Friday, October 23, 2015

Hurricane Patricia Will Rock Our Worlds

Here comes Patricia, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded! After she annihilates the Mexican coast and thrashes the interior, she'll take a whack at Texas.

It strikes me the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is too complacent about the forecast impacts of Patricia on Texas. NHC states:

"After landfall, a combination of the mountainous terrain of Mexico and increasing shear should cause the cyclone to rapidly weaken, with the system likely to dissipate completely after 36 hours.

...The global models continue to depict the development of a cyclone near the Texas coast over the weekend. This system should be non-tropical in nature."

If Patricia follows a path a little further south than NHC's forecast path (as the NVG model suggests), the new cyclone could very well be tropical in nature, or at the least, a mixed tropical/mid-latitude system. The Weather Channel notes:

"According to NOAA, the combination of a stalled front and moisture from two eastern Pacific hurricanes caused extreme flooding along the Guadalupe River and in the San Antonio area Oct. 17-18, 1998.

More than 30 inches of rain was estimated to have fallen in 36 hours between San Antonio and Austin near San Marcos, NOAA said."

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Texas Rain Event Coming

Texas is going to be caught flat-footed by this upcoming rain event!

The weather has been disturbed for the last two weeks over the Caribbean and southern Mexico, but not quite enough to make a hurricane threatening U.S. shores. I was hoping we'd escape the danger, but maybe not.

Hurricane Patricia in the Pacific Ocean is forecast to crash into Mexico's coast not far from Puerto Vallarta Friday evening, rapidly cross Mexico before it has a chance to weaken much, then rebuild right over the Texas Gulf Coast Saturday evening, possibly back to hurricane strength. I don't see much in the way of warnings either. Instant Noah's Ark!

The Texas Law Hawk

The decorum to floor 'em.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Perfume

E.: Has that Hungarian woman gone? She was wearing that terrible perfume! Europeans have to go all around smelling everything up!

M.: ??? I didn't smell anything....

E.: Like my friend, Rosa, from Peru. She wears very strong perfume.

M.: ??? Peru isn't in Europe.

E.: (Exasperated) You know what I mean!

Southwestern Corner of My Front Porch

This has been my anguish for the last several weeks, dealing with the front porch. Got mad at Joe the Plumber and fired him. Hired the Hungarian. Spent a ton of money. It's done, but I need to paint it, and probably have a week or so before the t=rains start coming down.

On The Pronunciation of Tucumcari

Ask Sergio Leone....

Traditional Television Watching is Collapsing

Holy crap! Traditional television watching is collapsing among all but the oldest Americans. Even toddlers are watching less! The boob tube grabbed Americans by both ears in the 1950's and maintained a death grip ever since. But since 2010, the grip is slackening.....


Just A Few More Steps To War Against All Palestinians

Benjamin Netanyahu hates the Palestinians so much he's buying into fringe theories that Hitler wasn't responsible for the Holocaust but Palestinians are:
But even in this context, al-Husseini was an extreme case, a thoroughgoing anti-Semite who completely embraced Hitler and Nazism and spent the war years in Germany working in various ways on behalf of the Nazis. There's really nothing good to be said about the guy. (Not that it's terribly relevant, but I'm not sure what the reference to al Husseini's dying after the war in Cairo is about. As far as I know he died in Beirut in the 70s.)

All that said, al-Husseini didn't convince Hitler to exterminate European Jewry. Hitler didn't need to convinced. (It's hard to believe this requires saying.) As bad as he was, al-Husseini was a insignificant small fry in the tragic drama of the final years of the Third Reich.

Texas = Crazy

The Norwegians know. It didn't help, in 2005, when Jenna Bush used the "Hook 'em Horns" salute, which is Satanic, as all Norwegians know:
The reputation of Texas extends so far beyond U.S. borders that it has become slang for “crazy” in Norway.

Texas Monthly noted this week that the word “helt Texas” was being routinely used by Norwegians instead of “completely crazy” or “chaotic.”

