It’s good advice. And it’s all yours for $17.99 from the Houblog Storeblog! Well, ok, it’s not a blog. It’s just a Cafepress store. With t-shirts. And other things too.
We now return you to our irregularly scheduled rants and animé.
Well, thanks to the $$$ crunch from dental work and other things, I had to halt my animé purchases for a while. I managed to hang tight while beating down the credit cards, but I was starting to get the shakes, see Skuld lurking with a bomb around every corner, and have odd dreams involving giant robots and cute girls. When I found myself plotting the fastest way to deal with Hezbollah positions in Lebannon using combat maid androids, I decided I’d best get my fix before I started calling NASA to see if they’d spotted any green-haired alien babes on the recent shuttle mission.
Sooooooo, I just contacted my pusher through his super-seekrit online order form, and had him send me several hours worth of mind crack:
Excel Saga Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Divergence Eve Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Mars Daybreak, Vol #6 DVD
Godannar, Vol #5, International Affairs DVD
Starship Operators, Vol #1, Revolution DVD
Excel Saga: I’ve heard too much about this one for too long, mostly thanks to TRG. Got to check it out; this show sounds seriously demented. Fits me to a ‘T’.
Divergence Eve: I just can’t pass up those cows! I mean pilots. Pilots! Whatever. The second series has gotten rave reviews but you gotta see this one first or nothing makes sense.
Mars Daybreak: Finally finishing this series off. I hate to say it, but I started having problems with Vess on the last DVD. She went from “I want to kill Gram” to “I want to kiss Gram” a bit too quickly. One thing though, her dad is definately in cahoots with the big conspiricy.
Godannar: Robots and scantilly clad babes. How can I argue with that? Two more after this one, and then I’m done. I have to admit, my interest is slacking a bit in it. The story is thin, and when they start giving you stats on the monsters, you know they’ve skimped on the plot.
Starship Operators: Sorta obligated myself to buy this series by watching the fansubs. It’s the best damn space-military show since Banner of the Stars. Although there’s not many fleet engagements, every battle is tense and well done. Only negative is that they have a tendency towards “Geordi LaForge” solutions from the first officer. And the ending is rather ambiguous, which was my biggest problem with the series.
Ah My Goddess! didn’t make the cut this month, but now that I’ll have finished off Mars Daybreak, I’m thinking a smaller order might be in order late next month, and I can pick it up then. Also, I need to see the reviews on “This Ugly Yet Beautiful World.” I couldn’t decide from the pre-release publicity if it was worthwhile or just another thin plot with fanservice tacked on.
And now, back to your usual programming.
Come on guys, can’t you get more than one sentence out without cracking me up?
Yet more photos from last Saturday’s outing.
This is one of the automated ticket dispensers.
The screen was very dim and difficult to read unless I stood close by to shadow it with my body. I also was rather annoyed at the error-trapping; a day-pass was two dollars, but when I put $1 in and then discovered I didn’t have a second dollar bill, it refused to take a $5. Fortunately, Neal was quite the gentleman and covered it for me.
UPDATE: Go here for maps of Metro’s alternate plans, just released.
Continuing the series based on photos taken during yesterday’s Danger Train outing, here’s several pictures of where the rail repeatedly crosses other roads in order to get from Main to Fannin. Several of these crossovers are at shallow angles, resulting in difficult and confusing crossings. Neal got one picture of a truck trapped on the wrong side of a crossing gate that I hope to link to eventually.
This photo shows exactly what i’m talking about when it comes to “shallow-angle crossings.”
EDIT: Other blogs and stuff:
WriteTeacher’s account and pics (including a vacant building).
Isiah Carey of Fox 26 covers the gang! Twice!
Kevin’s photos from that day! (Check out the schedule I asked him to get a picture of).
Head below the fold for more.
Continue reading
I actually have enough material to comment and put pictures up for several days, so keep checking back. One point we all agreed on was that while we got some good pictures and found out many interesting things, there was much more we could have done, or gotten pictures of. This is something we need to do again. It would be helpful if we had an actual videocamera and could set up to film an intersection as trains passed through. While both mine and Neal’s cameras had video modes, we didn’t have good enough angles to get the pictures we needed from inside the train, plus the lack of memory space hampered both of us.
We started out at the Preston street platform and rode north to the UH station. We spent about twenty minutes there admiring the senic view of Buffalo Bayou. As an extra bonus, you can enjoy a picture of my finger, too!:
I’m going to post this picture out of sequence. It’s one of the (now blocked-off) crosswalks on Main. Note the colors of the bricks. Apparently, the idea was to mark the traffic lanes in black-on-red, while the train lanes were marked in red-on-black. Only after a year of rubber and oil drippings, the red has dulled to look barely different from the black.
