (Bird Seller).

Cole White (Anthony Hope).

Ben Herrera (Pirelli). Apparently Ben came in substituted with just a day's notice!

Ben Herrera (Pirelli), Andrew Freedman (Beadle), & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd), with two bearded gentlemen.

Ben Herrera (Pirelli).

Andrew Freedman (Beadle), Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett) & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

There's Kendyl in the Quintet!

Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd) & Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett).

Dante DaPrato (Tobias Ragg), Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett), & Ben Herrera (Pirelli).

Judge's chambers at the Old Bailey. Austin McKinley (Judge Turpin) & Andrew Freedman (Beadle), with an unlucky wretch.

Austin McKinley (Judge Turpin) & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett) & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett) & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

"God, That's Good!" - Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett).

"God, That's Good!"

Cole White (Anthony Hope).

Karen Harris (Johanna).

Angela Hogy (Old Beggar Woman).

Karen Harris (Johanna).
"By The Sea" - Emily Kelly (Mrs. Lovett) & Spenser Micetich (Sweeney Todd).

Quintet.

Ensemble.

Live-Blogging ABQ Storms - 07/27/11

(5:05 p.m. PDT) Boy, it just ain't happening today! Winds are from the W & SW, but no gust fronts to speak of, and the storms are hugging the high terrain....

Documenting The Tent

DMTC's John Ewing carefully documents how to erect DMTC's pop-up tent. The tent will be erected at Caesar Chavez Park this Friday, and several subsequent Fridays, for the Friday Night Concerts in the Park.

Insomniac Squirrel

I got home this morning at about, gosh!, 3 a.m. Oddly, I heard a irritated squirrel chittering away on the telephone pole out back.

I don't know what the problem was, but the squirrel was quite unhappy....

Shuttle Atlantis Return To Earth, As Seen From ISS

AWESOME!

Perfect Example Of The Lunacy

So, who will be our General William Tecumseh Sherman, who will finally take full measure of the danger, and break the Enemy Within?

Live-Blogging ABQ Storms - 07/26/11

It looks like the big action today is along the NM/AZ border area, and bending over to incorporate Mt. Taylor too.

That was an AWESOME bow shock radiating away from the convection last night in NW Sinaloa! Wow!

(1:35 p.m. PDT) A small gust front radiating westward into the RG Valley from the Highway 47/60 junction east of Belen. Big rainfall boiling off the Ladrones. Big rain on the Malpais south of Grants. Lots of action everywhere!

(2:05 p.m. PDT) That's some big storm out there near Alamo! And the little gust front finally triggered convection just east of the RG Valley at the Socorro/Valencia Co. boundary.

Four Corners is seeing lots of rain too today. Storms north of Mt. Taylor are heading towards Lindrith.

(3:05 P.M. PDT) New gust front heading towards Bernardo from the NE.

Also a gust front heading NE in SW Valencia Co., trying to catch up with the weakening storms that just crossed Highway 6 heading to the NE, towards ABQ.

(4:00 p.m. PDT) Big storm blowing up near Edgewood. And Alamo too. Other large storms crossing Highway 44 out towards Counselor.

(5:00 p.m. PDT) The big action remains out near Blanco, and points SE of Farmington. Also, rain near Acoma and points south. Rains near Vaughn too. Things are getting quiet right around ABQ, despite the approaching (but weakening) storms to the SW.

Just Trying To Keep It All In Perspective

Because the cult must be destroyed, and the sooner the better:

But it's also important to remember the big picture. The big picture is that America is being held hostage by a conservative movement that behaves much more as a bizarre religious cult, than a legitimate political entity. It is perhaps the most dangerous cult to have ever held sway over a major nation-state in modern times.

...The possible outcomes of any and every imaginable crisis are only two: 1) give the cult everything it wants, when it wants it; or 2) do nothing and let the world burn. Which is fine, because once the flames have died down, the cult can at last build their Kingdom here as it is in Milton Friedman's heaven. If healthcare costs explode, then the system collapses and the people who are left will only buy the healthcare they can afford at market prices. If global temperatures rise, then Social Darwinism will preserve the deserving. If the American economy collapses, then it can be rebuilt, minus the surplus population and those pesky Keynesian programs that kept it afloat and alive. 2nd Amendment remedies will deal with the lesser people who resist.

One can rage all day and night, and legitimately so, at the failures of the Left and Democrats over the last 30 years. It would take an encyclopedia to count them all.

But one also must remember that the American political system is facing perhaps the most dangerous enemy it has ever faced: an intransigent cult of individuals who simply do not care if everything goes down in flames around them, so long as the sacred tenets of the cult remain unchallenged.

The American political system was crafted by thinkers and philosophers deeply steeped in the Enlightenment. The Founders assumed that the competing elements of self-interest and cooperation, hinged on a delicate balance of powers, would be enough for men and women of Reason to, through fits and starts, ultimately find the best solutions for the problems facing the country based on evidence and argument. The system is built, in essence, upon the presumption of Reason. Of give and take. Of compromise.

The system was not built to handle a takeover of the system by an unreasoning cult. Big money has had outsize influence on our political system before, and the American People have managed to beat it back time and time again. But never before have we been faced with the sort of unified, concerted, intentionally reinforced delusion that besets our halls of power today.

Elaborate Revenge Plot

This case freaked me out:

It sounds like the plot from the TV series CSI - a jilted ex-boyfriend builds a 'master plot' of fake crimes which he pins on his ex-girlfriend and gets her jailed for seven months.

But rather than being a work of fiction, this was the reality that happened to Seemona Sumasar.

Her ex-boyfriend Jerry Ramrattan, who was obsessed with the police drama, allegedly built a web of lies and deceit so convincing it fooled prosecutors and police into arresting her.

"We Get The Sacrifice, They Get The Wealth"

Tell it like it is, Nancy!:

"This isn't just about them saying we should reduce the deficit," she said, adding: "This is an excuse. The budget deficit is an excuse for the Republicans to undermine government plain and simple. They don't just want to make cuts, they want to destroy. They want to destroy food safety, clean air, clean water, the department of education. They want to destroy your rights."

...The Republicans, Pelosi said, her voice rising, have something very different in mind.

"They do not like the government," Pelosi said. "They're riding an engine of popular support for, ok we have to reduce the deficit. And they're using that to destroy."

"The Speaker has said that between him and the president they have a different vision of America and that's how come their budget proposals are different," she said. "Quite different...We get the sacrifice, they get the wealth."

2011 Bulwer-Lytton Awards Out!

Since Molly won last year's awards, she got to judge 2011's dreadful and amusing contributions:

Winner:

Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.

Sue Fondrie
Oshkosh, WI

(At 26 words, Prof. Fondrie’s submission is the shortest grand prize winner in Contest history, proving that bad writing need not be prolix, or even very wordy.)