And it’s not just on social media, Norway’s media has been including the phrase to describe everything from sporting events to a biologist finding a tropical swordfish in Norwegian waters.

“In Norwegian, ‘texas’ means mayhem and chaos, as in cowboys punching each other and breaking chairs over each other’s heads,” according to a Tumblr page cited by Texas Monthly. Some say the tradition dates back as far as the 1970s.

The Austin American-Statesman dug up a Reddit discussion from earlier this year where one Norwegian explained what Texas meant to him.

“It’s basically an idiom at this point,” the Redditor wrote. “When I think of the word I picture a cowboy crashing a party and shooting two revolvers into the air. ‘It’s completely texas!!'”

Final Circle of Ewok Hell

I had been reading about bankruptcy reform shortly before I fell asleep, so when I was awakened at o'dark thirty by an insistent nozzle trying to get at my mouth, I figured it was vampire squid Goldman Sachs (in the memorable words of Matt Taibbi) trying to relentlessly jam it's blood funnel down my throat again for more money, but instead it was Bella, just wanting to play with her brand new Star Wars Ewok chew toy.

Egads, Bella destroyed the Ewok! There's Ewok all over the bedroom!

Universal Revulsion Toward The Albuquerque Road Rage Incident

Not far from my high school:
Four-Year-Old Fatally Shot in Head in Albuquerque Road Rage Incident

Coast To Coast AM Discusses The Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Old Town Albuquerque

Richie Sykes sends this. Never been to this Chapel, even though it's just off the beaten path in Old Town. Glad it's getting some press, especially from infinitely-polite (and infinitely gullible, but if it makes for a good radio show, no one cares, it's all good) George Noory. Heck, it's almost Halloween!
A ghost known as "The Lady in Black" haunts a chapel built by nuns in the Old Town District of Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to eyewitness accounts.

In a chilling C2C interview, Charlie Frates, a ghost tour guide, shared the tale of a chapel believed to be haunted by a woman clad in Victorian garb from the days of the Old West.

Inside the eerie, pitch-black chapel where no candles or any other form of lighting was allowed, the haunted chapel was a popular paranormal hot spot for Frates' Old Town ghost tours, he said.

But, after a series of disturbing encounters that sent terrified witnesses to the hospital, it's now off limits to visitors.

"Get To LA" - Kelsey B

Congratulations, Kelsey B! Liking the Johan Holt Club Mix.

Trump Will Filet Bush Like a Fish

Jeb Bush may not have even thought about how he can square "Benghazi! Benghazi" with 9/11 before this instant. People have tended to forget Richard Clarke and the "Bin Laden determined to attack US" memo, but Donald Trump remembers, as do we all.

Trey Gowdy is a Cheating Sleazeball Who Just Caught Red-Handed By The CIA

Clinton's E-Mails make good political hay. First, the GOP use them to create false documents. Then, Clinton's E-Mail revealed that Tony Blair promised George Bush he'd support an Iraq invasion right off, a year before he bothered telling the British public.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland):
To further inflate your claim, you placed your own redactions over the name of the individual with the words, “redacted due to sources and methods.” To be clear, these redactions were not made, and these words were not added, by any agency of the federal government responsible for enforcing classification guidelines.

Predictably, commentators began repeating your accusations in even more extreme terms, suggesting in headlines for example that “Clinton Burns CIA Libya Contact.”

Contrary to your claims, the CIA yesterday informed both the Republican and Democratic staffs of the Select Committee that they do not consider the information you highlighted in your letter to be classified. Specifically, the CIA confirmed that “the State Department consulted with the CIA on this production, the CIA reviewed these documents, and the CIA made no redactions to protect classified information.”