So what?
So this, headed south from UH-downtown:
Both traffic lanes are on one side of the tracks. Note the confusing situation that a driver faces here. If you’re lucky, you can look at this photo at leisure and figure everything out. If you’re unlucky, you’re approaching a green light, looking for the UHD Visitor’s Parking, wondering why an oncoming car is facing you, and have only split seconds to understand everything you’re seeing here!
“If you or any of your passengers should be injured, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your driving ability. Good luck, Jim.”
Continue reading
I had a great time at the Danger Train outing yesterday! Quite tiring to this sedentary bureaucrat and my camera was full, so I bailed after the meal and went home to relax. Meeting with everyone was fun, and the food was good. What more could you ask for? (Aside from a safer train, that is.)
I’m working up a full post to follow this one (will be late today or this evening before it’s ready) but I thought I’d leave readers with these two pictures:
As Ann says, when you turn on Main, the tracks are right there! (I love the sign in the upper right. “Well, duh!”)
But here’s the part that made me cheer when I looked at the photo this morning. Look at the traffic light! Remember, I’m taking this photo from near the front of the train, which is in the intersection at this point….
This was not the only time it happened. I saw another green, and a yellow, but my memory chip was full by the time I saw them. I was disappointed that I’d missed getting such a picture–only thanks to Mr. Moron Driver, I hadn’t after all.
I’m not going to cross-post the full text here, but readers of my agenda analysis might want to head over to BlogHOUSTON to read up on the whacky hijinks of Boss Hogg Mayor White’s crew in the Housing and Community Development Department. It doesn’t looke like much has changed since Outta Town Brown was in charge.
An excerpt:
17. Review and possible recommendation of an ordinance authorizing the modification of the existing loan in the amount of $1,013,918.33 to APTDF, Ltd. converting $513,918.33 to a grant and extending the maturity date on the remaining $500,000 loan balance for an additional 30 months.
Emphasis added. Well, if first you forgive over half the loan, and then extend the other half, it’s fair to say the recipient was poor risk. APTDF appears to stand for “Apartments–Deerfield,” a complex probably most famous for having had some entrepreneurial guards back in 2005. But this isn’t the first time their name has surfaced, attached to problems in the HCDD.
So drop by and check out the fun parts…
Well, anyone who follows the local blog scene has probably already seen the announcement over at BlogHouston: I am accepting Kevin’s invitation to join their staff as a contributing writer. That is going to mean some changes to Houblog as well. Primarily, my “city-oriented” posts, including the agenda summaries, will be moving to BlogHouston. I’ll still be posting on the city here, but it will be more along the line of opinion pieces, the really snarky stuff, union advertisements, and brief one-liner comments. This means that, while my total posting won’t increase, Houblog readers will find a proportionally smaller amount of local “news” here as opposed to opinion, national/world scope stuff, general interest, and yes, anime!
Hardcore political junkies will probably still need to keep an eye on Houblog, since BlogHouston isn’t the proper place for my longer, rambling posts where I delve into the background and history of the city’s politics, but for more immediate, news-driven commentary and analysis, well, that’s going to be over at BlogHouston now.
It’s blog sweeps month? Nobody told me! Time for an anime post! And boy, do I have the fanservice this time. In fact, I’ve got so much of it, I have to put it below the fold. I also have to put this warning on it: While the thumbnails are merely risque’, some uptight businesses (probably even my own) would consider them NSFW. And when I start using text links to the pictures…. look out because that stuff is definately NOT Safe For Work! (Yes, I might have botched the aspect ratio again. Or maybe it’s just those two shots. Sorry all, but I just don’t have time to take eighty pictures again and then cull them.)
How to describe this show? Well, it’s farcical, it’s comical, it parodies anime, it’s loaded with fanservice that pushes bulldozes the line into ecchi, and it’s completely, utterly, irredeemably silly. It hasn’t got a serious bone in it’s body, yet it’s not a comedy, it’s not exactly a farce, it’s not always a parody, and sometimes, it almost gets serious. Almost. As I watched it, I finally realized why it seemed familar. It’s another Martian Successor Nadesico, only not as good — but with a lot more fanservice to cover up that fact. (I’m pretty certain it was made from a hentai game after seeing episode 14.)
The agenda seems to have settled into a more normal length, now that the major budget resolutions have passed. This time, I managed to lay hands on the RCA and backup before the weekend, so I’m posting the agenda and comments based on the backup all at once.
Readers are cautioned that I delete what I judge to be extraneous text, and often paraphrase in order to make the legalese a lot more readable; also that comments added are a mix of my own opinions, best guesses, snarking, and judgements, and therefore may not be entirely accurate. Such deletions may accidentally result in a key omission; if you wish to read the original text, please follow the link in the sidebar to the posted agenda. For a permanent link to the backup, go here.