Runner-Up:

As I stood among the ransacked ruin that had been my home, surveying the aftermath of the senseless horrors and atrocities that had been perpetrated on my family and everything I hold dear, I swore to myself that no matter where I had to go, no matter what I had to do or endure, I would find the man who did this . . . and when I did, when I did, oh, there would be words.

Rodney Reed
Ooltewah, TN

Monday ABQ Storm Live-Blog

(12:20 p.m. PDT) Looks like an easterly kind of day. There is an easterly wave making its way westward across southwestern Arizona. High summer!

In Albuquerque, it's starting off as a Sandia/Manzano kind of day. The clouds from last night didn't burn off till well after sunrise. And it's raining hard, right now, in the Tijeras/Cedar Crest area!

(2:40 p.m. PDT) Winds are from the SE. There has been an interesting handoff - like a relay race - as storms from north of Ruidoso head NW, decay, apparently had off to new storms behind the Los Pinos, handoff again to new storms behind the Sandias, decay, etc. The handoff isn't visible, though. Gust fronts are generally visible only relatively-close to the radar. Over mountain ranges, they can't be seen.

Nevertheless, there now seems to be a stationary gust front just south of Bernardo. It's just sitting there: the storm motion is to the NW, and outflow just matches advection.

(4:30 p.m. PDT) The Bernardo gust front eventually assisted in the development of cells just east of Socorro.

A new cell is developing on the north flank of Mt. Taylor. Not quite clear what is happening there.

But a big gust front just passed across ABQ, from east to west, particularly notable in the South Valley, but also present in the North Valley!

(4:40 p.m. PDT) And a second gust front at Belen! meanwhile, the stately Bernardo front is moving on in to the Polvadera area, and will likely trigger cells near "M" Mountain.

(5:10 p.m. PDT) Another gust front near Bernalillo merged with the West Mesa gust front, and they all are pressing west.

No storm near "M" Mountain yet, although one may move in from the south. Raining heavily in Bernardo now.

(11:30 p.m. PDT) Disintegrating storm approaching ABQ from the SE. The rain guage at the airport has served as an effective rain repellent so far, but that might change tonight.

Public Urination Is Pissing Me Off

On Sunday evening, I was putting nearly the final paint touches on the North Garage Face (lower half) Summer Project, when two men came down the alley and started urinating in my hedge, next to my garbage cans. Because of the angle of the driveway, they were not aware I was standing a short distance away.

I walked out into the alley holding a paint scraper. "I do not appreciate you doing that," I said. They said nothing. "What are you doing?" I asked. A juvenile titter.

Things got ugly.

I started shouting epithets. One, the young black man, shouted epithets back. The white man with the Mohawk style haircut zipped himself up, dodged the fresh, voluminous trail of piss, and started walking off sullenly. The noisy teenage swim party going on two doors down abruptly clammed up: doors slammed and the party ended in twenty seconds.

I escorted the men down the alley. The black man and I both shouted four-letter and five-letter, and six-letter insults at the top of our lungs at each other.

You may piss in my hedge, but be aware, I will tell you exactly what I think about you.

On my property, those are my rules.

Thunderstorm Semaphore

My sister texted last night from Albuquerque, with news of two storms, and a power outage that was forcing her to shuffle frozen materials to her neighbors. Hardship!

Looking late last night, it looked like there was the remnants of a series of storms, perhaps a mesoscale convective complex (MCC) moving west, just south of the city. It's unusual to see these kinds of storms in Albuquerque. If anything, it's usually a symptom of high summer, when the tropical easterlies make their northernmost approach. These storm complexes mimic the sort of MCCs you see boiling off the Sierra Madre in Sonora, and other points further south.

I was so excited about NM storms, that I forgot all about the Arizona storms. On Sunday, there was also a much-larger easterly, much-better-organized high-summer MCC spilling off the Mogollon Rim, and heading west, just north of Phoenix. The Zonians are naturally excited this morning about this storm complex.

I learn new things all the time. Last week, I realized the National Weather Service (NWS) radar displays are sensitive enough to show gust fronts, which catalyze new storm cell growth. Now, it's possible to see the effects of these things in real time!

I became rapt watching the old storms triggering new storm growth near ABQ: I'm sure they do the same kind of signalling in AZ. The upshot appears to be, if it doesn't rain in the mountains first, followed by abrupt storm collapse, it will not rain in ABQ that day. The torch must pass first!

On Thursday, the trigger for ABQ precipitation came from the storms east of Acoma. On Friday, the trigger came in a relay, from the Jemez, to Zia, then to town. Every day is a little different, in part because the overall wind direction can be a little different, and the trigger can come from storms over any high ground anywhere near town, but I'm sure there are persistent themes: Mt. Taylor, the Manzanos, the Sandias, the Jemez, even areas farther away, etc.

In Arizona, the coherent unifying presence of the Mogollon Rim favors the development of MCCs: the storms can advance in unison towards lower elevation to the south and west.

It's just all this semaphore that's going on: convection signals are flashing and echoing all over the Southwest during hot summer afternoons. It's like hearing the gods on Mt. Olympus having a spirited debate. With the NWS radars it's like getting a radio that's finally tuned to this fascinating frequency, and listening in....

Episode 2, Season 4, of "Breaking Bad"

Episode 2

(07/25/11) Apart from the opening scene motel room (which might have been on a stage), there was only one new site in Episode 2 of Season Four, but it seems tailor-made to demonstrate how little I know about Albuquerque. The Restaurant/Bar where Mike and Walt meet is a fine example of late 19th Century New Mexico architecture, with its magnificent tin ceiling, so the location can only be in downtown Albuquerque, but I still didn't recognize it.

Doing some quick Google searches, I note that the Villa di Capo Italian Restaurant at 8th & Central, which is hosted in the Skinner building, has just such a tin ceiling, but since I've never been inside, I don't know if this is the correct site. Do they have a big bar inside, or did the Breaking Bad architects slam something together overnight?

On second thought, this site can't be right. The door is wrong. It must be some other location.

I spent a fruitless evening looking at Google images of Albuquerque bars. It would have been better to have stepped outside and visited some local Sacramento bars instead.

"Peter Pan" - YPT - DMTC

Saw the Saturday night show. Interesting retelling of "Peter Pan"! For the most part, I liked it.

I think Pam needs to be particularly commended for the lights. I believe she had greater problems here than with the Main Stage production, but her resolution was better than with the Main Stage production.

Annoyed By The Success Of J Street Nightlife

Over the last decade, Midtown Sacramento nightlife has really improved. With that success comes problems.

On sporadic weekends, people pee around the back door of my employer. This started a couple of years ago. There is a modicum of privacy, I suppose (although it's well-lit - I don't understand), and it's just a short distance from Streets of London.

