OTBR: A Drainage Ditch in Las Vegas

Latitude: N 36° 13.638
Longitude: W 115° 19.560

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Lesser of Two Evils, Drive-Thru Edition

My mom wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes but I didn't want her to. It was either:
1.) I let her drive drunk to get them herself.
2.) I get her the pack of cigarettes.
I chose to get her a pack of cigarettes because it was the lesser of two evils.

Source: Urban Dictionary.

Cigarettes or drunk driving? Gas station or drive-through Starbucks? Are there no better options?

The Richardson City Council will consider a request for a permit to build a drive-through Starbucks (no inside seating) at the corner of Belt Line and Central Expressway, replacing a gas station that's there now.

After the jump, how to choose between two evils.

Repeat Tweets: Being 27 and Not a Real Person Yet

Repeat tweets from July, 2014:

• Jul 6 2014: Frances Ha (2012): Young dancer in NY struggles with career, rent, friends. Compelling look at being 27 and "not a real person yet." B+
  
• Jul 8 2014: The Time That Remains (2009): Palestinian family's life from 1948-present. Visually lush. Story is absurd, surreal, numbing all at once. C+
  
• Jul 10 2014: Nebraska (2013): Aging, confused father travels with hapless son to Nebraska to claim $1 million prize. Poignant. Small town black humor. A-
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

City of God (2002)

IMDB

City of God (2002): Stories from the slums of Rio. Poverty. Drugs. Crime. One boy wants out. Unfamiliar setting for a timeless story. A-

Kenai Fjords Fjor the Win!

From 2014 07 06 Kenai Fjords

There's a tradition in our family where every family member picks their favorite thing about each vacation - a place, an activity, whatever. For our recent vacation in Alaska, Kenai Fjords National Park gets the nod. I knew nothing about the park before the trip, now it's my favorite place in Alaska. It has mountains, glaciers, the sea, and wildlife. We saw harbor seals, Steller sea lions, sea otters, Dall's porpoises, humpback whales, tufted puffins, horned puffins, black oystercatchers, mew gulls, common murres, bald eagles, starfish, even a smack of jellyfish.

More photos after the jump.

Philomena (2013)

IMDB

Philomena (2013): Woman seeks child she gave up for adoption 50 years ago. No one changes. I didn't see that coming in a million years. C+

A Moody Day in Glacier Bay

From 2014 07 04 Glacier Bay

We had the worst weather of our vacation on the day we cruised Alaska's Glacier Bay. Cold, rain, clouds and fog. Big disappointment, right? I'd be lying if I didn't say yes, but it turned out OK. Being on a cruise ship all day, we were largely protected from the rain. We took a lot of moody photos. And our views of the glaciers weren't spoiled at all. In fact, our National Park tour guide said that rain actually increases calving activity of glaciers. The rain water seeps into cracks in the glaciers, then freezes, expanding and cracking the glacier. We floated in front of Margerie Glacier for over a half hour. It must have calved six or eight times. All in all, a very satisfying day.

More photos after the jump.

Skagway, Gateway to the Gold Rush

From 2014 07 03 Skagway

It was a hard day's run, up the Canon, through Sheep Camp, past the Scales and the timber line, across glaciers and snowdrifts hundreds of feet deep, and over the great Chilcoot Divide, which stands between the salt water and the fresh and guards forbiddingly the sad and lonely North. They made good time down the chain of lakes which fills the craters of extinct volcanoes, and late that night pulled into the huge camp at the head of Lake Bennett, where thousands of goldseekers were building boats against the break-up of the ice in the spring. Buck made his hole in the snow and slept the sleep of the exhausted just, but all too early was routed out in the cold darkness and harnessed with his mates to the sled.

Source: Call of the Wild, by Jack London.

After the jump, more about Skagway and the White Pass and Yukon Route. And photos. Lots of photos.

We're Number 37!

D Magazine published its ranking of 63 Dallas suburbs. Richardson came in 37th. Meh.

Is Richardson really the 37th best suburb? Who knows? I don't. And D Magazine doesn't either. The magazine's methodology looks at safety, education, housing, and something called ambience. After the jump, why I don't ascribe too much importance to D Magazine's scores.

Juneau, A Small City in a Big State

From 2014 07 02 Juneau

Tour guides in Alaska ask if there are any Texans in the tour group before telling the group that Alaska is so big that if you cut the state in two and make each half its own state, Texas would be the third largest state in the Union. (They sometimes describe squirrels as "Texas Grizzlies," too, but less often.) Those tour guides don't brag about the population of the state, which could fit comfortably in, say, the City of Dallas, or the population of the capital city, Juneau, which could fit in the City of Richardson with room left over for... two more Juneaus.

More about Juneau after the jump.