Reader Tom Bazan received the following e-mail, which he forwarded to me. It excerpts a magazine’s discussion of a new metro-area rail line. The kicker at the end was so funny, I just had to post it here, verbatim.
From the present terminus at City Hall Park, express trains are to be dispatched during the rush hours at two minutes’ intervals. They will make stops at Fourteenth, Forty-second, Seventy-second, Ninety-sixth Streets, and the whole run to One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Street will be made in 16.5 minutes. (NOTE: This is 9.5 miles of track.)
The average running speed of the Rapid Transit express trains, including stops, will be 38 miles per hour; and this means that, at times, the speed will rise to 50 miles an hour, and occasionally over that. The local trains will have an average speed of 18 miles per hour…
The express stations will be located at intervals of a little less than 2 miles, while the local stations will average about four to the mile.
That an average speed of 18 miles per hour can be maintained with stations only a quarter of a mile apart is due to the rapid acceleration which is possible by electric traction, and also to the fact that the local stations are placed a few feet above the average grade of the line-an arrangement under which gravity assists the retardation of the train in approaching the station, and increases the acceleration when the train is running down hill at starting.
The kicker was added by the writer who sent the above to Tom. Click to read it: Continue reading
Item #23 on last week’s agenda was the approval and funding of an contract for architectural services for the construction of an African-American library in the city of Houston. Strangely, the backup was missing from the RCA stored online by the City Secretary’s office. Just to remind everyone, the RCA/agenda backup is not normally available via the internet, even though the document is online. It is stored solely within the city’s intranet, and is not available publicly.
The minutes and prior agendas are available online here, but they’re running a bit behind, and the 7/5/06 agenda isn’t stored there yet. Presumably, the minutes aren’t stored until officialy adopted, but they’re a week behind on those too. I noticed that the 7/5 preliminary minutes were available (edit: on the intranet), and also managed to find some info on the African American library, which I extracted, and it is available here. High points are below the fold. Continue reading
Was this a massive failure of common sense or a bureacratic snafu over who was in charge? My money is on both. In a news story carried by the Chronicle today, we learn that the TSA let a man with bomb components and modified shoes board a flight at Hobby — because an HPD officer said so. In what has to be an example of the chronic short-handedness of HPD, the officer has (so far) only been transferred to a desk job, and predictably, both sides are pointing fingers at each other:
Although the FBI eventually cleared the man of wrongdoing, police officials have transferred the officer involved and are investigating the incident while insisting that the TSA, not police, has the authority to keep a suspicious person from boarding a flight.
TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said screeners have the authority to stop people from going beyond the checkpoint to the boarding areas, but they rely heavily on local police.
“It’s just agencies talking with each other,” Ready said, downplaying the disagreement.
One suspects the talking is being done in loud tones, involves name-calling, and is accompanied by fists banging on tables. So what happened?
The report states that a man with a Middle Eastern name and a ticket for a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta shook his head when screeners asked if he had a laptop computer in his baggage, but an X-ray machine operator detected a laptop.
A search of the man’s baggage revealed a clock with a 9-volt battery taped to it and a copy of the Quran, the report said. A screener examined the man’s shoes and determined that the “entire soles of both shoes were gutted out.”
No explosive material was detected, the report states. A police officer was summoned and questioned the man, examined his identification, shoes and the clock, then cleared him for travel, according to the report.
A TSA screener disagreed with the officer, saying “the shoes had been tampered with and there were all the components of (a bomb) except the explosive itself,” the report says.
The officer retorted, “I thought y’all were trained in this stuff,” TSA officials reported.
The report says the TSA screener notified Delta Airlines and talked again with the officer, who said he had been unable to check the passenger’s criminal background because of computer problems.
I suppose that someone might take a small battery-powered alarm clock with them on a trip, but why gut the soles of your shoes? I guess what this means is that so as long as you have an accomplice pre-position the explosive and the police can’t check their computer, you can take all sorts of bomb apparatus on board an airplane in Houston. But here’s the capper:
Meanwhile the officer involved in the dispute, J.O. Reece, has been transferred to a desk job, “the same place they send officers who are relieved of duty,” said Chad Hoffman, attorney for the Houston Police Officers Union.
Hoffman said Reece doesn’t understand why he was transferred “when it seems clear from the onset of the investigation that he didn’t have probable cause to detain anybody and that his actions were consistent with the law and HPD policy.”
First, I should think that this idiot would be relieved of duty. Put him somewhere that he doesn’t have to make a decision affecting people’s safety, because he obviously lacks the judgement to to put common sense over some kind of poorly written policy. And on that score, I have only one question:
Did ex-chief Sam Nuchia write that policy too?