Weird stuff happens at that back door. One night, I opened the back door at 2 a.m., and there was a guy standing there with his weenie in his hands staring straight at the door and just about to let loose. "Please don't do that," I asked. "OK," he said, and he left.

Another night, I was just about to open the door, and I heard someone just outside the door screaming at the top of their lungs, "I'm going to kill you!" Sounded serious too. That made me hesitate opening the door, but when I gingerly opened it five minutes later, no one was there. Just a passing thought in the mind of a typical Sacramento barfly, I suppose. Not much determination behind the thought - no follow through.

Tonight, when I drove up to work, there were two women at the back door: one peeing and one standing watch. They hurried away as I parked. I followed them out on the sidewalk and shouted: "You two! Yeah, you two! Don't do that anymore!" It didn't help that two men walking down the sidewalk had slipped in between them and I, and they were looking back at me and no doubt thinking "WTF?", so I had to be very specific: "Yeah, you two women! Don't do that anymore!"

Just give me a break, please.

Mutato Muzika - Lena Logan - CDC

I'm not familiar with CDC: the Sacramento dance world changes all the time, so it's hard to keep up. Nevertheless, this looks interesting!

Live-Blogging Today's ABQ Storms

(1:18 p.m. PDT) First gust front appears at Mt. Taylor.

(2:18 p.m. PDT) Little storm south of San Ysidro began moving into the Jemez before the gust front from Mt. Taylor arrived.

Big storms in eastern NM today. Air flow more from the west today: yesterday, it was from the south.

(3:50 p.m. PDT) Nice big gust front roaring into the Upper Rio Puerco Valley from the collapsing storm in the Sierra Nacimiento. It's just reached the storm near San Ysidro, so we'll see what happens there.

Kind of a rinky-dink day for the ABQ. The main action is further east. Lots of little storm cells near Dalies: the radar can't see over the high terrain east of Acoma, and there are little storm cells lurking there, before they pop over the ridges and head east. There's a persistent little cell on the southern flank of Mt. Taylor. Rain for the Magdalenas and "M" Mountain.

(4:01 p.m. PDT) And wouldn't you know it, as soon as that gust front reached the cell near Zia, it started taking off!

(6:20 p.m. PDT) Take your attention away for a few hours, and wow! A storm just barreled into the ABQ metro area! Hammered it!

But it's important to remember that the catalyst for its growth was likely that gust front that came down the northern Rio Puerco Valley, about 2.5 hours ago, which spilled over into the Jemez River drainage. The cell near Zia took off when the gust front reached it (and headed east), and that cell in Rio Rancho didn't even exist until something spurred its growth. I bet it was that gust front!

No, correction. It was a gust front from the decaying Zia storm that triggered the Rio Rancho storm.

We live in a world of interconnections!

Gust Front Imagery

I just love watching the radar imagery from near ABQ! There seems to be another one of those gust front thingies radiating away from Mt. Taylor right now!

It's moving SE about 20 mph, and it's about to hit I-40!

Now, it's running down the Rio Puerco Valley; probably will reach ABQ only in an attenuated form.

(later)
And now, another, one, coming from the north, down the Jemez River Valley, through and past San Ysidro.

This is fun!

Big storm out near Clines Corners. Probably suppressing convection over the Sandias a bit.

(later)
And yet a third gust front, from the storms over the mesas SE of Acoma. It looks like this one is finally triggering convection, on the high ground of the West Mesa east of the Rio Puerco and west of Los Lunas, and maybe this will the storm that hits ABQ today!

(later, 3:48 p.m. PDT)
That gust front kept propagating east too, and has reached the Rio Grande, triggering more convection just west of Los Lunas and Isleta Pueblo (with El Cerro de Los Lunas as the nucleation point). The storms SW of ABQ may be crossing I-40 and move north, perhaps missing most of the city, but the city can't escape this Isleta Pueblo cell!

There seems to be another gust front propagating south along Highway 44, near San Luis, deriving from the storm cells to the north. It's triggering new storms in the Sierra Nacimiento. And a new cell has started on the mesas just north of Zia.

This is fun!

There is a gust front propagating west, the opposite direction from these others. It seems to originate from storms in the vicinity of Claunch, northeast of Socorro.

Meanwhile, the gust front from the mesas near Acoma has completely crossed the Rio Grande and is climbing onto the East Mesa east of Los Lunas.

These gust fronts might collide.

Meanwhile, the prior gust fronts, from Mt. Taylor and Jemez, that essentially collided NW of Rio Rancho, were inadequate to trigger storms NW of Rio Rancho. I wonder why they weren't strong enough? Paradoxically, maybe the terrain is a bit too high there. The first gust front was probably quite attenuated, because it it was climbing out of the Rio Puerco Valley. Farther south, the terrain poses less of an obstacle. It probably will require storms to move in from the south to get this convection going. and there seems to be something popping up in Rio Rancho now, just north of the Sandoval/Bernalillo County line.

(later: 4:10 p.m. PDT)
That eastward-moving gust front, or whatever it is, is running smack into the Manzanos. The westward-moving one is triggering convection NE of Socorro. And now there is practically a wall of thunderstorms from Isleta to Bandelier.

Meanwhile convection is slowly-weakening around Mt. Taylor.

(later: 4:20 p.m. PDT)
There was apparently a second gust front coming from the NW, down the Jemez River Valley, but probably originating from the storms near Cuba, moving simultaneously with the gust front that reached the Sierra Nacimiento. This second gust front seems to have been the trigger for the convection along the West Mesa, particularly NW of Rio Rancho.

Convection really firing up in the southern Manzanos now as the easterly-moving gust front reaches that area.

(4:30 p.m. PDT)
The storms on ABQ's west side just might miss the city: they seem to be moving north. But as the gust front from the NW sweeps across the Bernalillo area and moves towards the Sandias, storms there finally seem to be firing up. There is also some sign the southern Manzano storms are moving north, so ABQ may still get some rain out of this.

(4:45 p.m. PDT)
There's a little storm cell going in Tijeras Canyon just north of I-40. Southern Manzano storm cells are collapsing. I just bet there will be a gust front from those cells in a few minutes, heading west into the Rio Grande Valley!

Storm cells look like they are deliberately-avoiding the rain gauge at the Sunport. Figures!

There is now a broad arc of thunderstorms from Jemez, along the West mesa, then along I-40 to Grants; then straight south. There is a semi-coherent ring of storms around the flanks of Mt. Taylor, but not on Mt. Taylor.

(4:55 p.m. PDT)
From the southern end of the Manzano storms, there is now a gust front heading straight for Socorro.

(5:15 p.m. PDT)
Storms firing up East of Bernalillo, and towards Placitas. Socorro gust front triggering new convection just SW of town. No new gust fronts....

(5:25 p.m. PDT)
Magdalenas firing up, as well as SE of Socorro.