"Sicario"

Saturday night, saw "Sicario", a CIA thriller about the Mexican-U.S. border. Predictably, there was too much Hollywood and video game flash for my taste. It's no surprise the mayor of Cuidad Juarez is urging a boycott of the movie. Narcotraficante violence is more targeted than the movie portrays. Juarez isn't Beirut West, and since the Mexican Federales have had many recent successes, murder rates have dropped a lot since 2012. I was baffled by Emily Blunt's superfluous-seeming character, which apparently is meant to draw the viewer into the action.

Still, much of the movie was filmed near my home city of Albuquerque, with a major scene filmed in my hometown of Corrales (whose location I didn't recognize), so I was totally jazzed. I still need to figure out some of these locations. A shoutout to extras Jason Lobo Sedillo and his son, who can clearly be seen in the film's last scene (representing Nogales, Sonora, but filmed at Laguna Pueblo)!

"He Named Me Malala"

After Friday evening hip hop, I was in the mood to eat popcorn, so went to the Tower Theater, called "He Named Me Malala", about the work of Malala Yousafzai and her father to promote literacy in general, and Afghan girl's education in particular, that nearly got her killed. Can't feel anything but admiration for them both. Interestingly, the movie features animation to illustrate events more than a few years old, which lends a nostalgic distance.

Also notable is that politics is downplayed, which seems remarkable considering the subject material. The Taliban may have targeted them, in part, because they were seen as too close to the Americans, but the filmmakers don't mention it, since the Taliban was probably going to target them anyway. (I worry about the political context because the Pentagon has used support for girls education to enlist American support for the Afghan war in general, without regard for the lives of people put very much at risk by doing so.)

The Not OK Corral

Those damned Earps:
An historical reenactment of the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral turned bloody Sunday afternoon when one of the actors involved fired real bullets instead of the planned blanks, Tombstone, Ariz., marshals said.

Tom Carter of the Tombstone Vigilante reenactment group allegedly arrived late and didn’t have his six-shooter properly checked before the O.K. Corral skit. Another actor, Ken Curtis, was shot in the upper groin.

Who Are You?

(October 17th) I was sitting in a car in a convenience store parking at I-5 & Laguna Blvd. in Elk Grove. A turkey circled the car and peered inside, as if to say, "Who are you?" I peered out through the windows as if to say the same thing.

Laure Courtellemont Coming to Sacramento on December 11th

Laure Courtellemont is an amazing dancer, and a hella charismatic dance instructor too. It's a privilege just to be in her presence. La Toya says Laure will next come to Sacramento on December 11th, so save the date!

Avante-Guard Dog

How El Niñoish Is It?

Very El Niñoish! Paging back through the history of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), it hasn't been this El Niñoish since April, 1998.

Sigh. I just hope it eventually means rain.....

Record High Temperature For October 13th In Sacramento

Woot! We shoot, we win at Global Warming Ground Zero.
Sacramento Executive Airport reported a high of 96 degrees, topping the previous record of 94 degrees set in 1991, said Nathan Owen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Downtown Sacramento had a high of 95 degrees, also topping the record of 94 degrees in 1991.

Modesto also recorded a high of 96 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 93 degrees set in 2010, and Stockton topped out at 98 degrees, three degrees above the previous record high of 95 degrees reported in 1978.

Game Night

Nietzsche's 'Eternal Recurrence' means there is always a Game Night, and that it hardly ever ends any differently.

Nothing To See Here

(October 9th) It's not even 9 p.m., and the nocturnals are already out. As I sat in my car in the parking lot behind Step One, I saw a raccoon slip into the shadows next to the building, pretending to be a bush.

"The Addams Family" - RTAA - Final Performance

Fun show in Roseville!

Ryan Adame as Gomez and Jessica McKillican as Morticia led this enjoyable cast. Christi Axelson made an excellent Alice Beineke.

Certain good performances. Kyleigh Cerro as Wednesday Addams and Brett Young as Pugsley had excellent singing voices.

Fester (Colton Archey) and Lurch (Doug Coleman) were good too.

Fun to see Andy Sullivan playing percussion in the pit.