Author Archives: momdude

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About momdude

Space cadet | Family dude | Photographer | Music lover | Traveler | Science fiction fan | Hugo Award nominee | Writer | 5x NASA Social participant | KC Chiefs fan | LA Kings fan | Senior Director of Finance & Administration for ALS Network | Member & former staff Finance Officer at the Commemorative Air Force SoCal Wing | Hard core left-wing liberal | Looking for whatever other shenanigans I can get into
March 12, 2019 · 23:24

Punk Roots

I’ve spoken of my pretty wide-ranging musical tastes, everything from rock to classical to musicals to country to EDM to… You get the idea. I think I’ve got stuff in my playlist from just about everything except gospel. (One must maintain certain standards!)

I’ve also mentioned Sirius/XM’s “First Wave” channel playing all of the punk and alternative music of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Ramones. X. Frank Zappa, Depeche Mode. Pet Shop Boys. Duran Duran. Eurythmics. New Order. The Cure. Blondie. The Go-gos. In particular, I’ve mentioned their “Saturday Night Safety Dance,” an eight-hour show every Saturday night where they play all of the long remix cuts from the dance clubs of the day.

I’m a huge fan.

Now Sirius/XM has added to their app and online programming a hundred or so “special channels.” These are similar to the regular, satellite broadcast channels, but without DJs and with a subset of the big channels selections. A “workout” mix of upbeat songs, an “electronic” mix, a “British” mix, etc.

There’s a “First Wave Party” channel now that’s pretty much the Saturday Night Safety Dance 24/7/365. This might have made my day!

So on go the really good headphones, up goes the volume, and let’s see what’s on…

The first song up was “88 Lines About 44 Women” by The Nails, one of my ALL. TIME. FAVORITES. I think they knew I was coming.

And next was “The Wait” by The Pretenders. Which might not be my favorite song, but has a lot of memories associated with it. It took me right back to when I first got hooked hard on punk and alternative music. At the time I was…

Wait. It’s late. Maybe I’ll tell that story tomorrow.

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Filed under Music

March 11, 2019 · 23:16

esrevinU ehT gnilttaB

!sdrawkcab ti gniod tsuj m’I ebyaM

)skool yi naht redrah hcum s’ti dna – siht od uoy nehw tuo skaerf kcehclleps ,IYF(

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Silly Shit

March 10, 2019 · 23:54

Battling The Universe

Trying to shape the Universe to the image of what it should be is exhausting. And frustrating. Also, I’m not being terribly successful at the moment.

Some part of my brain that got infected by the 70’s says I should let go, stop battling the tide, but instead go with it, learn to be one with it, understand the ebbs and flows and in turn gain the wisdom to shape it, not by force, but by persuasion.

Another particularly smartass part of my brain is now thinking of the movie version of “Dune” with Kyle MacLachlan riding a sandworm – I like the smartass part of my brain, but it’s not always the most useful. Like now.

So, turning our attention back to the sliver of brain that’s stuck in the 70’s, it’s suggesting that I learn to surf (the power of the ocean can not be overcome, but can be partnered with to bring fluidity, joy, and motion, blah blah blah) or ski (ditto with the big mountains, lots of snow, ice, avalanches, polar bears, etc). That brain sliver conveniently forgets that I swim about as well as your average cinder block so surfing is contraindicated, and I already know how to ski but I hate being cold and that’s a big part of why I haven’t been on skis in more than forty-five years.

70’s brain sliver is gonna get me killed.

Stupid brain.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul

March 9, 2019 · 23:17

Random Observation – March 09th

Going to a full-court press with 6:00 left while you’re down 75-35 despite being a heavy favorite probably means you’ve waited to long to make adjustments.

It occurs to me that this is probably true in many aspects of life, not just college basketball.

Oh, and have I mentioned how much I freaking ***HATE*** switching back and forth for Daylight Saving Time? (I have.) This is why I want to live on or near the equator. Twelve hours of light, twelve hours of darkness, 365 days a year.