Glee Choreographer Mecca Andrews To Give A Master Class

This looks intriguing: Mecca Andrews will be in town and hosting a Master Class on July 30th at CDC:

As a dancer and choreographer, Mecca has worked with some amazing people and projects including GLEE, MTV, J.LO and more!

Borders To Close

Caption: Sisters Julia, 23, left, and Megan Aube of Davis chat Tuesday in Davis on the lawn at the Borders bookstore, which likely will go out of business. (MANNY CRISOSTOMO/ Sacramento Bee)

I thought it was nice that the Aube sisters were featured in this article. Otherwise, though, the news is bad:

Now it's Borders' turn to be devoured. The retailing chain – battered by technology, changing consumer behavior and the lackluster economy – is expected to go out of business. A bankruptcy judge is expected to approve Borders' liquidation plan Thursday, and the going-out-of-business sale could begin the next day.

The Perils Of Waiting Too Long

It finally began raining in Albuquerque yesterday, and I was watching the event on radar. An interesting image appeared: a perfect circle radiating outwards from the South Valley near the mouth of Tijeras Arroyo. Apparently a downburst, or related phenomenon, had struck the ground and the gust front was radiating away in all directions. The radar was picking up the resultant dust. But I waited too long to try and download the images, so the data have entered archives, and there is no place dustier and spookier than Weather Data Archives. I waited too long. That should teach me!

There was also another strange thing I noticed about yesterday’s rain. Maybe it’s nothing – just coincidence – but it caught my attention.

Storms started early on Mt. Taylor, then midday, they all completely collapsed, and the skies cleared there. Only THEN, did it start raining in a ring all around Mt. Taylor, including the ABQ area. I wonder if Mt. Taylor, being a large, shield-like, looming volcanic presence, has an inordinate influence on weather in the ABQ area, by triggering a gravity wave that can promote storms (but only after storms have already first occurred on Mt. Taylor)? That’s my hypothesis. I’ll see if today’s pattern follows this description.

Research

Drilling deep on some of these "Breaking Bad" sites. Getting progress too!

Bulb Wars

Actually, there is room for everybody here. The Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) save money, and who doesn't like to save money? When I replaced all my incandescent bulbs with CFLs in 2001, my monthly electric bill dropped by 45%. Forty-five percent!

At the same time, CFLs don't necessarily provide the best light, and some people - artists and photographers, principally - would mind that.

So, no need to make incandescent bulbs illegal, like in Australia, where it became urgent to wean the nation from electric power because the drought was terminating hydroelectric power generation. We aren't in that bad a jam.

But we do need to make use of better technologies as they become available. Making a fetish of using incandescent light bulbs just mires us in an inefficient past. It's not about freedom; it's about progress.

The Latex Glacier, And Other Home-Repair Fun

I've been making incremental progress on painting, plus there was the normal landscape maintenance this last weekend.

About two weeks ago, I tossed the five gallon container of gray latex paint into the basement. I tossed it right next to some sharp metal strips. Apparently one of the strips perforated the latex container, and the paint slowly oozed out. Now, I have a blob of gray latex paint on the floor that resembles a latex glacier.

Then, I used an electric hedge trimmer to cut some of the plants in the flower box out front. Sure enough, I got the electric cord mixed up with the vegetation, and cut the cord in a spray of sparks. Fortunately, the spray was brief: no fuses were blown.

Home repair can get pricey at my place, repairing and replacing damaged equipment.

Boxcutter

Matt Zoller Seitz reviews "Breaking Bad" - Season 4, Episode 1: "Boxcutter".

My view is Gus would not have killed Victor, despite Victor's many mistakes, unless Victor posed a deadly threat. Victor's ambitions must have become intolerable. We need backstory.

Walt and Jesse, with Mike and Saul's help, will end up as the Southwest's drug kingpins. They will do Gus in, and have to learn to manage an entire drug underworld they don't understand.

I'm worried about that Superlab. It is a dungeon. At some point, they and their families will have to make an escape into the sunlight, but where can they flee?:

If you'd watched the previous three seasons, you couldn't help thinking about Walt and Jesse's moral degeneration over time. They've gone from small-potatoes hustlers on the fringe to major players. It's impossible to make that trip without becoming desensitized to violence, and increasingly willing to rationalize the most horrific crimes.

...If Walt and Jesse are horrible human beings, then what does that make us, the loyal viewers? Complicit. They're our stand-ins. They are capable of almost anything, and there is almost nothing we won't watch them do. It's the line about how to cook a frog in a pan of water; the show's writers turned up the heat so gradually that it isn't until season two or three that you looked down at your arm and thought, "Hey, are those blisters?"

This is the aspect of "Breaking Bad" that elevates it into the pantheon of great crime stories, and the aspect of the series that improves on "The Sopranos," "Deadwood," "The Shield" and other popular, crime-driven cable shows. It's not dropping us into the middle of an unfamiliar world and asking us to empathize with characters whose moral compasses are (one would hope) horribly defective compared to most people's --- characters we could always choose to feel superior to, if things ever got too icky. Gilligan's series starts with an ordinary, law-abiding man, Walter White, deciding to become a criminal, then hooks him up with Jesse, a petty criminal, then slowly introduces us to other, harder sorts of criminals, all of whom have certain awful lessons to impart to Walter and Jesse. Then it gradually takes us deeper and deeper into a criminal world, starting from the outside and moving slowly in. We don't realize how deep inside we are until we realize we've spent the better part of an hour in an underground meth cooking facility watching two guys being threatened and a third being murdered, and it seems perfectly normal.

Living for the City - Sylvester

I can't imagine how this oversight happened. Here you have the Best Song EVER, sung by the Best Singer EVER, and all the way back in 1986 too, so there's been plenty of time for word to get around, yet somehow I never heard of it until last night!

I was watching one of those biography thangs on Cable Teevee, when they pulled this rabbit out of the hat. So, a belated thank you to Sylvester!

Miniature Golf On Saturday Night

On Saturday, we went up to Scandia Family Fun Center, near Madison and I-80, for some Miniature Golf.

There was a time when I blamed most of the troubles in my life on Miniature Golf. That was specifically true near the end of high school, and sporadically in the years afterwards, when my Rio Rancho friends and I couldn't come up with any other mutually-agreeable activity on weekend evenings other than Miniature Golf (and sometimes Bowling), choosing to ignore my many warnings that there were no Girls at the Miniature Golf course, and that the whole thing was pointless anyway. At least you could see Girls if we went elsewhere, like the Movies. And Girls weren't necessarily thronging the places we went afterwards either - places like Der Wienerschnitzel. In fact, figuring out where the Girls actually were was a pressing problem. Supposedly they are half the human race, but you could have fooled me. Where did they all go? Were they under arrest in some stadium somewhere? But despite my warnings, my friends ignored me then.

And they ignored me now. There still aren't Girls at the Miniature Golf course. But somehow, with the lower testosterone levels consistent with Middle Age, who gives a crap anyway? That Whole Thing was pointless anyhow.

Anyway, there we were at Miniature Golf course on Saturday evening, listening to the deathly silence from the people riding the "Scandia Screamer" ride, and wondering about how quiet things were. That was the whole point, right? To scream? But all we could hear was the low rumble of the mechanism turning the "Scandia Screamer", and sense ice-cold fear as people were whipped dozens of feet into the air, into the refreshing Delta Breeze. A bit disappointing, from the listeners' perspective. I guess that Whole Thing was pointless too.

But sheer Pointlessness is an important component of Recreation. Everyone gets excited about a foot race, even though the runners are running around in a circle.

So, we had fun, and relaxed in each other's company....

Trying To Keep Up With Italians

"Well, Get Back To Work"

Tonight, Season 4 of "Breaking Bad" premiered! Yay! The long wait is over!

Workplace dynamics were a bit awkward in tonight's episode. Reminded me of workplace dynamics wherever you go in America.

Which may have been one of the points of the episode.

In any event, there were several familiar locations shown on the teevee, and several unfamiliar locations too.

Familiar locations include:

• Studio locations (Superlab, and Gale's Apartment);
• Saul Goodman's office;
• Walt's new single apartment; and,
• the White & Schrader residences.

New and unfamiliar locations include:

• Parking lot (Victor catches Jesse);
• Parking lot (Barrel of corrosives removed); and,
• Circle where Skyler parks Walt's car.

There were also several locations that looked familiar enough to hazard location guesses:

• Time lapse of ABQ at night (looked like the I-40 Bridge over the Rio Grande, looking east);
• Zia Motor Lodge sign (4611 Central Ave. NE; Central & Madison); and,
• Denny's (probably across from the University of New Mexico, at 2608 Central Ave. SE).

Regarding the fate of dear Victor, it reminded me of Albuquerque New Year's Eve, 1995, when I witnessed something along the same lines.

Life in Albuquerque can end abruptly.

As it can wherever you go in America.

[Crosspost: "Breaking Bad" locations - Part IV]

"The Dwindles"

I was talking to D. about a mutual acquaintance whose health appeared to be in terminal decline. D. said the person had "The Dwindles." That term took my breath away, it was so apropos!

One of these days, I'll get "The Dwindles" too! Something to look forward to!

Kelsey Barney Interview Part 1 - Her Roots And Career

Kelsey discusses her start in Bakersfield community musical theatre, her role models, and her current indie dance pop music activities in Los Angeles (with a dubstep album coming out next month).

Carmageddon

California State Fair 2011 (I)

Salon "Breaking Bad" Slideshow

Awesome!

The Bachmanns On 'Marriage'

Team SCIENCE

Sunday evening, everyone! "Breaking Bad" is back!

It All Adds Up To Psychological Abuse

On Facebook, ME notes:

I love discovering new words for otherwise hard-to-describe stuff.

Gaslighting
Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim with the intent of making them doubt their own memory and perception. It may simply be the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred, or it could be the staging of bizarre event.

That's interesting! I joined the conversation.

Marc:

When I was a Physics undergraduate, the Department Head called me in and accused me of taking a freshman-level test on behalf of a failing student. When I denied the charge, he produced the test in question - with my handwriting on it! It took me a minute to realize that the letter "p" was written ever-so-slightly different from my usual practice, but that was the longest minute! The similarity of handwriting was eerie! It wasn't abuse, but it makes you realize where false confessions come from. Is there a word for that?

ME:

There is! you were on the brink of making a 'coerced internalized false confession'. This is a situation in which 'interrogative suggestibility' results from the combination of uncertainty (the similar handwriting was disorienting), interpersonal trust (the professor was a trusted authority figure), and expectation of dire consequences to produce in you a temporarily suggestible state where you doubt your own recollection of events. In high pressure interrogations, subjects can become convinced they are guilty of a crime they didn't commit, and even re-write their own memories!

Marc:

When I pointed out the slight difference in handwriting, the professor said he had noticed that, but felt confident enough to proceed anyway. When I urged him to investigate the case further, he said he was about to retire and didn't want the fuss. I could appreciate his troubles, but I thought the price of having to surrender my effort to get a degree was rather a steep price to pay.

ME:

So you weren't exonerated?

Marc:

No. I suppose it's still an open matter, although I got my degree, and the professor retired and passed away in the interim. Someone out there with my handwriting cheated 32 years ago, and got away!

ME:

I say you dedicate your blog to finding and apprehending the real physics test cheater and clear your name once and for all!

Marc:

Like Ahab chasing the white whale, I will pursue that physics test cheater for eternity! That cheater cannot escape my blog!

California Gurlzzz

I made an abortive effort to go to lunch. On the sidewalk, I passed by four young women heading the other direction. They were all about 18 years old. The Queen Bee said "Yo, are you a sinner?" I smiled, shrugged my shoulders, said nothing, and kept walking, because I knew there was no answer that wouldn't end up with me either holding a religious pamphlet that I didn't want, or getting trouble with the law.

To Infinity, And Beyond!

Obama Is Finally In The Driver's Seat On This Default Mess

Yglesias notes:

Watching the press conference today, it was hard not to be struck by the extent to which Barack Obama really and truly wants a grand bargain on the deficit. One doesn’t say this kind of thing at a press conference, but you could easily imagine him saying, “Look, Republicans, I agree with you — I want to enact steep cuts in spending, but to sell my base on it you need to throw me some tax hikes.”

The GOP is finally signalling it wants out of the looming debacle, and the McConnell plan is the fastest way out, but Obama has bigger ambitions. He wants a grand bargain.

Apparently Eric Cantor feels he's in some kind of pissing contest with Obama, but that is the farthest thing from the truth. Because of the relentless growth of the debt, the debt ceiling acts like an alarm clock. Default will occur on schedule whether the GOP wants to shoot the hostage (aka, the U.S. economy), or not. When you engage in a pissing contest with an alarm clock about whether it will strike midnight, or not, you ALWAYS lose!

If default occurs, Eric Cantor will be the scapegoat. Obama can rest easy on that.

So, does Obama shoot the hostage to get what he wants? Time is on his side, after all!

"They're All Priorities"

And that, my friend, is the problem:

Republican lawmakers are pushing President Obama to put seniors, troops, and bondholders at the front of the line should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling. The rest? Well, that's up to him.

"We're just calling on the president to assume the role of CEO and prioritize accordingly," Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) said at a press conference on the issue. Participants repeatedly accused Obama of trying to "scare seniors" by suggesting Social Security payments might be suspended in the wake of a default crisis.

One reporter shouted a question as to whether things like, say, keeping criminals in federal prisons or securing the border might also be added to the list.