Too many moving parts sometimes, a little ration of boring predictability can go a long way.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts

March 8, 2019 · 23:57

Patterns & Trends

One of my jobs working my way through college all those decades ago was as  a night auditor at a hotel. It’s where I learned accounting, which is pretty much what I’ve done in one form or the other for the past forty years, so I guess some of it must have stuck. One of the things I learned as an auditor, where you’re sort of looking for things that are wrong or off-kilter, is to look at patterns and trends.

In other professions where folks are looking for problems, looking for failure points, looking for root causes of accidents, patterns and trends are a key indicator in the data to point the way to the truth. That assembly line used to fail once a month, then every other week, now every week? Your car used to never burn oil, then it started using a little, now you’re down a quart every month? Your airline used to lose x bags a month, then it was 2x bags a month, now it’s 3x?

Something is wrong!

So it is with some concern I note that I have twice this week just simply forgotten to post my daily something here. Yesterday I actually had the photos and a story and had downloaded them from my phone…and then I just forgot to finish and post.

Something is wrong! In the nearly six years that I’ve had this site up, I can just about count on one hand the number of days when I didn’t post, and in almost all of those cases there was a reason. Twice in five days to just forget?!

That’s annoying.

Pictures from the parking lot last night, after the storms.

There have been a LOT of storms. The average rainfall in Los Angeles through this point in the season is 11.61″. The average rainfall in Los Angeles for an entire year is 14.93″. As of Wednesday we were at 17.99″ already, it rained yesterday, there’s more rain coming late this weekend, and we still have many months to go in the season. (I think it goes November 1st through October 31st.)

Somewhere in those pictures should be a very, very thin crescent moon. I didn’t see it when I took the pictures but I did see it just a few minutes later when I got home. I’ve looked at the pictures and can’t see it – maybe it was hiding behind one of those clouds. Or maybe you can find it.

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Filed under Paul, Photography, Weather

March 6, 2019 · 22:51

No Context For You – March 06th

The devout, well brainwashed, compliant seven year-old Catholic school kid buried deep down inside me (trust me, he was is a real sanctimonious little prick) wants to give up something for Lent. Something grand and noble and… sanctimonious, like Diet Coke, chocolate, fear, or hatred.

The significantly older atheist who now occupies this meat suit (who might still be a real prick on a regular basis, but at least he’s not sanctimonious about it) wants to give up all of the crap that makes getting out of bed in the morning such a pain in the ass. But since that crap pays the bills and is required for that whole “responsible adult” thing, that’s not gonna happen either.

Someone online suggested giving up hope for Lent – they may be onto something. But that seems extreme and I’m too tired for anything extreme. So maybe I’ll just give up caring instead.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography

March 5, 2019 · 20:48

Sky Boom

We’ve got a bit of weather moving through tonight – I love this! And with an iPhone with a pretty good video camera built in, I can share:

It also does pretty good frame captures:

There actually is the faintest trace of the bolt still visible in that last shot – click on it to blow up the image to full screen size to see it.

It’s still booming out there, but about fifteen minutes ago another cell passed right over us, it started pouring, and the temperature dropped about 15°F in about five minutes. I’ll watch from inside for now.

 

 

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Filed under Photography, Video, Weather

March 4, 2019 · 23:11

Frost Redux

For the first time since they started keeping records, there wasn’t a single day in February when it got to 70°F in downtown Los Angeles. The last day it reached 70°F was January 29th – current forecast says it won’t get there anytime soon. The forecast through March 13th doesn’t show it getting above 67°F.

If you think this somehow is a bit of evidence that disproves climate change, you’re an idiot.

 

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Filed under Los Angeles, Photography, Weather

March 3, 2019 · 22:57

Abstract Glass

To my simple eye there is a great deal of beauty and spectacle to be found in the patterns and glitter and reflections of cheap glass, lights, and mirrors of hotel ballroom lights.

 

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Filed under Art, Photography

March 1, 2019 · 12:49

Pre-Event Builder’s Ball 2019

If you’ve been here a while you might remember our annual Builder’s Ball fundraising event at Homes for Families, where I work. It’s tonight, so today will be a long, long day of setup, followed by a long, long evening of wonderful event & then tear down.

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Filed under Homes4Families, Photography