"They're all priorities," Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX). "As our colleagues here have said, we need to keep our promises and the money is there to do that."

But where will the immediate 44% cut in overall spending needed to avoid default come from instead? Michele Bachmann, who has gone so far as to demand the debt ceiling never be raised, dodged questions on the issue Wednesday by simply repeating her assertion that Social Security and troop pay be left sacrosanct.

Tragedies Make The Best Country Songs

He was probably trying to work "Texas", "trains", and "Mama" into the chorus, when she interrupted his train of thought:

AMBRIDGE, Pa. -- Authorities say that when a Beaver County woman complained that her songwriter boyfriend had never written a song about her, he choked her and hit her in the face.

Ambridge police say 29-year-old Jason Banks attacked his girlfriend June 30 after she complained and pointed out he had written songs about other women.

When It Comes To Raves, The Folks In Las Vegas Smell Money

Their senses don't lie either!:

And of course the event, which drew 230,000, pumped some money into the local economy. That drew notice from board members of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which, before the festival, sort of wanted nothing to do with it.

At a board meeting Tuesday, “several board members spoke about developing a closer relationship with producers of the three-day electronic music rave,” my colleague Rick Velotta reports.

As Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins put it: “The participants were the most polite young kids that I’ve ever been around.”

(The kids were all rolling on ecstasy, which I understand causes acute politeness.)

Even Metro Police officers know the score. As one told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “I don’t see the nuance in staring at lights for hours. But it doesn’t take much to see this has generated some money for the valley.”

The event sounded like fun!:

Caroline Miller of the Flaming Lotus Girls, a volunteer art collective in San Francisco, has been working at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a week on the group’s metal sculpture, “Mutopia,” a series of what she called “spirals of mutating plant-animals.”

Also, they shoot fire.

“I’m all about propane,” she says with a laugh. She’s a scientist at a university in San Francisco when not working with the art collective.

They go through 1,000 gallons of propane each night, plus an additional amount of methanol for extra fire. Different salts give the flames their distinctive colors.

To get in the collective and play a role, “Just show up — that’s all it takes,” she says, a good life rule.

The 40 Worst-Dressed Cities In America

Oy!

28: Burlington, VT.

16: Santa Fe, NM (That's a nice ensemble, really!)

Christchurch Shards

I didn't know about this "Snip" utility on Windows 7 that has apparently replaced screen shots. I got excited about "Snip" when I learned about it today, because now I could finally capture the map on this Web Site, showing Christchurch quake epicenters.

In particular, I was interested in ALL Christchurch quakes since September 4th of last year. In addition to the main faults being made manifest by densely-packed rows of dots, some of the subsidiary faults make a ghostly appearance too. You just need a large enough sample of quakes to see these other faults!

Several main features are evident on the map. The original Greendale Fault, of course, with its western fork, with one branch snaking west and the other branch heading towards Darfield. Then the subsequent extension eastwards: The Port Hills Fault, which seems to stop abruptly just offshore. But then there is a ghostly line of dots heading south, along the western shore of Lake Ellesmere. And the southeastern spear of dots through Akaroa, which intersects the Port Hills Fault and then continues northwestward until it reaches a vertex at the base of the mountains.

The faults seem to define a triangular shard of the northern Canterbury Plains where quakes are fewer in number. Based on the literature, this triangular shard appears to be rotating counterclockwise.

Christchurch quakes are unusually shallow. Compared to most places, the rock that is being shattered here is cold and brittle. The Canterbury Plains are like a shattered, rotating porcelain plate, with the various shards rubbing against each other. Why did it shatter in quite this way? Who can say?

Ridge-Rider

Jerry sends news of the Derecho that blasted through his neighborhood on Monday:

A complex of severe thunderstorms raced across the region on July 11, producing widespread wind damage in portions of northern Indiana, southern Michigan, and northwest Ohio. The thunderstorm complex developed on the northern periphery of a staunch upper level ridge in place across the southern US. A middle atmospheric disturbance ejected out of the western US and supported the development of thunderstorms across eastern Colorado, northwest Kansas, and southwest Nebraska. The thunderstorm’s outflow congealed and a Mesoscale Convective System developed. The thunderstorm complex remained on an eastward trajectory, following the gradient of instability and the mid-level atmospheric flow, failing to build south into the most unstable air due to intense low level capping in place. Hence, this type of system is commonly referred to as a “ridge rider” as the system remains on the edge of the upper level ridge as they propagate. This complex of severe thunderstorms produced wind damage from southwest Nebraska to Maryland, approximately 1,400 miles with the strongest winds from central Iowa and east. A convective system that produces widespread wind damage for several miles is known as a derecho. (Click here to learn more about derechos.) Winds gusted as high as 85 mph, with damage to structures and trees. The hardest hit part of the local area was along the Indiana and Michigan state line.

This Jonathan Rees Fellow Is A Marvel!

When you have all-but-complete access to private databases, and all-but-complete access to the police, as this article from last March shows, you really have all-but-complete power! The world is your oyster! Your people can commit any crime, and escape! Working in the shadows of Rupert Murdoch's empire, Jonathan Rees must have been, in fact, England's unacknowledged monarch!:

The money came pouring in. Jonathan Rees worked from a dingy office in south London. He lived in a cramped flat upstairs. He was divorced, overweight and foul-mouthed but his business was golden: he traded information. His sources may have been corrupt. His actions may have been illegal. But the money kept coming – from one golden source in particular. As Rees himself put it: "No one pays like the News of the World do."

...The bug recorded the sound of Detective Constable Tom Kingston from the south-east regional crime squad collecting cash for himself and for his mate who was an intelligence officer involved in the protection of the royal family and other VIPs. DC Kingston sold Jonathan Rees a Special Branch report disclosing police knowledge of an Albanian crime gang in London, Police Gazette bulletins which listed suspects who were wanted for arrest, and threat assessments in relation to the terrorist targets his mate was supposed to be protecting. Rees sold them to newspapers – primarily the News of the World, the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Mirror.

...And the corruption did not stop with the police. The listening device caught Rees boasting that he was in touch with: two former police officers working for Customs and Excise who would accept bribes; a corrupt VAT inspector who had access to business records; and two corrupt bank employees who would hand over details of targets' accounts. (One of them had the first name Robert and was wittily referred to as Rob the Bank. The other was simply Fat Bob.)

Beyond that, Rees regularly hired two specialist "blaggers" who tricked their way into phone company records to obtain names and home addresses of subscribers and also itemised phone bills, highly valued on Fleet Street as a list of potential sources. One was a Londoner named Shaun who routinely provided lists of phone numbers called by Rees's targets. The other was John Gunning, a private investigator who has since been convicted of blagging the private information of subscribers from British Telecom's database.

Rees's relationship with journalists was a two-way street. An executive from the News of the World developed a corrupt source in the Passport Office who could provide home addresses, personal details and photographs of anybody who applied for a passport. Rees was paying the executive £100 a time for information from the source (although the executive was passing the source only £25 a time).

One person who is familiar with Rees's operations claims that he or one of his associates started using Trojan Horse software, which allowed them to email a target's computer and copy the contents of its hard disk. This source claims that they used this tactic when they were hired by the News of the World to gather background on Freddy Scapaticci, a former IRA man who had been exposed as an MI6 informer codenamed Stakeknife.

Two other sources claim that Rees was commissioning burglaries. One is a private investigator who was told directly by Rees's network that they had broken into targets' home on behalf of a Fleet Street newspaper. The other is a lawyer who claims to have evidence that a high-profile client was the target of an attempted burglary by Rees's associates in search of embarrassing information. There is no independent confirmation of this.

The bug betrayed the sheer speed and ease with which Rees was able to penetrate the flimsy fence of privacy that shields the vast reservoir of personal information now held on the databases controlled by the police and the DVLA, the phone companies and banks.

PM Questions, July 13th

Good grief! Interesting, and beyond belief!

(It's amusing that my friend Andrew resembles David Cameron to some extent in look and voice. It's almost like I have a personal investment in this thing, even though I'm purely a spectator.)

Richard Ruelas' Life Was Nearly Forfeit!

What a damned fool Lori Klein is!:

A freshman Arizona state Senator may be in need of some gun safety lessons.

Richard Ruelas, a reporter for The Arizona Republic, found himself staring down the barrel of Republican state Sen. Lori Klein's raspberry-pink firearm during a recent interview at the Capitol.

"Oh, it's so cute," Klein said of the .380 Ruger that she carries in purse at all times.

While the loaded pistol had no safety and the laser pointer was centered on the reporter's chest, Klein explained that there was no need to worry.

"I just didn't have my hand on the trigger," she said.

Snails Take Wing

That's a pretty cool skill!:

Experts on the remote island of Hahajima, 620miles south of Tokyo, made the discovery after studying the dietary habits of the white-eyed Mejiro bird, which feasts on a tiny species of land snail known as Tornatellides Boeningi.

They carried out the research by feeding the snails to the birds under laboratory conditions - and discovered that around 15 per cent of those consumed survived, emerging intact in the birds' droppings.

...The research has also suggested that snails use the birds to spread their populations over a wider area, in the same way that plant seeds are dispersed by fruit-eating birds.

One of the snails which survived the process gave a further indication of this by giving birth shortly after emerging from the bird's gut.

OK, Now Mitch McConnell Is a Traitor

No, McConnell's not a traitor, he just sees the handwriting on the wall and wants the best possible deal while he can still get it:

The verdict is in: conservatives and tea partiers are incensed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's plan to end the debt limit dispute.

McConnell now faces the same kind of angry base President Obama did when he suggested putting entitlements on the table to strike his grand bargain.

Every day that there's no deal, the GOP loses just a little bit more. They have to accept victory now, or risk losing everything!

Of course, victory can cut both ways. Josh Marshall suggests Obama should 'declare victory':

Obama needs to quickly move to declare victory in this thirty-year debate on taxes. Do it now, with the biggest, wickedest grin he can muster while Republicans are in disarray fighting amongst themselves.

Marshall's idea is the dumbest idea ever in human history, seeing how Obama hasn't won a thing yet, but the media people in the Beltway are so captivated by atmospherics and staging of this grand drama that it just might work. In fact, I'm sure it will work!

I know every day that I don't have to go stand in line at the DMV is a good day. So, every day I preemptively declare 'Victory Over The DMV Day', and stage a happy little parade. The only days that don't feature a happy little parade (and that's most days!) are the days when I actually have to go stand in line at the DMV.

The GOP Makes An Offer

NOW is the time for the Democrats to say NO!:

The plan is designed to give President Obama the power to raise the debt limit on his own through the end of his first term, but to force Democrats to take a series of votes on the debt limit in the months leading up to the election. This would stave off the threat of defaulting on national obligations, but keep the charged issues of debt and spending at the center of political debate for months.

Of course, no one says it better than Monty Python:

The Rich Have Been Using Howitzers On Us For Years, But Now It's All Our Fault!

Drama queen, know thyself!:

Ahead of a third consecutive day of meetings on raising the nation's debt ceiling, Republican leaders signaled increasing pessimism about the likelihood of a deal and laid the blame for deteriorating negotiations squarely on President Obama's shoulders.

"I was one of those who had long hoped we could do something big for the country," Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, said in a floor speech Tuesday. "But in my view, the president has presented us with three choices: smoke and mirrors, tax hikes, or default. Republicans choose none of the above."

McConnell said Obama for too long failed to lead on the issue, and since becoming more engaged has only "put the burden on us" and "retreated behind the poll-tested rhetoric of class warfare.

..."Lawmakers are due to return to the White House at 3:45 p.m. EDT for their fourth round of negotiations in six days. Paradoxically, it seems that the more negotiators meet, the more toxic the situation becomes.

Drama, drama, drama! They wouldn't have it any other way!

The Game Changes On August 2

Steve Benen's analysis jibes with what I think. Until the country actually starts defaulting the GOP has all the advantages. They can make any irrational demand they please, because there is no price. Indeed, as August 2nd approaches, we'll start seeing the demands escalate and become ever-more hysterical, because that's how to get the most bang for the buck.

(After spending so much time in the theater, I finally understand how these drama queens think.)

As soon as the country actually starts defaulting, however, the GOP loses every single one of their advantages, and the Dems gain every single advantage. The GOP will be frantic to make a deal, because their constituencies are unusually-exposed to market turmoil, of which there will be much - too much!

My own opinion is that Dems should let the process drag on until November, and let the credit rating of the U.S. be utterly-destroyed, because then there will be no choice but to impose a shocking increase in taxes, which will be paid primarily by the rich (because that's where the money is), and we will stop deficit spending altogether. We will bring an end to the corrupt paradise the rich now enjoy, where others pay the taxes, yet they get the full advantage of the borrowed money, particularly for financing foreign wars. The readjustment will be dreadful, but it will be instructive, and honest, for a change.

In any event, Steve Benen notes:

Adam Serwer wasn’t commenting specifically on the GOP leaders’ comments, but his piece this morning about the bigger picture rings true:

Republicans are furious because President Obama’s gambit — to make himself look like the “adult in the room” by offering Republicans a disastrous but sweeping debt reduction deal that would combine tax increases with cuts to the social safety net — appears to be working. It’s working in the sense that it has revealed for all to see that Republicans aren’t really interested in cutting the debt.

It’s really not even close. On the one hand we have President Obama, who proven himself eager (perhaps too much so) to compromise, ready to make concessions that anger his base, prepared to pursue $4 trillion in debt reduction, and even willing to make risky changes to entitlement programs. When the president told reporters yesterday he’s “bent over backwards to work with the Republicans,” no one anywhere suggested he was wrong.

On the other hand, we have congressional Republicans, who’ve taken the debt limit hostage for the first time in American history, are threatening to crash the economy on purpose, want less debt reduction than the White House, and refuse to compromise on anything.

It’s precisely why David Brooks wrote last week, “If the debt ceiling talks fail, independents voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don’t take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern. And they will be right.”

OK, So Kelsey B Is Working With This Guy....

So time to put Vaski on the radar screen.

Overcoming Those Niggling Fears Of Immediate Death

The problem took about five years to develop.

First, a tree branch slowly began enveloping itself around the electrical line leading to the house from the power line pole, and started brushing up against it. Then, the big branch above started breaking off the tree, in segments. Two weeks ago, the tip of one of those segments fell onto the electrical line, and began weighing it down. Too many more weeks of this kind of chafing, and maybe I would have a real problem!

Clearly, something had to be done. But what? I suppose I could call the electrical utility (SMUD), but the trouble was clearly on my property (even if the tree trunk itself was rooted in the alley, maybe right on the property line). I think this fell under my responsibility.

My hesitation regarded the nature of the electrical line leading to the house. What would happen if I came in contact with it, as I would almost certainly do? What kind of insulation did it have? It always had a metallic look to it, but it just wouldn't make any sense to have that line not be insulated.

But did I know if that line was insulated? For sure? With 100% confidence? No, not really. Sure, birds could touch it, but they aren't grounded, unlike the sorry primate-on-a-ladder who would helpfully provide an electrical ground with his body.

I remember graduate school, when Dr. Sean Twomey told a story about a weekend day long ago, when he was all alone. He touched a piece of equipment and received a powerful electrical jolt. He stood back in surprise for a few seconds to collect his thoughts, when he suddenly realized he was no longer breathing. Unless he could figure out how to breathe again, and soon, he would lose consciousness, and die. Fortunately, he was able to quickly teach himself rudimentary breathing, and save himself from a terrible fate.

But then, sometimes it's not the electrical shock: it's the fall. When I moved to Denver in 1976 to work at Martin Marietta Aerospace, I remember one day when an electrician working on a line in the ceiling got shocked and fell about 20 feet off of a tall ladder. He died about a month later.

So, there were multiple ways of taking a bullet here.

Oh, what the hell! Life is full of risks! I got out the really tall ladder and the extendable tree limb branch trimmer, and got busy. Bailey the Bunny panicked at all the sudden movement in the yard, and hid.

As expected, there was no way to avoid contact with the line. No shock, though. The line was well insulated. Whew! Now I knew, for sure! And I managed to get the tangled branches off the line, and off the tree altogether, without punishing blows or sad falls. No trips to the hospital. No crash courses in Breathing 101.

Some of those branch segments might still pose a problem in the future, but the immediate crisis is abated.

"Peter Pan" - DMTC - Show Closes

Just barely got this photo snapped before Final Thank Yous ended after Final Bows.

A very successful run! Indeed, DMTC had to add an extra performance just to handle the throngs!

Upcoming at DMTC, starting this weekend, is "Peter Pan - A New Musical Adventure" (similar story, different script, different production team, and for the most part, younger actors.)

Colorful Freight Car

On the UPRR siding just outside Sudwerks, in Davis.

Zombies Plunder San Francisco

On Facebook, Chloe C., who lives in the Bay Area, posted this photo.

At least she is forewarned. Newspaper cutbacks are making it harder and harder to stay informed and to receive even important news. The news these days can come from any direction: TV, blogs, Comedy Central, the Onion, even your friends.

And even from helpful roadside signs.

Where The Government Jobs Are (Or Were)

Local and state governments are where the action is (the Feds contracted out a lot of their work).

Eat Your Vegetables

Several weeks ago, I got a frantic call from Joe The Plumber. "Quick, come home from work! There's a real pretty girl at the door selling vegetables! I'm trying to stall her and keep her here, but she's trying to leave!"

So, not wanting to miss seeing a pretty girl selling vegetables, I quickly departed work for home.

I arrived too late, and the pretty girl was gone, so we started wandering up and down the sidewalks trying to find her. Eventually we found her down the street, and I ended by signing up for a biweekly box of vegetables delivered to my door by "Farm Fresh To You". The selling point for me was that the vegetables are from the Capay Valley, an area I've always liked. (And the girl's prettiness didn't hurt either.)

The question now is whether I'll eat all the vegetables. I'm not real big on vegetables. I'm bigger on things like Dairy Queen chocolate-dipped soft-serve cones. But it can't hurt having vegetables around. I whomped up some vegetable stir-fry last night, and the vegetables were tasty, particularly the interesting-looking tomatoes (meaning they don't look like store-bought plastic orbs, but instead showed stripes and other signs of variety and individual distinctiveness).

E. looks askance at these vegetables, because they haven't passed through the extensive vetting process provided by Belair Supermarkets. Which is exactly the point of having organic farm-grown vegetables, in my view.

S. says these vegetables are likely to be too expensive, at least when compared to other sources. She may be right, for all I know, but a slackard like me probably wouldn't seek out those other sources anyway. Having vegetables mysteriously appear every two weeks on my doorstep is an important signal that it is time to eat more vegetables. Especially if I think they were delivered by a pretty girl!

Bailey the Bunny also approves of the carrots....

Predictability Is A Liability

With my predictable ways, I'd be "DOA" in Juarez!:

The smugglers selected their targets by placing lookouts at the port of entry who identified vehicles that daily used the SENTRI express lane, according to the affidavit. Once a vehicle and driver were selected, the smugglers would secretly obtain the car's vehicle identification number. The VIN was then used to make spare keys for that car.

The keys would be used at night by smugglers to unlock the car, put drugs in it and lock it. The next morning, the drivers would get in their cars and drive to El Paso -- without ever knowing that drugs had been placed in the vehicles overnight.

...The FBI affidavit says Chavez and Gomez targeted professionals and students who travel to El Paso on regular schedules using the express line. After obtaining the VIN, Chavez and Gomez would provide it to a Texas locksmith to prepare two keys for the vehicle. The men in El Paso would keep one of the keys, while the other would be given to their Juárez-based co-conspirators, the affidavit states.

...The recorded telephone calls show that the alleged smugglers worried about Martinez and even discussed whether they should write a letter on her behalf. One of the suspects said Martinez was targeted because she was punctual and predictable when commuting across the border.

"We have seen that girl (Martinez Amaya) for about a year because she's like a clock, boss," Gomez stated in a recorded call. "At 5:00 -- she was there. Boom-boom-boom! Always."